Re: [Tutor] Self, Scopes and my unbelievable muddleheadedness.

[doug shawhan]

On 10/25/06, Luke Paireepinart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>
> I'm sure this is so obvious that a crack-addled tapeworm head down in
> a bucket of stupid could understand it, unfortunately, I'm not quite
> at that level today. Sorry.
Uh, I don't understand why you're passing Fields to the functions but
then putting the value in self.Fields...
but we'll ignore that for now :)

http://www.penzilla.net/tutorials/python/modules/

I explain my  confusion more coherently in my reply to Mr. Gald. :-)

The problem it sounds like you're having is that you think that passing
lists to functions copies them,
when in fact it just creates a reference to them.
Take this, for example:

Close! I thought that "self" would somehow automagically create a copy of the list, leaving a global intact. I am disillusioned.
 

>>> def append_five(alist):
    alist.append(5)
>>> a = [1,2,3,4]
>>> append_five(a)
>>> a
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
>>> append_five(a)
>>> a
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5]

Which answers my question "why is my list of dictionaries turning in to a list with a dictionary with a list of dictionaries therein! :-)

Other than that,
Maybe you think self is used for something other than what it's intended
to be used for...
but I can't be sure.

Again, see my reply to Mr. Gald. I am starting to get my head around "self". I searched usenet for explanations, apparently I'm not the only one. :-). It seems to be pretty simple, for most. I'm reminded of learning to solve for polynomials or diagram sentences: It's elementary to some and completely obtuse to others, depending on mindset and experience.
 

I'm sure someone else can give you a good example.
I, however, have to run.
HTH,
-Luke

Thanks! I appreciate it!

_______________________________________________
Tutor maillist  -  Tutor@python.org
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor