Do controls have to be private?

[Joe Thompson]

Hi

I am using VC++.net 2003. Whenever I place a control on a winform, it is declared as private. Then I have to write set and get methods to access these controls from a calling form. Why are they declared private instead of public? Does it hurt to change them to public? It seems like it would be much faster to set/get properties directly

Thank you
Joe

[Doug Forster]

Hi Joe,

Well it would break your class encapsulation. IMO this would be a great
first step towards creating a bunch of spaghetti objects if thats what you
want.

Cheers

Doug Forster

"Joe Thompson" <an*******@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A2**********************************@microsof t.com...

Hi,

I am using VC++.net 2003. Whenever I place a control on a winform, it is declared as private. Then I have to write set and get methods to access
these controls from a calling form. Why are they declared private instead
of public? Does it hurt to change them to public? It seems like it would
be much faster to set/get properties directly.
Thank you,
Joe

[Jay B. Harlow [MVP - Outlook]]

Joe,
As Doug stated, it would break encapsulation.

I would recommend only adding a Get property, as generally you really do not
want classes outside the form to change the instance of the control. Also I
rarely expose the control itself as a property, normally I only expose one
or two properties of the control as properties of my form.

For example, my form would have a get/set String property for FirstName,
that modified the Text property of the FirstNameTextBox control. The other
properties of the FirstNameTextBox I want to be under 100% control of the
form itself.

Hope this helps
Jay

"Joe Thompson" <an*******@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A2**********************************@microsof t.com...

Hi,

I am using VC++.net 2003. Whenever I place a control on a winform, it is declared as private. Then I have to write set and get methods to access
these controls from a calling form. Why are they declared private instead
of public? Does it hurt to change them to public? It seems like it would
be much faster to set/get properties directly.
Thank you,
Joe

[Joe Thompson]

Hi

Thanks for your replies. I understand what you're saying. The only thing I want to do is to set values before I show the dialog and get them back after OK is selected. Some things are textboxes, radio buttons, numericupdowns, etc. I guess I'm just getting lazy. In Borland C++ Builder I believe the controls are "published" which allowed access from outside

Joe