PYTHON PROGRAMMING CLASS (THE BASICS) || DAY 1 - PYTHON INTRODUCTION | WEEK 1

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Good day everyone!
Happy Sunday to all of you!! Today is the first day of the Python Basics introductory class week 1. If you read my last article, you will know our first topic for the day one and all we have to cover for day one. Please if you have not read the first article please do well to read it here so that you will know what we have for each day of the week.

I brought out this idea of teaching python on steemit because of the need for python programming skills in the world of technology today. This is the new trend in tech now because python can be used for various purposes in many applications ranging from web development, automation, artificial intelligence, software testing to many others. I decided to start this programming class on campus connect community because the community comprises mainly of students who are still eager to learn new skills. Developers and non-developers alike can use this python.
Note: The English language used in this class is literally understandable by a layman. So let's begin...

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PYTHON INTRODUCTION

Python was designed by Guido van Rossum in the late 1980's. It was later developed and released by Python Software Foundation in 1991. The name python was derived from a popular BBC TV show called "Monty Python's Flying Circus". The short name version of the show became Python. Python fixed the bugs found in it's predecessor language ABC.

What is Python?
Python is a general-purpose interpreted programming language which executes programs line by line. Python can be used for developing websites, automation, machine learning, software testing, and conducting data analysis. It is a high level programming language. Python is powered by it's built-in modules which are used in various applications. And for you to make use of any module in python, you have to import it in your application. Don't worry we will see how to make use of these modules in our subsequent classes.

Python is dynamically typed which means that you don't have to declare variables before using any data in the program, the data type checking is carried-out during runtime unlike other programming languages like C++ and C# which are statically typed, meaning that you have to declare variables to specify the type of data before you can make use of the data in the program.

For example,
Declaring variables in C++ is done as follows:
int a = 5
float b = 2.5
double c = 3.63

Declaring variables in Python is very simple, and it is done as follows:
a = 5
b = 2.5
c = 3.63

And this is why python syntax is simple and very easy to learn.

Let me briefly explain what programming and programming language is before I proceed.

What is Programming?
Programming in it's common sense is the act of giving instructions to the computer to perform a specific task using a specific programming language. Programming is done by programmers... so as you're learning with me now, you're a programmer. However, programmers make programming language choice prior to programming. In our case, our programming language choice is Python.

What is Programming Language?
Every human being on earth communicates to each other using a specific language. Teachers can give instructions to her students to perform a specific task using a specific language. We have different languages in the world in which we can use to communicate to each other... some of this languages include: English(predominantly used all over the world), Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Urhobo, portugese, french, and many more. Communication can only occur between two or more persons that understands the language. These language must be understood by the communicants for an effective communication.

Python on the other hand is a high level programming language. Programmers use programming language to communicate directly to the computer system and give specific instructions to the computer to perform a specific task. As we all know, computers only understands binary digits 0's and 1's. But programming in binary digits can be very cumbersome and time-consuming, in other-words, it is not efficient.

Because of the time consumption and memory wastage of programming in machine language, This is what brought about the concept of high level programming languages to solve the drawbacks encountered in using low-level programming language.

_{Programming in high level programming language using python}

These high level programming languages are written in human-readable format mainly English-like but later translated to a low-level language for the computer to understand and execute. We have different types of translators which converts this high level language to machine understandable language. These translators include;

• Compiler: Converts the holistic program from high level language to machine understandable language passing through different phases of compilation. E.g. C++, C# e.t.c.

• Interpreter: Converts the program line-by-line from high-level language to machine code or machine understandable language. E.g. Python

• Assemblers: Converts assembly language to machine code or machine understandable language. Assembly language makes use of mneumonics(i.e. names that suggests meaning) to give instruction to the computer. E.g. Fortran

The afore-mentioned translators play a vital role in validating programs to detect errors before it is executed to avoid system errors.

