First of these looping constructs is for: iterates through the items in the sequence, and second is while: a general loop to be precise.

The for loop:

Definition: for loop has an ability to iterate through the items present in the sequence, where a sequence can be a list, tuple , etc. and iterates until the condition set in the loop is true.

Syntax:

for iterating_var in sequence:
   block of codes

Each items present in the sequence is assigned to iterating_var and the block of codes present in the loop is executed until all the items in the sequence is used.

Example 1):

[python]
>>> for x in ‘Its W0rk!ng!?’:
print x

I
t
s

W
0
r
k
!
n
g
!
?
[/python]

In the above example ‘Its W0rk!ng!?’ is a sequence of characters: String to be exact. Each characters in the string is assigned to x and is printed with a newline characters by default.

2)

[python]
>>> scientist=['Einstein','Newton','Franklin','Darwin']
>>> for person in scientist:
print `person`

‘Einstein’
‘Newton’
‘Franklin’
‘Darwin’
[/python]

Here scientist is the list of names of few scientists, which are being assigned to person and printed until the list is exhausted.

Its time to introduce another function: range()

The range function uses two arguments like this range(start, finish). start is the first number that is produced. finish is one larger than the last number.

>>> range(1,10) [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

Example:

[python]
>>> for x in range(1,10):
print x
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
[/python]

Here, x is assigned all the items present in the list ranging from 1 to 10 but excludes 10 in the execution and prints out the list.

The while loop:

A while statement repeatedly executes a block of code(indented one) till the expression at the top results into true. When the condition set in the expression becomes false, then the control passes to the statement the follows the while block.

Syntax:

while expression:
   block of code

Example:

1)CODE:

[python]
count=0
while (count<10):
count = count +1
print count
[/python]

OUTPUT:

[python]
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
[/python]

2)CODE:

[python]
string=['c','C++','Python','Scripting']
index=0
while (index < len(string)):
print ‘I work on ‘+string[index]
index=index+1
[/python]

OUTPUT:

[python]
I work on c
I work on C++
<pre>I work on Python
I work on Scripting
[/python]

3)

[python]
>>> while True:
print(‘Type Ctrl-C to stop me!’)
[/python]

LOOP controls

After working on loops, we might have situation where have to exit a loop completely, skip statement and start with another. Here Python provides break and continue statement to achieve the above said.

In certain cases, where we have to choose which block of statements to execute at that time, we might need the help of else statements.

The break statement:

Using break statement, we can come out of the current loop and execute the next set of statements.

break statement are used mostly in for and while loops.

Example:

CODE:

[python]
while True:
menu=input("\nMENU:\n1.NAME\n2.EXIT\nEnter a number:")
if menu==1 :
name=raw_input(‘Enter your name:’)
pro=raw_input(‘Enter which Language you work on:’)
print ‘Welcome, ‘+name+’ . You work on ‘ + pro+’ !! Nice ’
else:
break
print ‘Your are out of loop now!!’
[/python]

OUTPUT:

[python]
MENU:
1.NAME
2.EXIT
Enter a number:1
Enter your name:Mr.Spark
Enter which Language you work on:Python
Welcome, Mr.Spark . You work on Python !! Nice

MENU:
1.NAME
2.EXIT
Enter a number:1
Enter your name:Cemicolon
Enter which Language you work on:Python and C
Welcome, Cemicolon . You work on Python and C !! Nice

MENU:
1.NAME
2.EXIT
Enter a number:2
Your are out of loop now!!
[/python]

The continue statement:

The continue statement transfers the control to the beginning of the loop and skips all the statements under it, of the current iteration of the loop.

Example:

CODE:

[python]
for letter in <strong>’Python’</strong>: # First Example
if letter == ‘h’:
continue
print ‘Current Letter :’, letter
[/python]

OUTPUT:

[python]
Current Letter : P
Current Letter : y
Current Letter : t
Current Letter : o
Current Letter : n
[/python]

The pass Statement:

The pass statement is null operational statement, which does nothing. We get situation where syntactically some code must be placed, but at that moment you have nothing to put here a pass statement is used to do nothing.

