where does __class__ come from?

[Diez B. Roggisch]

> Where does __class__ come from, what does it mean and what else is
> being hidden?
> 
> I am used to using dir(...) to figure out what I can play with.
> Clearly that does not always work... :-(

Your question has benn answered - let me just add this from the dir()-docs:

Note: Because dir() is supplied primarily as a convenience  for use at 
an interactive prompt,  it tries to supply an interesting set of names 
more than it tries to  supply a rigorously or consistently defined set 
of names,  and its detailed behavior may change across releases.

from

http://docs.python.org/lib/built-in-funcs.html

Regards,

Diez