We took an abstract look at classes and OOP in this chapter, taking in the big picture before we dive into syntax details. As we’ve seen, OOP is mostly about an argument named self, and a search for attributes in trees of linked objects called inheritance. Objects at the bottom of the tree inherit attributes from objects higher up in the tree—a feature that enables us to program by customizing code, rather than changing it or starting from scratch. When used well, this model of programming can cut development time radically.

The next chapter will begin to fill in the coding details behind the picture painted here. As we get deeper into Python classes, though, keep in mind that the OOP model in Python is very simple; as we’ve seen here, it’s really just about looking up attributes in object trees and a special function argument. Before we move on, here’s a quick quiz to review what we’ve covered here.