Python is an interpreted multiple paradigm language.
It is very expressive. In Python 3 the hello world tutorial is as simple as running (with the Python interpreter) a script containing:
Compared to the equivalent in C++ (which must be compiled before execution):
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
cout << "Hello World!" << endl;
}
Unfortunately its flexibility and expressiveness come at a price. Interpreted programs execute slower than compiled programs. However, for most uses it isn't a problem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_paradigm#Multi-paradigm_programming_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_multi-paradigm_programming_languages#Four_paradigm-languagesI generally prefer to use the object oriented paradigm.
In the object oriented paradigm, the data your program works with is abstracted as objects.
Objects have data (attributes) and functions that act on that data (methods).
If we were to write a media library, movies could be abstracted by a movie class.
One of the advantages of abstraction could come from polymorphism.
Polymorphism is Greek meaning "having multiple forms", and in object orientation it means that an abstraction can have many different concrete forms, but can be treated the same via the abstraction.
For instance, in our media library perhaps we want our program to work with both media files on the computer and media files on the web.
If we write our movie class correctly, it will represent all movies and have one play method to play any movie.
Our media library (or any other software we write using the class) can play the movie simply by calling the play method, and the movie class implementation will handle the technical details.
If the movie were on the computer, the class would read it from disk. If the movie was a web video, the class would embed a stream.
Unfortunately without an actual problem I can't get much more concrete.
It is also a high level language, so it is more like "glue". Low-level work like hardware interaction is done in a language like C or C++. It is entirely possible to extend Python with modules (think plugins) written in C++, or embed Python in a C++ application. It is even possible to "wrap" C++ dynamically linked libraries. I've done that once, so my knowledge of melding Python to "the system" is virtually nonexistent. I'm sorry I don't know more.