Question regarding your usage of a getter #274

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1. sjmiles commented on Sep 13, 2013

   

   sjmiles

   on Sep 13, 2013

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   Your question is confusing because your examples are not semantically equivalent.

   To access foo with the first (getter) version you can just do obj.foo. This is a property getter.

   To access foo the second way requires obj.getFoo(), which is a functional interface.
2. stela5 commented on Sep 13, 2013

   

   stela5

   on Sep 13, 2013

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   Sorry, I should have been more explicit in my question. I was really probing into why the author preferred a getter (and by implication, setter) approach rather than a more common functional interface such as

   obj.getFoo()

   In other words, I was using the example as an excuse to engage in a broader discussion about the proper use cases for getters and setters. I've read the documentation at to how to use them but, as Jonathan Freeman pointed out, I'm not sure as to when or why to use them. Thanks in advance for any insights.
3. sjmiles commented on Sep 13, 2013

   

   sjmiles

   on Sep 13, 2013

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   The only reason the docs page uses this pattern is as an example for how to
   declare private data (_foo).

   IMHO, the general reason to use getters and setters is to unify the
   modality of accessors.

   If foo is a simple property, it's natural to write:

   this.foo += 3;

   It's useful to programmers to be able to imbue foo with underlying
   abilities without the cognitive load of a new syntax. IOW, a foo
   getter/setter accessor pair will still work with the above construction.
   However, given a functional interface, now you must write:

   this.setFoo(this.getFoo() + 3);

   Also, unless you got 100% to functional interfaces, the user must
   distinguish between flavors of properties. E.g. perhaps you must use
   this.getFoo() to get foo but this.bar to get bar.

   Ultimately these are subjective differences. My personal taste runs towards
   simplifying APIs and hiding complexity. Other folks (justifiably) put more
   emphasis on being explict. Salt to taste.

   On Fri, Sep 13, 2013 at 8:39 AM, stela5 notifications@github.com wrote:

   Sorry, I should have been more explicit in my question. I was really
   probing into why the author preferred a getter (and by implication, setter)
   approach rather than a more common functional interface such as

   obj.getFoo()

   In other words, I was using the example as an excuse to engage in a
   broader discussion about the proper use cases for getters and setters. I've
   read the documentation at to how to use them but, as Jonathan Freeman
   pointed out, I'm not sure as to when or why to use them. Thanks in
   advance for any insights.

   —
   Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/274#issuecomment-24403247
   .
4. stela5 commented on Sep 20, 2013

   

   stela5

   on Sep 20, 2013

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   Thanks!
5. stela5

   closed this as completedon Sep 20, 2013