title: Why put private fields and methods at the top of class?
body: <p>I've seen this de facto standard in many places in many languages, but I've never understood it - why put your private fields and methods at the top of a class declaration? Metaphorically it seems like private things should be located at the bottom (hidden) and everything public should be at the top, so that when you read through the class top to bottom you first see the public interface then the inner workings.</p>
  
  <p>What is the reasoning behind this?</p>
  
  <p>EDIT: Just to clarify, I don't mean the practice of declaring all members at the top of the class, but of putting private members/methods at the top of a class declaration, before anything public.</p>