Does altering a private member decouple the property's value?

[Jay Loden]

Jay Loden wrote:
> Can you elaborate (or just point me to a good doc) on what 
> you mean by an "old style" class versus the new style? I 
> learned Python (well, am still learning) from an older book,
> and I just want to make sure that I'm using the preferred method.

Answering my own question, I know, but Google and the right keywords is a wonderful thing. In case anyone else is interested: 

http://www.python.org/doc/newstyle.html

-Jay