"Skip Montanaro" <skip@[...].com>  wrote in message
news:mailman.1004551677.1783.python-list@[...]..
> 
>      Russell> My understanding is that a double underscore is required
for
>      Russell> Python to automagically mangle the name. On the other
hand, two
>      Russell> postings now suggest that a single underscore is
sufficient.
> 
>      Russell> If double underscore is required, then it seems to me
this is a
>      Russell> very common misconception that a single is sufficient. It
might
>      Russell> be worth changing.
> 
>  A double leading underscore is requred to coax Python into mangling an
>  attribute.  I think a lot of people use a single underscore as a
simple cue
>  for themselves and other programmers that an attribute isn't meant to
be
>  part of the public interface without messing up the actual name, so it
can
>  be used easily in subclasses.

It also 'hides' the names from a 'from <module>  import *' construct.

>  --
>  Skip Montanaro (skip@pobox.com)
>  http://www.mojam.com/
>  http://www.musi-cal.com/
> 


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