Instance attributes vs method arguments

[Rafe]

On Nov 25, 5:48 pm, John O'Hagan <m... at johnohagan.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 25 Nov 2008, Marc 'BlackJack' Rintsch wrote:
> > On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:27:41 +0000, John O'Hagan wrote:
> > > Is it better to do this:
>
> > > class Class_a():
> > >       def __init__(self, args):
> > >               self.a = args.a
> > >               self.b = args.b
> > >               self.c = args.c
> > >               self.d = args.d
> > >       def method_ab(self):
> > >               return self.a + self.b
> > >       def method_cd(self):
> > >               return self.c + self.d
>
> > > or this:
>
> > > class Class_b():
> > >       def method_ab(self, args):
> > >               a = args.a
> > >               b = args.b
> > >               return a + b
> > >       def method_cd(self, args)
> > >               c = args.c
> > >               d = args.d
> > >               return c + d
>
> > > ?
>
> > > Assuming we don't need access to the args from outside the class, is
> > > there anything to be gained (or lost) by not initialising attributes
> > > that won't be used unless particular methods are called?
>
> > The question is if `args.a`, `args.b`, …, are semantically part of the
> > state of the objects or not.  Hard to tell in general.
>
> Would you mind elaborating a little on that first sentence?
>
>
>
> > I know it's a made up example but in the second class I'd ask myself if
> > those methods are really methods, because they don't use `self` so they
> > could be as well be functions or at least `staticmethod`\s.
>
> I guess I went overboard keeping the example simple :) : the real case has
> many methods, and they all use "self" (except one, actually, so I'm looking
> up "static methods" now; thanks).
>
> Regards,
>
> John

I'm not sure if you are asking a technical question or a design
question. If it helps, I try to think of an object as a thing which
has a job to do. If the 'thing' needs information every time to define
what it is, or give it a starting state, then that is an argument of
__init__() . If I want the object to change or handle something which
is a logical task of 'thing', then I give it what it needs via
properties or methods (I find I almost never use "public" instance
attributes, but then again I am usually writing SDKs which is all
about interface).

Not sure if that helps...

- Rafe