Is there a language with object-based access levels?

Question

A common misconception about access level in Java, C#, C++ and PHP is that it applies to objects rather than classes. That is, that (say) an object of class X can't see another X's private members. In fact, of course, access level is class-based and one X object can effortlessly refer to the private members of another.

Does there exist a language with object-based access levels? Are they instead of, or in addition to, class-based access? What impact does this feature have on program design?

Answer 1

Ruby has object-based access level. Here's a citation from Programming Ruby:

The difference between "protected" and "private" is fairly subtle, and is different in Ruby than in most common OO languages. If a method is protected, it may be called by any instance of the defining class or its subclasses. If a method is private, it may be called only within the context of the calling object---it is never possible to access another object's private methods directly, even if the object is of the same class as the caller.

And here's the source: http://whytheluckystiff.net/ruby/pickaxe/html/tut_classes.html#S4

Example difference between Java and Ruby

Java

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Main.A a1 = new A();
        Main.A a2 = new A();

        System.out.println(a1.foo(a2));
    }

    static class A
    {
        public String foo(A other_a)
        {
            return other_a.bar();
        }

        private String bar()
        {
            return "bar is private";
        }
    }
}

// Outputs
// "bar is private"

Ruby

class A
  def foo other_a
    other_a.bar
  end

  private
  def bar
    "bar is private"
  end
end

a1 = A.new
a2 = A.new

puts a1.foo(a2)

# outputs something like
# in `foo': private method `bar' called for #<A:0x2ce9f44> (NoMethodError)