[Tutor] communication between class instances

[Poor Yorick]

Hi,

I've been studying Python for several months now, and it is my first 
attempt to learn how to program in any language.  I've been trying 
lately to understand some of the nuances of object oriented programming, 
but most of the resources on the web require some knowledge of c++ to 
gist.  So, I'm turning to this list :)  Direct answers or pointers to 
reference material about this question would be greatly appreciated:

Say I have the following classes:


class app:
    def __init(self):
        self.dbtype = None
        self.gui=gui(self)

class gui:
    def __init__(self, app):
        self.app = app
        self.main_menu = menu(self.app)

class menu:
    def __init__(self, app):
        self.app = app
       
    def dbtype(self):
        app.dbtype = 'metakit'


So far, instantiating classes and passing references to all other class 
instances that the instance will need to communicate with is the only 
way I've come up with to get class instances to communicate with each 
other.  This seems unwieldy and not really modular.  Is there a better 
way to pass data between class instances?  One thing I really don't like 
is having to pass a reference to the app instance all the way down to 
the menu instance, which really should only be aware of the gui instance 
which instantiates it. Right?

Right?

I'm very confused...

Poor Yorick
gp@pooryorick.com