Simple questions on use of objects (probably faq)

[Brian Elmegaard]

Hi,

I am struggling to understand how to really appreciate object
orientation. I guess these are FAQ's but I have not been able to find
the answers. Maybe my problem is that my style and understanding are
influenced by matlab and fortran.

I tried with the simple example below and ran into several questions:
1: Why can't I do:
    def __init__(self,self.x):
  and avoid the self.x=x

2: Is it a good idea to insert instances in a list or is there a simpler
way to do something with all instances of a given type?

3: Why canøt I say and get the maximum of instance attributes and a
list of them?  
y_max=max(y[].x) and 
ys=[y[].x]

4: Can I avoid the dummy counter i in the for loop and do something
like: 
yz=[y[:-1].x-y[1:].x]

The code that runs:

class Foo:
    def __init__(self,x): 
        self.x=x

y=[]
y.append(Foo(10.0))
y.append(Foo(110.0))
y.append(Foo(60.0))

ys=[]
y_max=0.0
y_min=0.0

for s in y:
    ys.extend([s.x])
    y_max=max(s.x,y_max)
    y_min=min(s.x,y_min)
    
yz=[]
for i in range(len(ys)-1):
    yz.append(ys[i+1]-ys[i])

What I hoped I could do:
class Foo:
    def __init__(self,self.x): 
        continue
y=[]
y.append(Foo(10.0))
y.append(Foo(110.0))
y.append(Foo(60.0))

ys=([y[].x])
y_max=max(y[].x)
y_min=min(y[].x)
    
yz=[y[:-1].x-y[1:].x]



-- 
Brian (remove the sport for mail)
http://www.et.web.mek.dtu.dk/Staff/be/be.html
http://www.rugbyklubben-speed.dk