[zork]

Is there any major benefit of using one over the other?

I asked this in another thread lately and Phanx posted the prototype trick which is kind of neat.

local function variant

local function ResetAllModels() 
    for i, model in pairs(self.models) do
      ModelReset(model)
    end
  end    
    
  local function ModelReset(...)
    print("ModelReset",...)
  end
  
  local function ModelOnMouseDown(...)
    print("ModelOnMouseDown",...)
  end
  
  local function ModelOnMouseUp(...)
    print("ModelOnMouseUp",...)
  end
  
  local function CreateModel(parent,id)
    local m = CreateFrame("PlayerModel", nil, parent)
    m.id = id
    m.name = "model"..id
    m:SetScript("OnMouseDown", ModelOnMouseDown)
    m:SetScript("OnMouseUp", ModelOnMouseUp)
  end
  
  
  local frame = CreateFrame("Frame")
 
  frame.models = {}
  
  for i=1, 50 do
    frame.models[i] = CreateModel(frame,i)
  end

object:Function variant

local frame = CreateFrame("Frame")
    
  function frame:ResetAllModels 
    for i, model in pairs(self.models) do
      model:Reset()
    end
  end    
    
  frame.models = {}
  
  --prototype
  frame.modelPrototype = {}
 
  function modelPrototype:Reset(...)
    print("Reset",...)
  end
  
  function modelPrototype:OnMouseDown(...)
    print("OnMouseDown",...)
  end
  
  function modelPrototype:OnMouseUp(...)
    print("OnMouseUp",...)
  end
  
  function frame:CreateModel(id)
    local m = CreateFrame("PlayerModel", nil, self)
    m.id = id
    m.name = "model"..id
    for k, v in pairs(self.modelPrototype) do
      m[k] = v
    end
    m:SetScript("OnMouseDown", m.OnMouseDown)
    m:SetScript("OnMouseUp", m.OnMouseUp)
  end  
  
  for i=1, 50 do
    frame.models[i] = frame:CreateModel(i)
  end

What I'm asking for is the following. If I add a function to an object...does it produce multiple copies of that function or is it by reference?

Using a local function set has the benefit that the function is only defined once but most of the time you need to add self as an argument which you do not need on object functions.

Well...event handler functions will still use self as an argument.

What do you pick and why?