Why does python not have a mechanism for data hiding?

[Roy Smith]

In article 
<5ea78616-e955-4ee0-8e60-a22734ec31be at 79g2000hsk.googlegroups.com>,
 Fuzzyman <fuzzyman at gmail.com> wrote:

> The 'we told you not to use that' approach, when applied to paying
> customers doesn't really work... all they see is that you broke their
> spreadsheet code by changing your API.

I hear what you're saying, friend, and I feel your pain!  Life gets so much 
more complicated when you've got paying customers.  It's especially 
complicated when your customers have a market cap an order of magnitude 
greater than your own :-)