To use variable accessors, or not to use, that's my question :)

[eluser]xwero[/eluser]
So you can extend the method but not call it outside of the class. Basically it's a judgment call, do you trust future developers enough to call the method or do they have to extend them in order to keep the bugs/complains as low as possible. It's not a silver bullet solution but it can prevent new developers from tinkering too much.