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renzohoogendoorn
1,804 PointsConfused about the use of the public constant MAX_MISSES
In the video it is mentioned that the constant MAX_MISSES should definitely be declared as public. Why is that? I'm a bit confused by that since other classes aren't accessing the constant directly and we are only using the constant in the getRemainingTries method of the class itself.
Shouldn't it be private in that case or should it be public by convention?
2 Answers
Dan Bearden
24,231 PointsHe said its public because as a user, you want to know how many guesses you can have. That being said, I would also argue that it doesn't HAVE to be public. You could make it private in the class, and create a public function called getMaxGuesses that returns the private variable.
Personally, if I were to develop this application on my own, I would actually make it private and use a public function to return the value to whatever needs it instead of accessing it directly from the class - its just better practice.
sandro mirijanashvili
2,686 PointsIt's public because when play the game you should know how many misses can you make.
James Gray
8,568 PointsJames Gray
8,568 PointsI would assume that it's public so that other classes would be able to access it and know the max number of misses allowed in the future. With it being static and final it also cannot be changed anywhere besides in the game.java file.