Why does python not have a mechanism for data hiding?

[bruno.desthuilliers at gmail.com]

On 5 juin, 20:07, "Russ P." <Russ.Paie... at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jun 5, 4:47 am, Bruno Desthuilliers <bruno.
>
>
>
> 42.desthuilli... at websiteburo.invalid> wrote:
> > Antoon Pardon a écrit :
>
> > > On 2008-06-04, NickC <ncogh... at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >> On Jun 4, 4:09 am, "Russ P." <Russ.Paie... at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >>> What is it about leading underscores that bothers me? To me, they are
> > >>> like a small pebble in your shoe while you are on a hike. Yes, you can
> > >>> live with it, and it does no harm, but you still want to get rid of it.
> > >> With leading underscores, you can see *at the point of dereference*
> > >> that the code is accessing private data.
>
> > @NickC : InMyArms(tm) !
>
> > > But the leading underscore doesn't tell you whether it is your own
> > > private date, which you can use a you see fit, or those of someone
> > > else, which you have to be very carefull with.
>
> > That's why we have __name_mangling too. Consider '_' as 'protected' and
> > '__' as private.
>
> Only in some vague, fuzzy sense.
>
> My understanding is that the single underscore in a class definition
> is a convention only and has no actual effect whatsoever.

It has the expected effect: warn adult programmers that this is
implementation, not interface, so mess with it and you're on your
own.

>  In C++ (and
> Java?), on the other hand, the "protected" keyword *really* prevents
> the client from accessing the data or method, but it allows access to
> derived classes.

And ?

> The "private" keyword goes further and prevents
> access even by derived classes.

And ?

>  The double leading underscore in
> Python does no such thing.

No. It only make sure a child class won't *accidentally* mess things
up. And that's enough as far as I'm concerned.