[docs] [issue8638] Remove suggestion for name mangling from the tutorial
Skip Montanaro
report at bugs.python.org
Fri May 7 13:13:41 CEST 2010
Skip Montanaro <skip at pobox.com> added the comment:
Maybe the wording should be changed, but name mangling serves a useful
purpose. There are two definitions of "private" which seem to be a
bit conflated in this section:
* "private" as in, "this name is not part of the public API - use it
at your own risk".
* "private" as in, "I don't want someone to accidentally stomp on this
attribute name when subclassing this class".
I think it is valuable to mention both of these conventions in the
tutorial for a couple reasons:
* the tutorial is meant for people new to Python but with experience
in other programming languages
* the distinction between _a and __a is a bit subtle and not obviously
similar to privacy features present in other languages.
I work with a lot of C++ programmers who also write some Python
(sometimes a lot of Python). It's clear at times that the distinction
hasn't always sunk in.
----------
nosy: +skip.montanaro
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