Question

class MyController(BaseController):

    def index(self):
        # Return a rendered template
        #return render('/test.mako')
        # or, return a response
        return ''

Why does the function “index” have “self”?

I got this code from Pylons controller

Answer 1

It’s a member function (a function that’s part of a class), so when it’s called, the object it was called on is automatically passed as the first argument.

For example:

c = MyController()
c.index()

would call index with self equal to c. self is the standard name, but you can call it anything you want