Brief introduction to Python

Python is a high-level, general-purpose programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes code readability with the use of significant indentation. Python is dynamically-typed and garbage-collected. It supports multiple programming paradigms, including structured (particularly procedural), object-oriented and functional programming. It is often described as a “batteries included” language due to its comprehensive standard library.

Its core philosophy is summarized in the document The Zen of Python (PEP 20), which includes aphorisms such as:

• Beautiful is better than ugly.

• Explicit is better than implicit.

• Simple is better than complex.

• Complex is better than complicated.

• Readability counts.

Rather than building all of its functionality into its core, Python was designed to be highly extensible via modules. This compact modularity has made it particularly popular as a means of adding programmable interfaces to existing applications. Van Rossum’s vision of a small core language with a large standard library and easily extensible interpreter stemmed from his frustrations with ABC programming language, which espoused the opposite approach.