Introduction to Python Programming

Python is a programming language that combines both the  features of C and Java.It offers elegant style of developing program like C and is object oriented like Java. Python was developed by Guido Van Rossum in 1991.

Development of python took accidentally, when Rossum was working on a project to develop system utilities in C. Developing a language that could help in filling the gap between C and shell led to the creation of Python. Rossum took the name of python from a famous TV show named Monty python’s flying Circus.

Python is an open source software.

Features of Python

1. Simple & Easy to learn :  Let us consider one example. If your girlfriend wants you to display her name on the output screen, then, let’s check, what options you have.

1. C :

#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>
int main()
{
 printf("Siri");
 return 0;
}

2. Java :

public class test
{
  public static void main(String [] args)
 {
   System.out.print("Siri");
 }
}

3.  Python :

print("Siri")

Now I hope you got the point now.

2. Dynamically Typed : In Python, everything revolves around the objects. We are not needed to declare anything. An assignment statement binds a name to an object and object can be of any type.

3. Platform Independent, Scalable and Portable : One of the best feature, that Python provides to developers, is, it can run in all Platforms like Windows,Mac OS, Linux etc which makes it a platform independent Programming Language. This is due to the BYTE CODE(.pyc file).

Just like Java has JVMs, Python has PVMs.

4. Procedural and Object Oriented : In Python, everything like variables, lists, arrays are treated as objects.

5. Interpreted : Python makes full use of Interpreter.

Python Program takes place as :

Source code —> Compiler —>Byte code(.pyc) —> Interpreter–>Machine Code(.exe)

6. Extensible and Embeddable : We can integrate the code written in C/C++,in Python, and execute it using PVMs. Also, we can insert out python code in C/C++.

7. Huge Library Support : Python provides you ,with the support of his Huge Library,which can be used on any OS like Windows,Unix,Linux,etc..

8. Scripting Language : Scripting language is a programming language that does not use a compiler for executing the source code, rather than, it uses an interpreter to translate the source code to machine code while running. Generally, scripting languages perform supportive tasks for bigger projects.

9. Database Connectivity : Python provides interfaces to connect its programs to all big databases like Oracle and MySQL.

10. Batteries or Packages Included : Python offers you a wide range of Batteries to choose,which best suites your Purpose. Some of these Packages are, argparse, boto, jellyfish, numpy, pandas, Pillow, pyquery, Sphinx, CherryPy and many more.

That’s all, see you in the next lesson.