Fernando M. wrote: > Hi, > > i was just wondering about the need to put "self" as the first > parameter in every method a class has because, if it's always needed, > why the obligation to write it? couldn't it be implicit? > > Or is it a special reason for this being this way? > > Thanks.
Here's how I view it... (It may not be strictly correct, so corrections are welcome.) It helps to think of new style class's as code patterns or templates to create class-instance objects. Since you don't know what the name of the instance object is going to be when you write the class, a way to refer to the contents of the not yet created object is needed. Passing the class-instance reference as the first argument is how Python gets a reference to the local name space of the method. You can then use that name to access the other objects in the class-instance or to create new objects in the class-instance from within the method without knowing what the class-instance name is before hand. Python doesn't pass the 'self' reference when a locally defined function is called inside a class or method. By having to *explicitly* receive the 'self' reference in the argument list, it is clear when the 'self' reference is available for use and when it's not. Cheers, _Ron_Adam -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
