Introduction

Python is probably the easiest-to-learn and nicest-to-use programming language in widespread use. Python code is clear to read and write, and it is concise without being cryptic. Python is a very expressive language, which means that we can usually write far fewer lines of Python code than would be required for an equivalent application written in, say, C++ or Java.

Python is a cross-platform language: In general, the same Python program can be run on Windows and Unix-like systems such as Linux, BSD, and Mac OS X, simply by copying the file or files that make up the program to the target machine, with no “building” or compiling necessary. It is possible to create Python programs that use platform-specific functionality, but this ...

Get Programming in Python 3: A Complete Introduction to the Python Language, Second Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.