Python Programming Language

Python Programming Language Analysis

Python is a functional and object-oriented programming language. His inventor, Guido van Rossum, used Amoeba operating system to script Python language in the late 1989 and early 1990s. The invention of Python was influenced by other programming languages such as Modula-3, C and ABC educational language. Guido van Rossum still leads as a Python designer and developer. Python is one of the programming languages that are widely used by many people. Since its release to the public in 1991, Python has gathered a large number of enthusiastic groups that incorporates educators, computer scientist and professional programmers as users. Pythons design emphasizes on code readability. It is being categorized as high-level, interpreted, general purpose and dynamic programming language. By design, the language mainly emphasizes the readability of code to minimize the lines that can be applied in any given application. Python programming language is better and easier to use in coding, except for a few common difficulties that it imposes in the computer science industry.

Python is commonly applied high-level programming language that is dynamic in nature. Guido van Rossum came up with a well-formulated design of the programming language in the late 1980s constituting Python to succeed the ABC language (Van Rossum,1999). In Python programming language, the design application calls for the use of few lines of codes compared to other common programming languages such as Java or even C++. The syntax permits the programmers to express themselves in a precise manner based on the stated short lines of codes applied in this case. Python is widely used and is a general purpose language that is well preferred by programmers who esteem short codes. The language is well profound in applications of both large and small scale programs. Python, as a programming language, supports multiple paradigms including procedural styles. Additionally, the language is object oriented and can be applied in functional programming due to its imperative nature. Preferences of the language are attributed to its dynamic type system as well as to the large standard and comprehensive library that it upholds. Additionally, Python has an automatic memory management feature that helps in boosting its dynamic applications (Warsaw, Hylton, Goodger, & Coghlan, 2000). In American colleges, Python is the most common introductory programming Language (Guo, 2014). As recorded in the Communications of the ACM blog (Guo, 2014), 39 departments of computer science have preferred Python programming instead of Java as a general-purpose language. It sums up to 80% of the departments teaching Python as an introductory course. The reason why Python is considered as easier and better to grasp is highlighted below.

Advantages of the Python Programming Language

Python code can be run in the vast scope of operational systems (OS) due to the fact that it has many interpreters for many types of the OS. The language allows usage of the third-party tools such as Pyistaller or Py2exe. Python code has the ability to permit its packaging into stand-alone executable programs. Therefore, programs coded with Python can be executed by the most popular and common OS without imposing any major challenges. Consequently, the Python-supported software can be applied to distribution with no major challenges regarding the seeking for a corresponding interpreter of the language. This application of the programming language makes it easy to install and use in any environment provided, an OS is to carry out its interpretations. It is, thus, relatively cheaper to use this programming language because it helps in cutting the costs that could have been involved in buying and installing a program interpreter (Warsaw et al., 2000).

Easy Interpretation

Python programming language has a corresponding reference implementation referred to as CPython. Generally, it is an open-source and free software. This fact gives Python another advantage over many other programming languages and makes the programming language a better option in computer science industry. Additionally, the reference implementation has a community-based development model that makes it even better. Almost all the variant implementations of the program are equally endowed with this community-based model. Following the merits of CPython reference implementation, one can note that its management is in the hands of non-profit Python Software Foundation. Based on the implementations, CPython is basically written in C according to the standards of C89. This compiles the program into its intermediate bytecode for execution by a virtual machine.

PyPy is yet another very compliant Python interpreter that can work on versions 2.7 as well as 3.2. This compiler has a very fast speed and an advantage in carrying out its performance. It is equally clear there are various compiler code translators that can compile Python to other languages. For instance, Pyjamas, Shed Skin, and Pyrex can compile Python to JavaScript, C++ and C respectively. This feature boosts the compatibility frame of Python programming language implementation (Warsaw et al., 2000).

Very Minimal Setup

Python is easier to get started with. On a Mac machine, terminal programming acts as a working space for Python. For PC, opening PowerShell program is the way to go. PowerShell is a blank working space where one is prompted to write texts. As the workspace, one key in python and several commands will be retrieved as shown below (see fig. 1). Therefore, only a single word is needed for ones computer to start running Python. Python cannot be simpler than just typing a word to get started.

Figure 1. The output from the first line of command.

Code in Plain English

To code in Python language, one needs to know English. Therefore, Python is easier to understand. One can continue with coding by just typing CTRL+Z when using a Mac machine or Quit when working with a PC (see fig. 1), and a display as below will be pop up (see fig. 2). Creating a black workspace in Python, one needs to type Nano as a command line in the text editor (Summerfield, 2007). After that, a name of the file follows with a suffix of .py.

Figure 2. Creating a new workspace

The above are the basic commands that one has to start with in order to know how to venture on the technical lines of codes. A Python language needs a single line of code to execute Hello, World! (see fig. 3-4) as compared to Java and C language, where one has to write several lines of code to execute the same command.

Figure 3: Input command line

Figure 4: Output display

Python language had no cryptic variables and weird syntax. One can just have a glance of one line, interpret its meaning, save and then run the program to print the expected outcome. This makes Python the programming language that is better and easier to deal with. Learning Python will not take centuries for an interested person to conceptualize a program. According to Summerfield (2007), for 80% of students, it takes at most a week to learn Python and come up with their original projects that function effectively. In Python, the codes with little overheads are taken away making one to grasp the concept easily. This is because the Python language mimics the structure of English which an individual is familiar with.

Runtime Errors in Python Language

Distinctly, one may make mistakes when carrying out an exploration for the first time. Solutions for these mistakes may take a time to be sorted. This situation cannot be the same with Python programming language because identification and fixing of mistakes in Python are easier. In Python language, the errors are being displayed in the lines of code at a runtime. This makes a Python program continue compiling at the same time when the language errors are being displayed ( Summerfield, 2007).

Other programming languages like C and Java would fail to compile completely when they have errors. Unlike any of the others, in Python errors search does not prevent compilation, instead, it points out the errors in order to do the rectification. Python will not display a blank screen but will help in troubleshooting the buggy program. This is as opposed to other languages that will display blank screen because of the errors present in the line of code.

Challenges with Python

Despite Python being one of the easiest programming languages, there are some programmer-based challenges involved. There are high chances that an inexperienced programmer will misuse expressions for functional argument. Other challenges are the incorrect use of class variables and, finally, the incorrect specification of parameters for exceptional blocks. Though there are only a few challenges in the Python programming language, they are deeply rooted in its structure and cannot be easily taken away (Stajano, 2000).

Conclusions

Python has set a history as being the first and great programming language practiced in the most departments of a Computer science and as a general programming language in American universities. Due to its easy interpretation for different OS, short-time learning and runtime errors rectification it is widely used by incorporates educators, computer scientist and professional programmers. Several challenges, although cannot be easily removed, does not abate the numerous advantages of this programming language.