Python Programming Language Overview

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering the history, philosophy, syntax, and technical specifications of the Python programming language.

Python

A high-level, general-purpose programming language that emphasizes code readability, simplicity, and ease-of-writing through significant indentation and an extensive standard library.

Guido van Rossum

The designer and creator of Python who began development in the late $1980s$ at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in the Netherlands.

CPython

The reference implementation of Python, written in C, which compiles programs into intermediate bytecode before execution by a virtual machine.

Benevolent Dictator for Life (BDFL)

A title bestowed upon Guido van Rossum by the community to reflect his role as the project's chief decision-maker until July $12$, $2018$.

Pythonic

A neologism describing code that utilizes Python idioms well, exhibits fluency in the language, and conforms to the minimalist philosophy and readability of Python.

Python Enhancement Proposals (PEP)

Design documents used to provide information to the community or propose new features, naming conventions, or processes for the language.

Zen of Python (PEP 20)

A core philosophy document written by Tim Peters containing aphorisms such as "Simple is better than complex" and "Readability counts."

Significant Indentation

A syntax feature, sometimes called the off-side rule, where whitespace is used to delimit code blocks instead of curly brackets or keywords.

Duck Typing

A typing discipline where an object's suitability is determined by the presence of certain methods and properties at usage time rather than its explicit type definition.

Dynamic Typing

A system where variable names are generic reference holders without fixed data types, and method or variable names are bound during program execution.

Garbage Collection

A memory management strategy in Python that combines reference counting and a cycle-detecting collector to reclaim memory from unused objects.

Immutable

A characteristic of data types like $int$, $float$, $str$, and $tuple$ that prevents their state from being changed after they are created.

Mutable

A characteristic of data types such as $list$, $dict$, and $set$ that allow their contents to be modified in place after creation.

Walrus Operator ($:=$)

The assignment expression operator introduced in Python $3.8$ that allows assigning values to variables as part of a larger expression.

Floor Division ($//$)

An arithmetic operator that divides two numbers and rounds the result down to the nearest integer towards negative infinity.

PyPy

An alternative Python implementation that features a just-in-time (JIT) compiler to improve execution speed significantly compared to CPython.

REPL

Acronym for read–eval–print loop, a command-line interpreter where users enter statements sequentially and receive results immediately.

Standard Library

An extensive collection of modules referred to as "batteries-included" that provides tools for Internet protocols, GUIs, databases, and testing.

PEP 8

The specific Python Enhancement Proposal that serves as the official coding style guide for Python code.

Sequence Unpacking

A feature where an iterable on the right side of an assignment is unpacked into multiple variables or writable properties on the left side.

List Comprehension

A concise syntax for creating a new list from an existing sequence or iterable, based on the functional programming tradition.

Global Interpreter Lock (GIL)

A mechanism in typical Python implementations that limits concurrent execution of threads, often restricting scaling to thousands of cores.