what exactly are built-in types in Python?
<p>I keep hearing "everything is an object" in both Ruby and Python world. Well, what are built-in functions then? Can someone explain that in layperson English?
For example: </p>

<pre><code>file=open(abc.txt)
</code></pre>

<p>open is a built-in function. Is it an object? Is it a method? Of what class?</p>

<p>How did we even end-up with <strong>functions in Python</strong> if everything is an object? I mean, shouldn't we be having class, objects, methods and attributes, instead of functions? I thought we had functions in languages like C. Python, Ruby and Java had classes, objects, attributes, methods.</p>

<p>In Ruby (<strong>irb</strong>), you could do something like <code>1.class</code> and this will give you <code>Fixnum</code>it will show you which class it belongs to. I don't seem to be able to do this in Python shell. Is there an equivalent?</p>

<p>FYI:</p>

<ul>
<li>I am using Python 2.7</li>
<li>relatively new to programming so please use layperson English. For instance, I read in one of the answers "But everything is an object in the sense that it can be assigned to a variable or passed as an argument to a function" --- no idea what that means.</li>
</ul>