Example:

CODE:

[python]
for letter in <strong>’Python’</strong>:
if letter == ‘h’:
<strong>pass</strong>
print ‘This is pass block’
print ‘Current Letter :’, letter
[/python]

OUTPUT:

[python]
Current Letter : P
Current Letter : y
Current Letter : t
This is pass block
Current Letter : h
Current Letter : o
Current Letter : n
[/python]

The else Statement Used with Loops

This else statement functions same while it was used in if clause, but with few changes on how it is executed.

for loop: If the else statement is used with a for loop, the else statement is executed when the loop has exhausted iterating the list.
while loop: If the else statement is used with a while loop, the else statement is executed when the condition becomes false.

Conditions:

We have few conditional operators in python, which will help us in comparing two values and give the result in Boolean value(True or False).

Enter the following code in terminal to see the results:

[python]
>>> 1>4
False
>>> 5>3
True
>>> 1==1
True
>>> 1=1
SyntaxError: can’t assign to literal
>>> 9!=8
True
>>> 100>=1212121
False
[/python]

NOTE:We cant use assignment operator(=) because its used for storing value in variable, so we use == operator(double equal symbol) for Equality comparison.

Similarly, we can use comparison operator on Strings.

[python]
>>> ‘Mr.Spark’ == "Mr.Spark"
True
>>> ‘Mr.Spark’ < ‘cemicolon’                                   #ASCII code of c(99) > M(77)
True
>>>”PYTHON” ==”python”
False
[/python]

That was something about the comparison operator, lets move onto something more interesting: conditional constructs. Using Conditional Constructs, we can control the flow of the program.

The various Conditional constructs are if, if…else, elif, and nested if.

The if Statement

The if statement contains a logical expression with which the data will be compared, if the condition is evaluated successfully then it will execute a certain a block of code or else if the condition is false then it will not execute the block of code.

Syntax:
if expression:
#Block of code

Note: We know that Python uses indentation to group certain part of code. When any Conditional construct is met, the following code will be automatically indented.

Example:

[python]
#!/ur/bin/env python
var_if=raw_input("Enter true to test if its working:")
if var_if==’true’:
print "Its working!!"
[/python]

Output:

[python]
>>> Enter true to test if its working:true
Its working!!
[/python]

The Else Statement:

Else is used in combination with if Statement. If the if statement condition fails(resolves to 0 or false value) then it executes the block of code following the else statement. This is Optional instruction.

if expression:
   #block of statement if value is true
else:
   #block of statement if value is false

In the previous example, we don’t have anything to execute in case <em>if</em> statement so lets modify the code here.

Example:

[python]
#!/ur/bin/env python

var_if=raw_input("Enter true to test if its working:")
if var_if==’true’:
print "Its working!!"
else:
print "Resulted into False,Still working"
[/python]

Output:
[python]
>>> Enter true to test if its working:false
Resulted into False,Still working
[/python]

The elif statement:

We have situation when we have multiple comparison to make, for that we use elif statement. Lets put it technically, elif statement allows you to check multiple expressions for truth value and execute a block of code as soon as one of the conditions evaluates to true. Like else,elif is also an optional statement.

Syntax:

if expression1:
   #Block of code
elif expression2:
   #Block of code
elif expression3:
   #Block of code
else:
  #Block of code

Example:

[python]#
!/ur/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
_if=raw_input("To know Creator\nMenu\n1.Python\n2.C++\n3.Ruby\nEnter number:")
if var_if==’1′:
print "Guido Van Rossum"
lif var_if==’2′:
print "Bjarne Stroustrup"
elif var_if==’3′:
print "Yukihiro “matz” Matsumoto"
else:
print ‘Wrong value exiting!!’
exit()
[/python]

Output:

[python]
To know Creator
Menu
1.Python
2.C++
3.Ruby
Enter number:2
Bjarne Stroustrup
[/python]

The Nested if..elif..else construct

There will be situation where we want to check for another condition when it the condition results to true.

