Python in Education

Cross-Platform Runability  |  23

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Humanity

While not a strict feature of the language, Python’s community, his‐

tory and philosophy often shines through code written in Python.

The odd Monty Python reference (the website that hosts third-party

Python modules is called the Cheese Shop after the sketch about a

cheese shop with no cheese), a playful sense of fun (for instance,

“the PyPy project” is so named because it is a high-performance ver‐

sion of Python written in Python) and other apparent eccentricities

bestow upon Python the appearance of an approachable and inter‐

esting language. It’s obviously used by humans for humans rather

than being an abstract tool for esoterics.

Python’s community is a friendly and diverse bunch. It is to this

community of developers, teachers and students that I want to turn

in the next chapter.

Put simply, the Python community is the secret weapon of its

success.