Now a days there is a decent population of programmers who are learning Python due to it's use in various areas. It is highly surprising that when we browse during our day to day life we unknowingly use software written using Python. Some of the leading industry giants who use Python are Google, IBM, Intel,Quora, Bank of America, Disney, CERN, Facebook. NASA also use Python in their projects. Few globally-used applications based on Python are BitTorrent, YouTube, Dropbox, Deluge, Cinema 4D, Mozilla, The Guardian and Bazaar.
So what is Python?
Python is a high level, object oriented language which is simple to learn and powerful. The official introduction to Python is:
Python is an easy to learn, powerful programming language. It has efficient high-level data structures and a simple but effective approach to object-oriented programming. Python's elegant syntax and dynamic typing, together with its interpreted nature, make it an ideal language for scripting and rapid application development in many areas on most platforms.
Python is not new...
Python is brain child of Guido van Rossum who conceived the idea in late eighties and started developing in 1989. It was first released in 1991. Guido van Rossum being big fan of Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British sketch comedy series, named his language as Python.
In October 2000 Python 2.0 was released and the next version Python 3.0 was released in December 2008.
One must think about other programming languages like C,C++,Java who are also widely used and capable of performing all the tasks one can do using Python. So you must be wandering why Python? and what makes Python special? These are the factors which makes it special
a. Python is easy
When you compare Python to other programming languages, the first thing you’ll notice is that it’s easy to read as Python’s syntax is intended to be as clear as possible. Some features that make Python especially user friendly include the following:
- Python avoids the use of punctuation characters like { } $ / and \ .
- Python uses white-space to indent lines for program control, instead of using brackets.
- Programmers are encouraged to make their programs clear and easy to read.
- Python supports a number of different ways to structure your programs so you can pick the best one for the task.
b. Python is a real language
Programming languages come in two flavors: easy ones with training wheels, to teach people how to program; and harder ones with more features to let you get real work done. When you’re learning how to program, you have two choices:
1. Jump head first into a real language, but be prepared to be confused until you figure out the hard language.
2. Start with a beginner’s language, but be ready to throw away all of the work that you’ve done when you need a feature that it doesn’t have.
Python skips the drawbacks and manages to combine the best aspects of these approaches. It’s easy to use and learn, but as your programming skills grow, you’ll be able to continue using Python, because it’s fast and has lots of useful features. Best of all, jumping in and learning how to do things the real way is often easier than following all of the steps that you need to learn how to program “properly.”
c. Python has inbuilt libraries
A large number of libraries are included with Python, and there are many more which you can download and install. Libraries are program code that other programmers have written that you can easily reuse. Often, when it comes time to write a program, most of the hard bits are already done for you, and all you have to do is join together a few libraries to be able to do what you need.
They let you read files, process data, connect to other computers via the internet, serve web pages, generate random numbers, and do pretty much any other sort of basic activity. Python is a good choice for the following:
Web development
Networking
Graphical interfaces
Scripting operating system tasks
Games
Data processing
Business applications
d. Python has a dedicated community
Python is a popular language and has a large, friendly community that is happy to help out new Python developers. Questions are always welcome on the main mailing list, and there’s also a specialized mailing list set up specifically to help new developers. There are also a lot of introductions and tutorials, and a great deal of example code, available on the internet.
One of the other advantages of having a large community is that Python gets a lot of active development, so bugs are fixed rapidly and new features are added regularly. Python is constantly improving.
Now that you know about why Python is a good choice you are ready to explore the language in details. In the next blog we shall look in to the industrial applications of Python.
Keep learning!
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