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NancyKibunga
NancyKibunga

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Introduction to Modern Python

Among the many programming languages in use today, Python is one of the top most commonly used languages. It has continued to gain popularity with the rise in technology, more so that has got to do with data.

Python was first released by Guido Van Rossum, a Dutch programmer, in 1991. Since then, there has continued to be more releases with the improvements made in its development. It is meant to be an easy to learn language.
There are several IDES and core editors that support the language including Anaconda Jupyter, VS Code and PyCharm just to mention a few. One must have one of the environments installed in order to start coding, most of which are available online and are easy to set up.

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Some python characteristics, which make it among the most preferred languages include its simplicity and portability, it has huge libraries and is object oriented. Being an open-source language, Python is freely usable and distributable, even for commercial uses.

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Python has been implemented in artificial; intelligence, designing desktop applications, automation, web development as well as data wrangling, exploration and visualization. It has proven to be a functional and advantageous.

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The four programming techniques that python supports include:

  1. Object-oriented programming
  2. Functional oriented programming
  3. Imperative oriented programming
  4. Procedural oriented programming

As a beginner, they are several key concepts you have to grasp. These will make it easy for you to understand tough concepts as you advance in the language. You have to understand and differentiate between keywords, identifiers and literals. Once you understand what each of the above does, it becomes easier to structure a project.
For example, Literals are given in different formats, you have to understand the difference between a string and a Boolean. This way, you know when to use what and you are able to minimize errors.
You also learn how to work with operators, use loops and conditional statements, different data types and data structures. Most importantly, you know how to invoke functions.

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These are some of the basic skills that you would learn in Python 101. By playing around with the basics you gain more expertise and what appeared difficult becomes a hobby, before you realize, you are applying python to solve real-life problems and predict the future. Isn't that fun!

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