Explicit Frustration of the Self

[Andres Rosado]

On 02:05 AM 12/31/2002 -0500, the keyboard of 
python-list-request at python.org emitted:
>This is an old topic, discussed many times, I'm sorry.  But I just
>want to get one thing out there, and then you can all ignore me.
>
>What of elegance?
>
>class Life:
>         property = "value"
>def Meaning(self, argument):
>                 return self.property
>
>This whole business with the self; it is not elegant.  And, it is of
>my opinion that it is, therefore, not good programming.  So I'm angry,
>because most of Python is so easy, so elegant, and this ain't.  Now,
>I'm not trying to stand in the way of people's readability or
>anything.  I'm not even saying it must be changed.  No, there are too
>many ego's wrapped up in that aspect of the self.  I'm just saying
>that I'm really damned frustrated.
>
>The explicit self is the character flaw of Python.

Have you programmed in C++? One of the main problems I find in C++ is the 
implicit *this. Sure, it looks more compact and more cleaner, but as 
projects get more complicated, you end up using this a lot more than you 
thought. Handling more than on object of the same class inside the class 
will give you a reasonable idea of the problem.


--
Andres Rosado
Email: andresr at despammed.com
ICQ: 66750646
Homepage: http://andres980.tripod.com/

I am sorry to write you such a long letter.  I don't have time to
write a short one.
         -- Oscar Wilde