Introduction to Python

Python

What is Python?

Python is probably one of the few programming languages which is both simple and powerful.

It is a general purpose Language.

Features of Python:

Simple:

Python is a simple and minimalistic language. Reading a good Python code feels almost like reading English. It allows you to concentrate on the solution to the problem rather than the language itself.

Free and Open Source:

Python is an example of a FLOSS (Free/Libré and Open Source Software). In simple terms, you can freely distribute copies of this software, read its source code, make changes to it, and use pieces of it in new free programs.

High Level Language:

When you write programs in Python, you never need to bother abour the low level details such as managing the memory used by your program.

Portable:

Due to open-source nature python has beeb ported to many platforms. Which means if you avoid any system dependent features; you won’t need to change anything in the program to work on any platform.

Python has been ported to GNU/Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, Macintosh, Solaris, OS/2, Amiga, AROS, AS/400, BeOS, OS/390, z/OS, Palm OS, QNX, VMS, Psion, Acorn RISC OS, VxWorks, PlayStation, Sharp Zaurus, Windows CE and PocketPC!

You can even write android applications using Python using kivy Which we will discuss in the following posts.

Interpreted:

You just run the program directly from the source code.

Extensive Libraies:

The Python Standard Library is huge indeed. It can help you do various things. These Things involve:

THis is always available whenever Python is installed. This is called “Battries Included” philosophy of Python.

Easy to Learn:

As you will see, Python is extremely easy to get started with. Python has an extraordinarily simple syntax, as already mentioned.

Where to Begin from?

These books are pretty good to start with:

If you don’t have Python installed on your machine then to get some hands on practice these sites might be useful.