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What is Python?

Python Programming Language – Looking to step into the world of programming? Or do you want to explore new languages? Python programming is often one of the first picks for both because it is easy to pick up and has vast capabilities. Python Programming language uses a simple object-oriented programming approach and very efficient high-level data structures. Python Programming also uses very simple and concise syntax and dynamic typing. If you want a language for rapid application building and scripting in several areas, you would be hard-pressed to find a better alternative than Python.

One of the key benefits of Python Programming is its interpretive nature. The Python interpreter and standard library are available in binary or source form from the Python website and can run seamlessly on all major operating systems. Python Programming language is also freely-distributable, and the same site even has tips and other third-party tools, programs, modules, and more documentation.

The Python interpreter can be easily extended with new data types or functions in C++, C, or any other language callable from C. The Python Programming language works as an extension for customizable applications. What makes this language so easy to learn is the fact that it uses English keywords rather than punctuation, and it has fewer syntax constructions than other programming languages.
Benefits of Python Programming Language
1) Interpreted language: the language is processed by the interpreter at runtime, like PHP or PERL, so you don’t have to compile the program before execution.
2) Interactive: you can directly interact with the interpreter at the Python prompt for writing your program.
3) Perfect for beginners: for beginner-level programmers, Python is a great choice as it supports the development of applications ranging from games to browsers to text processing.

Where Python Programming all began
Python is also one of the older web development languages out there, made by Guido van Rossum at the National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in the Netherlands in the early 90s. The language borrows heavily from C, C++, Smalltalk, Unix Shell, Modula-3, ABC, Algol-68, and other scripting languages. Rossum continues to direct the language progress, although a core development team at the institute now maintains most of it.
Learning Python Programming Language
As mentioned before, English language keywords make up most of the programming in Python. If you master them, you have mastered Python for the most part. This will take some practice, and you need to know the basic concepts before you start off. So let’s begin by looking at them:

Properties
Python is implicitly and dynamically typed, so you do not have to declare variables. The types are enforced, and the variables are also case sensitive, so var and VAR are treated as two separate variables. If you want to know how any object work, you just need to type the following:

help(object)

you can also use the dir(object) command to find out all the methods of a particular option, and you can use object.doc to find out its document string.
Python does not have a mandatory character to terminate statements. Any blocks are specified using indentation, so you indent to start a block and de-dent to the end one. Statements expecting an indentation level end with a colon. If you want to add comments, use the # sign for each line. Multi-line strings need to be used for multi-line comments. Values are assigned using the “=” sign, and equality testing is done with two of them “==”. You can decrement or increment values with the operators += or -= with the amount on the right-hand side. This can work on strings and other data types. You can also use multiple variables on one line.

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