[Tutor] defining functions and classes

[Brett Murch]

On Sat, 2011-01-15 at 08:23 -0500, Dave Angel wrote:
> On 01/-10/-28163 02:59 PM, Brett Murch wrote:
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > I'm just starting to learn Python and am starting by creating a text
> > game but am having trouble with classes and funtions. I want to create a
> > class or function where someone creates a charater and has a choice of
> > their name or os. This is what I have so far;
> >
> > class Administrator():
> >      def Skills(name,os):
> >          name = raw_input('What is your name')
> >          os = raw_input('What is your os')
> >          self.name = name
> >          self.os = os
> >
> > Skills(name,os)
> >
> > I keep getting a syntax error on calling it. any ideas on what I'm doing
> > wrong? Should it not be a class and should I just define it as a
> > function or what?
> >
> > Thank you in advance
> >
> >
> 
> What previous experience in programming do you have?  You say you're a 
> beginner in Python, but what other object orientation experience do you 
> have?
> 
> I don't see any syntax error there.  Looks to me like a NameError.  When 
> you get errors, you should copy/paste the whole error into your message, 
> not just paraphrase it.  Anyway, the NameError would occur since Skills 
> is not a valid global name, it's a method name within a class.  And if 
> you got past that, then the same error would occur with the two 
> arguments.  They're not defined anywhere either.
> 
> You're defining a class called Administrator.  That implies you're going 
> to have many Administrator instances, and presumably each will have 
> attributes called name and os.  If that's true, we can start refining.
> 
> The function to call to create an Administrator instance is called 
> Administrator().  When you call Administrator(), it will implicitly call 
> the __init__() method, not the Skills() method.  So you probably want to 
> define such a method.
> 
> Once such an instance is created, you might call the Skills() method to 
> change the original name and os for it.  But Skills() has the wrong 
> method signature.  The first parameter of such a method is 'self', and 
> you're missing that.  And the other two parameters are never used.
> 
> Perhaps you intended something like (untested):
> 
> class Administrator():
>      def __init__(self, name="unknown", os="nevernever"):
>          self.name = name
>          self.os = os
>      def change_skills(self):
>          name = raw_input('What is your new name')
>          os = raw_input('What is your new os')
>          self.name = name
>          self.os = os
> 
> admin1 = Administrator("Harry", "Windoze")
> admin1.change_skills()
> 
> 
> DaveA
> 
 Yes thank you it is something like this that I was trying to do. I will
have to test this. I don't have any programming experience but have read
that Python is the best for beginners. I have a few books that I have
been reading but sometimes need things explained a bit better. Thank you
for your help on this.

BrettM