So I started a Python course, and I'm going to write down what I learn each day here. Mostly for me, but maybe it helps someone else too.

What is Python?

Python is a general purpose, high level programming language. "High level" just means it's easy for humans to read. Compare this:

no1 = 10 no2 = 20 print(no1 + no2)

with assembly, which is much closer to what the machine understands:

MOV AL, 10 MOV BL, 15 ADD AL, BL

Yeah. I'll take Python.

Where is Python used?

Pretty much everywhere:

  • Data Science, ML, AI (handles huge data well)
  • Web apps (Django, Flask)
  • Desktop apps, scripting, automation
  • Games, IoT, network programming

A bit of history

  • Python came out in 1991 (Java in 1995)
  • Python 2 in 2000, Python 3 in December 2008
  • Python 3 isn't fully backward compatible with Python 2, which is why everyone just uses Python 3 now

Compiled vs Interpreted

  • Compilation = translate the whole program at once
  • Interpretation = translate line by line

Python is an interpreted language. There are also different implementations: CPython (the normal one, written in C), Jython (Java), IronPython (.NET), PyPy.

Pros and cons we discussed

Good: simple, open source, interpreted, extensible, high level, platform independent, dynamically typed.

Not so good: slower than C/C++/Java, uses more memory, type errors show up only at runtime, and it's not really used for mobile apps.

Small fun thing to try:

import sys print(sys.copyright)

That's Day 1.