Make rules extendable

[manuelpichler]

I would like to extend some of the rules, like UnusedLocalVariable and others without resorting to copy and paste. It would be much easier if those classes had protected methods instead of private methods. That way I can implement a specific ruleset for my projects, but still get any bug fixes or enhancements to those rules as they become available.

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[ravage84]

👍 true.

@manuelpichler what is the reason behind the very restrictive use of the private visibility throughout phpmd?

[manuelpichler]

@ravage84 it's because of pure classic, old man's, ideological OO thinking "Don't expose your privates" ;-)

[ravage84]

@manuelpichler OK, but wouldn't protected suffice in almost all cases? What if somebody wants to extend some of the classes?

[kylekatarnls]

protected could be the default. And as I'm browsing private rule methods, I find some duplicates like the getExceptionsList. If those methods would be in the AbstractRule, it would help to create new rules too.

But passing methods to protected would be a good start.