Python Overview

Python is an interpreted, object-oriented, high-level programming language with dynamic semantics. Its high-level built in data structures, combined with dynamic typing and dynamic binding, make it attractive for Rapid Application Development and for use as a scripting or glue language to connect existing components together. Python's syntax emphasizes readability and reduces the cost of program maintenance, supporting modules and packages, to encourage program modularity and code reuse. The Python interpreter and the extensive standard library are available in source or binary form without charge for all major platforms, and can be freely distributed.

Python does not demand a compilation step and edit-test-debug cycle is fast, contributing to efficiency. When the interpreter discovers an error, it raises an exception. When the program misses the exception, the interpreter prints a stack trace. A source level debugger allows inspection of local and global variables, evaluation of arbitrary expressions, setting breakpoints, stepping through the code a line at a time, and so on. The debugger is written in Python itself, testifying to Python's introspective power.

See also:

• An empirical study on the relative merits of different programming languages concludes that Python takes half the design time and half to code as Java or C++, and can execute faster than Java: http://wwwipd.ira.uka.de/~prechelt/Biblio/
  jccpprtTR.pdf
• Bruce Eckel's PowerPoint presentation makes the case for Python relative to Java, C++, and Perl: http://64.78.49.204/pub/eckel/LovePython.zip
• Bob Martin explains why scripting languages are the wave of the future: http://www.itworld.com/AppDev/1262/
  itw-0314-rcmappdevint
• Guido van Rossum compares Python to other programming languages: http://www.python.org/doc/essays/comparisons.html
• Tom Christiansen, Perl's leading evangelist, on Python: http://www.perl.com/pub/language/versus/python.html
• More Python links for developers at: http://www.python.org/doc/Intros.html

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