[DOC PATCH fields.pm 0.02] _private not very private

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Migrated from rt.perl.org#1000 (status was 'resolved')

Searchable as RT1000$

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From @schwern

package Foo;

use fields qw(foo bar _private);

sub new {
  my $proto = shift;
  my $class = ref $proto || $proto;
  bless [\%{"$class\​::FIELDS"}];
}

package Bar;
use base qw(Foo);

sub bar { print shift->{_private} }

package main;

my Foo $obj = Foo->new;

$obj->{foo} = 42;
print $obj->{foo};

$obj->{_private} = 99;
print $obj->{_private};

The result is 42 and 99. The result -should- be 42 and "You tried to
use a private data member from outside Foo, now you die, sucker!" at
least if fields' idea of "Private" is anything like every else's.

Looking at the code of fields.pm, however, I see no easy way to fix
this without making $obj a tied hash (ick, slow) or digging into the
perl source (no thanks). :(

The band-aid solution would be a patch to fields' docs, which I have, below.

Also, it was pointed out to me that Protected data members are a
hellofalot more useful than Private (to use the C++ terms) and it
would be nice if fields implemented Protected as well. Unfortunately,
Protected is the same as Public as long as the above bug is alive, so
there's no point, but I mentioned it as a bug in the doc patch.

*** lib/fields.pm 1999/07/15 00​:03​:04
--- lib/fields.pm 1999/07/15 00​:14​:10
***************
*** 41,49 ****
  and the 'base' pragma modules. The 'base' pragma will copy fields
  from base classes and the 'fields' pragma adds new fields. Field
  names that start with an underscore character are made private to a
! class and are not visible to subclasses. Inherited fields can be
! overridden but will generate a warning if used together with the C<-w>
! switch.
 
  The effect of all this is that you can have objects with named fields
  which are as compact and as fast arrays to access. This only works
--- 41,49 ----
  and the 'base' pragma modules. The 'base' pragma will copy fields
  from base classes and the 'fields' pragma adds new fields. Field
  names that start with an underscore character are made private to a
! class and are not visible to subclasses (however, they are visable by
! users of the class, see L</BUGS>). Inherited fields can be overridden
! but will generate a warning if used together with the C<-w> switch.
 
  The effect of all this is that you can have objects with named fields
  which are as compact and as fast arrays to access. This only works
***************
*** 60,65 ****
--- 60,96 ----
  my $self = bless [\%{"$class\​::FIELDS"}], $class;
  $self;
  }
+
+
+ =head1 BUGS
+
+ =over 4
+
+ =item *
+
+ Private data members aren't very private.
+
+ Unfortunately, this doesn't cause an error.
+
+ my Foo $obj = Foo->new;
+ $obj->{_private} = 42;
+
+ Strictly speaking, no one should be able to access $obj->{_private}
+ except methods in the Foo class. Unfortunately this is not currently
+ enforcable. This is a design flaw and will hopefully be resolved in
+ future versions.
+
+
+ =item *
+
+ Needs Protected data members.
+
+ A Protected data member is that which is inherited, yet not accessable
+ from anywhere outside the inheritence tree. Protected cannot be
+ implemented until the above "Private data members aren't very private"
+ bug is fixed (otherwise they're indistinguishable from Public.)
+
+ =back
 
 
  =head1 SEE ALSO

--

Michael G Schwern schwern@​pobox.com
  http​://www.pobox.com/~schwern
  /(?​:(?​:(1)[.-]?)?\(?(\d{3})\)?[.-]?)?(\d{3})[.-]?(\d{4})(x\d+)?/i