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Intro to Python Programming (Part 1) - Getting Started

2021-05-12 | By Maker.io Staff

Python has become a popular programming language, and it’s easy to see why. The language is modern, easy to pick up, versatile, and platform-independent. This six-part guide will help you get up and running so that you can quickly employ the Python programming language in your projects.

What is Python, and Why is it so Popular?

Python is a compiled-interpreted programming language commonly used because of its simplicity, clarity, and hands-on nature. Python makes it easy to test ideas with short scripts. Many other programming languages require the programmers to create mandatory structures, such as classes and functions, around their custom implementation to achieve the same outcome. Python, on the other hand, allows programmers to use the Python interpreter directly. With that tool, they can type in commands, which the interpreter will then carry out immediately. Alternatively, the programmer may save the code in a text file and feed that into the interpreter.

Intro to Python Programming (Part 1) - Getting Started Image source: Python.org

As mentioned above, Python is not a purely compiled programming language, unlike C and C++. Instead, Python code is first translated to a format that the Python interpreter can understand. This step also inspects the code for syntactical correctness before transforming your custom program to byte-code. The Python interpreter then executes the byte-code and runs your program. These steps ensure that Python programs are platform-independent.

Therefore, users can execute Python programs on different platforms without recompiling the code as long as the interpreter runs on that platform. It also means that Python programs will generally run slower than applications written in a fully compiled language like C++. (Don’t worry - in the next blog in this series, we’ll do a deep dive into Python interpreters!)

Why Should You Look into Python?

Deciding what programming language to learn can be a daunting process for beginners. The overwhelming number of different languages and paradigms alone can be discouraging. If that sounds familiar, then Python might be the ideal language for you!

Unlike most other programming languages, Python doesn’t follow a single fixed programming paradigm. Without going into too much detail, a programming paradigm is a way to categorize programming languages based on their features. Java, for example, is object-oriented, Haskell is a popular functional programming language, and C is a prime example of a procedural language.

Unlike these languages, Python incorporates many features of the object-oriented, procedural, and functional programming paradigms. However, Python doesn’t support all the core concepts of the three paradigms. Furthermore, it’s not advisable to wildly mix the different language features of Python. It’s better to choose one and then stick with it where possible.

Besides this freedom of choice, Python takes care of many things that the programmers would have to take care of themselves in other languages. One such thing is memory management. Programmers don't have to specify the data type of a variable in Python, as the variable's most recent value determines its type.

Python: An Approachable Language for Makers

Python is a popular multi-purpose programming language that supports multiple features of different programming paradigms. Instead of only compiling the source code, Python compiles the code and then interprets the resulting byte-code. This strategy leads to more flexibility regarding the hardware that the code will run on, but it also results in generally slower programs when compared to purely compiled languages. Python is a fantastic choice for beginners, as the language automatically takes care of many cumbersome tasks, such as memory management.

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