[Tutor] Re: Help with classes (Joseph Q.)

[Joseph Quigley]

class Message:
   def init(self, p = 'Hello world'):
      self.text = p
   def sayIt(self):
      print self.text

m = Message()
m.init()
m.sayIt()
m.init('Hiya fred!')
m.sayIt()



> > Well this OOP stuff is realy hard for me as I have never even
> > programmed it took me a while just to understand defs.
>
>That's OK, OOP is quite a strange concept for many folks. Its
>actually easier to learn as a beginner than for folks who
>have been programming without OOP for a long time!
>
> > determined to learn how to do it. My biggest problem is with
>__init__
> > I still don't understand how to use it.
>
>init is simply where you initialise the data attributes of your class.
>
>It could be defined as a normal method and you call it explicitly:
>
>class Message:
>   def init(self, txt = 'Hello world'):
>      self.text = txt
>   def sayIt(self):
>      print self.text
>
>And every time you create a message object you explicitly call it:
>
>m = Message()
>m.init('Hiya fred!')
>m.sayIt()

I was having problems with the __init__ too.

class Message:
   def init(self, txt = 'Hello world'):
      self.text = txt
   def sayIt(self):
      print self.text

And every time you create a message object you explicitly call it:

m = Message()
m.init()
m.sayIt()
m.init("Hello World is so overdone. It hard to break tradition though :->")
m.sayIt()

Why did you put 'Hiya fred!' in place of having m.init print "Hello World"?

Now what are dictionaries and the __name__ really used for? A byte of 
python never got that through my thick skull.