About Python
Before we get into the gory details, let us get a sense of why someone would want to use Python. It embodies the following qualities.
Portability
Python runs everywhere, and porting a program from Linux to Windows or Mac is usually just a matter of fixing paths and settings. Python is designed for portability, and it takes care of specific operating system (OS) quirks behind interfaces that shield you from the pain of having to write code tailored to a specific platform.
Coherence
Python is extremely logical and coherent. You can see it was designed by a brilliant computer scientist. Most of the time, you can just guess what a method is called if you do not know it.
You may not realize how important this is right now, especially if you are not that experienced as a programmer, but this is a major feature. It means less clutter in your head, as well as less skimming through the documentation, and less need for mappings in your brain when you code.
Developer productivity
According to Mark Lutz (Learning Python, 5th Edition, O’Reilly Media), a Python program is typically one-fifth to one-third the size of equivalent Java or C++ code. This means the job gets done faster. And faster is good. Faster means being able to respond more quickly to the market. Less code not only means less code to write, but also less code to read (and professional coders read much more than they write), maintain, debug, and refactor.
Another important aspect is that Python runs without the need for lengthy and time-consuming compilation and linkage steps, so there is no need to wait to see the results of your work.
An extensive library
Python has an incredibly extensive standard library (it is said to come with batteries included). If that wasn’t enough, the Python international community maintains a body of third-party libraries, tailored to specific needs, which you can access freely at the Python Package Index (PyPI). When you code in Python and realize that a certain feature is required, in most cases, there is at least one library where that feature has already been implemented.
Software quality
Python is heavily focused on readability, coherence, and quality. The language’s uniformity allows high readability, and this is crucial nowadays, as coding is more of a collective effort than a solo endeavor. Another important aspect of Python is its intrinsic multiparadigm nature. You can use it as a scripting language, but you can also employ object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles—it is extremely versatile.
Software integration
Another important aspect is that Python can be extended and integrated with many other languages, which means that even when a company is using a different language as their mainstream tool, Python can come in and act as a gluing agent between complex applications that need to talk to each other in some way. This is more of an advanced topic, but in the real world, this feature is important.
Data science
Python is among the most popular (if not the most popular) languages used in the fields of data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence today. Knowledge of Python is therefore almost essential for those who want to have a career in these fields.
Satisfaction and enjoyment
Last, but by no means least, there is the fun of it! Working with Python is fun; we can code for eight hours and leave the office happy and satisfied, unaffected by the struggle other coders have to endure because they use languages that do not provide them with the same amount of well-designed data structures and constructs. Python makes coding fun, no doubt about it, and fun promotes motivation and productivity.
These are the major reasons why we would recommend Python to everyone. Of course, there are many other technical and advanced features that we could have mentioned, but they do not really pertain to an introductory section like this one. They will come up naturally, chapter after chapter, as we learn about Python in greater detail.
Now, let’s look at what the potential limitations of Python are.
