A very nifty, somewhat trip-hop unpop band consisting, more or less, of Matt Mahaffey. Most of their music feels rather thrown together, but is nevertheless always impressively sonically creative. The thrown-together quality is in the end a good thing-- it feels free, like Matt is just doing whatever he feels like, and in the end when he tries he creates some of the most carefully sculpted music you've ever heard. He has thus far released three albums, the very-well-critically-received Subliminal Plastic Motives, the mail-order-only the Half-Baked Serenade, and the recent Breakfast with Girls. Self deserves way more attention than it gets-- it's unbelievably innovative stuff (the hidden track on Half-Baked Serenade was using drum n bass influences back before drum n bass was a word), and at the least interesting.

If you have the time, go to his website at spongebath records and download the the mp3 there of "kiddies". Do it. Just trust me on this.


Also, in Objective C, an omnipresent, messageable language-level variable always equivilent to a pointer to the object owning the method currently being run. (This is identical to the this reserved word in C++.) You are expected to call all methods in the current object with messages to self, as opposed to (as you usually see done in C++, but really shouldn't be doing anyway) directly calling the method locally.

Self is actually an argument passed by the hidden objc_msgSend() function. See Objective C Messaging.

See also super.


Python, meanwhile, rather than making the object running the current method a "hidden argument" and giving it a language-hardwired name, simply chooses to make it a normal argument-- a method's "owner" will always be automatically passed to it as its first object. Thus, whatever you name the first argument in a given method will be equivilent to self in ObjC or this in C++. By convention, most Python programmers will name this first argument self-- Guido Von Rossum, the creator of Python, names it "self" in all the sample code in the Python documentation, and most people just follow his example-- but the programmer can name the self-like argument anything at all that they like ("this", for example) and can even vary the name of the self-like argument from method to method.

Self is a fast, somewhat obscure experimental object oriented computer programming language that was designed by SUN Microsystems.

Syntactically it is very similar to Smalltalk but is a prototype based language, rather than being class based as Smalltalk and most other object oriented languages.

Being a very high level language (a little higher than Smalltalk), it presented great challenges to make it run quickly. Due to some heroic dynamic recompilation techniques they pretty much succeeded - the language ran at about 1/2 the speed of optimised C; and quite a bit faster than Smalltalk!

Its main legacy is that it is a forerunner of interpreter techniques used in making Java run quickly (Hotspot) and led to a project called Dynamo by HP which is an "interpreter" that can run an instruction set faster than the CPU it runs on!

Additionally, Transmeta's Crusoe processor uses essentially the same technology to dynamically translate 80x86 machine code into VLIW machine code resulting in drastically reduced power consumption.

Self (self), a. [AS. self, seolf, sylf; akin to OS. self, OFries. self, D. zelf, G. selb, selber, selbst, Dan. selv. Sw. sjelf, Icel. sjAlfr, Goth. silba. Cf. Selvage.]

Same; particular; very; identical. [Obs., except in the compound selfsame.] "On these self hills." Sir. W. Raleigh.

To shoot another arrow that self way
Which you did shoot the first.
Shak.

At that self moment enters Palamon.
Dryden.

 

© Webster 1913


Self, n.; pl. Selves (&?;).

1.

The individual as the object of his own reflective consciousness; the man viewed by his own cognition as the subject of all his mental phenomena, the agent in his own activities, the subject of his own feelings, and the possessor of capacities and character; a person as a distinct individual; a being regarded as having personality. "Those who liked their real selves." Addison.

A man's self may be the worst fellow to converse with in the world.
Pope.

The self, the I, is recognized in every act of intelligence as the subject to which that act belongs. It is I that perceive, I that imagine, I that remember, I that attend, I that compare, I that feel, I that will, I that am conscious.
Sir W. Hamilton.

2.

Hence, personal interest, or love of private interest; selfishness; as, self is his whole aim.

3.

Personification; embodiment. [Poetic.]

She was beauty's self.
Thomson.

Self is united to certain personal pronouns and pronominal adjectives to express emphasis or distinction. Thus, for emphasis; I myself will write; I will examine for myself; thou thyself shalt go; thou shalt see for thyself; you yourself shall write; you shall see for yourself; he himself shall write; he shall examine for himself; she herself shall write; she shall examine for herself; the child itself shall be carried; it shall be present itself. It is also used reflexively; as, I abhor myself; thou enrichest thyself; he loves himself; she admires herself; it pleases itself; we walue ourselves; ye hurry yourselves; they see themselves. Himself, herself, themselves, are used in the nominative case, as well as in the objective. "Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples." John iv. 2.

self is used in the formation of innumerable compounds, usually of obvious signification, in most of which it denotes either the agent or the object of the action expressed by the word with which it is joined, or the person in behalf of whom it is performed, or the person or thing to, for, or towards whom or which a quality, attribute, or feeling expressed by the following word belongs, is directed, or is exerted, or from which it proceeds; or it denotes the subject of, or object affected by, such action, quality, attribute, feeling, or the like; as, self-abandoning, self-abnegation, self-abhorring, self-absorbed, self-accusing, self-adjusting, self-balanced, self-boasting, self-canceled, self-combating, self-commendation, self-condemned, self-conflict, self-conquest, self-constituted, self-consumed, self-contempt, self-controlled, self-deceiving, self-denying, self-destroyed, self-disclosure, self-display, self-dominion, self-doomed, self-elected, self-evolved, self-exalting, self-excusing, self-exile, self-fed, self- fulfillment, self-governed, self-harming, self- helpless, self-humiliation, self-idolized, self- inflicted, self-improvement, self-instruction, self-invited, self-judging, self-justification, self-loathing, self-loving, self-maintenance, self-mastered, self-nourishment, self-perfect, self-perpetuation, self-pleasing, self-praising, self-preserving, self-questioned, self-relying, self-restraining, self-revelation, self-ruined, self-satisfaction, self-support, self-sustained, self-sustaining, self-tormenting, self-troubling, self-trust, self-tuition, self-upbraiding, self-valuing, self-worshiping, and many others.

 

© Webster 1913


Self (?), a.

Having its own or a single nature or character, as in color, composition, etc., without addition or change; unmixed; as, a self bow, one made from a single piece of wood; self flower or plant, one which is wholly of one color; self-colored.

 

© Webster 1913

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