Chapter 1. Getting Started with PySide

Python is a general-purpose, interpreted, object-oriented, and high-level programming language with dynamic semantics. It has efficient high-level data structures and a simple but effective approach to object-oriented programming. It is one of the most preferred programming languages by software developers due to its interpreted nature and its elegant syntax.

The success of Python lies in its simple and easy-to-learn syntax and the support of a wide variety of modules and packages that encourage program modularity and code reuse. Being an interpreted language, there is no compilation step, which makes the edit-test-debug cycle incredibly fast, paving the way to Rapid Application Development, the need of the hour. The support of object-oriented features and high-level data structures, such as generators and list comprehensions, makes Python a superior language for coding small scripting programs to more advanced game programming.

This book assumes that you have been acquainted with Python and want to test its capability in creating GUI applications. However, Python is easy to learn in just a week. If you already know programming, then learning Python will be like walking in the park for you. There are many resources available online and offline covering a wide range of topics. Being an open source language, Python is also supported by many programmers around the globe in the IRC system under the tag #python .

Tip

Python is named after the BBC show Monty Python's Flying Circus and has nothing to do with reptiles. Thus, making references to Monty Python skits in documentation is practiced and encouraged.

The Python newsgroup, comp.lang.python, and mailing list python-list at https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list will help you learn and explore Python.