As a newbie to Python (and OOP), I would love to hear what people think of Steven's suggestion below. Is there a reason why classes would be useful for the OP's question ? If you can point me to a brief online tutorial addressing this, I would happily go there to read it too :)
Thanks, Suresh On Sep 12, 8:38 am, Steven D'Aprano <[EMAIL PROTECTED] cybersource.com.au> wrote: > On Wed, 12 Sep 2007 03:21:58 -0700, Charles Fox wrote: > > I've just started playing around with Python, as a possible replacement > > for a mix of C++, Matlab and Lisp. The language looks lovely and clean > > with one huge exception: I do a lot of numerical modeling, so I deal > > with objects (like neurons) described mathematically in papers, by > > equations like > > a_dot = -k(a-u) > > In other languages, this translates nicely into code, but as far as I > > can tell, Python needs the ugly: > > self.a_dot = -self.k(self.a-self.u) > > I think you've been seriously mislead. You don't NEED self. That's only > for writing classes. > > Although Python is completely object oriented, and everything is an > object, you don't have to put your code in classes. > > Instead of doing something like this: > > class Adder(object): > """Pointless class to add things.""" > def __init__(self, value): > self.value = other > def add(self, other): > x = self.value + other > return float(x) > > you don't need a class. Just write a function: > > def add(x, other): > """Function that adds other to x.""" > return float(x + other) > > Here's how I would write your function above: > > def function(a, u, k): > """Calculate a_dot from a, u and k.""" > return -k(a-u) > > And here is how I would use it: > > a = 57 # or whatever... > u = 54 > k = 3 > a_dot = function(a, u, k) > > See? Not a single "self" in sight. > > You might also like to read about a strange, bizarre programming that > forces you to put everything inside classes: > > http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2006/03/execution-in-kingdom-of-nouns... > > -- > Steven. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
