Instance attributes vs method arguments

[Marc 'BlackJack' Rintsch]

On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:48:01 +0000, John O'Hagan 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
>> > […]
>>
>> 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?

Do `self.a`, `self.b`, …, define the state of a `Class_a` instance or 
not?  One can't answer that question without knowing the meaning of the 
class and the attributes.

Ciao,
	Marc 'BlackJack' Rintsch