Syntax:

if expression1:
   #Block of code
   if expression2:
      #Block of code
   elif expression3:
      #Block of code
   else
      #Block of code
elif expression4:
   #Block of code
else:
   #Block of code

Example:

[python]
#!/ur/bin/env python
food=raw_input(‘Burger or Meals?’)
if food=="Burger":
burger=raw_input(‘Veg or Non veg’)
if burger==’veg’:
print ‘Costs 40rs!!’
else:
print "Costs 50rs"
elif food=="Meals":
meals=raw_input(’1.North Indian\n2.South Indian\n3.Chinese’)
if meals==’1′:
print ‘Costs 70rs’
elif meals==’2′:
print ‘Costs 80rs’
else:
print ‘Costs 75rs’
else:
print ‘Do nothing’
[/python]

Output:

[python]
>>>
Burger or Meals?<em>Meals</em>
1.North Indian
2.South Indian
3.Chinese<em>2</em>
Costs 80rs
[/python]

The next Superpower of Python which we are going to study is “Strings”- a text based information which is a collection of ordered collection of characters. In this Blog we are going to discuss on how to store text in variables, concatenation,use text as expressions and many more. Lets begin our tour.

Strings

Strings are little chunks of text which can be used to store it in a variable, display it and has many other purposes.We have used strings in many languages but Python’s strings has some special properties like there is no distinct type of characters in strings, instead we just use one character strings. Another main property of Strings in Python is their immutable property, which means characters are placed in ordered fashion from left to right.

Working with strings is sort of easy, we face difficulty when we have to write them in code, because there are many ways in which a string can be written.

1. Single Quotes: ‘Python”s’
2. Double Quotes: ”Python’s”
3. Escape Sequences: “P\ty\ntho\ons”

and there others also like Triple quotes,Byte strings, Unicode Strings and Raw strings, but at beginner level it will be enough to know the first 3 types mentioned in points.

→ The quotes are there only to tell the computer where the string begins and ends

(and is not part of the string value).

→ There’s not much difference in Single quotes and Double Quotes usage, both are same actually. The Reason for supporting both is that it will allow one to write a quote character of other type without the usage of backslash. It will be clear from the code given:

Code:

>>> string=”Monty Python's”
>>> string
“Monty Python's”
>>> string='Monty Python”s'
>>> string
'Monty Python”s'
>>> string="hello"s"
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>>> string='python's'
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

String Concatenation

We can combine one string with other string, which is called String concatenation. We can do this using ‘+’ operator or by using Space Character.

>>> var="Guido " + "van" + " Rossum"
>>> var
'Guido van Rossum'
>>> var="Guido " "van" " Rossum"
>>> var
'Guido van Rossum'

→When using comma instead of the concatenation operator between the strings, we will get Tuple not a string.

>>> var = "string1,string2"
>>> var
'string1,string2'

Note: Strings and Integers are different Datatype.

>>> var= "hello "+ 5
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#18>", line 1, in <module>
var= "hello "+ 5
TypeError: cannot concatenate 'str' and 'int' objects

This error came because we tried to concatenate String and Integer Objects.

Strings in Action

Since we have gained some knowledge of string literals, lets work on this. This part of blog will demonstrate String expressions , methods and formatting.

We have seen how to concatenate two strings, now lets see how strings can be repeated using * operator.

>>> var= 'ha' * 6
>>> print var
hahahahahaha #repetition of 'ha' 6 times

similarly, we can find the length of the strings or other objects which has a length.

>>> len(var)
12
>>> len(var * 6)
72
>>> len ('abc'+"def")
6

Repetition comes handy in many applications, consider a case where you want to enter ‘ – ‘ 120 times for the end of a diary.

>>> endline='-' * 120
>>> print endline
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Its better than to write 120 dashes.

String Conversion tool

In some situation, lets take concatenation as an example, when u want to concatenate string and integer we get an error because both the data type is different. We can overcome from this problem by conversion.

>>> 'abc'+123
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#37>", line 1, in <module>
'abc'+123
TypeError: cannot concatenate 'str' and 'int' objects
>>>'abc'+str(123)
'abc123'
>>> int('123')+321
444
>>> repr(24)
'24'

The str function converts a integer into a string, while int function converts a string into an integer and repr funtions similar to str that it converts an object into string.

>>> str(123),repr(123)
('123', '123')
>>> str('abc'),repr('abc')
('abc', "'abc'")

In my next blog, we will be discussing on slicing and indexing which acts as an array function in python and then will move onto how we can change the strings, joining a string and finally will discuss on string as expression.

After having installed it will look like this,

In Windows we are working on IDLE, so they need not do anything special.

