What is Python?¶

No, snakes don’t know how to program (we think). Python is the most widely used programming language as of date. Programming languages are like real languages, they have different root languages, syntax, and cognates. However, not all programming languages are built the same. Some, like CSS, HTML, and Javascript are used for web design and the front-end development of applications. Others are used for back-end, server side development like Java, PHP and Python. Of course, there are also different language architectures, like object oriented, functional, and procedural programming. All of these paradigms are important, but our focus is object-oriented programming since Python uses that structure.

Object Oriented Programming¶

Object oriented programming is (not surprisingly) based on a concept called an “object”. Objects contain case-specific data, for example, an object representing a student named Alice would contain the name “alice”, and other data, maybe the age “15” or gpa “3.8”. Now, another key factor of object oriented programming are classes. Imagine trying to create objects for multiple students, that would be a lot of work. In object oriented programming, a class is a blueprint for creating objects. One of the benefits of object oriented programming is the reusability of code, which saves a lot of time in development, making it an ideal paradigm for large projects.