(from https://xkcd.com)

• Python is a very high-level language

  • it provides many complex data-structures (lists, dictionaries, ...)

  • your code is shorter than a comparable algorithm in a compiled language

• Many powerful libraries to perform complex tasks

  • Parse structured inputs files

  • send e-mail

  • interact with the operating system

  • make plots

  • make GUIs

  • do scientific computations

  • ...

• Python makes it easy to prototype new tools

• Python is cross-platform and Free

Some of the language features are:

• Dynamical typing

• Object-oriented foundation

• Extensible (easy to call Fortran, C/C++, ...)

• Automatic memory management (garbage collection)

• Ease of readability (whitespace matters)

Perhaps most importantly, and why we are here:

Python has been widely adopted in the scientific community.