Elegant syntax, dynamic typing, and interpreted nature make Python an ideal programming language for rapid application development. Python is a multi-paradigm and high-level programming language suitable for rapidly developing applications in various fields: from the web to the desktop, from video games to system scripting. Conceived by Guido Van Rossum in the early nineties in honor of the BBC television program “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” Python stands out from dozens of existing programming languages for its versatility and resemblance to spoken English.
In addition, thanks to the vast community of developers, it is elementary to find examples and tips online to help you complete projects with relative ease. The reasons for its success are to be found in the proposal sent to DARPA entitled “Programming for all, “in which the Dutch developer explains the essence of his language: it had to be simple, intuitive, and powerful; open source; easily understood, like a natural language; allow you to program in a few days and short development times. For this, it is used by novice programmers and prominent companies such as Google, Facebook, and YouTube.
Python: the strengths of the language Designed to be simple (to learn, use and understand) and structured with a simple, straightforward, and linear syntax, Python is a multi-paradigm language that supports both procedural programming (which makes use of functions) and object-oriented programming (including features like single and multiple inheritances, operator overloading, and duck typing ). In addition, it supports several elements of functional programming (such as iterators and generators).
The most immediately recognizable features of Python are the dynamic typing of variables (in the sense that they do not have to be declared in advance, but only when executing the code just written, in runtime ) and the use of indentation for the syntax of the specifications, instead of the more common brackets. The whitespace characters present at the beginning of a logical line determine the line’s indentation level and, therefore, the grouping of the instructions to which it belongs. The logical priority of the operations to be performed is determined by the number of spaces present at the beginning of the line containing the command.
Python’s success is due to its versatility, ease of development and learning, and at the same time, programming power. Python is a high-level language that is both simple and powerful. The syntax and the different modules and functions already included in the language are consistent, intuitive, and easy to learn, and the design of the language is based on the principle of least astonishment (that is, of the “least surprise”: the behavior of the program coincides with what is expected). Each Python installation includes a standard library, a collection of over 200 modules to perform the most disparate tasks, such as interacting with the operating system and filesystem or managing different protocols.
In addition, the Python Package Index allows you to download and install thousands of additional modules created and maintained by the community. The memory management and the consequent cleaning are instead entrusted to a control cycle combined between reference counting (reference counter) and a garbage collector that automatically takes care of the allocation and release of the memory. This allows the programmer to use variables freely without worrying about declaring them and manually allocating and releasing memory spaces (which is necessary for lower-level languages such as C or C ++).
An Open Source, Interpreted, And Portable Language
Python is completely free and can be used and distributed without copyright restrictions. Despite being free, for over 25 years, Python has had a very active community and constantly receives improvements that keep it up to date and in step with the times. Even though Python is considered an interpreted language, programs are automatically compiled into a format called bytecode before executing them.
This format is more compact and efficient and guarantees high performance. In addition, several Python data structures, functions, and modules are implemented internally in C to be even more efficient. Notwithstanding the exemplary translator in C (called CPython ), different mediators permit reconciliation with different dialects. IronPython allows you to use Python within the .NET framework and its functions and interact with other .NET languages. To be able to integrate Python and Java, you can use Jython.
There are also other interpreters, such as PyPy: a highly performing implementation written in Python. Finally, it is a portable language developed in ANSI C. It can be used on different platforms such as Unix, Linux, Windows, DOS, Macintosh, Real-Time Systems, OS / 2, Android, and iOS mobile phones. This is possible because it is an interpreted language, so the same code can run on any platform as long as it has the Python interpreter installed.
Web Development, Scraping, Software, And GUI
Python is used in web development because it allows you to create a lot of content with fewer lines of code and makes prototyping more efficient. One of the most popular web frameworks is “Django” which can create dynamic and secure web applications. Among others, “Flask” is a micro-framework that allows you to create simple sites quickly; “Web2py” is another excellent framework that is easy to use.
Popular companies using Python include Instagram, Reddit, Uber, and Spotify. The Python language is also used for scraping, i.e., to obtain information from other websites. Applications such as Instagram, Bit Bucket, and Pinterest are integrated into these frameworks. However, the applications supported by Python go far beyond the fields above because they also concern game development, using libraries such as PySoy (a Python-based 3D game engine). Games developed with Python include Disney’s Toontown Online, Battlefield 2, Frets on Fire, etc.
But also the software development network. Many Python packages, such as NumPy, Tkinter, SciPy, etc., simplify software development procedures. Developing complex applications that perform scientific and numerical calculations is also possible. The greats who use it for software development are Dropbox, PyChess, BitTorrent, Gramps, etc. Thanks to the modular structure of Python, it works on different operating systems. It allows you to build desktop GUIs using an efficient framework, module, or text processor, such as PyGUI, PyGtk, PyQt4, PyQt5, etc.
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