C++'s 'friend' like solution in c#?

Personally, I have no problem using the 'internal' modifier to share access to fields within the same assembly when I'm working on my own.

I know it means that not just your other class but all other classes in the assembly have access to those fields as well but I don't really think there's a better solution available to the .NET programmer.

For forms, an alternative is to always access controls via the form's Controls collection which enables them to remain private. But, if you need to access several controls, this is a tedious solution particularly if you have to 'drill down' through several containers to get to the control you want.

You can also define your own internal FindControl method which searches for controls recursively using their name and I know a lot of WF developers prefer that to using the Controls collection or exposing the controls directly.

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Vulpes14y ago
Personally, I have no problem using the 'internal' modifier to share access to fields within the same assembly when I'm working on my own.

I know it means that not just your other class but all other classes in the assembly have access to those fields as well but I don't really think there's a better solution available to the .NET programmer.

For forms, an alternative is to always access controls via the form's Controls collection which enables them to remain private. But, if you need to access several controls, this is a tedious solution particularly if you have to 'drill down' through several containers to get to the control you want.

You can also define your own internal FindControl method which searches for controls recursively using their name and I know a lot of WF developers prefer that to using the Controls collection or exposing the controls directly.