Python History and Versions
o Python laid its foundation in the late 1980s.
o The implementation of Python was started in December 1989 by Guido Van
Rossum at CWI in Netherland.
o In February 1991, Guido Van Rossum published the code (labeled version
0.9.0) to alt.sources.
o In 1994, Python 1.0 was released with new features like lambda, map, filter, and
reduce.
o Python 2.0 added new features such as list comprehensions, garbage collection
systems.
o On December 3, 2008, Python 3.0 (also called "Py3K") was released. It was
designed to rectify the fundamental flaw of the language.
o ABC programming language is said to be the predecessor of Python language,
which was capable of Exception Handling and interfacing with the Amoeba
Operating System.
o The following programming languages influence Python:
o ABC language.
o Modula-3
Python Version List
Python programming language is being updated regularly with new features and
supports. There are lots of update in Python versions, started from 1994 to current
release.
A list of Python versions with its released date is given below.
Python Version Released Date
Python 1.0 January 1994
Python 1.5 December 31, 1997
Python 1.6 September 5, 2000
Python 2.0 October 16, 2000
Python 2.1 April 17, 2001
Python 2.2 December 21, 2001
Python 2.3 July 29, 2003
Python 2.4 November 30, 2004
Python 2.5 September 19, 2006
Python 2.6 October 1, 2008
Python 2.7 July 3, 2010
Python 3.0 December 3, 2008
Python 3.1 June 27, 2009
Python 3.2 February 20, 2011
Python 3.3 September 29, 2012
Python 3.4 March 16, 2014
Python 3.5 September 13, 2015
Python 3.6 December 23, 2016
Python 3.7 June 27, 2018
Python 3.8 October 14, 2019
Python Applications
Python is known for its general-purpose nature that makes it applicable in almost every
domain of software development. Python makes its presence in every emerging field. It
is the fastest-growing programming language and can develop any application.
Here, we are specifying application areas where Python can be applied.
1) Web Applications
We can use Python to develop web applications. It provides libraries to handle internet
protocols such as HTML and XML, JSON, Email processing, request, beautifulSoup,
Feedparser, etc. One of Python web-framework named Django is used on Instagram.
Python provides many useful frameworks, and these are given below:
o Django and Pyramid framework(Use for heavy applications)
o Flask and Bottle (Micro-framework)
o Plone and Django CMS (Advance Content management)
2) Desktop GUI Applications
The GUI stands for the Graphical User Interface, which provides a smooth interaction to
any application. Python provides a Tk GUI library to develop a user interface. Some
popular GUI libraries are given below.
o Tkinter or Tk
o wxWidgetM
o Kivy (used for writing multitouch applications )
o PyQt or Pyside
3) Console-based Application
Console-based applications run from the command-line or shell. These applications are
computer program which are used commands to execute. This kind of application was
more popular in the old generation of computers. Python can develop this kind of
application very effectively. It is famous for having REPL, whic h means the Read-Eval-
Print Loop that makes it the most suitable language for the command-line applications.
Python provides many free library or module which helps to build the command-line
apps. The necessary IO libraries are used to read and write. It helps to parse argument
and create console help text out -of-the-box. There are also advance libraries that can
develop independent console apps.
4) Software Development
Python is useful for the software development process. It works as a support language
and can be used to build control and management, testing, etc.
o SCons is used to build control.
o Buildbot and Apache Gumps are used for automated continuous compilation
and testing.
o Round or Trac for bug tracking and project management.
5) Scientific and Numeric
This is the era of Artificial intelligence where the machine can perform the task the same
as the human. Python language is the most suitable language for Artificial intelligence or
machine learning. It consists of many scientific and mathematical libraries, which makes
easy to solve complex calculations.
Implementing machine learning algorithms require complex mathematical calculation.
Python has many libraries for scientific and numeric such as Numpy, Pandas, Scipy,
Scikit-learn, etc. If you have some basic knowledge of Python, you need to import
libraries on the top of the code. Few popular frameworks of machine libraries are given
below.
o SciPy
o Scikit-learn
o NumPy
o Pandas
o Matplotlib
6) Business Applications
Business Applications differ from standard applications. E-commerce and ERP are an
example of a business application. This kind of application requires extensively,
scalability and readability, and Python provides all these features.
Oddo is an example of the all-in-one Python-based application which offers a range of
business applications. Python provides a Tryton platform which is used to develop the
business application.
7) Audio or Video-based Applications
Python is flexible to perform multiple tasks and can be used to create multimedia
applications. Some multimedia applications which are made by using Python
are TimPlayer, cplay, etc. The few multimedia libraries are given below.
o Gstreamer
o Pyglet
o QT Phonon
8) 3D CAD Applications
The CAD (Computer-aided design) is used to design engineering related architecture. It
is used to develop the 3D representation of a part of a system. Python can create a 3D
CAD application by using the following functionalities.
o Fandango (Popular )
o CAMVOX
o HeeksCNC
o AnyCAD
o RCAM
9) Enterprise Applications
Python can be used to create applications that can be used within an Enterprise or an
Organization. Some real-time applications are OpenERP, Tryton, Picalo, etc.
10) Image Processing Application
Python contains many libraries that are used to work with the image. The image can be
manipulated according to our requirements. Some libraries of image processing are
given below.
o OpenCV
o Pillow
o SimpleITK
In this topic, we have described all types of applications where Python plays an essential
role in the development of these applications. In the next tutorial, we will learn more
concepts about Python.
