Guido Van Rossum: A Dutch programmer, popularly known as the author of Python programming language. He has created Python in 1989 and has worked for Google and Dropbox!
Well, Python is one of the top programming languages and you might already have coded in Python. You know Python, but I am sure you might not know the below facts about Python.
1) Python Was a Hobby Project
What if I tell you, Python was not created as a commercial or a professional project, and rather, it was a hobby project of the creator? Python’s creator Guido van Rossum was looking for an interesting project to keep him occupied during Christmas.
He had already helped to create ABC programming language earlier in his career and he had seen some issues with ABC but liked most of the features. Thus, he took the syntax of ABC, some of its good features, and also fixed some issues completely and created a good scripting language that had removed all the flaws. That project that he created and is said to have succeeded ABC, is Python!
2) Python Was Named After a TV Show
The name Python, to a programming language, seems wired. So was it named after a snake called Python? Of course not! There is a whole different story behind it. The inspiration for the name came from BBC’s TV Show – ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus, as the creator of Python – Guido van Rossum was a big fan of the TV show and also he wanted a short, unique, and slightly mysterious name for his invention and hence he named it Python!
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3) Python is Older Than Java
Python programming language is high in demand and has grown drastically in the past 10 years. So it seems Python is a new language that got the attraction to its audience and that gave it a boost. But here’s a fun fact, Python is an old programming language and is even older than Java. Python was initially released in 1991 whereas Java was released in 1995. Thus, Python is now almost 30 years old and stills stand strong for the future.
4) Python is Not Slow
If you know Python and if you have been coding in Python, you might have heard in the community that Python is slow. But, my question is, “What do you want to develop?” If Python would have been slow then why would companies like NASA, Instagram, IBM, CERN use Python? So, what you want to develop, that is superior to NASA’s operations and needs faster language.
Python is slower if compared to programming languages like C, C++, Java, and more since they are complied languages whereas Python is interpreted. Thus, this gives a slightly slow speed
5) Variants of Python
Python programming language has different variants for different use cases and applications. Some of the Python variants are,
- CPython-It is written in C and is the most common implementation of Python
- Jython- It is written in Java that compiles to bytecode
- IronPython- This is implemented in C# and is an extensibility layer to frameworks written in .NET
- Brython- It is Python for Browser and it runs in the browser
- RubyPython- It is the bridge between Python and Ruby interpreters
- PyPy– It is implemented in Python
- MicroPython- This variant runs on a microcontroller
6) Python is Open Source
Python has one of the largest communities in the world and does not have any proprietary license that controls who uses it. It is completely open-source which means, members of the Python community are allowed to make their contributions to the Python ecosystem.
7) The Zen Of Python
Programming is an art, they keep on saying! Python actually proves it. There is actually a poem written by Tim Peters named THE ZEN OF PYTHON which can be read by just writing import this in the interpreter.
8) You Can Define Infinite Values
As a programmer, we know we cannot define infinite values while programming. But what if I tell you, that is possible in Python.
9) Everything is By Reference
In the world of C and C++, be someone’s Python. Where in the world most of programming languages use pointers, In Python, everything is done by reference. It doesn’t support pointers.
10) Python Over French
What does Python have to do with French? This one sounds interesting right. Believe it or not, in 2015, Python overtook French to be the most popular languages that are taught in primary schools. Statistics revealed that 6 out of 10 parents preferred their children to learn Python instead of French. This just shows that many people appreciated the importance of Python programming.
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