About Python
What is Python? Python is a powerful modern computer programming language. It bears some similarities to Fortran, one of the earliest programming languages, but it is much more powerful than Fortran. Python allows you to use variables without declaring them (i.e., it determines types implicitly), and it relies on indentation as a control structure. You are not forced to define classes in Python (unlike Java) but you are free to do so when convenient. Python was developed by Guido van Rossum, and it is free software. Free as in “free beer,” in that you can obtain Python without spending any money. But Python is also free in other important ways, for example you are free to copy it as many times as you like, and free to study the source code, and make changes to it. There is a worldwide movement behind the idea of free software, initiated in 1983 by Richard Stallman.1 This document focuses on learning Python for the purpose of doing mathematical calculations. We assume the ...
