[Python-Dev] Deprecate __ private (was Re: PEP 8 updates/clarifications) (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido at python.org
Mon Dec 12 20:17:17 CET 2005

On 12/12/05, Jim Fulton <jim at zope.com> wrote:

In practice, I don't agree that it works fine. Inevitably, someone finds a need to access a "private" variable in a subclass. Or even in the original class, you find some need to use something like getattr where the implicit name mangling doesn't come into play and you have to emulate the name mangling. Or perhaps someone wants to examine the value of one of these variables in the debugger. _In my experience, almost every time someone uses the private trick, they or someone else comes to regret it.

OTOH, explicit name mangling provides the benefits of implicit name mangling without it's drawbacks.

I half agree. I've seen many classes overuse __private. But that's a separate issue from not having the feature at all; you might as well argue against private in Java or C++.

-- --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)

More information about the Python-Dev mailing list