Python 101: Ultimate Python Guide or Introduction to Modern Python
Published: 2022-02-14 19:51:17

"What is python?",a question that every programmer has equally asked themselves  before embarking on a journey to know more on python. Well, python is an interpreted high-level general-purpose programming language that has been in existence since February 20th, 1991, and is primarily associated with Guido van Rossum as the main creator. Over the years, python has gained reputation for being an elegant and easy to use language,(compared to other popular languages like C, C++ and Java) with clean and easy to read source code and easy to use data structures. It's progress has been highly linked to the wider Python community that has been actively contributing towards its development, improvement, and bug fixing.

The Python language is expressive and productive, it comes with a great standard library, and it’s the center of a huge universe of wonderful third-party libraries. With Python you can build everything from simple scripts to complex applications, you can do it quickly, and you can do it with fewer lines of code than you might think possible.Python’s readable style, quick edit-and-run development cycle, and “batteries included” philosophy means that you can sit down and enjoy writing code rather than fighting compilers and thorny syntax. As your experiments become prototypes and your prototypes become products. Python makes the experience of writing software not just easier but truly enjoyable.

Getting to truly have fun and enjoy pythons development cycle, one must understand all the python fundamentals as they're the backbone to python and all that it entails. These fundamentals include but not limited to;
**1. Statements**
- Expressions. With the help of expressions, we perform operations like addition, subtraction, concentration etc.
- Assignment Statements. With the help of assignment statements, we create new variables, assign values and also change values.

**2. Indentations**. Python uses indentation to mark a block of code. According to python style guidelines or PEP8, you should keep an indent size of four.

**3. Comments**
-  Single-line comments
-  Multi-line comment
-  doc-staring comments

**4. Variables**. A variable is a memory address that can change and when a memory address cannot change then it is known as constant. Variable is the name of the memory location where data is stored. Once a variable is stored then space is allocated in memory. It defines a variable using a combination of numbers, letters, and the underscore character.

**5. Constants**. Constant is a type of variable that holds values, whose value cannot be changed. In reality, we rarely use constants in python.

**6. Tokens**(smallest unit of the program)
-  Identifiers
-  Keywords
-  Literals
-  Operators

As learners, timely comprehension of Python fundamentals is essential towards mastery.

**Take away** 
Irrespective of one’s industry as a developer, using programming concepts to offer solutions is paramount. Like any tool out there, it is specifically designed to be really good at some tasks, and not so good at others.For example a spanner and a pliers, both can be used to open nuts  but one requires less energy and additional skills compared to the other. So,  as a programmer it is wise to select and use languages that are fit for particular problems with ease of use and application. From automation, scripting, prototyping, small scale to medium scale software projects etc
Python would be quite a great choice.