Introduction to python

What Is Python?

Python is an interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language. Created by Guido van Rossum during 1985- 1990 and first released in 1991, Python's design philosophy emphasizes code readability with its notable use of significant whitespace

Python can run on Mac, Windows, and Unix systems and has also been ported to Java and .NET virtual machines.

What does Python do?

  • Interpreted: You do not need to compile your program before executing it. This is similar to PERL and PHP.
  • Interactive: It can be actually sat at a Python prompt and interact with the interpreter directly to write your programs.
  • Object-Oriented: Python supports Object-Oriented style or technique of programming that encapsulates code within objects.

Python is derived from many other languages, including ABC, Modula-3, C, C++, Algol-68, SmallTalk, and Unix shell and other scripting languages.

Python is an interpreted language, which precludes the need to compile code before executing a program because Python does the compilation in the background. Because Python is a high-level programming language, it abstracts many sophisticated details from the programming code.

Python programming file is, lines of codes are shorter than any other programming language.

Scripts written in Python (.PY files) can be parsed and run immediately. They can also be saved as a compiled programs (.PYC files), which are often used as programming modules that can be referenced by other Python programs.

Python offers dynamic data type, ready-made class, and interfaces to many system calls and libraries. It can be extended, using the C or C++ language.

Python can be used as the script in Microsoft's Active Server Page (ASP) technology. The scoreboard system for the Melbourne (Australia) Cricket Ground is written in Python. Z Object Publishing Environment, a popular Web application server, is also written in the Python language.

Python Version List

Python programming language keep on updating regularly with new features and supports. There are lots of updations in python versions, started from 1994 to current release.

A list of python versions with its released date is given below.

Python VersionReleased Date
Python 1.0January 1994
Python 1.5December 31, 1997
Python 1.6September 5, 2000
Python 2.0October 16, 2000
Python 2.1April 17, 2001
Python 2.2December 21, 2001
Python 2.3July 29, 2003
Python 2.4November 30, 2004
Python 2.5September 19, 2006
Python 2.6October 1, 2008
Python 2.7July 3, 2010
Python 3.0December 3, 2008
Python 3.1June 27, 2009
Python 3.2February 20, 2011
Python 3.3September 29, 2012
Python 3.4March 16, 2014
Python 3.5September 13, 2015
Python 3.6December 23, 2016
Python 3.7June 27, 2018
Python 3.5.6Aug 2, 2018
Python 3.7.2Oct 20, 2018
Python 3.5.7March 18, 2019
Python 3.7.3March 25, 2019
Python 3.6.9July 2, 2019
Python 3.7.4July 8, 2019