How to Use the Word, “Pythonic”

To begin, you should know something. It’s a word. One word. It’s a weird word. But it’s real. I understand if you don’t believe me. I had doubts myself.

The word is pythonic.

Pythonic is an adjective. You can guess what it describes. But let it sink in for a second. What makes python, python? How is it different from any other language? Python was written in C. So is it also C? Python is object-oriented. So is it like Java, or maybe C++?

Python is certainly its own language. With time, you will get to know what makes some things pythonic or not. For now, just be aware. Some of these things are python’s “built-ins.” A built-in refers to anything in python you can use without importing.

We’ve learned about the numerical built-ins integers and floats (and complex numbers). For clarity, a built-in is something special to python; a datatype is how the data is considered and stored. There are other datatypes and built-ins, some we will learn in non-numerical data structures. Some we won’t learn. Some are being built as we speak. That’s what makes this programming language so great. There’s a huge pythonic community and anyone can add cool stuff to it (namely, here).

But how does one add to python? Here’s where object-oriented programming comes in. Each of these so-called “built-ins” are constructed using the python class. A class is what makes something written in python like, a thing. A thing you can use later if you want. You simply import the thing. Then you create an instance of the thing locally (“local” refers to on your machine or in your environment). Every thing in python is really an object. Here is a less colloquial but possibly more helpful way of saying that:

” Objects are an encapsulation of variables and functions into a single entity. Objects get their variables and functions from classes. Classes are essentially a template to create your objects. “
– classes and objects by learnpython.org

Those basics down, we’re ready for python.