We can narrow the vast universe of programming languages to two basic types. The first is low level languages which create machine or assembly language. The second type is a high level language. Common examples are C, C++, Perl and Java.
Python is a high level language. We use a high level language because writing and reading the code is easier, portable and less prone to human error. A high level language is always processed into a low level language using a process. There are two major processes to accomplish this:
1. Interpretation
2. Compilation
Compilation uses a program called a compiler. The Compiler takes the high level language, or source code, and produces an executable. The executable will sometimes be referred to as a binary or object code. This can then be executed by a computer repeatedly.
Intepretation uses a program called an intepreter. The Interpreter takes teh high level language, or source code, and processes the code in small increments. No compilation required.
Python is considered a Interpreted language.
This allows a programmer to execute commands immediately against the interpreter and produce a result. This is sometimes referred to as command line mode in the Python universe. You can also write a script file and then ask the interpreter to run the commands in the script file. The convention in the Python universe is to end all Python scripts with a .py extension.
The following video demonstrates the two ways to issue commands against the python interpreter: