Whether you have used it or not, Python is probably a language you all
have heard of. The reason is simple; this language has friends in high
places.
Python is a favored language at Google, and was one of the first languages supported in its Google App Engine platform for developing web applications. It is also the language in which Google choose to write its GoogleCL command line interface for Google services. Many organization use Python both internally and in shipping products. The popular Civilization IV game by Firaxis for example, makes extensive use of Python for the game mechanics: Industrial Light and Magic too use Python, as does Yahoo. Blender, possibly the most popular free and open source software for creating and editing 3D content, makes significant use of Python. While Firefox itself isn't written in Python, its build system makes extensive use of Python.
So why so much love for Python? Well, because it is fast, it is free and open source, and best of all it is easy to learn. Python is portable, and is available for multiple platforms, Windows, Linux, Mac OS, and is embeddable in other products. For someone new to programming, Python is a great language to start with, and will likely stay with you even as you learn other languages.
Python is a high level language, which means most operations you wish to perform have libraries and can be handled in just a few lines. You can, for example, have a simple web server up and running in fewer than 100 lines of code, thanks to the HTTPServer class.
Python is extensible, and one will find thousands of modules which extend its functionality. Python is scalable, considering that You Tube is almost entirely Python! Most of the modules that come with Python are actually written in C / C++ so they run at native speeds, and your programs generally run faster than those of other interpreted programming languages.
Python is good at interfacing with other programming languages such as Java and C++ making it a great language for programming higher level features of an application, while keeping performance-critical functions in native code. This enables Python developers to easily use C I C++ libraries such as Qt / GTK + and other.
Python is also peculiar. Unlike most programming languages, where white-spaces and tabs are used simply for code formatting and discarded otherwise, Python uses these elements as part of the code structure. Python uses spacing instead of ‘{‘ brackets or text to denote blocks of code.
In one sentence, Python is a fast, interpreted, Object-Oriented, Dynamic, free, Open Source, powerful, extensible, modular, high-level, portable programming language that is easy to learn, and which has a powerful library, good documentation, a large number of third party modules, and a sense of humor.
Python is a favored language at Google, and was one of the first languages supported in its Google App Engine platform for developing web applications. It is also the language in which Google choose to write its GoogleCL command line interface for Google services. Many organization use Python both internally and in shipping products. The popular Civilization IV game by Firaxis for example, makes extensive use of Python for the game mechanics: Industrial Light and Magic too use Python, as does Yahoo. Blender, possibly the most popular free and open source software for creating and editing 3D content, makes significant use of Python. While Firefox itself isn't written in Python, its build system makes extensive use of Python.
So why so much love for Python? Well, because it is fast, it is free and open source, and best of all it is easy to learn. Python is portable, and is available for multiple platforms, Windows, Linux, Mac OS, and is embeddable in other products. For someone new to programming, Python is a great language to start with, and will likely stay with you even as you learn other languages.
Python is a high level language, which means most operations you wish to perform have libraries and can be handled in just a few lines. You can, for example, have a simple web server up and running in fewer than 100 lines of code, thanks to the HTTPServer class.
Python is extensible, and one will find thousands of modules which extend its functionality. Python is scalable, considering that You Tube is almost entirely Python! Most of the modules that come with Python are actually written in C / C++ so they run at native speeds, and your programs generally run faster than those of other interpreted programming languages.
Python is good at interfacing with other programming languages such as Java and C++ making it a great language for programming higher level features of an application, while keeping performance-critical functions in native code. This enables Python developers to easily use C I C++ libraries such as Qt / GTK + and other.
Python is also peculiar. Unlike most programming languages, where white-spaces and tabs are used simply for code formatting and discarded otherwise, Python uses these elements as part of the code structure. Python uses spacing instead of ‘{‘ brackets or text to denote blocks of code.
In one sentence, Python is a fast, interpreted, Object-Oriented, Dynamic, free, Open Source, powerful, extensible, modular, high-level, portable programming language that is easy to learn, and which has a powerful library, good documentation, a large number of third party modules, and a sense of humor.
