Company
Date Published
Author
Andrew Knight
Word count
1101
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

Python is a versatile language suitable for both beginners and experienced programmers, though starting can be challenging due to the variety of versions, editors, implementations, and environments available. The recommended approach is to use the latest version of Python 3, CPython as the implementation, and pipenv for managing packages and installations. Visual Studio Code or PyCharm are suggested for editing, with the former being favored for its excellent Python extensions. While Python 3 is the future, Python 2 remains in use but reached end-of-life in 2020. CPython is the most widely used implementation due to its extensive library and support, while PyPy offers speed and memory efficiency. For managing installations, virtual environments like venv or pipenv are recommended to handle different package versions without global installation issues. Editors and IDEs range from lightweight options like Visual Studio Code to more comprehensive IDEs like PyCharm, which are beneficial for larger projects. The Python community uses terms such as "Pythonic" to describe idiomatic code and holds various conferences like PyCon to foster development and community engagement.