Python has been very popular and has become the first choice of students and teachers, as well as company officials in the last few years .Python is a very powerful, cross platform programming language that can run on different platforms. It is a simple language that is easy to learn also. Python is a high-level programming language that is processed by the Python interpreter to produce results. Python programming language also supports scripting and Graphical user interface (GUI) toolkits that makes tasks easy for application development. It is freely available to use.
The Python Language was developed by Guido Van Rossum in the late eighties and mid nineties at the National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in The Netherlands. Python is derived from different programming languages including C, C++, the Unix shell, and other programming languages.
IS PYTHON A LOW-LEVEL OR HIGH-LEVEL LANGUAGE?
LOW LEVEL LANGUAGE
A low- level language provides little or no abstraction from the computer’s instruction set. The basic role of low -level language is to work, manage and control the computing hardware components. Program and applications written in low level languages are directly executed without any translation or interpretation. Some of the low level languages are machine and assembly languages; these are termed as the first and second generation languages.
HIGH LEVEL LANGUAGE
A high level language is a programming language intended to improve computer programming languages. They are more user friendly. A high level language has a higher level of abstraction from the computer. We need a converter that changes high level language code to low level language code .Some of examples are C++, Java, Python etc.
HENCE PYTHON IS A HIGH LEVEL PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE.
COMPARISON OF PYTHON WITH OTHER PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES:
The figure shows a comparison between Python, Java and C++ . Python is one step further in abstracting away hardware details, offering a simple system for statement execution. In terms of functionality, Python is as good as Java and c++. Moreover, Python supports virtually all programming paradigms that Java and c++ support which makes it a simple and elegant language to learn.
FEATURES OF PYTHON
Python offers many features that makes it the first choice of almost all programmers in large IT companies.
SIMPLE
Python is a compact and simple programming language. The syntax of the Python language is more similar to the English language. This nature allows the programmer to concentrate on the creation of solutions to the problem rather than concentrate on the syntax of language.
EASY TO LEARN
Pythonis an easy to learn programming language and provides a stepping stone into the world of programming. Python acts as a backbone for the different IT companies like Google, Facebook, Yahoo and so on.
FREE AND OPEN SOURCE
Python is developed under an OSI approved open source license, making it freely usable and distributable. Python is an example of FLOSS (free/libre and open source software).
HIGH LEVEL LANGUAGE
Python is a high level programming language. A high level language has a high level abstraction from the computer. It makes programming more user friendly.
PORTABLE
The portability is successful if the p=Python program does not include some system dependent features.
EXTENSIVE LIBRARIES
Python includes a large library with a number of modules that make tasks easy.
INTERPRETED
Python is an interpreted language. There are no compilation or execution steps when you use an interpreted language.
HOW DOES PYTHON PROGRAM GET EXECUTED?
The preceding diagram shows the process of execution of a Python program. To run the Python script, the Python compiler and interpreter both are used. The interpreter that is found inside the PVM runs the Python program slowly. Normally when a Python file is compiled we can not see the extensions .pyc produced by the Python compiler and the machine code generatedby the PVM. This is done internally. The output is visible. The function of the compiler is to convert the file to its equivalent bytecode file.
WHY WE GO FOR PYTHON
Python is a general purpose programming language that can be use effectively to build any kind of program. It is used in different fields such as education, software development, website development and in research. In an IT field , it can be used as a superb language for developing software and websites. It can also be integrated with different platforms like Django. In research, python programming can be used in simulations or machine learning. It offers several benefits. Due to its simplicity and elegance it gained popularity among programmers quickly and was adopted in large companies such as Google and compared with other programming languages such as Java and C++. There are lot of opportunities in Python like,
- Data Analyst Opportunities
- Python developer
- Artificial Intelligence
- Machine learning
- Networking
DISADVANTAGES
- SPEED: Python is slower than c or c ++
- Python is not very good language at mobile development. This is the reason why very few languages are built in it like Carbonnelle.
- Memory consumption is high.
- The language is dynamically typed , it requires more testing and has errors that only show up at run time.
EDITORS FOR PYTHON CODING
Jupyter, VSCode, Spyder, Python IDLE
CONCLUSION
This article covers the basic and required knowledge one needs to start learning Python or to get some insight about the language.
My next article will discuss other concepts of Python like editors, and how can we download it.
Feedback and queries related to this article are most welcome.Thanks for reading.