From: Richard Conroy <richard.conroy@...>
Date: 2007-12-20T00:08:19+09:00
Subject: Re: [Rhetoric] Two feature requests for safer Ruby Programming

I'm with Marc on this. How does putting training wheels on the
language make them better programmers?
All it does is slow down the better guys. Weak/dishonest programmers
can write crap code in any language.

As for unencapsulated methods, Ruby programmers, (and any other
dynamic/succinct-syntax language
programmers) place greater emphasis on unit testing. Methods are left
accessible to facilitate effective
unit test coverage.

Even in really big java projects, I can't recall a single instance
where making a method private offered me any
real help or protection, but it did make unit testing very difficult,
and private methods IME are more likely to
have side effects.

Method sealing is generally just something that API/framework
developers need to concern themselves with.