This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by James Robertson. Original Post: Chris Double explains it all Feed Title: Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants Feed URL: http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/rssBlog/rssBlogView.xml Feed Description: James Robertson comments on Cincom Smalltalk, the Smalltalk development community, and IT trends and issues in general. Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by James Robertson Latest Posts From Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants

Or at least, why sealed is a bad idea:

Another example, I like the way Common Lisp enables you to access variables not exported by a package. It requires you to access them in a different way to normal but you can still do it. There are simply times when you need to dive into the implementation of things that the originally designer thought you should be prevented from seeing. Having a way of doing this is invaluable when trying to do things 'outside of the box'.

IMHO, developers who seal classes to "protect" other developers are merely putting irritating walls in their way - and worse, they think it's helpful! Don't assume that you know how others will use your code. You don't. Period.