Why Python?
Python is relatively very easy language to learn as compared to other languages like C, C++ or Java and in today this post will be an introduction to Python for beginners. Also, conventionally when people started off with their venture of learning programming languages like Java it was highly recommended that we learn C or C++ first. However, this is not the case with Python. It can be your first programming language as it’s syntax is very similar to the English that we speak in daily life.
Apart from being such an easy language it is also one of the most powerful and sought-after programming language in the world of IT.
- -Python is a general purpose high level programming language. General purpose means that it can be used for multiple purposes like developing data science applications, machine learning, web applications, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, etc.
- High Level Language is one which is human understandable like C, C++, Java.
- It was developed by Guido Van Rossam in 1989 in National Research Institute, Netherlands.
- After a few years from being developed finally on the 20th of February in 1991 it was made available for public use.
Advantages of Python:
- The programmes are easy to write as the syntax is very simple.
- The programmes are comparatively smaller in size i.e. less lines of code.
- Declaring variables and assigning values to them is very easy.
- There is no need to declare any variable’s data type before hand.
- A variable once declared of a specific data type can be assigned with a value of another data type as it is a Dynamically Typed Programming Language.
Writing the first Python Program:
In the Python IDLE window or Python shell we will type our first program.
>>>print(“Hello world”)
Output
Hello world
The same program in C, C++ or Java takes up multiple lines of code.
More about Python:
- The language is named after a very popular show of time called Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
- The developer Guido Van Rossam derived features from many other languages and integrated it into Python, like:
- Functional Programming from C
- OOP from C++
- Features of Scripting Languages like Perl and Shell script
- Features of Modular Programming from Modula-3
Although most of the syntax is borrowed from C and ABC programming languages.
Uses of Python:
Python is now-a-days very vividly uses in a various number of fields. Some of them are:-
- Desktop Application
- Web Applications (Frameworks like DJango, etc)
- Database Applications
- Networking Applications
- Games
- Data Analytics
- Machine Learning Applications
- Artificial Intelligence
- IOT Applications
For these vast field of applications many tech giants like Google, Facebook, Mozilla, Youtube, Dropbox and the very world renowned NASA use Python to develop their products. this was all about the introduction to python and in the coming posts we will learn about more of the features that this language holds.