__slots__ variables and initialization

[Holden Caulfield]

Greetings,
  I don't recall exactly where I read it, but I had read that ALL the
variables
in  __slots__ were initialized to None and are automatically part of
the instance attributes whether they are explicitly created in the
__init__ method or not.
 In 2.2.1 this is not what is happening. e.g:
class X(object):
  __slots__ = ['_x']
  def get_x(self):
      return self._x

>>> x = X()
>>> x.get_x()
 I get an attribute error. Obviously, defining and '__init__' method
and explicitly creating it works. Is this the way it is supposed to
be?

Also, when is the '__' bug in the '__slots__'  variable list going to
be fixed? I am currently embarking on a large project and would like
to nail down the convention of '__' for private variables in a class,
quickly. If the bug fix is going to be further down (2.2.2?) then I
would like to change our convention to something else.

Thanks