We chose Python as a subject because we like the idea of a programming language that emphasizes readability, fewer lines of code, high extensibility and the support of multiple paradigms. We became aware of Python through Blender, a long-ago Codecademy lesson and a WDI in-class exercise.
The zen of Python is captured in these aphorisms:
- Beautiful is better than ugly
- Explicit is better than implicit
- Simple is better than complex
- Complex is better than complicated
- Readability counts
##History
The language was created by Guido van Rossum in the Netherlands at the tail end of the 1980s as a response to his dissatisfactions with the ABC programming language. van Rossum imbued Python with features that were in opposition to ABC (and other languages, such as Perl), giving it a large, standard library, and one (and only one) obvious way of doing things. Not insignificantly, van Rossum wanted Python to be fun to use, something that is reflected in its references to Monty Python (the language's name; the use of "spam" and "eggs" in lieu of the standard "foo" and "bar").
The Python community refers to van Rossum as its "Benevolent Dictator For Life," as he maintains an oversight role in the continuing development of the language.
The Python Software Foundation (PSF), a non-profit organization, maintains the Python programming language.
##Use
Python is consistently one of the most popular programming languages in the world. It serves as the scripting language for many web applications (such as the Apache Web Server), frameworks (such as Django), and many 3D animation packages (such as Maya). Many operating systems ship with Python included as a standard language.
##Features
- dynamic typing - strongly typed
- garbage collection - used for memory management
- name resolution - late binding
- large standard library - highly extensible
- use of white space indentation to delimit blocks of code
##Our Thang
Our very simple program finds and replaces all personal pronoun lower-case "i"s with upper-case "I"s in the children's literature classic "Green Eggs and Ham." Oh, and finds and replaces all occurrences of "ham" with "spam."
We learned how to open, read, write to and close (this last very important in Python) a file. And we learned how to create and interate through an array.
There's very little one needs to run our program:
- fork and clone our repository
- cd into the 5000quatloos_python directory
$ python index.py