Python design philosophy

[Steve Juranich]

I am *brand* new to python (as of Sunday), and I just got to the section
in the tutorial about classes.  I was wondering why there really isn't
such an idea as a "private" member of classes?  I understand that members
can be hidden, but not really protected from the user.  I was wondering
what the benefit of this would be?  Wouldn't it open the possibility of
security holes?  Also, what benefit is gained by allowing a user to
add/delete members from existing classes?  Wouldn't it be more desirable
to create his/her own derived class?

Please understand, I am not attempting to start a flame war.  These are
all questions asked in sincerity.

Thanks in advance. 

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Stephen W. Juranich				sjuranic at ee.washington.edu
Electrical Engineering  	   http://students.washington.edu/sjuranic
University of Washington		http://truk.ee.washington.edu/ssli