Python Introduction

Python Introduction

Python is a general purpose, dynamic, high level and interpreted programming language. It supports Object Oriented programming approach to develop applications. It is simple and easy to learn and provides lots of high-level data structures.

Python is easy to learn yet powerful and versatile scripting language which makes it attractive for Application Development.

Python's syntax and dynamic typing with its interpreted nature, makes it an ideal language for scripting and rapid application development.

Python supports multiple programming pattern, including object oriented, imperative and functional or procedural programming styles.

Python is not intended to work on special area such as web programming. That is why it is known as multipurpose because it can be used with web, enterprise, 3D CAD etc.

We don't need to use data types to declare variable because it is dynamically typed so we can write a=10 to assign an integer value in an integer variable.

Python makes the development and debugging fast because there is no compilation step included in python development and edit-test-debug cycle is very fast.

Python 2 vs. Python 3

In most of the programming languages, whenever a new version releases, it supports the features and syntax of the existing version of the language, therefore, it is easier for the projects to switch in the newer version. However, in the case of Python, the two versions Python 2 and Python 3 are very much different from each other.

A list of differences between Python 2 and Python 3 are given below:

In Python 2 uses print as a statement and used as print "something" to print some string on the console. On the other hand, Python 3 uses print as a function and used as print("something") to print something on the console.

Python 2 uses the function raw_input() to accept the user's input. It returns the string representing the value, which is typed by the user. To convert it into the integer, we need to use the int() function in Python. On the other hand, Python 3 uses input() function which automatically interpreted the type of input entered by the user. However, we can cast this value to any type by using primitive functions (int(), str(), etc.).

In Python 2, the implicit string type is ASCII, whereas, in Python 3, the implicit string type is Unicode. 

Python 3 doesn't contain the xrange() function of Python 2. The xrange() is the variant of range() function which returns a xrange object that works similar to Java iterator. The range() returns a list for example the function range(0,3) contains 0, 1, 2.

There is also a small change made in Exception handling in Python 3. It defines a keyword as which is necessary to be used. We will discuss it in Exception handling section of Python programming tutorial.

This program prints Hello, world!

   

print('Hello, world!')

    >>Output

    

     Hello, world!  

1. Python laid its foundation in the late 1980s.
2. The implementation of Python was started in the December 1989 by Guido Van Rossum at CWI in Netherland.
3. In February 1991, van Rossum published the code (labeled version 0.9.0) to alt.sources.
4. In 1994, Python 1.0 was released with new features like: lambda, map, filter, and reduce.
5. Python 2.0 added new features like: list comprehensions, garbage collection system.
6. On December 3, 2008, Python 3.0 (also called "Py3K") was released. It was designed to rectify fundamental flaw of the language.
7. ABC programming language is said to be the predecessor of Python language which was capable of Exception Handling and interfacing with Amoeba Operating System.
8. Python is influenced by following programming languages: (1) ABC language. (2) ABC language.