Question

I am designing an object-oriented programming language for the purpose of learning. The language has properties, like this:

Class Fruit:
  Property ReadWrite Float weight
  Property WriteOnly Integer someWriteOnlyProperty # <-- avoid?

Should I add the option for write-only properties or will this only lead to bad design decisions in programs using this language?

Answer 1

By all means design write-only properties – just be aware they are of limited use (if you are only going to write to it and never expose it, why have a property?).

Might as well use a simple method instead. This will reduce any confusion of those using your code.

---

Java and .NET do have write only properties, so there are precedents.