Introduction to Python Programming

What is Python Programming?

Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language. Python was developed by Guido Van Rossam in 1989 while working at National Research Institute at Netherlands. But officially Python was made available to public in 1991. The official Date of Birth for Python is: Feb 20th 1991. There is also a fact behind the choosing name Python. Guido van Rossum was a fan of the popular BBC comedy show "Monty Python's Flying Circus" from 1969 to 1974. So he decided to pick the name Python for his newly created programming language.

Python is recommended as first programming language for beginners. Python is a cross-platform programming language, which means that it can run on multiple platforms like Windows, macOS, Linux, and has even been ported to the Java and .NET virtual machines. It is free and open-source. Python has a simple syntax similar to the English language. Python language is being used by almost all tech-giant companies like – Google, Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, Dropbox, Uber… etc.

The biggest strength of Python is huge collection of standard libraries which can be used for the following:

o   Machine Learning

o   GUI Applications (like Kivy, Tkinter, PyQt etc. )

o   Web frameworks like Django (used by YouTube, Instagram, Dropbox)

o   Image processing (like OpenCV, Pillow)

o   Multimedia

o   Scientific computing

o   For developing Desktop Application

o   For developing Web Applications (Server-side)

o   For developing Database Applications

o   For developing Games

o   For Data Analysis Applications

o   For developing Artificial Intelligence Applications

o   For Internet of Things

o   To handle big data and perform complex mathematics.

o   Data Science

o   Mobile Applications

o   Speech Recognitions

Ø Unlike the other programming languages, Python provides the facility to execute the code using few lines. 

Ø For example-1 - Suppose we want to print the "Hello World" program in Java; it will take three lines to print it.

Java:

1) public class HelloWorld

2) {

3) public static void main(String[ ] args)

4) {

5) System.out.println("Hello world");

6) }

7) }

 

C:

1) #include <stdio.h>

2) void main()

3) {

4) print("Hello world");

5) }

 

Python: print("Hello World")

Ø For example-2 - Suppose we want to print sum of 2 numbers in Java, C and Python.

Java:

1) public class Add

2) {

3) public static void main(String[] args)

4) {

5) int a,b;

6) a =10;

7) b=20;

8) System.out.println("The Sum:"+(a+b));

9) }

 

C:

1) #include <stdio.h>

2) void main()

3) {

4) int a,b;

5) a =10;

6) b=20;

7) printf("The Sum:%d",(a+b));

8) }

 

Python:

1) a=10

2) b=20

3) print("The Sum:",(a+b))

 

Flavours of Python:

1) CPython: It is the standard flavour of Python. It can be used to work with C lanugage Applications.

2) Jython OR JPython: It is for Java Applications. It can run on JVM

3) IronPython: It is for C#.Net platform

4) PyPy: The main advantage of PyPy is performance will be improved because JIT compiler is available inside PVM.

5) RubyPython For Ruby Platforms

6) AnacondaPython: It is specially designed for handling large volume of data processing.