
Appendix B
Introduction to Python
Python is a programming language that was initially released in 1991 by Guido Van Rossum,
and which has since become deservedly popular for its elegance, ease of use, readability,
portability, and extensibility. It marks code blocks using indentation, instead of parentheses
(such as C), or “begin,” “end” words (such as MATLAB). Since its inception Python has
matured, is used worldwide for enterprise systems as much as for elementary teaching, and
there are a vast number of specialized libraries—over 54,000 at the time of writing—which
support particular programming tasks. Some of the most richly developed and most