Python Productivity over C++

[Thomas Wouters]

On Thu, Jun 15, 2000 at 07:50:14PM +0200, Michal Vitecek wrote:

[ access control ]

> >Look at the big picture.  Do encapsulation, access control and type
> >strictness really make C++ really less error prone than python?

> >I think not.

>  but what are the method names with '_' at the beginning in modules for?
>  aren't they there as a kind of hack to implement some way of access
>  control?

No, they are a form of reducing namespace clutter and name-clashing.

Variable names starting with a '_' do not get imported into the local
namespace when you use 'from <module> import *'. They are accessible just
fine, they just do not get bound to a *local* (to the 'from module import'
statement) name.

Class variables (including methods) starting with a double _ get 'mangled'
to make them private -- so you can store 'class-related' data without the
risk of a subclass accidentily shadowing it. The class-related data is still
very accessible, it's perfectly valid to say 'self._BaseClass__private_data'
or some such.

-- 
Thomas Wouters <thomas at xs4all.net>

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