Let's get started with Python!

Python is a high-level, versatile programming language known for its simplicity and readability. It was developed by Guido Van Rossum in February 1991. It is widely used in web development, data science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation. With a large community and vast libraries, Python makes it easy for both beginners and experienced developers to create powerful applications efficiently.

Here is a fun fact about Python- the programming language was named after the famous BBC comedy show, Known Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

Okay, let’s move forward and learn some pros of Python.

1) Easy to use object-oriented language.

2) Expressive Language because of fewer lines of code and easy syntax.

3) Interpreted Language (yes you read right, it is not a complied Language)

4) Complete language - When we install Python, we get everything you need to do real work. we do not need to download and install additional libraries.

5) Cross-Platform Language - It can run equally on a variety of platforms - Linux/Unix, Windows, and MacOS.

6) Free and Open Source

7) Variety of Applications

Despite those pros, it is not a perfect programming language. Just like us humans, Python also has some cons.

1) Not the fastest language

2) Lesser libraries than C, Java, Perl

3) Not Strong on Type-binding

4)Not Easily Convertible

Working in Python

Before working in Python, we need to install Python distributions on our laptop/computer. there are various Python distributions available these days in the market. Here, I am listing a few distributions:

1) Default installation from www.python.org , it comes with Python interpreter, Python IDLE(Python GUI) and Pip(package installer)

2) Anaconda Python distribution https://www.anaconda.com/download, a highly recommended distribution that comes with many preloaded packages and Libraries (e.g., NumPy, Pandas, SciPy, Matplotlib, Sci-kit learn, etc.)

3) Other popular IDEs are Spyder IDE https://www.spyder-ide.org/ and PyCharm IDE https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/. Although Spyder IDE is already available in the Anaconda Python distribution.

4)We can also use VS code to code Python https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/languages/python.