_dict vs __dict__ zodb question

[Jaco Smuts]

Hello there

Can anyone please point me to a discussion on the usage of _dict or 
__dict__. I am looking at writing custom setAttr methods. 

I rather like the idea doing something like this:

def setAttribute(self, attribute, value):
     some logic / code
     self.__dict__[attribute] = value

However I've come accross a few sites / postings from Google where they 
are using _dict and not __dict__.
My guess is that they are using a custom 'private' attribute _dict and 
populating it with attributes that may be changed.
Is that correct am I missing something else ?

Any thoughts or hints will be appreciated.
thanks
jaco

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