What Is Phython?

Python is a general-purpose interpreted, interactive, object-oriented, and high-level programming language. It was created by GuidovanRossum during 1985- 1990. Like Perl, Python source code is also available under the GNU General Public License (GPL). This tutorial gives enough understanding on Python programming language

Python is a high-level, interpreted, interactive and object-oriented scripting language. Python is designed to be highly readable. It uses English keywords frequently where as other languages use punctuation, and it has fewer syntactical constructions than other languages.

i. Python is Interpreted: Python is processed at runtime by the interpreter. You do not need to compile your program before executing it. This is similar to PERL and PHP.

ii. Python is Interactive: You can actually sit at a Python prompt and interact with the interpreter directly to write your programs.

iii. Python is Object-Oriented: Python supports Object-Oriented style or technique of programming that encapsulates code within objects.

iv. Python is a Beginner's Language: Python is a great language for the beginner-level programmers and supports the development of a wide range of applications from simple text processing to WWW browsers to games.

Python Features:

Python's features include:

i. Easy-to-learn: Python has few keywords, simple structure, and a clearly defined syntax. This allows the student to pick up the language quickly.

ii. Easy-to-read: Python code is more clearly defined and visible to the eyes.

iii. Easy-to-maintain: Python's source code is fairly easy-to-maintain.

iv. A broad standard library: Python's bulk of the library is very portable and cross-platform compatible on UNIX, Windows, and Macintosh.

v. Interactive Mode: Python has support for an interactive mode which allows interactive testing and debugging of snippets of code.

vi. Portable: Python can run on a wide variety of hardware platforms and has the same interface on all platforms.

vii. Extendable: You can add low-level modules to the Python interpreter. These modules enable programmers to add to or customize their tools to be more efficient.

viii. Databases: Python provides interfaces to all major commercial databases.

ix. GUI Programming: Python supports GUI applications that can be created and ported to many system calls, libraries and windows systems, such as Windows MFC, Macintosh, and the X Window system of Unix.

x. Scalable: Python provides a better structure and support for large programs than shell scripting.

Apart from the above-mentioned features, Python has a big list of good features, few are listed below:

i. It supports functional and structured programming methods as well as OOP.

ii. It can be used as a scripting language or can be compiled to byte-code for building large applications.

iii. It provides very high-level dynamic data types and supports dynamic type checking.

iv. IT supports automatic garbage collection.

v. It can be easily integrated with C, C++, COM, ActiveX, CORBA, and Java.

Python is available on a wide variety of platforms including Linux and Mac OS X. Let's understand how to set up our Python environment.

Local Environment Setup:

Open a terminal window and type "python" to find out if it is already installed and which version is installed.

i. Unix (Solaris, Linux, FreeBSD, AIX, HP/UX, SunOS, IRIX, etc.)
ii. Win 9x/NT/2000
iii. Macintosh (Intel, PPC, 68K)
iv. OS/2
v. DOS (multiple versions)
vi. PalmOS
vii. Nokia mobile phones
viii. Windows CE
ix. Acorn/RISC OS
x. BeOS
xi. Amiga
xii. VMS/OpenVMS
xiii. QNX
xiv. VxWorks
xv. Psion

Python has also been ported to the Java and .NET virtual machines