title: Variable naming in Python classes
body: <p>So I started using python very recently. I am doing a small project involving classes. I for the most part have the conventions down like using self... etc.  What I haven't figured out quite yet is the name mangling which may be related to my question. </p>
  
  <p>Here is some code that forms a class to create a turn object that i can intilize in the beginning of a battle and allows me to switch turns periodically. (the game is going to be a pokemon battle simulator)</p>
  
  <pre><code>class turn:
  
      TURNS = ("player","computer")
      curr=0
  
      def __init__(self): 
          self.currentTurn=turn.TURNS[turn.curr]
  
      def getTurn(self):
          return turn.TURNS[turn.curr]
  
      def switch(self):
          if turn.curr == 0: 
              turn.curr = 1 
          else:   
              turn.curr = 0
  
          if turn.curr==0: 
              print "It's your move! \n"
  
          self.currentTurn=TURNS[turn.curr]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So my question is this: </p>
  
  <p>Is there any feature of python that would allow me to omit the class name when referring to the class vairables. I feel like it should know to look within the class definition for those variables but it doesn't. Also, If I want to use a helper method within the same class, i seem to have to prefix that with self. </p>
  
  <p>Is there anyway around this?</p>