Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!feeder.erje.net!eu.feeder.erje.net!xlned.com!feeder5.xlned.com!news.osn.de!diablo2.news.osn.de!ecngs!feeder.ecngs.de!Xl.tags.giganews.com!border1.nntp.ams.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local2.nntp.ams.giganews.com!nntp.bt.com!news.bt.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 07:42:31 -0500 From: "Chris Uppal" Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer References: <53eecf6a$0$300$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> Subject: Re: Accessibility of suBclass-fields from suPERclass (reflection) Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 13:37:07 +0100 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5512 X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Response X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5512 Message-ID: Lines: 19 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com X-AuthenticatedUsername: NoAuthUser X-Trace: sv3-IiWRb4kXCm/4Y+C5JVIiBnusOPypBVozoaS3tERBk7ivNF4z2ZMJKYduzhFWaXraS2c6+BQg0+jduVs!iTdialx2x+CRgdfLxEyqmb5NebKaCkfrpoozYryM0QxAhYjp0OWEobe/SB6HVHfIqsaM66ckDQ== X-Complaints-To: abuse@btinternet.com X-DMCA-Complaints-To: abuse@btinternet.com X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 X-Original-Bytes: 2110 Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:29694 Robert Klemme wrote: > If I understand your issue correctly: this is not about security but > about design principles. Dependency always goes up the inheritance > chain - not downwards. Meaning, all subclasses have knowledge about > their superclasses but not vice versa. Agreed, though I think "always" is a little strong. It is possible to have clusters of co-designed classes where the superclass "knows about" it's subclasses. For instance the superclass could act as a factory for instances of its sublclasses, where the subclasses (what they are and how many of them there are, etc) is hidden from the consumer code. (In such cases I'd often like to be able to declare the superclass as "final except that it can have subclasses in the same package") -- chris