What’s a Programming Language?

Directions to the nearest bus station can be given in English, Portuguese, Mandarin, Hindi, and many other languages. As long as the people you’re talking to understand the language, they’ll get to the bus station.

Similarly, there are many programming languages, and they all can add numbers, read information from files, and create user interfaces with windows, buttons, and scroll bars. The instructions appear differently, but they serve the same purpose. For example, in the Python programming language, here’s how you add 3 and 4:

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3 + 4

But here’s how it’s done in the Scheme programming language:

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(+ 3 4)

They both convey the same idea—but they appear differently.

Every programming language has a way to write mathematical expressions, repeat a list of instructions several times, choose which of two instructions to do based on the current information you have, and much more. In this book, you’ll learn how to do these things in the Python programming language. Once you understand Python, learning another programming language will be much easier.

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