Why less emphasis on private data?

[Steve Holden]

Paul Boddie wrote:
> Paul Rubin wrote:
>> Right, the problem is if those methods start changing the "private"
>> variable.  I should have been more explicit about that.
>>
>> class A:
>>    def __init__(self):
>>       self.__x = 3
>>    def foo(self):
>>       return self.__x
>>
>> class B(A): pass
>>
>> class A(B):
>>    def bar(self):
>>      self.__x = 5   # clobbers private variable of earlier class named A
> 
> Has this ever been reported as a bug in Python? I could imagine more
> sophisticated "name mangling": something to do with the identity of the
> class might be sufficient, although that would make the tolerated
> "subversive" access to private attributes rather difficult.
> 
> Paul
> 
It would also force the mangling to take place at run-time, which would 
probably affect efficiently pretty adversely (thinks: should really 
check that mangling is a static mechanism before posting this).

regards
  Steve
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