Python

Python is a high-level interpreted language designed around functionality and cleanliness. It is often compared to perl in terms of functionality and usage.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Python

Python draws strength from being convenient and simple to write. Many people view it as one of the easiest scripting languages to code in. As such, a common usage for python is to write a 'prototype' of a program before implementing it in a heavier language like C. Furthermore, due to it's interpretive nature, a python script is easily modified - there are no compiled binaries to disassemble and reverse-engineer.

However, the language's strengths often become weaknesses. For example, as was noted before, python is not a compiled language. This means that it is very difficult to protect python code - every program is in its raw form, and can be freely edited and reused. There are methods, such as code obfuscation, that can be used to protect code, but these are not foolproof. In addition, python programs tend to run inefficently, hogging more resources than necessary - tasks like cracking, encryption, or anything that requires large numbers of computations should preferably be automated with some other language.

One of the most pertinent drawbacks to python is it's incompatibility - as of version 3.0 of Python, a large portion of the language has been rewritten, including many keywords being turned into functions - for example

 
print "hello, world!" #a keyword
 

would now be

 
print("hello, world!") #a function
 

Although this and other changes are relatively minor, they render python 3.0 programs incompatible with 2.6, 2.5 etc. This is further exascerbated by the fact that many developers continue to code in 2.6.

Installation

Python development is based at it's website at python.org.