Python is an interpreted, high-level and general-purpose programming language. Python's design philosophy emphasizes code readability with its notable use of significant whitespace. Its language constructs and object-oriented approach aim to help programmers write clear, logical code for small and large-scale projects. Python is dynamically typed and garbage-collected. It supports multiple programming paradigms, including structured (particularly, procedural), object-oriented, and functional programming. Python is often described as a "batteries included" language due to its comprehensive standard library. Python was created in the late 1980s, and first released in 1991, by Guido van Rossum as a successor to the ABC programming language. Python 2.0, released in 2000, introduced new features, such as list comprehensions, and a garbage collection system with reference counting, and was discontinued with version 2.7 in 2020. Python 3.0, released in 2008, was a major revision of the language that is not completely backward-compatible and much Python 2 code does not run unmodified on Python 3. With Python 2's end-of-life, only Python 3.6.x and later are supported, with older versions still supporting e.g. Windows 7 (and old installers not restricted to 64-bit Windows). Python interpreters are supported for mainstream operating systems and available for a few more (and in the past supported many more). A global community of programmers develops and maintains CPython, a free and open-source reference implementation. A non-profit organization, the Python Software Foundation, manages and directs resources for Python and CPython development. It currently ties with Java as the second most popular programming language in the world.
