python strange super declaration : multiple self

Question

Could someone please explain to me this strange line in configobj.py, line 1190 :

Section.__init__(self, self, 0, self)

I don't understand the meaning of this multidecaration of self.

Thank you

Answer 1

Let's look at the __init__ of Section:

def __init__(self, parent, depth, main, indict=None, name=None):

For some reason, the author of this code has decided to pass self several times to Section's __init__. I haven't looked at the code in detail but this usually means objects can be constructed and in other cases these arguments will vary (i.e., they won't be self each time).

So for this particular call, the object represented by self plays a variety of roles and that's why the object is passed multiple times to the parent class's __init__. So to understand why self is passed multiple times you'll need to look at the purpose of the arguments and to see why they're the same in this case. It's conceivable that instances will be created where the arguments are different as those "roles" are then handled by different objects, and not all by the same object.