Introduction to Python Programming

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Questions and Answers

What is a key feature of Python's design philosophy?

  • Use of significant indentation for code readability (correct)
  • Support for concurrency-oriented programming
  • Focus on high-performance computing
  • Emphasis on code complexity

What type of programming language is Python?

  • Object-oriented and type-safe
  • Statically-typed and compiled
  • Functional and lazy-evaluated
  • Dynamically-typed and garbage-collected (correct)

What is a notable characteristic of Python's standard library?

  • It is only available for Windows platforms
  • It is comprehensive and 'batteries included' (correct)
  • It is minimal and lightweight
  • It is primarily focused on web development

Who is credited with inventing Python?

<p>Guido van Rossum (A)</p>
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What is the title given to Guido van Rossum by the Python community?

<p>Benevolent Dictator for Life (BDFL) (A)</p>
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What was the initial end-of-life date set for Python 2.7?

<p>2015 (A)</p>
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Which Python versions are currently supported as of 2023?

<p>3.8 and later (C)</p>
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What was the main reason for the expedited security updates in 2021 and 2022?

<p>Remote code execution and web-cache poisoning (C)</p>
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What is the significance of Python 3.9.13?

<p>It was the last version to receive non-security updates (C)</p>
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What is a notable change in Python 3.11 compared to Python 3.10?

<p>Expanded exception handling functionality (A)</p>
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Study Notes

General-purpose Programming Language

  • Python is a high-level, general-purpose programming language that emphasizes code readability with significant indentation.
  • It is dynamically typed and garbage-collected, supporting multiple programming paradigms (structured, object-oriented, and functional programming).

History

  • Python was invented in the late 1980s by Guido van Rossum as a successor to the ABC programming language.
  • Guido van Rossum began working on Python in December 1989 and was the lead developer until July 2018.
  • In January 2019, a five-member Steering Council was elected to lead the project.

Releases

  • Python 0.9.0 was first released in 1991.
  • Python 2.0 was released in 2000 with many major new features, including list comprehensions, cycle-detecting garbage collection, reference counting, and Unicode support.
  • Python 3.0 was released in 2008, which was a major revision not completely backward-compatible with earlier versions.
  • Python 2.7.18, released in 2020, was the last release of Python 2.
  • Python 3.10, 3.11, and 3.12 are the current supported versions, with 3.12 being the stable release as of October 2023.

Notable Features and Changes

  • Python 3.10 added the | union type operator and the match and case keywords for structural pattern matching statements.
  • Python 3.11 expanded exception handling functionality and improved error reporting.
  • Python 3.12 added the new keyword type and improved program execution speed.

Miscellaneous

  • Python has gained widespread use in the machine learning community and consistently ranks as one of the most popular programming languages.
  • PyPy, an unofficial Python implementation, continues to support Python 2 with backported security updates.

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