Is Python Open Source?
As we want to clear about is Python Open Source, So yes Python is open source that means it is free and python open source are not different programming languages and it is available to everybody to use it freely for any kind of purpose. Python language is managed by python software foundation. It is developed under an OSI-approved open source license, making it freely available, usable and distributable. The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a California public benefit corporation, with 501(c)3 tax-exempt status, founded in 1998. Python was developed by Guido van Rossum in the late eighties and early nineties at the National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in the Netherlands. Refer the below link for more information about Python History and License. https://docs.python.org/3/license.html
What is Python?
Python is a high-level, interpreted, interactive and object-oriented programming language. Python is designed to be highly readable. It has fewer syntactical construction like the English language than other programming languages.
Features of Python
The features of python are explained below.
Interpreted
Python is processed at runtime by the interpreter. No need for compiling the program before executing it.
Interactive
Python can run in an interactive mode i.e. program can be written in a command line shell which gives immediate output for each statement.
Cross-platform Language
Python works on different platforms like Windows, Linux, Mac, etc.
Ease to Learn
Python is easy to learn and easy to use, it is developer friendly.
Expressive
Python is easy to read and understand. The syntax of python is like English statements.
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The large set of Libraries
Python provides a large set of libraries, modules, and functions that enable the rapid development of applications.
GUI Support
Python support development of Graphical User Interface.
Integrated
Python can be easily integrated with other languages like Java, C/C++, etc.
Databases
Python provides interfaces for a large set of databases.
Free and open source
Python is freely available at the official website. Anybody can use it, modify re-distribute. But the Python language is copyrighted.
Features of Python Programming Language
Following features are described below.
Object-Oriented
Python supports Object Oriented style of programming that encapsulates code within the object.
Datatypes
Python has a variety of basic data types like integer, floating point number, String (both in ASCII and Unicode), list, dictionaries, etc.
Modules and Packages
The code can be grouped into packages and modules.
Error Handling
It supports throwing and catching exceptions, that results in cleaner error handling.
Memory Management
Automatic memory management deallocates the memory instead of manually handling it in the code.
Dynamically Typed
Datatypes are strongly and dynamically typed, typecasting any variable from one datatype to other causes an exception, so errors are caught at the earliest.
Advanced features
Python contains advanced features like generators and list comprehensions.
Software Development Domain where Python is used
Python is a general purpose language that is widely being used in every domain of software development. Below mentioned are the few examples where Python can be used.
Console Based Application
Python can be used for developing console-based applications.
Web Applications
web applications can be developed using Python. It provides libraries to handle protocols like HTML, XML, JSON, requests, etc. It provides various frameworks such as Django, Pyramid, etc., for web application development.
Desktop GUI Application
Python provides various frameworks like Kivy, PyQt, Tkinter PyGUI, etc., for developing desktop GUI applications.
Scientific and Numeric Computing Applications
Python provides various libraries and packages like SciPy, Pandas, IPython, etc., for developing numeric and scientific computations using Python.
Business Applications
Python is used for building business applications like ERP, e-commerce applications, etc.
Audio or Video-based Applications
Python can be used to develop multimedia applications that include images, audios, videos and can be used to create cartoons, etc. Some of the real-time applications are TimPlayer, cplay, etc.
Machine Learning Applications
Python does contain special libraries for machine learning namely scipy and numpy which are great for linear algebra and getting to know kernel methods of machine learning.
Real-time Examples where Python is used
Python is widely being used by various companies as a code base for developing their applications or products. Below mentioned are the few examples. Google, DropBox, NetFlix, Instagram, Splunk, BuzzFeed, FaceBook, Spotify and many more companies use Python for their development.
Python Versions
The first version of Python was released as Python 1.0 in 1994. Now the latest version is Python 3.7.0 released on 27th June 2018. From Python 1.0 till 3.7 various new features and enhancements to the existing features are being made.
Do you want to contribute to Python?
Since we cleared about is Python Open Source, you can contribute to python by submitting any modules or applications or you can even raise any bugs or even provide the fixes for it. To contribute you can submit your works to the official python sites. Some of them are mentioned below.
- To report the bug, use the link https://bugs.python.org/
- To contribute to the official Python documentation, join the Documentation SIG, write to docs@python.org, or use the Issue Tracker to contribute a documentation patch.
- To announce your module or application to the Python community, refer this guide Posting guideline. Refer the guide of Python mailing lists for more information.
- To contribute for a bug fix or other patch to the Python core, read the Python Developer’s Guide for more information about Python’s development process.
- To propose changes to the Python core, refer this guide CompLangPython to post your thoughts. If you have an implementation, follow thePython Patch Guidelines.
Conclusion
As we are clear about the doubt on is Python open source and that Python is the widely used robust programming language. Python is very easy to learn and implement, provides easy usage of code lines. It can be used to develop wide varieties of applications. There are various tutorials available to learn Python, you can follow any of them to get well versed with the Python language.
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