On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 2:18 PM, Yanom Mobis 
<yanom@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
this is the code in question:
class Car(Basicsprite): #car class
    def __init__(self, speedarg=(0,0)):
        self.speed = speedarg
        Basicsprite.__init__(self)
    def move(self, speedv=self.speed):
        self.rect = self.rect.move(speedv)
however, when I try to import that class from python:
>>> from basicsprite import Car
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "basicsprite.py", line 14, in <module>
    class Car(Basicsprite): #car class
  File "basicsprite.py", line 18, in Car
    def move(self, speedv=self.speed):
NameError: name 'self' is not defined
how can self not be defined??
This line contains your error.
 
def move(self, speedv=self.speed):
At the time the default arguments are evaluated (at the time of function definition), self - your instance - is not defined. 
Try something along these lines instead:
def move(self, speedv=None):
  if speedv is None:
    speedv = self.speed