I think the advice is more relevant in the context of the specific language; it's not universal.
In python you can go from attribute access to using a property (getter/setter) without breaking anything.
The same is not true in a language like Java where obj.foo is always a direct field access distinct from calling a method like obj.getFoo(), so going from public fields to getters is not backwards compatible and can be painful.
In python you can go from attribute access to using a property (getter/setter) without breaking anything.
The same is not true in a language like Java where obj.foo is always a direct field access distinct from calling a method like obj.getFoo(), so going from public fields to getters is not backwards compatible and can be painful.