In IDLE, goto File → New Window. This is where we will be writing the code,execute and saving them, its just like a notepad. Lets write a small code to begin with

[python]
print “Hello world”
[/python]

Go to Run → Run Module or you can press F5, then we have the output to the IDLE interface as shown in the figure:

Lets make it more interesting by writing the code:

[python]
x=raw_input(“Enter your name:”)
print “Welcome,”+x
[/python]

run the module(F5), we have

That’s it about saving the program guys, but this is not the end we have a python file saved in a specific destination, Let’s check that out. When you open that file we have a problem, Whats that??? After typing in the name we can’t see what has happened.

Note to Linux user,

You need to put this following line in your python script:

[python]
#!/usr/bin/env python
[/python]

which means the script will execute with the help of env python in usr/bin directory. and another important thing you cannot directly execute the file which is located in a location specified, because the file is not executable. So,type in the terminal

v$chmod 700 p1.py

which makes the file executable. When we run in terminal, the problem is same we can’t see the output. Change the code in the python file, p1.py as

[python]
x=raw_input(“Enter your name:”)
print “Welcome,”+x
raw_input(“Press<Enter>”)
[/python]

Just the save the file here and run it.

[python]

thor@war:~$ ls
Desktop  Documents  Downloads  examples.desktop  pl.py
thor@war:~$ chmod 700 pl.py
thor@war:~$ python pl.py
hello
Enter your name:chandan
Welcome, chandan
thor@war:~$ ls
Desktop  Documents  Downloads  examples.desktop  pl.py
thor@war:~$
[/python]

Sandesh Yadav

LinuxCandy

A function is a block of code that performs a specific action and returns a result.

How functions make your life easier?

• Functions let you write code only once.

• The decrease in the unnecessary complexity from the user. In my last blog I discussed about exponents as a function. i.e,

[python]
>>>5**4
625
[/python]

this can also be done by a function . How we do that is by first writing the function name followed by the parameters the function would need. A parameter is pretty much like what a function will need to do a task. So taking the above data only,we have

[python]
>>>pow(5,4)
625
[/python]

likewise, there are others like abs() for absolute and all.

Apart from functions, we have similar functionality called a Module. A Module is a text file which stores the python codes, in other words in makes the collection of similar type of tools in it and is organised in a particular manner. We can make a module available to another program by just importing it, please note here that import is a keyword.
Syntax: import module_name
Say for example we want to use a function floor()  which rounds up the variable

[python]
>>>floor(18.34534)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
NameError: name ‘root’ is not defined
[/python]

we get an error message. Well this is because we didn’t import the function floor(), python will not understand this and will raise a question, which we call it as an error. So what we need to do is import the tools of math, please note here that math  is a module . So, to access a function via module we have,
Syntax: module_name.function_name

[python]
>>>import math
>>>math.floor(18.34534)
18.0
[/python]

similarly, for using the value of pi

[python]
>>>math.pi
3.1415926535897931
[/python]

In short, import is actually expanding the content of a file which will result into more tools for a user.

Lets go the Lazy way, this is what I call for the shortcut. If we have long module name and function name it will be hectic to call them all the time so what we do is assign it to the variable. Consider the following example you will understand then,

[python]
>>> variable=math.pi
>>> variable+7
10.141592653589793
>>> variable=math.sqrt
>>>variable(9)
3.0
[/python]

That’s it about the functions and modules, in my next blog I’ll be discussing on how to save your program and strings

Sandesh Yadav LinuxCandy mentioned.

Before we move onto writing programs in Python, we will be needing an Editor to write the source files. But many of us will be having a confusion here, whether to choose an IDE or a Text editor. With dozens of fancy editors and IDEs out there for the beginners probably its nightmare to select and stick to one where one of your friend suggests you to use vim and other says don’t get your head banging with vim or emacs go for simple GUI’s like IDLE. Not only choosing IDE or text editor is a big decision to make but customizing it to your need is another important step to take after you have chosen of them. Now lets us look at available IDE’s and text editors which are mostly used here. By the end of the post you might be, well you should be able to decide which one you are going to stick with. 

Well, a Text editor can be used to create and edit text files. There are few text editor which are specifically built for writing programming languages that has some special features like Syntax highlighting , automatic editing and Compilation and Execution Commands.

