413: Highlights

• Constructors, readers, and writers are called access functions. When you move references and assignments into access functions, you are practicing data abstraction.
• Data abstraction has many virtues, including the following:
  • You can push details out of sight and out of mind.
  • You can easily find the places where data are delivered and assigned.
  • You can easily augment what a structure provides.
  • You can easily improve how data are stored.
• If you anticipate that the detailed definition of a structure may change, then you should provide access functions for the structure variables to isolate the effects of the potential changes.