IMO it would make sense for Python to look at `a, b` and assume you wanted a static method with two parameters. Instead it assumes you're using `a` instead of `self` and really wanted an instance method with one parameter.
Like I said: most of the time, a missing `self` is an error by the user, and so python requires explicit notification both to the language, and to other people, that you're doing what you mean to do, and not just making a mistake.
Not really. You end up implicitly injecting some value into local namespaces instead of having a function that takes an argument.
The implicitness of methods working differently than normal functions > the implicitness of classes passing a first argument to methods.
def __init__(self, x, y):
self.super(x, y)