SIJ1004
Brief History of Python
Introduction to Computational Biology
Class 7. Introduction to Python
 Invented in the Netherlands, early 90s
by Guido van Rossum
 Named after Monty Python
 Open sourced from the beginning
 Considered a scripting language, but is
much more
 Scalable, object oriented and functional
from the beginning
 Used by Google from the beginning
 Increasingly popular
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 Python’s Benevolent Dictator For Life
“Python is an experiment in
how much freedom program-
mers need. Too much freedom
and nobody can read another's
code; too little and expressive-
ness is endangered.”
- Guido van Rossum
Installing
 Python is pre-installed on most Unix systems,
including Linux and MAC OS X
 The pre-installed version may not be the most
recent one (2.6.2 and 3.1.1 as of Sept 09)
 Download from http://python.org/download/
 Python comes with a large library of standard
modules
 There are several options for an IDE
• IDLE – works well with Windows
• Emacs with python-mode or your favorite text editor
• Eclipse with Pydev (http://pydev.sourceforge.net/)
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 Editing Python in Emacs
 Emacs python-mode has good support for editing
Python, enabled enabled by default for .py files
 Features: completion, symbol help, eldoc, and inferior
interpreter shell, etc.

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 Data type Variables
 Strings  Storing data
 Numeric  variable = (data)
 Boolean value  Variable storing string data:
 Variable storing numeric data:
 Variable storing Boolean value:

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 Getting input from users Groups of data
 Allows users to input data into the program.  List
 name = input() • name = [data1, data2, data3]

 Tuple
• name = (data1, data2, data3)

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 Functions If statement
 Allow the program to respond to input from user.
 A set codes to do a specific task.
 A condition:
 Writing a function that says “Hello” on your screen.
• True or false
 Using “def” keyword
 The function: • Value

 Calling the function:

 Return (getting back) information from a function.