[Python] Why does __init__ requires an explicit self as an argument when calling it as...

I know of two ways to call a superclass's constructor from a derived class: super().__init__() and base.__init__(self). Why does the second require me to explicitly supply self as an argument?

Here's a snippet that demonstrates the difference:

class base:
def __init__(self,/):
print("initializing")

class der(base):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__() #no error
base.__init__(self) #no error
base.__init__() #error, self required

obj = der()


The third constructor call throws this error:

File "demo.py", line 11, in <module>
obj = der()
^^^^^
File "demo.py", line 9, in __init__
base.__init__() #error, should be: base.__init__(self)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
TypeError: base.__init__() missing 1 required positional argument: 'self'


I expect base.__init__() to work since super().__init__() doesn't require an explicit self.

Continue reading...