Why a class when there will only be one instance?

Roy Smith roy at panix.com
Tue May 25 21:20:02 EDT 2004


Ryan Paul <segphault at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> defining a class may be useful if you plan on making more instances down
> the line. It's a good OO strategy. I do understand your dislike of 'self'.
> It does seem like clutter. In my code, I shorten it to 's'.

Please don't do that.  While it's true that the first parameter of a 
class method can be named anything, the use of "self" is so 
overwhelmingly ubiquitous it might as well be a standard.  Using 
anything else is just going to make your code more difficult for anybody 
else to read and understand.

Typing is cheap.  Thinking is expensive.  And, yes Aahz, you can quote 
me on that :-)



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