Introduction to Python Programming Language and Python features

We are going to look at the introduction to the python programming language, the main Features of Python language, and What kind of applications we can build with python.

Introductions to Python Programming Language:

Python is a high-level programming language, created by Guido van Rossum first released in 1991.

Python is one of the simplest programming languages out there, Because of its English-like syntax, many beginners choose python to start their programming journey (Some people prefer C or Java for its strict type checking.). In the last few years, many universities began teaching Python as an introductory programming course.

Python is an object-oriented, interpreted, and high-level programming language. Its high-level built-in standard libraries, data structures, combined with dynamic typing, make it very attractive for fast-paced Application Development, as well as for use as a scripting language.

What you can build using the python programming language

• We can build web applications using python (Django, Flask)
• We can use python for scripting and automating the tasks (System scripting)
• We can use python for Data Analysis and Data Analytics
• We can use python for machine learning and deep learning
• We can develop Embedded applications ( Raspberry Pi)

If you are new to programming Python is one of the go-to programming languages to learn. If you already know any other programming language then learning a python programming language is very easy for you.

Python is one of the fast-growing programming languages according to the Stackoverflow developer survey 2019.

Features of Python Programming Language:

1. Platform Independent: Python is not hardware dependent, which means you can write a specific program on one hardware platform and use it on other platforms. for example, you can write an application for windows and you can use the same code to run on the Mac OS. So you can write on one platform and use it on any platform (Windows, Linux, and Mac OS).
2. Simple Syntax: Python syntax is very similar to the English language and very easy to learn.
3. Open Source: Python is an open-source programming language, which means you no need to give any kind of fee to use the programming language. Python is distributed under the Python Software Foundation License (very similar to GPL) And it is free to download and use on your applications.
4. Object-Oriented language: Python supports both object-oriented principles and structured programming. We can use it as a standalone script or we can use it in an object-oriented fashion.
5. Garbage Collection: Python periodically frees and reclaims blocks of memory that no longer are in use and this process is called Garbage Collection. So we no need to worry about freeing the memory after the usage (Unlike C and C++ where we need to explicitly clear the used memory). So no more unnecessary memory leaks.
6. Exception Handling: Python supports exception handling to control the flow of the program in case any exception occurs in the run time.
7. Support of a large number of Libraries: Where you are using python for system scripting or web development or even for machine learning, Python has thousands of libraries to help you with your developments. You can install most of the libraries using package managers.

Python Versions:

Python has two popular versions, Python 2 and Python 3. In these blogs, we are going to use Python 3. The Python 2 reached its end of life on January 1, 2020. So please upgrade your applications to Python 3.

As the Python 2 is reached at the end of the Life, If you are just started learning Python language, It is a good idea to learn Python 3.

In the next tutorial, we are going to install the Python programming language on the Windows Operating system (PC).