Python is dynamically type-checked and garbage-collected. It supports multiple programming paradigms, including structured (particularly procedural), object-oriented and functional programming. It is often described as a “batteries included” language due to its comprehensive standard library.[34][35]
Python is a high-level, general-purpose programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes code readability with the use of significant indentation.[33]
Guido van Rossum began working on Python in the late 1980s as a successor to the ABC programming language, and he first released it in 1991 as Python 0.9.0.[36] Python 2.0 was released in 2000. Python 3.0, released in 2008, was a major revision not completely backward-compatible with earlier versions. Python 2.7.18, released in 2020, was the last release of Python 2.[37]
Python consistently ranks as one of the most popular programming languages, and it has gained widespread use in the machine learning community.[38][39][40][41]