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Python Essentials

Python is a versatile, high-level programming language that supports multiple programming paradigms and is known for its simplicity and readability. It has a rich set of features, including a broad standard library, interactive mode, and support for GUI programming. The document also outlines the history of Python, differences between Python 2 and 3, and provides resources for getting and installing Python.

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6 views

Python Essentials

Python is a versatile, high-level programming language that supports multiple programming paradigms and is known for its simplicity and readability. It has a rich set of features, including a broad standard library, interactive mode, and support for GUI programming. The document also outlines the history of Python, differences between Python 2 and 3, and provides resources for getting and installing Python.

Uploaded by

sambeing424
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Python Essentials

What is Python?

• Python is a general purpose, dynamic, high-level, and interpreted


programming language.
• Python supports multiple programming pattern, including
object-oriented, imperative, and functional or procedural programming
styles.
• It is simple and easy to learn and provides lots of high-level data
structures.
• It can be used as a scripting language or can be compiled to byte-code
for building large applications.
• It supports automatic garbage collection.
• It can be easily integrated with C, C++, COM, ActiveX, CORBA, and
Java.
Features
• Easy-to-learn − Python has few keywords, simple structure, and a clearly defined syntax. This allows
the student to pick up the language quickly.
• Easy-to-read − Python code is more clearly defined and visible to the eyes.
• Easy-to-maintain − Python's source code is fairly easy-to-maintain.
• A broad standard library − Python's bulk of the library is very portable and cross-platform compatible
on UNIX, Windows, and Macintosh.
• Interactive Mode − Python has support for an interactive mode which allows interactive testing and
debugging of snippets of code.
• Portable − Python can run on a wide variety of hardware platforms and has the same interface on all
platforms.
• Extendable − You can add low-level modules to the Python interpreter. These modules enable
programmers to add to or customize their tools to be more efficient.
• Databases − Python provides interfaces to all major commercial databases.
• GUI Programming − Python supports GUI applications that can be created and ported to many
system calls, libraries and windows systems, such as Windows MFC, Macintosh, and the X Window
system of Unix.
• Scalable − Python provides a better structure and support for large programs than shell scripting.
Python History and Versions

• Python laid its foundation in the late 1980s.


• The implementation of Python was started in December 1989 by Guido Van Rossum at CWI in Netherland.
• In February 1991, Guido Van Rossum published the code (labeled version 0.9.0) to alt.sources.
• In 1994, Python 1.0 was released with new features like lambda, map, filter, and reduce.
• Python 2.0 added new features such as list comprehensions, garbage collection systems.
• On December 3, 2008, Python 3.0 (also called "Py3K") was released. It was designed to rectify the fundamental
flaw of the language.
• ABC programming language is said to be the predecessor of Python language, which was capable of Exception
Handling and interfacing with the Amoeba Operating System.
• The following programming languages influence Python:
ABC language.
Modula-3
Python 2 vs. Python 3

• 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. Python 3 uses
input() function which automatically interpreted the type of input entered by the
user.
• 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.
• There is also a small change made in Exception handling in Python 3. It defines a
keyword as which is necessary to be used.
Python Applications
Getting Python
• The most up-to-date and current source code, binaries,
documentation, news, etc., is available on the official website of
Python https://www.python.org/
• You can download Python documentation
from https://www.python.org/doc/. The documentation is available in
HTML, PDF, and PostScript formats.

Installing Python
• Python distribution is available for a wide variety of platforms. You
need to download only the binary code applicable for your platform
and install Python.

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