What is Python

What is Python


What is Python 

Python (programming language)

Python is a widely used high-level programming language for general-purpose programming, created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991. An interpreted language, Python has a design philosophy which emphasizes code readability (notably using whitespace indentation to delimit code blocks rather than curly brackets or keywords), and a syntax which allows programmers to express concepts in fewer lines of code than possible in languages such as C++ or Java. The language provides constructs intended to enable writing clear programs on both a small and large scale.

Python features a dynamic type system and automatic memory management and supports multiple programming paradigms, including object-oriented, imperative, functional programming, and procedural styles. It has a large and comprehensive standard library.

Python interpreters are available for many operating systems, allowing Python code to run on a wide variety of systems. CPython, the reference implementation of Python, is open source software and has a community-based development model, as do nearly all of its variant implementations. CPython is managed by the non-profit Python Software Foundation.

History

 Python was conceived in the late 1980s, and its implementation began in December 1989 by Guido van Rossum at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in the Netherlands as a successor to the ABC language (itself inspired by SETL) capable of exception handling and interfacing with the operating system Amoeba. Van Rossum is Python’s principal author, and his continuing central role in deciding the direction of Python is reflected in the title given to him by the Python community, benevolent dictator for life (BDFL).

About the origin of Python, Van Rossum wrote in 1996:

Over six years ago, in December 1989, I was looking for a “hobby” programming project that would keep me occupied during the week around Christmas. My office … would be closed, but I had a home computer, and not much else on my hands. I decided to write an interpreter for the new scripting language I had been thinking about lately: a descendant of ABC that would appeal to Unix/C hackers. I chose Python as a working title for the project, being in a slightly irreverent mood (and a big fan of Monty Python’s Flying Circus).

Python 2.0 was released on 16 October 2000 and had many major new features, including a cycle-detecting garbage collector and support for Unicode. With this release the development process was changed and became more transparent and community-backed.

Python 3.0 (which early in its development was commonly referred to as Python 3000 or py3k), a major, backwards-incompatible release, was released on 3 December 2008 after a long period of testing. Many of its major features have been backported to the backwards-compatible Python 2.6.x and 2.7.x version series.

The End Of Life date (EOL, sunset date) for Python 2.7 was initially set at 2015, then postponed to 2020 out of concern that a large body of existing code cannot easily be forward-ported to Python 3. In January 2017, Google announced work on a Python 2.7 to Go transcompiler, which The Register speculated was in response to Python 2.7’s planned end-of-life but Google cited performance under concurrent workloads as their only motivation.

Syntax and semantics

Python is intended to be a highly readable language. It is designed to have an uncluttered visual layout, often using English keywords where other languages use punctuation. Further, Python has fewer syntactic exceptions and special cases than C or Pascal

Learn Python Programming
The Definitive Guide
Python is a powerful high-level, object-oriented programming language created by Guido van Rossum.

It has simple easy-to-use syntax, making it the perfect language for someone trying to learn computer programming for the first time.

This is a comprehensive guide on how to get started in Python, why you should learn it and how you can learn it.