What is Python?

In this article let’s see what is python and everything about it in detail.

Before we go in detail about Python, let’s see some intro about it.

Python is an example of high-level language, other high-level languages you might have heard of are C, C++, Perl, and Java.

Python is a popular programming language; it is a general-purpose versatile language. Guido Van Rossum began working on Python in the late 1980’s as a successor to the ABC programming language, and first version  was released in 1991 as Python 0.9.0.

There were many versions released then after such as Python 2.0 was released in 2000 and Python 3.0 in 2008.

Why the name Python is given?

While Guido Van Rossum was working on Python, he was also reading a comedy series from BBC in 1970, the script was named as “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”.

He was in search of name that is short, unique, and slightly mysterious for the language he was working on. Hence, he decided to call the language Python.

Black Farmed Eyeglasses in Front of Laptop Computer

Why to learn Python?

  • Python language is similar to the English language. This language can be learnt by anyone who is new to coding. If you already know some other programming languages this can be a plus for you.
  • This language has syntax that allows coders to write programs with fewer lines than with some other programming languages.
  • It works on different platforms such as Windows, Linux, Raspberry Pi, Mac.
  • An interpreter processes the program a little at a time, alternatively reading lines and performing computations.
  • This language is almost being used with almost every trending technology. Big data, Cloud Computing, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and many more. Due to this need in different domains, this language gained its popularity and demand over other programming languages.
  • This language supports with hundreds of libraries and frameworks for Web Development, Data Science, Machine Learning, and Cloud Computing.

Features of Python

  • Easy to read and code
  • Free and open source
  • Portable
  • Object Oriented
  • Interpreted
  • Embedded
  • Extensible
  • GUI programming

Easy to read and code.

  • Python code uses simple English words, no need of semi-colons at the end of each line
  • Though this is a very high-level programming language, its very easy to learn.
  • Any one who has no idea about this language can learn basics in just few hours or days.
  • However, learning advanced concepts might take some more time.

Free and open source

  • Python is freely available for everyone on its official website python.org. Official Website link
  • Across the world people are working on to introduce new python modules and functions.
  • Anyone can contribute to the Python community with their new coding and ideas.
  • Open source means it can be downloaded freely, which mean the public has access to the source code.

Portable

  • This language can be written on a machine and can be run on any machine without modifying the source code.
  • For example, you have written a program on Linux machine, you want to run the same program using Windows machine, you can do this just by transferring the program without any modifications to the program.

Object-Oriented

  • Python supports object-oriented language and concepts of classes and objects. It supports concepts like inheritance, encapsulation, and polymorphism.
  • This helps developer to write the reusable code and develop application with less code.

Interpreted

  • Two kinds of programs process high-level languages into low-level languages. Interpreters and compilers
  • An interpreter read a high-level program and executes it, meaning that it does what the program says.
  • It processes the program a little at a time, alternately reading lines and performing computations.
  • A compiler reads the program and translates it completely before the program starts running.

Embedded

  • We can use the code of other programming language in the Python source code. Also, we can use Python source code in another programming language as well.

Extensible

  • Python can be extended to other languages which makes it extensible languages.
  • If needed, you can write some of your Python code in other languages like C++ or Java.

GUI Programming

  • One of the key aspects of any programming language is the support of Graphical User Interface.
  • Software is not user-friendly until its GUI is made. A use can easily interact with the software with a GUI.
  • Python offers various libraries for making GUI for your applications. This language offers various toolkits such as Tkinter, wxPython and JPython for GUI’s easy and fast development.

Woman Programming on a Notebook

Applications of Python

Python makes it presence in every emerging field. It is the fastest growing programming language and can develop any application. Let’s see some of the applications of it.

  • Web Applications
  • Web Scraping Applications
  • Desktop GUI applications
  • Business Applications
  • Data Science and Data Visualization
  • Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
  • Game Development
  • Computer-Aided Designing Applications
  • Embedded Applications

Advantages

  • The advantages of Python programming language are enormous. It is much easier to program in a high-level language.
  • Programs written in a high-level language takes less time to write, they are shorter and easier to read, and they are more likely to be correct.
  • It is portable as we discussed earlier.
  • It is a very productive languages, due to the simplicity of Python, developers can focus on solving the problem.
  • They need not spend too much time in understanding the syntax or behaviour of the language
  • In simple way, you write very less code but get more things done.
  • More standard libraries and frameworks like NumPy, Pandas, Scikit-Learn, TensorFlow, Keras, OpenCV, Django and many more.

Disadvantages

  • Computers can only run programs written in low-level languages. So, programs written in high-level languages have to be processed before they can run.
  • This extra processing takes some time, which is a small disadvantage of high-level languages.
  • Python’s structures demand more memory space. This language isn’t suitable to use for development under limited memory restrictions.
  • Difficult to interact with database layer.

 

 

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