Python's Birth Xmas 1989
About two weeks of time off with no plans
Had it all in my head
Fat Mac with Lightspeed C on 20 MB hard drive
First code: a parser generator
Soon followed: a running program!
TIOBE Programming Community Index for March 2011 Position Mar 2011 Position Mar 2010 Programming Language Ratings Mar 2011 Delta  Mar 2010 1 1 Java 19.711% +2.20% 2 2 C 15.262% -2.02% 3 4 C++ 8.754% -0.86% 4 6 C# 7.210% +2.95% 5 3 PHP 6.566% -3.34% 6 7 Python 5.737% +1.51% 7 5 (Visual) Basic 4.710% -1.86% 8 12 Objective-C 3.518% +1.55% 9 8 Perl 1.969% -1.85% 10 10 JavaScript 1.866% -0.78%
What is Python? O-O rapid prototyping language
Not just a scripting language
Not just another Perl
Easy to learn, read, use
Extensible (add new modules) C/C++/Fortran/whatever
Java (through Jython) Embeddable in applications
What is it used for? rapid prototyping
web programming (client and server side)
ad hoc programming ("scripting")
steering scientific applications
extension language
XML processing
database applications
GUI applications
education