James,

It appears, also, that changing @dependencies to a constant also does
not help.  Strange.

Ralph


Friday, November 6, 2009, 6:50:30 AM, you wrote:

JF>  Hi,

JF>  Is there any way of providing read only access to an array? (problem shown by code below
).

JF>  class A

JF>    def initialize
JF>      @dependencies = []
JF>    end

JF>    # intended to be read only access
JF>    def dependencies
JF>      @dependencies
JF>    end

JF>    def addDependency(d)
JF>      @dependencies << d
JF>      puts "adding #{d}"
JF>    end
JF>  end


JF>  a = A.new
JF>  a.addDependency("foo")
JF>  a.dependencies << "bar" # encapsulation subverted

JF>  puts a.dependencies   # foo and bar both in array


JF>  Any suggestions appreciated,
JF>  James




-- 
Best regards,
 Ralph                            mailto:ralphs@dos32.com