Introduction to Python

Python is a general-purpose programming language known for reading almost like plain English. Unlike PHP, which is specifically built for the web, Python is used across a huge range of domains — the same language, and largely the same syntax, whether you're automating a task, analyzing data, building a website, or training a machine learning model.

The first thing you'll notice coming from PHP or JavaScript: Python has no curly braces and no semicolons. It uses indentation — the spacing at the start of a line — to mark where a block of code starts and ends. This isn't just a style choice; it's a real part of the language's syntax, and you'll look at it properly in the next lesson.

This section covers the language itself — the part that's identical no matter which of these you eventually do. Frameworks and libraries for any specific domain are a natural next step once you're comfortable here, not something to learn at the same time as the fundamentals.

Python is an interpreted language — you run a .py file directly, and Python reads and executes it line by line, rather than compiling it into a separate program first. This makes the write-and-run cycle fast, which is a big part of why Python is popular for quick scripts and experimentation.

The next lesson gets Python actually running on your machine, so every example from here on is something you can try yourself.