Getting Started with Python
Python is one of the oldest and commonly used programming language for developing websites and software, task automation, data analysis, machine learning and data visualization.
What is Python?
Python is an interpreted, high-level, general-purpose, object-oriented programming language. It has a simple syntax, is very powerful, and is easier to learn.
Python supports multiple programming paradigms beyond object-oriented Programming, such as procedural and functional programming.
Python is a portable and cross-platform programming language, and it runs on many platforms, such as Linux, macOS, Windows, and many other Unix variants.
History of Python
Python was designed to be easy to read and write, and it has become one of the most popular languages for beginners. In addition, it is free and open-source.
Guido van Rossum developed the Python Language in the late 1980s. The first release of this new language was on 16 January 1991 as Python 0.9.0.
Python 2.0 was released in 2000 and introduced new features such as list comprehensions, cycle-detecting garbage collection, reference counting, and Unicode support.
Python 3.0, released in 2008, was a major revision that is not completely backward-compatible with earlier versions.
Python 2 was discontinued with version 2.7.18 in the year 2020.
Why is it called Python?
The name Python comes from the British comedy group Monty Python, which is known for its absurd humor. The creator of Python, Guido van Rossum was also reading the published scripts from “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”, a BBC comedy series from the 1970s. Van Rossum thought he needed a short, unique, and slightly mysterious name, so he decided to call the language Python.
Where is Python used?
Python is a general-purpose language. Therefore, we can use Python in various domains:
- Web Application, RESTful API
- Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
- Data Science
- Desktop Application
- Big Data
- IoT (Internet of Things)
- Testing & Automation
- Mobile Apps
What IDEs does Python Support?
Some of the famous and well-known IDEs with good support for Python are as follows.
- Python IDLE (Shipped default with Python)
- VS Code
- PyCharm
- Spyder
- Atom
- Eclipse
- Sublime
- IntelliJ (through a custom variant called Goland)
- Vim and many more