Is there any logical difference between a = None and del a in python?
The None keyword is used to define a null variable or an object. In python, None keyword is an object, and it is a data type of the class NoneType .
The del keyword is used to delete objects.
Are those identical to each other if I use the manual garbage collection?
No, None is still an object (of type NoneType) that takes memory and can be referenced whereas del deletes the object's name from the name space.
Say, you create a variable a = None in the global scope. It will exists in globals(). Now if you were to delete it with del a, the reference to a ceases to exist.