Re: [boost] Getters vs. constant members

From: Edward Diener (eldiener_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-03-25 16:13:47

Julio M. Merino Vidal wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> [ I'm not sure this really belongs to this list (as opposed to some C+ 
> + generic list), but as it is related to some comments I received a  
> while ago from this list, I'm posting it here. ]
> 
> Back when I presented Boost.Process 0.1 past year, I used getters for  
> all class members that had to be exposed to the library user.
> 
> However, some reviewers commented that it was "ugly" to provide  
> getters that just returned a member's value.  I tried to change most  
> of those instances to constant members that could be queried  
> directly, but I still have doubts whether that was the correct way to  
> go.
> 
> Here are my reasons supporting getters: snip...

Getters are far superior to const members for all the reasons you cited, 
plus this one: often data does not reside as a member of an object but 
must be created at run-time when requested. This last is a perfectly 
logical reason for getters, and for the 'property' notion in general.