IDE stands for Integrated Development Environment, they have mostly all the features of a Text Editor. The idea behind an IDE is to encompass everything a Python programmer could want to do in one application. Theoretically it should allow them to develop Python programs faster. A IDE contains many features like:

1. Automatic code completion: while typing any Python code, the IDE will give a list to chose from which will make the work easier if the code has to be repeated.

2. GUI Builder

3. Optimization: While developing python codes the complexity may increase, IDE may help in increasing the speed and efficiency.

and many more. When you get to the point where you need to juggle dozens of source files and link them together, that’s when I recommend an IDE.

So let me list the most used, more user friendly and the best of IDE’s and Text editors.

IDE(Integrated Development Environment)

When asks for which is the best IDE for Python, there may be many questions which will pop-up.

What OS? Your definition of an “IDE”? Do you just want an editing environment with say class browsing capabilities or do you want an integrated debugger and such? And many more may be…

I have prepared a list of IDE’s which has unique properties from other:

1.Stani’s Python editor

→ Stani’s Python editor (SPE) named after the IDE’s author. SPE is another free IDE written in Python, and it requires at least Python 2.6 to run, which is the version of Python I’ll be working on.

→ In windows, It cannot be started as such from the Start menu, it has to invoked from command line.

→ The SPE editor includes code completion, call tips and compile checking, compile checking is optional.

→ One of SPE’s unique features is its ability to integrate with Blender, the free, commercial-grade graphical rendering and animation system. (It would be impossible to adequately describe Blender in this small space, see the Blender website for more info.) You can actually run SPE inside Blender, which can be scripted with Python.

→ Website: http://pythonide.blogspot.in/

2.Komodo Edit:

→ Komodo Edit, a text editor developed by ActiveState, is a powerful text based editor that so happens to be free and open source. This cross platform, Python based text editor is available for use on Windows,Mac OS X and Linux.

→ Auto-complete on keywords and functions(Code completion).

→ Syntax highlighting and checking.

→ Multiple features on indentation(incremental searches, code folding, and code commenting, auto-indent, block selection, line ending and special character handling…)

→ Very easy to use , so for beginners this can very handy.

→ Support for multiple languages.

→ Website: http://www.activestate.com/komodo-edit

3.IDLE:

→ IDLE has most of the nice touches you want in a Python editor: commenting/uncommenting blocks; indenting/dedenting; regular expression searches; jump to line; and converting tabs to spaces or the reverse. IDLE starts out as an enhanced interactive shell window(with a bit better cut-and-paste, scroll-back, etc. than the basic interactive prompt).

→ Bold color choices in the syntax highlighting.

→ Drawback:This is a minor drawback yet, most of the menus have to be worked on with mouse only.

→ Website: www.python.org/getit/

→ In Ubuntu terminal: sudo apt-get install idle-python2.4

4.NINJA-IDE:

→ Which stands for Ninja-IDE Is Not Just Another IDE, NINJA-IDE allows you to work with single scripts as well as manage complex projects consisting of multiple files and libraries.

→ code completion and syntax coloring as well as error warnings where error warnings are like detects and highlights common formatting problems like excessive or missing white spaces, incorrect indentation, long lines, etc.

→ Hovering the mouse over a specific code will give the briefing about the data.

→ It has an embedded python console which enables you to run the scripts.

→ Website: http://ninja-ide.org/

5.Pydev:

→ PyDev is a Python IDE for Eclipse, which may be used in Python, Jython and IronPythondevelopment. Important feature of this is Code completion,

→ Pre-requisites: Eclipse SDK 3.7.0, Git and Java 5.0 (note that other versions of those should work too but details may differ a bit)

→ Drawbacks: Code completion will not work unless you

→ Website: http://pydev.org

PyDev

6. WingIDE

→ Wingware’s Wing IDE is available in three editions: Professional, Personal, and Wing IDE 101. All versions will run on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and all support the 2.x versions of Python, as well as Python 3.0 and 3.1.

→ The Wing IDE layout is straightforward, with the editor window being its central fixture. Supporting panes, source browser, runtime output and debug panes and so on, are arranged on the periphery. In the lower right is the eminently useful Source Assistant pane, the Wing IDE’s answer to call tips.

→ Code Completion and matching.

→ Wingware’s debugger one of the best feature of Wing IDE, which is highly configurable and supports remote debugging.

