Information hiding

One of the basic principles of software development is information hiding. People agree that it's desirable, but may not realize they have different ideas of what it means. And when done poorly, well-meaning attempts to make software more maintainable backfire. Leo Brodie cautions

" we should clarify. From what, or whom, are we hiding information?

[T]raditional languages " bend over backwards to ensure that modules hide internal routines and data structures from other modules. The goal is to achieve module independence (a minimum coupling). The fear seems to be that modules strive to attack each other like alien antibodies. Or else, that evil bands of marauding modules are out to clobber the precious family data structures.

This is not what we're concerned about. The purpose of hiding information, as we mean it, is simply to minimize the effects of a possible design-change by localizing things that might change within each component.

Quote from Thinking Forth. Emphasis added.