[Tutor] why "self" in methods?

[Alan Gauld]

>> class Outer(object):
>>     def amethod(arg):
>>         class Inner(object):
>>             def amethod(arg):
>>                 self.arg = arg #What's self here?
>>         return inner()
>>
>
>Well, if self is implicit, inside the Inner amethod only one self can
>be visible. It seems logical that the it be the Inner self. But then,
>because of impliciteness, you cannot get at the Outer self.

The C++ approach to this would be to use the scoping operator '::'
so you could access the data, within the scoping rules, using
Outer::amethod(). Although in C++ nested classes are discouraged
and friends preferred:

class Inner{
friend class Outer;
private: int foo;
...};

class Outer{
   Inner myInner;
   int& bar = myInner.foo; // direct access to inner members here
...};

Which is all pretty messy and shows why explicit self is better!

> class Outer(object)
>    def amethod(outerself, arg):
>        outerself.arg = arg
>        class Inner(object):
>            def amethot(self, arg):
>                self.arg = arg*(outerself.arg)
>            return Inner(1)
>
> See the difference?

Neat! Although I still haven't thought of a need to do that,
but its nice to know you can! :-)

Alan G.