Python

Definition: Python is an object-oriented, open-source programming language often used for rapid application development. Python’s simple syntax emphasizes readability, reducing the cost of program maintenance, while its large library of functions and calls encourages reuse and extensibility.

Among the languages favored by Web developers and innovators, particularly those in the open-source community, three of the most popular are Perl, PHP and Python. Though Perl and PHP are more mentioned, but we cannot neglect Python, which is emerging as a powerful alternative to the more traditional choices.

Python is attractive because of its ease of use; its high level of abstraction from the hardware; its extensive support for housekeeping activities such as I/O, memory management, data typing and variable binding; and, perhaps most important, the fact that programmers can be highly productive with the language.

Python was created in the late 1980s by Dutch programmer Guido van Rossum and was named after the BBC television comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus.

You can consider Python either a scripting language or a “regular” programming language. It offers an interactive mode for quick development and testing, as well as a noninteractive mode for ease of reuse.

In fact, Python doesn’t actually contain anything new —— every feature has been taken from some other language. These practical capabilities are wrapped up in a simple package that’s available for anyone to download and use without restriction; not even the GNU Public License applies.

Like Java, Python has a small core and a large, extensible library of functions and procedures. Thus, most of what a programmer is likely to need already exists in written, tested form and can be used with simple library calls glued together with a small amount of new code.

One measure of Python’s programmer-friendliness is its reliance on a simple indentation hierarchy for grouping sections of code, which eliminates the need to match Begin/End statements or to count parentheses, brackets or curly braces.

Even so, Python is a general-purpose programming language that offers far more structure and support for large programs than simple shell scripts and much more error checking than lower-level languages such as C.

Python is object-oriented with built-in, high-level data types, including flexible arrays and dictionaries. It can be applied to much larger problems than languages such as Awk or even Perl can, yet it remains as easy to use as those languages.

Python語(yǔ)言

定義：Python是一種面向?qū)ο?、開(kāi)放源碼的編程語(yǔ)言，常常用于應(yīng)用程序的快速開(kāi)發(fā)。Python簡(jiǎn)潔的語(yǔ)法強(qiáng)調(diào)了可讀性，降低了程序維護(hù)的成本，同時(shí)其巨大的函數(shù)和調(diào)用庫(kù)有助于(程序的)重復(fù)使用和可擴(kuò)展性。

在Web開(kāi)發(fā)者和創(chuàng)新者(尤其是開(kāi)放源碼界)喜歡用的語(yǔ)言中，最流行的是Perl、PHP和Python三種語(yǔ)言。雖然提到Perl和PHP的時(shí)候更多一些，但我們不能忽視Python，它正在成為一種強(qiáng)有力的、能替代較傳統(tǒng)開(kāi)發(fā)語(yǔ)言的可選語(yǔ)言。

Python之所以非常吸引人，是由于它的易用性、高度的硬件抽象、廣泛支持內(nèi)部操作(如輸入/輸出、內(nèi)存管理、數(shù)據(jù)錄入和動(dòng)態(tài))，以及也許最重要的是程序員能利用此語(yǔ)言提高生產(chǎn)率。

Python是由荷蘭程序員Guido von Rossum在上世紀(jì)八十年代后期發(fā)明的，以當(dāng)時(shí)的BBC電視喜劇片Monty Python’s Flying Circus命名。

你可以把Python當(dāng)作一種腳本語(yǔ)言，或者把它看成“常規(guī)”的編程語(yǔ)言。它為快速開(kāi)發(fā)和測(cè)試提供了一種交互模式，而為了方便重復(fù)使用又提供了非交互模式。

事實(shí)上，Python不包含任何真正新的功能，所有的功能都是從其他的語(yǔ)言拿來(lái)的。這些實(shí)用的功能包裝在一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的包中，任何人都能下載此包，使用也沒(méi)有限制，甚至連GNU公共許可也不需要。

Python與Java類似，只有一個(gè)很小的內(nèi)核和一個(gè)很大的、可擴(kuò)展的函數(shù)和子程序庫(kù)。因此，程序員可能需要的大部分東西已經(jīng)以書(shū)面的、業(yè)經(jīng)測(cè)試的形式存在，能與簡(jiǎn)單的庫(kù)調(diào)用一起使用，再加上少量的新編寫(xiě)的程序結(jié)合在一起。

Python實(shí)現(xiàn)對(duì)程序員友好的一項(xiàng)措施,就是依靠簡(jiǎn)單的第一行縮進(jìn)去的層次排列，給程序塊進(jìn)行分類，這就不需要“Begin/End”語(yǔ)句的配對(duì)或者用方括號(hào)或圓括號(hào)的編號(hào)。

即便這樣，Python仍是一種通用的編程語(yǔ)言，對(duì)大程序提供了比簡(jiǎn)單shell腳本更多的結(jié)構(gòu)和支持，也比低級(jí)一些的語(yǔ)言(如C語(yǔ)言)提供更多的糾錯(cuò)能力。

Python也是擁有內(nèi)在的高級(jí)數(shù)據(jù)類型的面向?qū)ο笳Z(yǔ)言，其中包括靈活的陣列和字典。它能被應(yīng)用于處理比Awk或Perl一類的語(yǔ)言能處理的更大問(wèn)題，同時(shí)保持與這些語(yǔ)言一樣的易用性。