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Guido Van Rossum named Python after the British comedy show: Monty Python's Flying Circus. Further, he chose
                   the name IDLE to pay tribute to one of the founding members of Python – Eric Idle.
 Unit II: Introduction to Python


            2.1 Why Python?
            Python is a simple yet powerful programming language that can be used to develop both conventional desktop and
            web applications. Indeed, Python has been used to develop various applications, such as text processing, speech
            processing, configuring servers and administrative tools, games, animations for movies, scientific modelling, defence,
            and web applications. While the simplicity of Python makes it popular amongst amateur developers, the availability of
            many tools makes it helpful to scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and social scientists. Renowned companies such
            as Google, Dropbox, Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon use Python to develop their applications.

            2.2 Features of the Python programming language

            Python is gaining incredible popularity with every passing year. We will describe below some of the distinctive features
            that make it so popular:
            1.   Free  and  open-source:  Python  has  been  developed  under  the  Open-Source  Initiative  (OSI).  Its  license  is
                administered by the Python Software Foundation, a non-profit corporation. One can download the source code,
                modify it, and then re-distribute the modified code. The Python community hosts conferences and workshops that
                provide the Python community opportunities for discussion and gathering.
            2.   Interpreted  and  Interactive:  Being  an  interpreted  language,  testing  and  debugging  of  code  is  easy  as  the
                programmer does not have to wait for the entire program to be compiled.
            3.   Easy to understand and use: Python's simple and limited syntax makes it easy to develop and comprehend Python
                code.
            4.   Dynamic Typing: Python obviates the need to declare the types of variables. Thus, a variable interestRate
                may refer to an integer and a floating point object in the same program segment.
            5.   Enables  disciplined  programming  practice:  Python's  insistence  on  indentation  enforces  a  discipline  on  a
                programmer.
            6.   Vast library support: Python provides a large number of built-in functions. In addition, the Python community
                has developed several libraries for specialised tasks such as geosciences, life sciences, computational physics,
                and finance. In addition, generic libraries for machine learning and deep learning aid the development of several
                scientific and business applications. Python also enables the efficient development of web applications.
            7.   Reusability: As Python libraries are easy to develop and maintain, reusability becomes a key feature of Python
                code.
            8.   Platform  independent:  An  operating  system  and  the  underlying  hardware  define  a  programming  platform.
                Python code developed on one platform can be seamlessly executed on another platform. Thus, portability across
                platforms becomes an important feature of Python.
            9.   Case  sensitive:  Python  is  a  case-sensitive  language.  For  example,  the  names  rollNo and  rollno  refer  to
                different objects.

            10.   Easy integration with other languages: A code written in Python can be easily integrated with other languages
                such as Java and C++.

            11.   Automatic Garbage Collection: Objects which are no longer accessible in a program are collectively called garbage,
                and the process of deleting the accessible objects is called garbage collection. Python automatically carries out
                garbage collection frequently.





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