Chapter Summary

This chapter introduced the basics of coding classes in Python. We studied the syntax of the class statement, and we saw how to use it to build up a class inheritance tree. We also studied how Python automatically fills in the first argument in method functions, how attributes are attached to objects in a class tree by simple assignment, and how specially named operator overloading methods intercept and implement built-in operations for our instances (e.g., expressions and printing).

Now that we’ve learned all about the mechanics of coding classes in Python, the next chapter turns to a larger and more realistic example that ties together much of what we’ve learned about OOP so far. After that, we’ll continue our look at class coding, taking a second pass over the model to fill in some of the details that were omitted here to keep things simple. First, though, let’s work through a quiz to review the basics we’ve covered so far.