Private attributes / Methods in Python

[ameoba]

Henry <henry at nospam.com> wrote in
news:uzJ08.19095$WQ1.2956322 at news6-win.server.ntlworld.com: 

> But I don't fully under the "class VirtualAttribute" example, because I
> can still do
> 
> a = VirtualAttribute()
> a.__setattr__("name","theValue")

There's always going to be a way to work arround things.  The idea is that 
there's a convention that says "Don't touch this stuff".  Variable 
protection is supposed to help you avoid accidentally touching something 
you shouldn't.  If you are determined to do the Wrong Thing, protected 
variables aren't going to make your code good.