Python
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Contents |
Introduction
Python is a freeware open-source cross-platform interpreted scripting language used by NASA ,Google , Industrial Light and Magic, Honeywell and many other companies and now days its also being distributed along with all the major GNU/Linux distributions.
Testimonials
"Python is fast enough for our site and allows us to produce maintainable features in record times, with a minimum of developers," said Cuong Do, Software Architect, YouTube.com. "Python plays a key role in our production pipeline. Without it a project the size of Star Wars:Episode II would have been very difficult to pull off. From crowd rendering to batch processing to compositing, Python binds all things together," said Tommy Burnette, Senior Technical Director, Industrial Light & Magic.
"Python has been an important part of Google since the beginning, and remains so as the system grows and evolves. Today dozens of Google engineers use
Python, and we're looking for more people with skills in this language." said Peter Norvig, director of search quality at Google, Inc. Its been one the
most favoured scripting languages due to its short and easy syntax which can perform complex tasks and is easily extended with new functions and data
types implemented in C or C++ (or other languages callable from C). Python is also suitable as an extension language for customizable applications.
Origin and Beyond
Python appeared in 1991 ,published by Van Rossum as v0.9,it already had classes with inheritance,exception handling, functions and many modern data types. Version 1 was released in 1994 with lot of useful functions missing in other languages. It started to get popular and well known in 2000 when its Version 2.0 (licensed under GPL) and started spreading with it being used everywhere and due to its ease of use with flexibility many new derivatives arose such as Cpython (c implementation of python),jython (java modules in python),IronPython (targeting .net and mono),python for Symbian 60 (mobile platform) etc.
Many people migth have tried using python before but on 03 Dec 2008 Python 3.0 was released
which is a major update to python syntax making its interpreter faster and more efficient.
Applications
- Used to develop tools for quick management work. Script are written in Python to automate tasks which could otherwise be very cumberstone.
- Used in Web Development in Frameworks as Django and TurboGears with extensive support for internet protocols and database interfaces to MySQL, Oracle,MS SQL Server,PostgreSQL.
- Critical component of Google App Engine and used in Package Management eg.yum
- Used in Mobile Development like Python for Series 60 - Nokia Symbain
Installation
1)For Windows
Go to http://python.org/download/
and download software depending on your OS's architecture
2)Linux
a) First Search in your Package Manager for python 3.0 (it probably is installed)
if not try to install from the repos else:
Go to http://python.org/download/
and download the bz package and extract it.
b) Open a terminal in root / superuser mode
cd <dir>
where <dir> is the path .
c) ./configure
d) sudo make
e) sudo make altinstall (this preserves current python version , else do make install)
If you get any dependency errors ,don't be scared just try to find them using your package manager or use google to find them.
