oop: private attributes with prefix "_", but protected?

[j0sh]

hi all.

i try to code after the php pear class conventions.

i know that private attributes should have the prefix "_", e.g.

var $_thisIsPrivate;

pubics don't, e.g.

var $thisIsPublic;

but what about protected ones?

var $_thisIsProtected;

or

var $thisIsProtected;

?? i prefer the first one WITH prefix... but what do you think?

thank you.

[j0sh]

now i found somewhere that you should add the prefix "_T" to protected stuff!

var $TprotectedVar
function TprotectedFunction()

what about that??

[Weedpacket]

Depends on whose coding conventions you want to follow. PHP doesn't care if you start your variable names with or T or what. Prefixing variable names with "_" to indicate they're private comes from Python, where it actually works. This convention has been exported to other languages as a self-documentation technique; sometimes the convention document says that this is done "by order of Guido". But like I said, PHP doesn't care - it's solely for the sake of the user of the class to indicate which properties it is safe for them to play with and which aren't.

Of course, in PHP5 you can expicitly declare methods and properties private, and lock them away from user manipulation (thus achieving what "_" was introduced into Python in the first place for), so the whole thing becomes moot anyway.