From: Alan Chen <alan@...>
Date: 2002-04-12T07:52:03+09:00
Subject: Re: Is eval a code/design smell?

On Fri, Apr 12, 2002 at 02:50:46AM +0900, Paul Brannan wrote:
> The difference is that with C++, friends have to be declared by the
> class (Bar cannot declare himself to be Foo's friend; Foo must declare
> Bar to be his friend).

This is true, but my real point is that from time to time there is
need to bypass object encapsulation and most object oriented languages
provide some way to perform that bypass.  It's not a "security bug", but
a useful real-world feature.

That said, you can freely argue about how difficult the bar should be
set to discourage "unnecessary" encapsulation bypasses. Personally, I'm
happy with ruby; you're treated like an adult.  If you need to do it,
its pretty simple with no hassles.

-- 
Alan Chen
Digikata LLC
http://digikata.com