Question

What are valid reasons NOT to use keywords public, private, protected in php?

The story: I’ve started a project with a team that actively uses access modifiers in their code (even “public” explicitly) and wants to convince me to do the same. I always find this kind of stuff totally useless in a dynamic language like php, but I realize that my gut feeling is hardly an argument in a technical discussion. Therefore I’m looking for a solid, clear explanation why access modifiers are useless (or even harmful) in php.

I’m aware that some similar topics already exist

• Importance of protected/private in PHP classes
• Why not use 'protected' or 'private' in PHP?
• Best to use Private methods or Protected methods?

however there are several reasons why I’m posting this one

• I am not asking if I should use “public” or not. I’m already not using it.
• I am explicitly not interested to hear why access modifiers are good (I know they’re bad, I just need an expert to confirm that).
• If you’re about telling me about “best practices” and “principles of OOP”, please do not bother.

TIA

Answer 1

mario nailed it (copied from the comments)

Access modifiers make sense in Java/C++ and compiled code in general, where they are enforceable. In uncompiled scripting languages they can easily be ripped out. Hence they should be considered just decorators, and thus pragmatically could just be implemented as coding convention. (See underscoritis in Python, and pretty much any other scripting language. PHP is pretty alone with its purposeless access decorators.)

You won’t have much success convincing your teammates about the advantage of useful APIs over encapsulation by restrictiveness. The use of syntax-enforced access decorators is often cargo cult driven.