accessing values of a class from another instance

accessing values of a class from another instance

[Shaddin Doghmi]

It seems instance variables of an object are not accessible from other
objects that are instances of the same class. What is a nice way to
simulate this functionality? I would like to avoid accessor methods for
the class variables since I want to hide the variables from anything
outside the class.

Re: [Caml-list] accessing values of a class from another instance

[Virgile Prevosto]

Hello,

2005/12/8, Shaddin Doghmi <shaddin@mitre.org>:
> It seems instance variables of an object are not accessible from other
> objects that are instances of the same class. What is a nice way to
> simulate this functionality? I would like to avoid accessor methods for

A possibility is to use the module system and let your instance
variable and the corresponding accessor method have an abstract type:
this way, you'll still be able to call the method outside of the
module, but you won't be able to use its result. This is described
here:
http://caml.inria.fr/pub/docs/manual-ocaml/manual005.html#ss:friends

Of course, one could probably think of more sophisticated interfaces
for the module, where you would for instance export only a class type
where the accessor method
itself is hidden and a constructor function that performs at the same
time a 'new' and a coercion to this class type. I've never played with
that, though.
--
E tutto per oggi, a la prossima volta
Virgile