On 5/4/06, Bill Kelly <billk / cts.com> wrote:
> From: "Pat Maddox" <pergesu / gmail.com>
> >
> > Wouldn't it be a lot nicer to do
> >
> > class DontTouchMe
> >   include Freezable
> > end
> >
> > to ensure that nobody messes around with it?
>
> Should we start by closing the String class, then?  :)
>
> What sorts of classes do you think should be made closed?
>
> And why is the author of the class in the best position to
> determine whether or not it should be open?
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Bill
>
>
>
>

Personally, I have no use for closing a class.  If I were to write an
app to be used in a financial or health care organization, I would
probably want to be able to write some code with the knowledge that
nobody could arbitrarily change it.

Perhaps I shouldn't even be commenting because I don't have any
real-world experience with designing these kinds of apps.  It just
seems to me that the main point is that sometimes a business has
requirements with a very high cost of failure.  In these specialized
instances, I think it's more than reasonable to protect your code.

Pat