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Python Basics

Nov 04, 20242 min read

2024-10-20 21:01

Status:ongoing

Tags:pythonprogramming-basicsinterpreter

Python Basics

Subject: Introduction to Python

Python was created by Guido van Rossum and was first released in 1991. Guido wanted to make a programming language that was easy to read and simple to use. He named it “Python” after the British comedy series Monty Python’s Flying Circus, not after the snake ;-;


timeline
    title Python History Timeline
    1991 : Python 0.9.0 released - Introduced core features like functions and exception handling
    2000 : Python 2.0 launched - Added list comprehensions and garbage collection
    2008 : Python 3.0 released - Major changes to improve consistency and not backward compatible
    2020 : Python 2 officially retired - Support ended on January 1, 2020 and everyone shifts to Python 3

Python Interpreter

Python provides two modes of operation:

flowchart TD
    A[Python Interpreter] --> B[Interactive Mode]
    A --> C[Non-Interactive Mode]
    B --- D[Directly execute commands]
    D --- E[Immediate feedback]
    C --- F[Execute scripts from files]
    F --- G[Batch processing]

Interactive Mode

It is also know as Python shell, allows you to execute Python commands line by line.

To go into the interactive mode, open your terminal or command prompt and type python or python3:

$ python
Python 3.12.6 (tags/v3.12.6:a4a2d2b, Sep  6 2024, 20:11:23) [MSC v.1940 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

Now you can start coding hacker-man ;)

>>> print("Hello, World!")
Hello, World!
>>> 2 + 3
5

This mode is great for testing small code snippets.

Non-Interactive Mode

In non-interactive mode, you write your Python code in a file (usually with a .py extension) and then run the entire file.

  1. Create a file named hello.py with the following content:

    print("Hello, World!")
print("Welcome to Python!")

  2. Run the file from the terminal or command line:

    $ python hello.py
Hello, World!
Welcome to Python!

This mode is used for running larger programs and scripts.

Next, we’ll dive into Python Scripting to learn about data types, operators, and control structures.

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