Book Image

ArcPy and ArcGIS: Geospatial Analysis with Python

Book Image

ArcPy and ArcGIS: Geospatial Analysis with Python

Overview of this book

Table of Contents (19 chapters)
ArcPy and ArcGIS – Geospatial Analysis with Python
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

What is the Python interpreter?


The Python interpreter, on a Windows environment, is a program that has been compiled into a Windows executable, which has the extension .exe. The Python interpreter, python.exe, has been written in C, an older and extensively used programming language with a more difficult syntax.

Programs written in C, which are also initially written as text files, must be converted into executables by a compiler, a specialized program that converts the text commands into machine code to create executable programs. This is a slow process that can make producing simple programs in C a laborious process. The benefit is that the programs produced are standalone programs capable of running without any dependencies. Python, on the other hand, interprets and executes the Python commands quickly, which makes it a great scripting language, but the scripts must be run through an interpreter and cannot be executed by themselves.

The Python interpreter, as its name implies, interprets...