→ Website: http://www.wingware.com/

WingIDE

7.Geany

→ Geany is a lightweight cross-platform GTK+ text editor based on Scintilla and including basic Integrated Development Environment (IDE) features.

→ With many features like syntax-highlighting, Auto-completion,Multiple document support and many more.

→ This is also available for a wide range of operating systems, such as BSD, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris and Windows.

→ Another amazing thing to know is with all these features the developers of the program (Nick Treleaven, Enrico Troger and Frank Lanitz) managed to keep the size so small.

→ Website: http://www.geany.org/Main/HomePage

Geany

Text Editors

The list of Text Editors is made in view of Extensibility(whether the editor supports plugins, extensions),Speed(Rates the startup time,performance),Cross-platform(multiple OS),Power(Features, Editing modes) and Beginner friendliness.

1.Vim/VI:

→ Released in 1991 this versatile and powerful editor gained a massive following in the open source world.

→ Light and fast

→ Goes over ssh very well

→ Simple configuration

→ Lots of flexibility

→ It is open source software and comes preinstalled on most Linux systems.

→ Website: http://www.vim.org/

→ Drawbacks : This is definitely not for Beginners, my advice to them is learn to use VI/Vim which is very useful and can be learnt using Vimtutor.

Vim/VI

2.Emacs:

→ Development of Emacs started in the 1970 and is said to be one of the first to implement implement syntax highlighting, support for multiple programming languages and automatic indentation.

→ Quick execution, transparent functionality and customisable.

→ The Org-mode addon in Emacs gives a superhero powers to it, the powers are task management ,connect with other applications( HTML, latex beamer, google calendar) ,table creation and Good for draft/notes preparation, etc.

→ Emacs is free and open source software

→ Website: http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs

Emacs

3.Sublime Text2:

→ A cross-platform code editor, which supports multiple selections, code folding, keyboard bindings, macros, split screen editing and projects.

→ Fullscreen and distraction-free modes, which look great on big displays.

→ It runs on Linux, Windows and OSX.

→ A proprietary software.

→Website: http://www.sublimetext.com/

Sublime Text2

4.Eclipse IDE:

→ Eclipse is a kind of universal tool platform – an open extensible IDE for anything and nothing in particular.

→Syntax highlighting to allow for easy location of code segments with just a glance.

→ Search/Grep feature of Eclipse to search through your python source code modules.

→ Eclipse bookmarking and create task bookmarks inside the eclipse python editor.

→ Eclipse offers powerful code hinting, built in documentation and real-time syntax checking.

→ Eclipse is free and open source.

→ Website:http://www.eclipse.org/

→ Drawbacks:Eclipse has frequently been reported for being slow on large projects.

Eclipse IDE

5.Aptana Studio:

→ Aptana Studio is based on Eclipse.

→ It comes in both a Stand-alone Version and as an Eclipse Plug-in. The stand-alone version is quite a large file (130.7 MB for Windows), so I would recommend getting the plugin if you already have Eclipse 3.5 or higher. Both editions are available for the Mac OS X, Windows (x86 – x64 Compatible), and Linux operating systems.

→ Very helpful for web developers.

→ It has Git integration, ability to deploy your application to remote servers and bundles of useful code snippets and actions for every language.

→ Aptana is free and open source.

→ Website: http://www.aptana.org/

Aptana Studio

6.Netbeans:

→ A free, open-source Integrated Development Environment for software developers.

→ Speciality of this superhero lies in Java development though

→ Syntax-highlighting

→ It runs on Linux, Windows and OSX.

→ Website: http://www.netbeans.org/

→ Drawbacks:Netbeans has frequently been reported for being slow on large projects.

Netbeans

7.TextMate:

→ Created by a closet UNIX geek who was lured to the Mac platform by its ease of use and elegance, TextMate has been referred to as the culmination of Emacs and OS X.

→ Extensive support for macros and bundles, code folding, snippets, shell integration, clipboard history and project management.

→ Completion of Words from Current Document.

→ Proprietary software.

→ Website: http://macromates.com/

Textmate

8.Notepad++:

→ I will rate this as most user friendly Text editor, which is very easy to use.

→ The editor also has support for split screen editing,an FTP browser, macros and powerful text editing capabilities.

→ Notepad++ is a free (as in “free speech” and also as in “free beer”).

