Python is a high-level programming language first released by Guido van Rossum in 1991. Python is designed around a philosophy which emphasizes readability and the importance of programmer effort over computer effort. Python is often characterized as minimalist, although this only applies to the core language's syntax and semantics; the standard library provides the language with a large number of additional libraries and extensions.
Python is a multi-paradigm programming language which has a fully dynamic type system and uses automatic memory management; it is thus similar to Perl, Ruby, Scheme, Smalltalk, and Tcl.
The language has an open, community-based development model managed by the non-profit Python Software Foundation. While various parts of the language have formal specifications and standards, the language as a whole is not formally specified. The de facto standard for the language is the CPython implementation.