elben

>>> dir(waztile)
['__add__', '__class__', '__contains__', '__delattr__', '__doc__', '__eq__',
'__format__', '__ge__', '__getattribute__', '__getitem__', '__getnewargs__',
'__getslice__', '__gt__', '__hash__', '__init__', '__le__', '__len__',
'__lt__', '__mod__', '__mul__', '__ne__', '__new__', '__reduce__',
'__reduce_ex__', '__repr__', '__rmod__', '__rmul__', '__setattr__',
'__sizeof__', '__str__', '__subclasshook__', '_formatter_field_name_split',
'_formatter_parser', 'capitalize', 'center', 'count', 'decode', 'encode',
'endswith', 'expandtabs', 'find', 'format', 'index', 'isalnum', 'isalpha',
'isdigit', 'islower', 'isspace', 'istitle', 'isupper', 'join', 'ljust',

elben

>>> waztile = "not poison"
>>> type(waztile)
<type 'str'>
>>> print waztile
not poison

elben

>>> print waztile.istitle.__doc__
S.istitle() -> bool

Return True if S is a titlecased string and there is at least one
character in S, i.e. uppercase characters may only follow uncased
characters and lowercase characters only cased ones. Return False
otherwise.

elben

def singleton(cls):
    instances = {}                                  # Line 2
    def getinstance():
        if cls not in instances:
            instances[cls] = cls()                  # Line 5
        return instances[cls]
    return getinstance
 
class Counter:
    def __init__(self):

elben

>>> print Counter() is Counter()
True

elben

class OneOnly {
    private static final OneOnly the_one = new OneOnly();
    
    private OneOnly() {
    }

    public static get() {
        return the_one;
    }

elben

@singleton
class Counter:
    def __init__(self):
        self.count = 0
    def inc(self):
        self.count += 1

print type(Counter) # <type 'function'>

elben

class Clown(object):
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name

    def nice_hi(self):
        return "Helloooo " + self.__format_name()

    def __format_name(self):    # mangled to _Clown__format_name()
        return self.name + " (the clown)"

elben

class Clown(object):
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name

    def nice_hi(self):
        return "Helloooo " + self.format_name()

    def format_name(self):
        return self.name + " (the clown)"

elben

class Singleton(object):
    def __new__(cls, *p, **k):
        if not '_the_instance' in cls.__dict__:
            cls._the_instance = object.__new__(cls)
        return cls._the_instance

class Test(Singleton):
    def __init__(self):
        pass