On Tue, May 30, 2006 at 04:55:14PM +0300, Denis Doroshenko wrote: > > why would you even want that (moreover in opensource)? hide for what reason? >
It's called lexical scoping - it has nothing really to do with security more to do with preventing namespace pollution. Clearly you have never written a library. By scoping functions static you are indicating that the functions are private and are not part of the interface available for use. You do this actually to protect the users of your code - you don't need to care about namespace clashes e.g. you can call the internal function next_one() without fear, if the function is not statically scoped then you would have to prefix the function with __mylib_next_one() or suchlike otherwise a consumer of your library would get a duplicate symbol if they created their own function next_one(), or even worse the consumer's function will be called by the library internals... no doubt doing the wrong thing. Secondly it means that you, as the library creator, are able to change the internal interfaces at whim without needing to be concerned about the impact on the consumers of your library. Sure, people can modify the source and remove the static from the function but that this point they are lining a gun up on their foot with their finger on the trigger - if they happen to put a bullet through their foot they have noone to blame but themselves. Again, it's not a security issue - it's a usuability/api issue. -- Brett Lymn