→ Website: http://www.notepad-plus-plus.org/

Notepad++

Further Readings:

 

Installing Python

Since am a member of open source community, let me first show you how to install Python in your Linux/Ubuntu then will move on to Windows.

Linux:

If you are using a Linux distribution such as Fedora or Mandrake or {put your choice here}, or a BSD system such as FreeBSD, then you probably already have Python installed on your system.

To test if you have Python already installed on your Linux box, open a shell program (like konsole or gnome-terminal) and enter the command python -V as shown below.

thor@goopta:~$ python
Python 2.7.3 (default, Apr 20 2012, 22:44:07)
[GCC 4.6.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

If you see some version information like the one shown above, then you have Python installed already.

However, if you get a message like this one:

$ python -V
bash: python: command not found

then, you don’t have Python installed. This is highly unlikely but possible.

In this case, you have two ways of installing Python on your system.

$ sudo apt-get install python

this will install python in your system. Later on type “python” in your terminal to enter into the python interface. I guess by default prompt will be “>>>”.

Windows:

In windows, visit http://www.python.org/download, below figure shows which link to access.

A pop-up will come, then install the python.

You can access the Python interface by going Start→python→IDE(python GUI). Using this Python interface will come to your screen.

Checking:

You can check whether it is installed properly by entering(same in all OS):

>>>print “working..”

this will print

working…

on your screen.Or we can perform arithmetic operations like 9+4 which will give result 13 on your screen.

>>>9+4
13

—————————————————————————————————————————————

Thus, You have installed Python on your system.

Introducing Python

Python is a general purpose and a High level language. Programmers usually prefer Python because of its quick development. The modules and packages present in Python makes in versatile and also saves time. Many of us will be thinking that python language is named after a snake but its not true. The Python Language is named for Monty Python— remember its NOT the snake.

History of Python

Father of Python

The Father of Python, Guido van Rossum created Python in the late 1980′s, and he was bestowed with the title ‘Benevolent Dictator For Life ‘ by the Python community.

Guido had a different taste than other programmers although he liked the features of many programming languages, but couldn’t find the one which had all the features which he wanted,such as:

→ Indentation: Indentation makes a program more user-friendly by making it more readable. Like in C language we have {} braces to group instructions. Python was first to enforce indentation in it.

Indentation in Python resulting into cleaner code

→ Scripting language: Scripts can be written and executed “on-the-fly”, without explicit compile and link steps, where a script can be said to be a short program used to handle memory and other programs.

→ Extensibility: One of the best things of Python is its extensive features which enables it to add data types, concepts, modules and plugins, where the group of programmers works on modifying and improving the language, while hundreds of other programmers write modules for specific purposes.

→ Interpreter: In C or C++ languages, we write the code in a platform where it has to be translated before run. Python on other hand makes the interpreted languages run directly from the source code.

Python:A Multi-paradigm programming language

Python supports more than one style or philosophy of programming, which in a tech term it is referred as “A Multi-paradigm programming language”. Python supports OOPs(Object-Oriented Programming) which can also termed as modular programming, which divides the data into small codes which themselves acts as function.

Python has many common features with other languages.

• Java or C++: An object-oriented language especially for applications used over networks .
• Perl: A procedural language used for text manipulation, system administration, Web development, and network programming
• Tcl: Used for rapid prototyping, scripting, GUIs, and testing
• Scheme: A functional programming language (a language that focuses on performing actions and calculations by using functions.)
• Javascript : Supports a programming style where it depends on functions and variables without engaging itself in class definitions.
• Smalltalk: Dynamic typing and binding;

Famous Companies that use Python

The main portal to Python and the Python community is http://www.python.org. This

portal contains a page that lists some companies that use Python, including

• Yahoo! (for Yahoo! Maps)
• Google (for its spider and search engine)
• Linux Weekly News (published by using a Web application written in Python)
• Industrial Light & Magic (used in the production of special effects for such movies as The Phantom Menace and The Mummy Returns).

Bibliography

→ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Python
→ Programming Python, 4th Edition (Mark Lutz, O'Reilly Media, December 2010, 1600 pages)
→ http://thenewboston.org
→ http://www.python.org/doc/essays/comparisons.html
→ Python for dummies
→ http://mikelev.in