PEP 318: Can't we all just get along?

[Paul Morrow]

Anthony Baxter wrote:

> On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 07:52:38 -0400, Paul Morrow <pm_mon at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>>I wrote:
>>
>>>Look, name-mangling is horrid, and I don't think anyone's defending it. But
>>>at the same time, "name mangling is there" is not an argument for extending
>>>the horror to a whole new level.
>>>
>>>Name mangling only occurs when you create a method with two leading
>>>underscores, and no trailing ones. Your proposal would hit _every_ _single_
>>>'def'. It's nasty, it's unpythonic, and there's approximately _zero_ chance of
>>>it ever going into the language. Having said that, it's perfectly feasible to do
>>>it with a metaclass, and if you want to use it in your code, please, feel free.
>>
>>You didn't follow that one with a smiley either... :-)
> 
> 
> That's because I wasn't joking, at all. Look, your idea is a _bad_ one. Numerous
> people have pointed out why. Let it die.

I know you weren't Anthony (that was a joke).  I understand that you 
don't like this idea, but that doesn't make it a _bad_ one. Numerous 
people have *not* effectively pointed out the problems with it (and 
neither have you, sir).

Don't use it, if you don't want to.  Make your code as hard to 
understand as you like.  Python gives you that freedom.