The modern IT industry totals over a dozen programming languages. Some of them become more popular, while others are more specific in use. Python manages to take the leading place among multiple languages. Its popularity hasn’t ceased for several decades, proving its wide distribution and application in the IT sphere.
Python is a general-purpose programming language that is applied to a great diversity of areas: from creating banal web pages to control systems for rovers on other planets. This scripting language is versatile, which makes it the most demanded programming solution in the world.
Advantages of Python Language
The popularity of the programming language is mainly determined by its strengths. The main advantages of Python programming language include:
- A simple syntax, which means a low entry threshold. The language code is clean and clear, without unnecessary symbols and expressions. The number of lines of code required to output the phrase “Hello, world!” is significantly shorter than in C, C++, and Java. Python needs just 3 words.
- Extensibility and flexibility. “Just Import!” is one of its main slogans. It’s possible to easily extend the language to interact with other software systems or embed it in other programs as a component, which makes the language very flexible. This feature gives more opportunities for using the solution in different areas.
- Interpretability and cross-platform. Python has an interpreter for all popular platforms and is included by default in most Linux distributions.
- Standardization. This peculiarity comes as one of the main advantages of Python coding. It has a single standard for writing code — Python Enhancement Proposal or PEP, thanks to which the language remains readable even when moving from one software engineer to another.
- Open Source. The Python interpreter has open-source code, which means that anyone interested in the development of the language can participate in its development and improvement.
- Strong community and conferences. A friendly community has formed around Python. Skilled developers unite to share their knowledge and help less experienced colleagues to understand their problems.
- Diverse sphere of applications. Python is applied to different directions for development, including web projects, automating business processes, data processing, and game development.
- Demand in the labor market and support from IT giants. Python developers are in demand in many projects and it is easy for them to find work. It is carried out at Google, Facebook, Dropbox, Spotify, Quora, Netflix, and Microsoft Intel. This benefit significantly affects the status of the language.
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Disadvantages of Python Language
Like any other language, Python has not only pros but also cons. So, along with the advantages of using Python, shortcomings come. The main weaknesses of the programming language include:
- Low performance. Python requires high computing power of servers and computers. This makes it not as fast as users would like. Thus, it lags behind other languages in terms of performance. In the context of strong development of capacities, this is not as noticeable as before but still makes itself felt. To mitigate this problem, developers turn to C to implement the problematic section of the code.
- Dynamic typing. Python is a dynamically typed language, which makes it incredibly flexible in development. But at the same time, it consumes a lot of resources and has a low program execution speed.
- Global interpreter lock (GIL). This is a method of synchronizing threads used in some interpreted programming languages, such as Python and Ruby. Although GIL is the easiest way to avoid conflicts when different threads access the same memory areas, at the same time, this approach has a drawback — it limits the parallelism of computations. It also does not allow for achieving high computational efficiency when working on multi-core and multi-processor systems.
- Syntax and semantics. Although many consider syntax to be one of the benefits of using the programming language, there are a number of architectural decisions that can confuse programmers accustomed to working in other languages.
Despite the mentioned drawbacks, Python does not lose its relevance. Advantages overweight and create a favorable environment for new software development.
Applications Where Python Can Be Used
Now, let’s discuss what it is used for. Python is applied to many projects both as the main language and for creating extensions and integrating applications. Three main areas of language use are web development, Big Data and Machine Learning, and scripting:
- Web development. Today, Python is widely applied to web development along with languages such as PHP, JavaScript, Java, and C#. It is suitable for small businesses that do not have large development departments and that implement relatively simple projects.
Enhanced structure, ease of learning, versatility, accessible tools for debugging the language, and the presence of a friendly community are the advantages of using Python for the backend compared to PHP.
- Data Science and Machine Learning. Nowadays, these are topical areas, in which Python is used for both data analysis and writing ML algorithms in analytical applications. Programmers highlight scikit-learn and TensorFlow among the popular frameworks and libraries for ML.
- Scripting. The process implies writing scripts to automate simple tasks. For instance, these could be additional modules or plugins for existing software. Python is also used to automate software testing.
Besides, Python is widely applied to game development precisely because of its ability to create reliable and well-thought-out scripts with the help of the language. They are responsible for the movement of characters, the execution of any actions, the transition from one event in the game to another, and so on. It can also be used in mobile app development as a supplementary tool.
These mentioned benefits of Python coding explain why the language is so popular. It is the most widely spread and popular option in the IT sphere. By mastering this language, specialists can easily enter the IT market and proceed to work on project development.
