Python is a scripting language that is object-oriented, portable, powerful, easy to learn and use. It mixes features from Java, Perl and Scheme. Python can be used for system utilities, GUIs, internet scripting, database programming, artificial intelligence, image processing and more. Created in 1990, Python is open source, interpreted, interactive and dynamic. It has built-in object types like numbers, strings, lists, dictionaries and tuples. The document provides an overview of Python's history, features, operators, statements and sample code.

1. The Python Programming
Language
Jeff Myers
Programming Language Concepts, 01/14/2002
http://milly.rh.rit.edu/python/

2. Python Overview
 Scripting Language
 Object-Oriented
 Portable
 Powerful
 Easy to learn and use
 Mixes good features from Java, Perl
and Scheme

3. Major Uses of Python
 System Utilities
 GUIs (Tkinter, gtk, Qt, Windows)
 Internet Scripting
 Embedded Scripting
 Database Programming
 Artificial Intelligence
 Image Processing

4. History of Python
 Created in 1990 by Guido van Rossum
 Named after Monty Python
 First public release in 1991
 comp.lang.python founded in 1994
 Open source from the start

5. Language Features
 Object-Oriented
 Interpreted
 Interactive
 Dynamic
 Functional
 Highly readable

6. Built-in Object Types
 Numbers - 3.1415, 1234, 999L, 3+4j
 Strings - 'spam', "guido's"
 Lists - [1, [2, 'three'], 4]
 Dictionaries - {'food':'spam', 'taste':'yum'}
 Tuples - (1, 'spam', 4, 'U')
 Files - text = open ('eggs', 'r'). read()

7. Operators
 Booleans: and or not < <= >= > == !=
<>
 Identity: is, is not
 Membership: in, not in
 Bitwise: | ^ & ~
No ++ -- +=, etc.

8. String Operators
 Concatenation: +
 Repeat: *
 Index: str[i]
 Slice: str[i:j]
 Length: len( str )
 String Formatting: "a %s parrot" % 'dead‘
 Iteration: for char in str
 Membership: ‘m’ in str

9. Common Statements
 Assignment - curly, moe, larry = 'good', 'bad', 'ugly'
 Calls - stdout.write("spam, ham, toastn")
 Print - print 'The Killer', joke
 If/elif/else - if "python" in text: print text
 For/else - for X in mylist: print X
 While/else - while 1: print 'hello'
 Break, Continue - while 1: if not line: break
 Try/except/finally -
try: action() except: print 'action error'

10. Common Statements
 Raise - raise endSearch, location
 Import, From - import sys; from sys import stdin
 Def, Return - def f(a, b, c=1, d): return a+b+c+d
 Class - class subclass: staticData = []
 Global - function(): global X, Y; X = 'new'
 Del - del data[k]; del data [i:j]; del obj.attr
 Exec - yexec "import" + modName in gdict, ldict
 Assert - assert X > Y

11. Samples
 System Utility
 Functional Programming
 Object Oriented networking

12. References
 Python homepage: http://www.python.org/
 Jython homepage: http://www.jython.org/
 Programming Python and Learning Python:
http://python.oreilly.com/
This presentation is available from http://milly.rh.rit.edu
/python/