Éric Araujo added the comment: Note that the opinion of people helping in #python does not necessarily (or frequently) match the one of core Python developers. That said, I agree with this particular suggestion. ---------- nosy: +merwok _______________________________________ Python tracker http://bugs.python.org/issue8638 _______________________________________

Skip Montanaro added the comment: Maybe the wording should be changed, but name mangling serves a useful purpose. There are two definitions of "private" which seem to be a bit conflated in this section: * "private" as in, "this name is not part of the public API - use it at your own risk". * "private" as in, "I don't want someone to accidentally stomp on this attribute name when subclassing this class". I think it is valuable to mention both of these conventions in the tutorial for a couple reasons: * the tutorial is meant for people new to Python but with experience in other programming languages * the distinction between _a and __a is a bit subtle and not obviously similar to privacy features present in other languages. I work with a lot of C++ programmers who also write some Python (sometimes a lot of Python). It's clear at times that the distinction hasn't always sunk in. ---------- nosy: +skip.montanaro _______________________________________ Python tracker http://bugs.python.org/issue8638 _______________________________________

Georg Brandl added the comment: The section titled "Private Variables" was updated fairly recently to be more in line with the Python philosophy. In its current form (which I verified to be present at e.g. http://docs.python.org/tutorial/classes#private-variables) I don't think it needs to be removed or revised (except for further clarification, of course.) If someone disagrees, I would like to see a patch (or a suggestion for new wording). ---------- nosy: +georg.brandl status: open -> pending _______________________________________ Python tracker http://bugs.python.org/issue8638 _______________________________________