User report on the docs@ list:

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http://docs.python.org/tutorial/classes.html#instance-objects

I think the "counter" attribute is mentioned for the first time in the
example code, not "in Instance of MyClass created above", i.e. class
MyClass does not contain "counter" attribute.

"x.counter = 1
while x.counter < 10:
   x.counter = x.counter * 2
print x.counter
del x.counter"

Best Regards,
Jussi Peltonen

That's exactly the point: in Python, data attributes don't need to be declared in the class definition.

Yep, I agree, Ori.

The paragraph immediately preceding the code sample says:

    "Data attributes need not be declared; like local variables, they spring into existence when they are first assigned to [...] the following piece of code will print the value 16, without leaving a trace"

Which is what the code sample demonstrates.