Short answer: Yes

Longer answer:

Yes, but that shouldn't be interpreted as a suggestion to start by writing your classes with everything private; that approach implies class design by focusing on the implementation detail before you've settled on an interface.

One of the most important aspects to consider when designing a class is how it will be used; which involves thinking about your public methods before you start thinking about private/implementation details.

Furthermore, that approach is usually missing out on chances to ask yourself "How would I write a unit test for this class?" - which is an important question to ask even if you aren't actually writing unit tests. (Related: "What are the design principles that promote testable code?" )

So, once you have defined the public interface, then it is a good idea to default the rest to private because most of that will typically be gritty implementation detail which is of no concern to anything outside of the class.

Short answer: Yes

Longer answer:

Yes, but that shouldn't be interpreted as a suggestion to start by writing your classes with everything private; that approach implies class design by focusing on the implementation detail before you've settled on an interface.

One of the most important aspects to consider when designing a class is how it will be used; which involves thinking about your public methods before you start thinking about private/implementation details.

Furthermore, that approach is usually missing out on chances to ask yourself "How would I write a unit test for this class?" - which is an important question to ask even if you aren't actually writing unit tests. (Related: "What are the design principles that promote testable code?" )

So, once you have defined the public interface, then it is a good idea to default the rest to private because most of that will typically be gritty implementation detail which is of no concern to anything outside of the class.

Short answer: Yes

Longer answer:

Yes, but that shouldn't be interpreted as a suggestion to start by writing your classes with everything private; that approach implies class design by focusing on the implementation detail before you've settled on an interface.

One of the most important aspects to consider when designing a class is how it will be used; which involves thinking about your public methods before you start thinking about private/implementation details.

Furthermore, that approach is usually missing out on chances to ask yourself "How would I write a unit test for this class?" - which is an important question to ask even if you aren't actually writing unit tests.

So, once you have defined the public interface, then it is a good idea to default the rest to private because most of that will typically be gritty implementation detail which is of no concern to anything outside of the class.

Short answer: Yes

Longer answer:

Yes, but that shouldn't be interpreted as a suggestion to start by writing your classes with everything private; that approach implies class design by focusing on the implementation detail before you've settled on an interface.

One of the most important aspects to consider when designing a class is how it will be used; which involves thinking about your public methods before you start thinking about private/implementation details.

Furthermore, that approach is usually missing out on chances to ask yourself "How would I write a unit test for this class?" - which is an important question to ask even if you aren't actually writing unit tests. (Related: "What are the design principles that promote testable code?" )

So, once you have defined the public interface, then it is a good idea to default the rest to private because most of that will typically be gritty implementation detail which is of no concern to anything outside of the class.