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WHAT PYTHON IS USED FOR AND THE FEATURES OF PYTHON

Like I told you before, python is used in various applications. Let's list the few things python can do below:

Uses of Python
Python is used for:

• Web development
• Software development
• Task Automation
• Data Analysis
• Machine Learning
• Data Visualization
• Mathematics
• System Scripting
• Software testing and Prototyping

Features of Python
The quality of python is powered by many features. These features are listed and discussed below.

1) Simple and Easy: This feature is what makes python highly unique. The simplicity of python is because of it's easy-to-understand syntax. It has predefined modules that can be imported into the program to make the coding easier. We don't have to declare variables before using any data type unlike other compiled programming language like C++ where we have to declare variables before using any data type in the program.

2) Interpreted Language: Python is an Interpreted language because the code is executed line by line. During the conversion process, it reports each error detected line by line in the program making it easier to detect errors than in compiled languages.

3) Object Oriented: Python also supports object orientated programming. Programmers can easily create classes and instantiate object to access the method and attributes of the class with minimum syntax and semantics.

4) Platform Independent and Portable: Python is platform independent because it is converted to intermediate form called byte code. This byte code can be run on different platforms making it platform independent and portable. Portability means that the program can be taken to any computer with different operating system and hardware architecture. For example, a program written in Windows OS can be run in Macintosh OS and vice versa.

5) Free and Open Source: Python is free to use meaning that it doesn't cost anything to use the software. It's open source feature means that the source code can be modified, and distributed freely and can also be used in other programs. The python source code is free to everyone and it is not protected by any license.

6) Extensive Libraries: Python is featured with built-in modules contained in Python Standard Library. However, these built-in modules are written in C programming language. The built-in modules provide access to system functionalities such as file I/O (input and output) which are not accessible to python programmers. These libraries also contains modules written in python which also provides standardize solutions for solving many everyday programming problems that occurs.

7) Database Connectivity: Python interfaces can easily be connected to any commercial database such MySQL, Mongodb e.t.c.

8) Integrated: Integration means that python can easily be tied with other programming languages like C++, Java, C e.t.c.

The aforementioned are the features of Python that makes it different from other programming languages.

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WHY CHOOSE PYTHON?

If you're a programmer looking for a programming language choice, the reasons below will make you go for python.

Reasons why you should choose python
The following reasons below is why it is good to choose python as your preferred programming language choice:

• Python has a very easy and simple syntax. The easy syntax of python makes the programming language very easy to learn and understand. We will see these syntax in our subsequent classes. The syntax also helps programmers to write fewer lines of code compared to other programming language like C and C++.

• Python is portable and works on different platform. We can write python program in one operating system and execute it in another operating and still have an accurate result. However, it is platform independent.

• Prototyping in python can be very quick because the python program is interpreted meaning that code can be executed immediately it is written. A prototype is simply an early version or sample of a software produced for testing purpose.

• Python can be treated in different ways. It can be treated in a procedural way. It can be treated in an object-oriented way or in a functional way. If you want to know more about procedural programming and object-oriented programming click here.

As a programmer, the reasons listed above are what to consider before choosing python as your preferred choice of programming language. I believe with the above reasons, you have been convinced to use python in your next programming project.

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Conclusion

This is just an introduction to python and many other topics covered in this class. In this class we covered the following; Python introduction, uses of python, features of python, and why to choose python as your preferred choice of programming language. Python programming language is well known by it's simple syntax which makes it easy to learn and understand. We also learnt in this class that python is an interpreted language which means that the programs is executed line by line during runtime.

This is the end of this particular class. I believe that if you followed this class till the end, you must have grabbed one or more information from the course.

Please do well to follow this blog, and also don't forget to resteem this post so that it can reach larger number of steemians who wants to learn this skill. Tomorrow, we will look into "How to get started in Python". Visit here to see the topics we have for this week.

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Am glad you participated in this class! I believe you have learnt something new today. I thank @steemcurator01 and @steemcurator02 for their constant support to quality contents.

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I am @anyiglobal, a Computer Scientist, Software Engineer and a Blogger!

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