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Re: Private methods

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On 10/10/12 12:51 AM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> On Tue, 09 Oct 2012 11:08:13 -0600, Ian Kelly wrote:
>
>> On Tue, Oct 9, 2012 at 8:08 AM, Demian Brecht <demianbrecht@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>> A single underscore semantically means private. A double underscore
>>> will name mangle the function such that it's only accessible strictly
>>> by name through the class that it's define in. Note that you *can*
>>> still access it if you understand how name mangling works. Nothing in
>>> Python is truly private.
>>
>> I tend to view name mangling as being more for avoiding internal
>> attribute collisions in complex inheritance structures than for
>> designating names as private.
>
> Really? I tend to view name mangling as a waste of time, and complex
> inheritance structures as something to avoid.

Whatever you may think of the use case, it was the motivating reason why it was 
put into the language:

http://docs.python.org/reference/lexical_analysis.html#reserved-classes-of-identifiers

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
  that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
  an underlying truth."
   -- Umberto Eco

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Private methods real-not-anti-spam-address@apple-juice.co.uk (D.M. Procida) - 2012-10-09 14:24 +0100
  Re: Private methods Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2012-10-09 14:51 +0100
    Re: Private methods real-not-anti-spam-address@apple-juice.co.uk (D.M. Procida) - 2012-10-09 14:59 +0100
      Re: Private methods Demian Brecht <demianbrecht@gmail.com> - 2012-10-09 07:08 -0700
      Re: Private methods Robert Kern <robert.kern@gmail.com> - 2012-10-09 15:12 +0100
      Re: Private methods Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2012-10-09 09:21 -0500
      Re: Private methods Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2012-10-09 11:08 -0600
        Re: Private methods Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-10-09 23:51 +0000
          Re: Private methods Demian Brecht <demianbrecht@gmail.com> - 2012-10-09 17:26 -0700
            Re: Private methods real-not-anti-spam-address@apple-juice.co.uk (D.M. Procida) - 2012-10-10 08:03 +0100
              Re: Private methods alex23 <wuwei23@gmail.com> - 2012-10-10 18:34 -0700
                Re: Private methods Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-10-11 02:08 +0000
                Re: Private methods Dieter Maurer <dieter@handshake.de> - 2012-10-11 08:04 +0200
          Re: Private methods Robert Kern <robert.kern@gmail.com> - 2012-10-10 13:47 +0100
          Re: Private methods Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2012-11-01 16:45 -0600
      Re: Private methods Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2012-10-10 09:08 -0400
        Re: Private methods Ramchandra Apte <maniandram01@gmail.com> - 2012-10-10 08:56 -0700
          Re: Private methods Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2012-10-10 17:13 +0100
            Re: Private methods Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2012-10-10 16:30 +0000
            Re: Private methods alex23 <wuwei23@gmail.com> - 2012-10-10 18:39 -0700
  Re: Private methods 88888 Dihedral <dihedral88888@googlemail.com> - 2012-10-10 20:11 -0700

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