What is the Python programming language?
Welcome to the Python introduction tutorial. Start with, what is Python? Python is a computer programming language often used to build websites and software, automate tasks, and analyze data. Python is a general-purpose language, not specialized for any specific problems, and used in various programs.
Python is a ‘high-level’, ‘general-purpose’ programming language. Python is ‘dynamically-typed’ and ‘garbage-collected’. Python programming supports multiple programming paradigms. It is often described as a ‘batteries included’ language due to its comprehensive standard library.
Python is an ‘interpreted’, ‘object-oriented’, ‘high-level’ programming language with ‘dynamic semantics’. Python supports modules and packages, which encourages program modularity and code reuse.
Python is an ‘open-source language’.
Python is popular for ‘Rapid Application Development’.
Python is also called ‘glue language’.
In simple terms, we can say, “Python is an open-source, object-oriented, high-level, general-purpose programming language.”.
Python was mainly developed for emphasis on code readability, and its syntax allows programmers to express concepts in fewer lines of code.
Click on the official website, python.org
Click for Python Definition as Wikipedia.
Explanation of Terms Used in Python Definition
In upper Python’s definition, we used lots of programming terms. Here is a quick explanation of those terms for better understanding of Python programming.
High-level Language
A high-level language is a programming language that is designed to make it easier for humans to understand and write. It is close to natural language and uses commands and instructions that are more abstract and less dependent on the specific details of the underlying computer hardware.
High-level languages allow programmers to write code that is more readable, maintainable, and portable. Python, Java, C++, JavaScript, etc. These are the high-level languages; these languages have syntax and structure that are close to human-readable language.
General-purpose Programming Language (GPL)
A general-purpose programming language is a programming language for building software in a wide variety of application domains. GPL can be used to solve a wide variety of problems.
While domain-specific programming language (DSL) is used within a specific area. For example, Python is GPL, while SQL is DSL. GPL is also known as text-based programming.
Dynamically Typed Language
In dynamically typed languages, ‘data type’ checking takes place at runtime or execution time. This means that data type is checked only when the program is executing.
While in statically typed language before execution, the data type associated with each and every single variable must be known.
Garbage-collected (GC)
Garbage collection is a memory recovery feature built into programming languages. GC-enabled programming language includes one or more garbage collectors (GC engines) that automatically free up memory space that has been allocated to objects no longer needed by the program.
Interpreted Language
An interpreted language is a language in which the implementations execute instructions directly without earlier compiling a program into machine language.
The other is a compiled programming language, a program written in a compiled language converted into machine code so that the processor can execute it.
Open-source Language
Open-source programming languages are not owned by anyone. They are easily available. They are usually maintained by a community. Anyone can modify them.
History of Python
Python was invented by a Dutch programmer ‘Guido Van Rossum‘ in the 1980s and released in 1991.
The first version of Python was 0.9.0 and released on February 20, 1991.
‘Van Rossum’ is Python’s principal author and continuing central role in deciding the direction of Python. However, Van Rossum stepped down as leader on July 12, 2018.
Python was named after the BBC TV show ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’. Python is maintained by the ‘Python Software Foundation’.
‘Van Rossum’ also helped in creating the “ABC programming language’. For creating Python, he had taken the syntax of ABC and some features and created Python.
History Of Python’s Versions
Since today, there have been a lot of Python versions released. Every updated version comes with new features and new rules. Here is a quick look at the major changes in Python versions.
Version 0.9.0
Version 0.9.0 was the first Python version. It comes with features like ‘Classes with inheritance’, exception handling, functions, and data types. In 1994, comp.lang.python, the primary discussion forum, was created.
Version 1
Python reached version 1.0 in Jan 1994. New features were added, like lambda, map, filter, reduce, etc. Python 1.2 was released in 1995.
Version 2
Python 2.0 was released in Oct 2000. Introduced ‘list comprehensions’ features. Python 2.0 supports garbage collected features.
Version 3
Python 3.0, also called ‘Python 3000 or Py3k’, was released on Dec 3, 2008. The guiding principle of Python 3 was “reduce feature duplicates by removing old ways of doing things.” There were some major changes in Python 3.0:
1: In Python 3.0, print changed into a built-in function; before that, print was a statement.
2: In Python 3.0, the raw_input function is renamed into the input function.
3: In Python 3.0, the reduce function moved into functools before that reduce function was built-in namespace.
Note: Current version of Python is 3.12.3. Always check the official Python.org website for updated Python versions.
Python Logo
In the beginning, the Python logo looked like this:
The old Python logo was end’s in 2006. The current Python logo looks like this:
The new Python logo was continued from 2006.
End of Python Introduction Part 1
2 thoughts on “Python Introduction (Part 1): What is Python? History of Python Programming?”