Introduction to Python
1. Introduction to Scripting
2. What is Python?
3. Features of Python
4. History of Python
5. Python Interpreter
Introduction to Scripting
• A scripting or script language is a programming language for a special run-time
environment that automates the execution of tasks.
• They do not require the compilation step and are rather interpreted.
• Environments that can be automated through scripting include software applications, web
pages within a web browser, usage of the shells of operating systems (OS), embedded
systems, as well as numerous games.
• The term scripting language is also used loosely to refer to dynamic high-level general purpose languages, such as Perl, PowerShell, Python, and Tcl.
• The term script often used for small programs (up to a few thousand lines of code) in such
languages
• Typical scripting languages are intended to be very fast to learn and write in.
• Typically a script is executed from start to finish with no explicit entry point.
What is Python?
• Python is a high level and interpreted programming language.
• Python is beginner friendly and multi-purpose language.
• It supports Object-Oriented style of programming.
• It is the world’s fastest growing and a popular programming language.
• It is used by Software Engineers, Mathematicians, Data Analysts, Scientists, Accountants,
Network Engineers etc..
• It is used in various areas like Data analysis and Visualization, Artificial Intelligence and
Machine Learning, Automation, building Web/Mobile/Desktop applications, Software
Testing and Hacking etc.
Why do we need Python?
• Solve complex problems in less time with fewer lines of code.
• We can build and run Python applications in Windows, Mac and Linux OS.
• Python has huge community support https://www.python.org/community/
• Python has a large ecosystem of libraries, frameworks and tools.
• It is free and an open source language.
Features of Python
Easy to learn
Object-Oriented language
Readability
Large standard library
Interpreted language
GUI programming support
Cross-platform language
Database support
Free and Open Source
Easy integration with other languages like
C, C++, Java
History of Python
• The idea of Python formed in late 1980s and It’s implementation was started in December
1989 by Guido van Rossum.
• Python reached version 1.0 in January 1994 and version 2.0 released on October 2000.
• Python 3.0 (also called "Python 3000" or "Py3K") was released on December 3, 2008.
• This broke backward compatibility, and much Python 2 code does not run unmodified on
Python 3.
• Python 3.8.1 is the latest version, released on December 18, 2019.
• Since 2003, Python has consistently ranked in the top ten most popular programming
languages, as of December 2018 it is the third most popular language
Python Interpreter
Let us understand the runtime structure of Python
When Python runs your script, there are a few steps that Python carries out before you see
the output:
1. Source code is translated to bytecode.
2. Then it is routed to Python Virtual Machine (PVM) which interprets it into machine code.
Source code: .py file containing human readable format of python statements.
Bytecode: Low-level platform-independent representation of source code.
Machine code: 0s and 1s which a computer can understand.
** In Python 3.x the .pyc files are saved in a __pycache__ directory.**
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