[fpc-pascal] 2.1.1 new protected

[Martin Schreiber]

On Sunday 13 August 2006 13.27, Marco van de Voort wrote:
> > It is ugly, produces warnings and is possibly forbidden in FPC 2.1.1 (I
> > don't know). A more elegant solution would be to have something like
> > 'friend units' where protected class members are visible:
>
> I wonder what the use of making a private/public/protected distinction is
> in the first place, if USES'ing units can override it at will.
>

In a tool library:

public -> interface for the library users, use it without knowledge of the 
internals.

protected -> interface for the library developers, use it if you know what you 
do. Use strict protected if you want to secure encapsulate things.

private -> secure encapsulated class items.

Note that I had to use 'cracker classes' in MSEgui to access private FPC class 
items to implement workarounds...
I must repeat:
It is not possible to develop a complex system in a clean single class 
hierarchy, especially not if you use foreign units which are not under your 
control . I know it because I tried it...

Martin