Why Python?
With the ever-augmenting technological world, the companies are shifting to a data-driven approach to make strategic decisions and serve their customers and consumers effectively. This gives rise to the world of Data Science, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence. Over the globe today, these fields are the most trending ones, and they have a really great scope. And these make Python language win popularity with each passing day.
Python was first released in 1991 by Guido van Rossum. It took a couple of decades for the programmers to accept Python. But since the early 2010s, it has been roaring and gained stupendous popularity and now outstripping C, C++, Java, and JavaScript.
Let’s take a closer look into the popularity of Python over the past few years. Here is a visual representation that reflects the popularity of Python. The PYPL (PopularitY of Programming Language) Index is generated by analyzing how often languages are searched on Google. It’s pretty acceptable to assume that the more a programming language is searched, the more popular it is.
What makes Python so damn popular?
1. Very beginner-friendly
Python is a general-purpose, interpreted, object-oriented, high-level programming language with dynamic semantics. With the feature of dynamic typing in Python, you can declare the variable without specifying its type like String, Boolean or Int. You just need to declare a variable and Python will understand the variable type. This makes Python easy to learn and use. Compared to other languages, Python has a simpler syntax that enhances readability and conceivability. For instance, have a glance at the subsequent codes that print “Hello World” in C, C++, Java, and Python.
Python encourages you to focus more on the logic and concept rather than the code. This fascinates the new programmers to learn Python, and it is now the most prevalent introductory teaching language in several universities. Despite being easier, Python is so powerful that it is a great pick for beginners as well as experts.
2. Amazing community support
Python was created three decades ago, and its popularity has skyrocketed the growth of its supporting community. There are ample documentation, blogs, papers, projects, and video tutorials related to Python ranging from amateur level to geek level for the people to learn and upgrade their skills. As a beginner, one finds a lot of guides in the Python community. Whereas, as an expert, one finds a lot of peers to help. The Python community has massive support of many developers who contribute to the community by creating Python libraries. A programming language cannot flourish if it doesn’t have a good supporting community. Python gives an edge over other languages because it has a highly active supporting community.
3. Highly versatile
Python is a highly versatile language used for Data Science, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence, Web Development, Desktop Applications, Business Applications, Cloud Computing, Game Development, and even Embedded Applications. The versatility of Python raises its demand in the job market. Hence, each company is shifting to Python for some or the other purpose to improve their services. With all these advancements, Python has managed to stay at the top in recent years, and I can speculate that it will also stay at the peak for a few other decades.
4. Flexible and productive
The beauty of Python is that it doesn’t limit its developers. It allows the developers to explore, experiment, and create amazing projects and beyond. Therefore, making Python flexible and productive. Its easy syntax, supporting community, tools, and libraries give a chance to developers to try various things and hence contributing to its versatility. Debugging is comparatively faster in Python, and developers often fall in love with this. Flexibility and productivity give a shine again to Python because no languages are as flexible as Python.
5. Python libraries
All these years from the time Python was built, the developers have created so many packages, libraries, and tools for each and every purpose. The Python developers contribute to the community by creating various excellent Python libraries. These libraries are so beneficial with their predefined codes that they save our time and efforts. Various resources are available for you to learn and explore these libraries. Machine Learning is one of the fastest-growing fields, and Python serves the highest number of libraries to this field.
6. Demand in the job market
The popularity of a language is directly proportional to the demand in the job market. There’s a huge impact on the job market because of Python’s versatility. It is used in most of the technologies by almost all the companies including the top companies like Google, Microsoft, Tesla, Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, Netflix, and the list stretches till infinity. Python has become the core language for future technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, etc.
Developers, Python is never going to leave you high and dry!
There is a boatload of reasons to adore Python, and I hope this article enlightened you about Python language and its awesomeness. Now, if someone questions you “Why Python?”, you surely have the answer to it.
Aren’t you on your way already to make Python your first language or your favourite language?
