Why Learn Python?

Python is a general-purpose language, which means it can be used to build just about anything, which will be made easy with the right tools/libraries.

Professionally, Python is great for backend web development, data analysis, artificial intelligence, and scientific computing. Many developers have also used Python to build productivity tools, games, and desktop apps, so there are plenty of resources to help you learn how to do those as well.

Compared to many languages, Python is easy to learn and to use. Its functions can be carried out with simpler commands and less text than most competing languages. And this might explain why it’s soaring in popularity, with developers, coding students and tech companies.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Python plays a small part of all of our lives. It’s one of those invisible forces with a presence in our mobile devices, web searches and gaming (and beyond). So it was an obvious choice for inclusion in our full stack coding bootcamp. Here’s an introduction to the language itself, and some of the everyday but profound, things that Python is used for.

Beginner Friendliness

Python was designed to be easy to understand and fun to use (its name came from Monty Python so a lot of its beginner tutorials reference it). Fun is a great motivator, and since you'll be able to build prototypes and tools quickly with Python, many find coding in Python a satisfying experience. Thus, Python has gained popularity for being a beginner-friendly language, and it has replaced Java as the most popular introductory language at Top U.S. Universities.

Easy to Understand

Being a very high level language, Python reads like English, which takes a lot of syntax-learning stress off coding beginners. Python handles a lot of complexity for you, so it is very beginner-friendly in that it allows beginners to focus on learning programming concepts and not have to worry about too much details.

Very Flexible

As a dynamically typed language, Python is really flexible. This means there are no hard rules on how to build features, and you'll have more flexibility solving problems using different methods (though the Python philosophy encourages using the obvious way to solve things). Furthermore, Python is also more forgiving of errors, so you'll still be able to compile and run your program until you hit the problematic part.

Compatible with Major Platforms and Systems:

Python is mainly compatible with major platforms and systems because of which it is used mainly for developing applications. With help of python interpreters, python code can be run on specific platforms and tools as it supports many operating systems. As python is an interpreted high-level programming language and it allows you to run the code on multiple platforms. The new and modified code can be executed without recompiling and its impact can be monitored or checked. It means it’s not required to recompile the code after every change. This feature helps in saving the development time of the developers.

Access of Database:

Uses of Python also helps in accessing the database easily. Python helps in customizing the interfaces of different databases like MySQL, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and other databases. It has an object database like Durus and ZODB. It is used for standard database API and freely available for download.

Code Readability:

Python code is easy to read and maintained. It is easily reusable as well wherever it is required. Python’s having simple syntax, which allows the different concepts to develop without writing any additional code. The code should be of good quality and easy to maintain the source code and simplify the maintenance, which is required to develop the software application. It also emphasizes code readability, which is the great feature, unlike other programming languages. It helps in building custom applications and clean code helps in maintaining and updating the software applications without putting extra effort on the same code.

Simplify Complex Software Development:

Applications of Python is used to simplifying the complex software development process as it is a general-purpose programming language. It is used for developing the complex application like scientific and numeric application, and for both desktop and web applications. Python has features like analyzing data and visualization, which helps in creating custom solutions without putting extra effort and time. It helps you to visualize and present data in an effective way.

Many Open Source Frameworks and Tools:

Python is open source and easily available. This also helps in costing the software development significantly. There are many open source applications of python frameworks, libraries, and development tools for developing the application without putting extra cost. Python frameworks simplify and make the process faster for web application development and the frameworks are Django, Flask, pyramid etc. Python GUI frameworks are available for developing the GUI based application.

Adopt Test Driven Development:

Python makes coding easier as well as testing with help of adopting Test Driven Development approach. The test cases can be easily written before any code development. Whenever the code development started, the written test cases can start testing the code simultaneously and provides the result. These can also be used for checking or testing the pre-requirements based on the source code.

Other applications for which python is used:

There are other applications for which python is used that are Robotics, web scraping, scripting, artificial intelligence, data analysis, machine learning, face detection, color detection, 3D CAD applications, console-based applications, audio-based applications, video-based applications, enterprise applications, and applications for Images etc. These are some major applications used.

Libraries

Python has been around for over 20 years, so a lot of code written in Python has built up over the decades and, being an open source programming language, a lot of this has been released for others to use. Almost all of it is collected on https://pypi.python.org, pronounced “pie-pee-eye” or, more commonly called “the CheeseShop”. You can install this software on your system to be used by your own projects. For example, if you want to use Python to build scripts with command line arguments, you’d install the “click” library and then import it into your scripts and use it. There are libraries for pretty much any use case you can come up with, from image manipulation, to scientific calculations, to server automation.

Community

Python has user groups everywhere, usually called PUGs, and does major conferences on every continent other than Antarctica. PyCon NA, the largest Python conference in North America, sells out its 2,500 tickets this year. And, reflecting Python’s commitment to diversity, it had over 30% women speakers. PyCon NA 2013 also started a trend of offering “Young Coder” workshops, where attendees taught Python to kids between 9 and 16 years of age for a day, getting them familiar with the language and, ultimately, helping them hack and mod some games on the Raspberry Pis they were given. Being part of a such a positive community does a lot to keep you motivated. Check out PyCon to find your neareth Python conference.