OBJECT ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

EVERYTHING IN PYTHON IS AN OBJECT (and has a type)

can create new objects of some type
can manipulate objects
can destroy objects
explicitly using del or just “forget” about them
python system will reclaim destroyed or inaccessible objects – called “garbage collection”

bundle data into packages together with procedures that work on them through well-defined interfaces
divide-and-conquer development
implement and test behavior of each class separately
increased modularity reduces complexity
classes make it easy to reuse code
many Python modules define new classes
each class has a separate environment (no collision on function names)
inheritance allows subclasses to redefine or extend a selected subset of a superclass’ behavior

bundle together objects that share
common attributes and
procedures that operate on those attributes
use abstraction to make a distinction between how to implement an object vs how to use the object
build layers of object abstractions that inherit behaviors from other classes of objects
create our own classes of objects on top of Python’s basic classes