What you will learn in this section
This section will give a detailed overview of Python programming language and why you should learn it.
About Python
Guido Van Rossum - know as founder of Python. When you enter "Python" word in Google, you will get an interesting mix of results about - Python as a language and Python as snake. However, there is an interesting story behind name. Here, we will talk - Python as a language.
Python is one of the amazing programming language which can claim to be minimalist, simple and powerful. Python is simple and easy to understand like english language. To learn python, you don't need a prior experience of any language. This course is designed in such a way that it will give a solid foundation for your career as a python developer.
Story behind name
Guido van Rossum, the creator of the Python language, named the language after the BBC show "Monty Python's Flying Circus". He doesn't particularly like snakes that kill animals for food by winding their long bodies around them and crushing them.
Why you should learn python
Simple
Python is a simple and minimalistic language. Reading a good Python program feels almost like reading English, although very strict English! This pseudo-code nature of Python is one of its greatest strengths. When you will start your journey of python, you will come to know its simplicity and how powerful it is.
Easy to learn
Python is extremely easy to get started with. Python has an extraordinarily simple syntax, as already mentioned. It's PEP8(Convention and Style Guide for writing python code) standard makes it even more easy to learn.
Free and Open source
Python is free and open source programming language. Free as in freedom not free as as in beer (A famous quote of great GNU founder - Richard Stallman). “Free software” means software that respects users' freedom and community. Roughly, it means that the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software.
High-level language
When you write programs in Python, you never need to bother about the low-level details such as managing the memory used by your program as you care in C - language. The languages are considered high-level because they are closer to human languages and further from machine languages.
Portable
Due to its open-source nature, Python has been ported to many platforms. You can use python on Windows, Linux, Mac, GNU, FreeBSD, Solaris, Android, OS/2, Amiga, AROS, AS/400, BeOS, OS/390, z/OS, Palm OS, QNX, VMS, Psion, Acorn RISC OS, VxWorks, PlayStation, Sharp Zaurus, Windows CE and PocketPC!
Object Oriented
Python supports procedure-oriented programming as well as object-oriented programming. In procedure-oriented languages, the program is built around procedures or functions which are nothing but reusable pieces of programs. In object-oriented languages, the program is built around objects which combine data and functionality. Python has a very powerful but simplistic way of doing OOP, especially when compared to languages like C++ or Java.
Extensible
If you need a critical piece of code to run very fast or want to have some piece of algorithm not to be open, you can code that part of your program in C or C++ and then use it from your Python program.
Embeddable
You can embed Python within your C/C++ programs to give scripting capabilities for your program's users.
Extensive library
There are huge Python Standard Library. It can help you do various things involving regular expressions,documentation generation, unit testing, threading, databases, web browsers, CGI, FTP, email, XML, XML-RPC, HTML, WAV files, cryptography, GUI (graphical user interfaces), and other system-dependent stuff. Remember, all this is always available wherever Python is installed. This is called the Batteries Included philosophy of Python.