Python Introduction

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum from CWI (Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica) which is a National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in Netherlands. Th e language was released in I991. Python got its name from a BBC comedy series from seventies- “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”. Python supports both Procedural and Object Oriented programming approaches.

Key features of Python

It is a general purpose programming language which can be used for both scientifi c and non-scientifi c programming.
It is a platform independent programming language.
Th e programs written in Python are easily readable and understandable.

The version 3.x of Python IDLE (Integrated Development Learning Environment) is used to develop and run Python code. It can be downloaded from the web resource www.python.org.

Programming in Python

In Python, programs can be written in two ways namely Interactive mode and Script mode. The Interactive mode allows us to write codes in Python command prompt (>>>) whereas in script mode programs can be written and stored as separate file with the extension .py and executed. Script mode is used to create and edit python source file.