INFORMATICS PRACTICES
First of all I would like to tell you that the official website of Python is:
Welcome to Python.org(https://www.python.org/)
If you click on the above link you can browse the official web page.
Introduction to Python
You may be knowing that Python is an "Object oriented" Programming Language. It is very easy to learn Python and coding style is very simple.
The most important advantage of Python is its vast range of Libraries implemented as Modules. It also provides a lot of built in libraries.
It supports different operating systems like Linux, Unix, Android, Windows etc.
It is available under an open source license and hence can be downloaded freely without any cost and also can be modified and redistributed.
We can group the code into modules and packages, and supports object-oriented programming, Classes, and multiple Inheritance.
Strong support for exception handling is available with Python.
Python provides a mechanism for automatic memory management and garbage collection. Frees the memory as and when required.
A variety of basic data types and advanced programming features like generators and list comprehension are also implemented.
Installing Python in Your Computer
Python is an interpreted language. So you need to install its interpreter.
You can check whether Python is already installed in your computer aby typing 'python' in the command line window( Command prompt in case of windows)
If it is already installed, you can find the version number and some other information regarding the installed version.
If it is not available, it can be downloaded from :
https://www.python.org/downloads/
The easiest way is to download and install 'Anaconda Navigator' .
Click on : Anaconda | The World's Most Popular Data Science Platform
to visit the website of Anaconda navigator.
You can use some IDE like the IDLE which can be downloaded from the official Python website - python.org
Another option is "thonny IDE" which can be downloaded from thonny.org
Learning Python
As I told earlier, Python is easy to learn and is a powerful programming language. It provides different data types to handle data. It is a suitable language for scripting and rapid application development because of its syntax and dynamic typing features.
Python provides a standard library with a vast collection of built-in functions/modules.
Along with built-in modules, hundreds of packages and modules are available which can be included in our program and thus extend the facilities and solve different types of problems.
In this tutorial, I will use Anaconda Navigator for writing Python Programs.
In the window you can find different options like JupyterLab, Spyder etc.
We can write python programs using the IDLE also.
IDLE - Integrated Development and Learning Environment can be downloaded from the website - python.org
IDLE is fully develope3d using Python - tkinter GUI toolkit.
It provides and Editor window and a Shell window.
It can be used in two modes - the interactive mode and Script mode.
Using Shell window we can execute statement by statement. type one statement and run the statement. Thereafter type the next statement.
But in this tutorial I will be providing coding example using Jupyter Notebook with the help of Anaconda Navigator.