ActiveRecord: private versus protected methods

Hi,

I'm considering subclassing ActiveRecord::Migrator to enhance the way
it tracks the migration version number of a database.  However there's
a hurdle: it has private methods.

Private methods are a major stumbling block for anyone needing to
sub-class something.  If the public methods of the class call the
private methods, you can't sub-class without replacing all the private
methods (because otherwise they won't be available in the descendant
class).

A much better approach is to declare methods as 'protected'.  That
offers a lot more flexibility:

* The methods are still protected from being called from outside the
class.

* The class can be sub-classed, and it will still work.

Does anyone know: is there a compelling reason for using 'private' in
this case?  Are there any core developers listening?  Can you make your
methods 'protected' instead of 'private' please?

I really don't want to have to maintain my own fork of
ActiveRecord::Migrator.


Thanks and regards,
Urbanus
http://goldberg.240gl.org


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