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Python
Henry Armstrong
Andy Burras
Everett Hite
History
• First released in 1991 by Guido van Rossum
• Designed around a philosophy which emphasized readability and
importance of programmer effort over computer effort
• Minimalist syntax and semantics
• Large standard library is comprehensive
• It was influenced by ALGOL 68, C, Lisp, Perl and Java
• It was originally developed for UNIX scripting, but eventually grew
beyond these bounds
Concepts
• Multi-paradigm language focusing on functional, object oriented and
imperative
• Has a fully dynamic type system. This means that type checking is
done during runtime
• Variables are strongly typed. This forbids operations which make
little or no sense (i.e.; cannot perform int + char)
• Has automatic memory management
• Has a highly readable, uncluttered language. Uses many English
keywords where other languages use punctuation
Implementations
• YouTube and the original BitTorrent client were programed in
python.
• Google and NASA use python for a variety of things
• Python is embedded in a number of software packages including
ArcGIS (a GIS package) and Maya (a high-end 3D animation
package)
• Python is also used for scripting in a number of video games,
including Civilization IV, Eve Online and Battlefield 2
Code Example
print "This is a factorial program.“
n = -1
#Initialize n for error checking
while n < 0:
#Ensure that only nonnegative numbers will be accepted
n = input( "What number do you want to factorialize?" )
temp = n
count = n – 1
#Initialize return value (temp) and the counter
if n == 0:
temp = 1
count = 0
#Account for special case 0! = 1; set temp, count to 1
while count > 0: #Calculate n factorial
temp = temp * count
count = count – 1
print n,"! =",temp #Print result
Comparison to Other Languages
The following programs will count from 0 to 1000000
and print them out to a file
Python:
f=open(‘/tmp/scratch’,’wb’)
For i in xrange(1000000):
f.write(str(i))
f.close()
C++:
#include <iostream.h>
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;
int main(int argc, char *argv[]){
ofstream out;
out.open("/tmp/scratch");
for(int i = 0; i < 1000000;
i++){
out << i;
}
out.close();
}
Java:
import java.io.*;
public class test{
public static void main(String[] args){
try{
File f = new File("/tmp/scratch");
PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(new BufferedWriter(
new FileWriter(f)));
for(int i = 0; i < 1000000; i++){
pw.print(i);
}
pw.close();
}
catch(IOException ioe){
ioe.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
Comparisons (cont’d)
To Java:
• Python typically run slower than equivalent Java programs
• The development process for Python is significantly shorter than that of Java
• Actual code length of Python is 3-5 times shorter than equivalent Java code
To C++:
• Python compared to C++ is similar to Python compared to Java, just to a greater
extent.
• Actual code length of Python is 5-10 times shorter than equivalent C++ code
• Python is sometimes referred to and used as a glue language that combines several
component written in C++
To Perl:
• Both share similar roots (Unix, scripting), and similar features.
• Perl is harder to maintain based off the sometimes cryptic syntax and multiple
operators
SOURCES
http://www.razorvine.net/python/PythonComparedToJava
http://www.wikipedia.com/Python_(programming_language)
http://furryland.org/~mikec/bench
http://www.python.org