Python vs Boa
Python and Boa are names of snakes, but in the computing world these names have absolutely nothing in common with snakes. Python is the name of a programming language while Boa, or Boa constructor, is a humorous name of an IDE(Integrated Desktop Environment) that follows the snake theme of Python. An IDE is a program that you can use to aid you in writing code for your application. It gives you the tools to manipulate objects, debug for errors, and even trace the code to find where your code needs to be corrected.
Python became very popular because of its very simplistic approach to coding. Instead of using curly braces to mark the beginning and end of a block, like most of the popular programming languages do, Python utilizes the change in indentation of each line of code. When the indentation increases, it indicates the start of a new block while a decrease indicates the end of the block. Most programmers already follow this practice, but other programming languages force them to still use the standard delimiters as it is needed by the parser. The lesser amount of code needed and the clutter-free nature of Python has attracted a lot of programmers. Programmers also like the extensible nature of the Python programming language. Any functionality that is lacking in Python can be added via modules that is written in C or C++.
Boa Constructor was written in Python, along with some of the applications that come along with it. It is also a free software, licensed under GPL, and can be used in multiple operating systems. But it is not the only available IDE that can be used with Python as there are others out there.
Today, the most prominent implementation of Python is called CPython. It works just like Java where it compiles the Python code into an intermediate bytecode than can then be executed by a virtual machine. There is also another version called Jython, that compiles the Python code in a Java bytecode and run on a Java virtual machine. Jython takes advantage of the popularity and widespread acceptance of the Java virtual machine. Regardless of which version you use, you would still need an IDE like Boa to make the coding much easier.
Summary:
1.Python is a programming language while Boa Constructor is an Integrated Desktop Environment
2.Boa Constructor was coded with Python
3.You can use other IDEs, aside from Boa, when coding with Python