Python name mangling

Question

In other languages, a general guideline that helps produce better code is always make everything as hidden as possible. If in doubt about whether a variable should be privat

Answer 1

"If in doubt about whether a variable should be private or protected, it's better to go with private." - yes, same holds in Python.

Some answers here say about 'conventions', but don't give the links to those conventions. The authoritative guide for Python, PEP 8 states explicitly:

If in doubt, choose non-public; it's easier to make it public later than to make a public attribute non-public.

The distinction between public and private, and name mangling in Python have been considered in other answers. From the same link,

We don't use the term "private" here, since no attribute is really private in Python (without a generally unnecessary amount of work).