Scoping Question... Delegate vs. Instance [as2.0 class]

programming flash
1

when i’m coding directly on the timeline, i usually create a var like this:

var home:MovieClip = this;

so i always have something to reference the main timeline’s scope. how could i do this in a class? delegate.create gets a little confusing.

i tried a few things like the following:

class com.myClass 
{
        public var className:String = "myClass";
        public static var version:String = "0.0.1";
        private static var instance:myClass;

        public function myClass()
        {
                init();
        }
        //
        private function init():Void
    {
        instance = this;
        trace(instance);  
                trace(typeof(instance));  
        }
}

/*  output:
Class: newsXML, Version: 0.0.1
object
*/

i was surprised that the first line of output actually listed the class name and version instead of [type, Object], but i guess ‘className’ and ‘version’ are recognizable variables? i’m new to writing classes, and coding in general.
but back to the main point, why couldn’t i do the following:

        private function init():Void
    {
        instance = this;
        xml = new XML();
        xml.ignoreWhite = true;
        xml.onLoad = instance.someFunction;  // instead of Delegate.create(this, someFunction);
        xml.load("any.xml");
    }
    //
    private function someFunction():Void
    {
        trace("someFunction();");
        trace("xml == " + xml);
    }

someFunction() never fires, and the xml doesn’t load. how would this work? is it redundant? i can’t figure out what i’m missing here, when the following does work:

        private function init():Void
    {
        instance = this;
        xml = new XML();
        xml.ignoreWhite = true;
        xml.onLoad = Delegate.create(this, checkXML); 
        xml.load("any.xml");
    }
    //
    private function checkXML():Void
    {
        if(xml.loaded == true) 
        {
            trace("XML loaded");
            instance.parseNews();  // this scoping works?????????
        } 
        else 
        {
            trace("error loading XML");
        }
    }
    //
    private function parseNews():Void
    {
        trace("parseNews();");
        trace("xml == " + xml);
    }

of course this is redundant because it’ll scope just fine as parseNews();, but i’m just wondering why it’s letting me scope it like this here and not in the onLoad declaration?

thanks for your help.