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NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 07 Apr 2011 23:48:56 -0500
Date: Thu, 07 Apr 2011 21:49:02 -0700
From: Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org>
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Subject: Re: Why only public methods on interfaces?
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On 4/7/2011 5:09 PM, kramer31 wrote:
> Could someone please explain to me the rational behind only allowing
> public methods on interfaces?  In my mind, protection and interfaces
> are two independent if perhaps somewhat related concepts.

I think the original Java design underestimated the extreme usefulness
of Java interfaces. At the time one of their uses, representing the
public face of a package, was assumed to be the only possible use.

I've wanted to use intra-package interfaces, containing only default
access methods. There is an unpleasant choice between making something
that should be an interface into an abstract class or having public
methods that are supposed to only be used within one package.

Patricia