Python

Python is a programming language developed initially by Guido van Rossum, and has become a very popular programming language with a large user and developer base. It has been adopted, for example, by ESRI as the main scripting language for ArcGIS. It is Open Source software, and is available from www.python.org. Python is an interpreted language, as compared to a compiled language. This means that when you start Python, you are launching the Python interpreter, which then interacts with commands typed in interactively, or with programs (scripts) loaded from disk.

Python can be launched in several ways:

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from the command shell by typing python, or from the start menu in Windows

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from IDLE, a light-weight Python Editor and Shell that comes with Python, which can be launched from the start menu

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using Scite, an editor that can also run Python programs

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using a sophisticated Integrated Development Environment (IDE) sush as Eclipse, Wing, or Eric

To get started, launch IDLE from the Windows Start menu. It will launch a window as shown in Figure 4.1. If you are not on a Windows computer, just start a command shell and type python to start an interactive Python session.

Figure 4.1: The IDLE Python Shell