From: bjsp123@... (Benjamin Peterson)
Date: 2003-08-18T18:20:32+09:00
Subject: Re: Newbie Q: Data encapsulation with Ruby

Dan Doel <djd15@po.cwru.edu> wrote in message news:<3F3E7334.7060704@po.cwru.edu>...
>
> Well, I think the big reason for the above problem in this case is that 
> Ruby Strings aren't
> immutable like they are in Java.  You could have the same problem in C++:
> 
> class Foo
> {
>     string var;
> 
> public:
>     string & getVar();
>     void setVar(const string & s);
> };
> ..
> Foo foo;
> 
> foo.setVar("blarg");
> ..
> string s = foo.getVar();
> s[0] = 'f';
> cout << foo.getVar();  // prints "flarg"
>

I agree that you *could* have the same problem in CD++. 
Alternatively, you could declare the return type of the accessor as
'const',  thus returning a reference, but one via which the object's
private field cannot be modified.  Yay!

> You'd have
> the same problem in Java with mutable objects, though.

And even in C#.  I miss const.

Now I'm going to go back to scanning the horizon through binoculars,
hoping to catch a glimpse of a modern JIT-compiled language that
actually has the essential features of C++.