Python Tutorial Learning (a)--whetting Your appetite

whetting Your Appetite

[Hang your appetite] ...

Here it is directly in the original.

If you don't much work on computers, eventually your find that there ' s some task you ' d like to automate. For example, the wish to perform a search-and-replace over a large number of text files, or rename and rearrange a bun Ch of photo files in a complicated. Perhaps you ' d like to write a small the custom database, or a specialized GUI application, or a simple game.

If you ' re a professional software developer, your may has to work with several C/c++/java libraries but find the usual WRI Te/compile/test/re-compile cycle is too slow. Perhaps you ' re writing a test suite for such a library and find writing the testing code a tedious task. Or Maybe you ' ve written a program this could use an extension language, and you don ' t want to design and implement a whole New language for your application.

Python is just the language for you.

You could write a Unix shell script or Windows batch files for some of these tasks, but shell scripts is best at moving a Round files and changing text data, not well-suited for GUI applications or games. You could write a C/c++/java program, but it can take a lot of development time to get even a first-draft program. Python is simpler to use, available on Windows, Mac OS X, and Unix operating systems, and would help you get the job done M Ore quickly.

Python is simple-to-use, but it's a real programming language, offering much more structure and support for large program s than shell scripts or batch files can offer. On the other hand, Python also offers much more error checking than C, and, being a very-high-level language, it Have high-level data types built in, such as flexible arrays and dictionaries. Because of its + general data types Python are applicable to a much larger problem domain than AWK or even Perl, yet Mans Y things is at least as easy on Python as in those languages.

Python allows you-to-split your program into modules so can be reused in other Python programs. It comes with a large collection of standard modules so can use as the basis of your programs-or as examples to St Art Learning to program in Python. Some of these modules provide things like file I/O, System calls, sockets, and even interfaces to graphical user interface Toolkits like Tk.

Python is a interpreted language, which can save you considerable time during program development because no compilation and linking is necessary. The interpreter can used interactively, which makes it easy-experiment with features of the language, to write throw -away programs, or to test functions during bottom-up program development. It is also a handy desk calculator.

Python enables programs to be written compactly and readably. Programs written in Python is typically much shorter than equivalent C, C + +, or Java Programs, for several reasons:

• The high-level data types allow you-to-Express complex operations in a single statement;
• Statement grouping is do by indentation instead of beginning and ending brackets;
• No variable or argument declarations is necessary.

Python is extensible: If you know what to program in C it's easy to add a new built-in function or module to the Interpreter, either to perform critical operations at maximum speed, or to link Python programs to libraries is available in binary form (such as a vendor-specific graphics library). Once you is really hooked, you can link the Python interpreter to an application written in C and use it as an Extensio N or command language for that application.

By the the-the-the-the-language is named after the BBC show "Monty Python's Flying Circus" and has no to do with reptiles. Making references to Monty Python skits in documentation are not only allowed, it's encouraged!

Now so you're all excited on Python, you'll want to examine it in some more detail. Since the best of the Learn a language is for use it, the tutorial invites your to play with the Python interpreter as you r ead.

In the next chapter, the mechanics of the using the interpreter is explained. This was rather mundane information, but essential for trying out the examples shown later.

The rest of the tutorial introduces various features of the Python language and system through examples, beginning with Si Mple expressions, statements and data types, through functions and modules, and finally touching upon advanced concepts Li KE exceptions and user-defined classes.

Python Tutorial Learning (a)--whetting Your appetite