Python
What is Python ?
Python is a programming language invented by Guido van Rossum in 1989 and publicly released in 1991.
The name was inspired by the “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” show.
Python is developed by Python Software Foundation.
Python is used for multiple purposes: web-servers, software development, AI, mathematics, etc.
Advantages
Python has multiple advantages:
- It works on different platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac, etc)
- It has a simple syntax
- It is a high-level programming language: no need to know computer’s functioning to code
- It is an interpreted language: no need for compilation. Development is fast.
- It can be treated as object-oriented or in a functional way.
- It is free
- It is widely used in the community: it was the most in-demand programming language of 2022
Installation
Miniconda
There are multiple libraries to download Python.
We recommend to install Python using Miniconda.
It is free and is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. It will download Python 3.
Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
An IDE is a software application that helps programmers to develop code efficiently.
It increases the productivity by combining capabilities.
PyCharm
PyCharm is an IDE with a free version that is well developed for Python usage.
VSCode
VSCode is a code editor that supports multiple languages, including Python.
Which one to choose ? This is based on personal preferences.
For this tutorial, we are not going to install miniconda. Instead, we will use Google Colaboratory where all the installations are already done. Google Colab