Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Life is short....learn Python!!


Let me guess why you are here?
You are a programmer and want to learn the python programming language.
You are a student who has python as one of his/her subjects.
You are a language hobbyist like me! ;)
...if you are looking for python(a species of snakes) this is not the place for you!! :) 




 

So what is python??
Python is a programming language which is often used for scripting.It is an object oriented scripting language.Python has vast user group which is increasing day by day.Python is 
one of the most interesting and powerful languages out there with many extentions 
available.
Python is open-source and its development is taken care by a nonprofit organisation Python Software Foundation(PSF).



 Guido van Rossum is the creater of Python and is Python's Benevolent Dictator For Life(BDFL) which means he takes important decisions regarding it's development.
Python was designed to be a successor of ABC programming language.
Python is everywhere nowadays from application development,website applications,mobile apps,video games and artificial intelligence.
Some of the common softwares that use python are Maya,GIMP,Inkscape,Paint Shop Pro,Blender etc.
Some of the famous organisations using python are Google,Yahoo!,CERN,NASA,ILM,ITA etc. 


Pros of python: 


Software quality:Python code is readable,coherent,reusable and maintainable.

                           It also supports Object Oriented Programming (OOP) without 
                           imposing it on the programmer.

Developer productivity:Python boosts the productivity of the programmer more

                                    than languages like C,C++,Java.Python code is about     
                                    1/3rd of the size of a typical C++ or Java program which 
                                    means there is less to code,debug and maintain.It also 
                                    runs quickly whitout the lengthy compile and linking 
                                    further boosting programmers speed.

Program Portability
:This is the most attractive feature of python.Python

                               programs can run unchanged on almost every platform   
                               Windows,Linux,Mac etc.

Support libraries: Python comes with a large library which supports 

                            all application level tasks from text pattern matching to
                            network scripting.

Component integration
: Python scripts can easily communicate with   

                            C,C++,Java codes and frameworks like COM and
                            .NET and can be used as product customization 
                            and extension tool.

Enjoyment:Python's ease of use and with various modules available in 

                  python,programming will be more fun to you than you ever
                  imagined.
 
Cons of python:


Speed : It is the only downside of python you'll be more concerned than

             any other thing.Python's speed may not always be same as 
             compiled languages like C and C++.But this can be solved by
             writing the "slow code" in compiled languages like C and C++ 
             and integrating it with your python code as it is easily integrable.

Some argue that another con of python are the libraries associated with

it but it is mostly an advantage rather than being a disadvantage.

What you can do with Python??

Python has various uses like systems programming,writing GUI's using

pygtk,qt or tkinter,Internet scripting,component integration,database programming,robotics,gaming,image manipulation,numeric and
scientific programming,animation to name a few.
 
Imagination is your only limit!! ;)


How to get python??


Download python 2.5.2 as it is supported everywhere unless you have a specific reason to download 3.0 version or version higher than 2.5.2.

For Windows
Python is open-source and you can download it at Official site and filehippo.

For Linux
Most distribution include python by default.You can check it by typing 

"python" at the terminal... and if it doesn't recongnise then you have to 
install python by commands like apt-get install python or wget commands.

For Mac
Like linux python comes preinstalled with mac too.
You can launch python by going to /Applications folder and opening the

terminal from Utilities folder and typing python at it.

Impressed...huh ??? wanna learn python....well keep following the posts

and subscribe to this blog....and most important of all have fun!!


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2 Comments
Comments
Cees Timmerman said...

You can also use http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonSpeed/PerformanceTips

And, more easily, faster Pythons like PyPy: http://pypy.org/

Dhiraj Thakur said...

Yeah.....right you can also use Psyco with python to speed things up :)