Python Tutorial

Python Introduction

Python is an object-oriented high-level, easily readable interpreted programming language ideal for Rapid Application Development and scripting, created by Guido van Rossum in 1989 at the Centre for Mathematics and Informatics (CWI, Netherlands). The first version was released as Python 0.9.0. in 1991. In pursuit of making programming more user-friendly for beginners, Python was designed as a more readable programming language with clearly readable syntax compared to others.

Why should you learn Python?

Python is a dynamically typed language because you do not declare a variable before assigning a value. You do not have to give a specific type to a variable. Each variable in Python is of a particular type; that is why it is also a strongly typed language. The variable type can change from string to integer or vice-versa, which most other programming languages do not allow.

Usually, a semicolon specifies the end of a line in many programming languages, but Python does not need any particular end-of-the-line character. The new line character determines where the instruction ends except few cases where instruction spans multiple lines.

One more cool feature that Python provides is the standard library. It provides loads of functionality, and that too is built-in. For example, the NumPy module is a free alternative to the entire Matlab suite.

Advantages of using Python

Python is User Friendly

Python speaks for its User Friendliness. You do not need semicolons and braces to write the code or declare variable types in Python. The use of indentation to define code blocks makes Python code more readable and beginner-friendly. Also, the availability of a large number of python modules that provide endless functionality makes it very simple and easy to use.

Python is Flexible

Python is a Procedural or Object-Oriented language, i.e. it provides the functionality of Objects and Classes. Python classes support notions like polymorphism, operator overloading, and multiple inheritances. Python code runs without any compilation directly, so it saves development time.

Python is Free and Open-Source

Python is a free programming language. It was made open source by Van Rossum, which allows the programmer to make changes and distribute them freely. Tons of libraries are available for free on the internet, making Python a powerful language. The open-source nature of the language has enabled developers to extend the functionality using the libraries. The Python Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation that manages the dedicated online community responsible for Python's development and future release.

Python is Powerful

Python provides powerful features such as dynamic typing and automatic memory management. Python also provides commonly used data structures such as built-in objects like Lists, Dictionaries, Strings, etc.

Python is Portable

As we have already discussed above, Python is a portable language. By translating the written python code into bytecode, python code can be executed by any machine independent of the architecture and operating system. A device needs a Python Interpreter preinstalled to execute the bytecode.

Highly Scalable

Python is a highly scalable language because of its big data and complex dataset handling capabilities. This feature has made Python a preferred choice for companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc.

Fast Deployment

Simple coding and development make Python faster for creating applications compared to other programming languages. It is faster to learn, deploy, and integrates well with other programming languages and technologies.

What can Python be used for?

Web Development

Python is an incredibly powerful and simple-to-use language for web development, and that's why giants like Google and Facebook use Python to build applications, websites, and other tools. Python is the preferred language for developing simple websites to complex websites, SAAS applications, and sophisticated web tools with a vast array of applications. There are good Python frameworks available such as Django, Pyramid, and Flask, that can be used for web development. The front-end building block of websites is HTML and JavaScript. However, Python-based web frameworks like Django are excellent for developing backend and server-side functionality.

Scientific Programming

Various libraries are available for Python that enables users to perform multiple scientific and mathematical tasks. NumPy is a popular library that supports multi-dimensional arrays, matrices, and other mathematical functions. Other scientific libraries include SciPy, Tensorflow, Pandas, and Matplotlib.

Creating Games

Games can also be built using Python with the help of some external modules. Pygame is a python module that provides graphics and sound libraries for creating games with Python. PyOpenGL, Pyglet, PyKyra, and Panda3d are popular Python modules for game development.

Database Handling

Various interfaces are available for Python, allowing it to handle databases created using SQL, Informix, ODBC, Oracle, Sybase, SQLite, and many more. Python applications can create, update, delete and access databases with the help of these interfaces.

Developing GUIs

Tkinter is a python interface that allows the creation of portable GUIs with a native look and feel. PyQT5, wxPython, PySide 2, and Kivy are popular python GUI frameworks. These GUIs can run unchanged on all popular OS available today, like Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

More Secure

The active Python developer community makes Python far more secure than other programming languages. A Python Security Response Team is in place to resolve the reported vulnerabilities. Often the security issues are plugged-in in less than a day.