🐍 Why Python is the most popular programming language? 👏

Guido van Rossum created something that became widely used, liked and supported by the rapidly growing community. Python now is one of the most popular programming languages used in a variety of fields and for different programs. Furthermore, it was ranked as the most popular programming language in 2019. This results were shown by IEEE Spectrum (after combining data from various sources) and PYPL PopularitY of Programming Language Index (after analyzing the frequency of language tutorials searches on Google).

Even though Python has its shortcomings (let’s be honest, every language has those), its online repository continues to be replenished by the new libraries that extend the language’s functionality. And all of it is being done by the passionate coders who are fond of Python and the possibilities that it provides.

So, let’s examine more closely, why really Python is so much-loved and holds number one positions in different domains, like AI programming, system tests, machine learning, scientific computing, web development, and even preferred to be taught in universities, among many other things.

1. Simplicity 😋

The first point that attracts more and more newcomers to learn and use Python is that it’s really simple in comparison to other programming languages. This is due to the Python’s quite readable syntax which reminds more of how the human mind thinks in English. It gives developers the opportunity to concentrate on the code itself and solve the problems at hand rather than to deal with technical complexities and confusements of the language’s syntax. The specific and straightforward rules ensure that code will be clean and understandable. All of it saves a huge amount of time and mental efforts, which makes Python very appealing for the beginners who are just starting to find their way around the programming world, as well as advanced coders who look to speed up the development process. This is also why this language was chosen as a part of schools and universities programs. (It became the official programming language for French schools.)

With Python you can do more writing fewer lines of code, and it doesn’t imply that you’ll lose in performance or scalability. The language is very strong and efficient. After familiarizing yourself with the basics you are already set to create something of your own. It’s versatile, has cross-platform compatibility and can be used for a broad range of applications. It’s no wonder why many companies, such as Google, Facebook, Netflix, Quora, Dropbox, etc. are also using it.

2. Libraries 📚

The other thing that adds to Python’s popularity is the extensive amount of packages and libraries that it provides. They can be quickly installed and inserted into a Python program without any hassle or obligatory payment. The number of available packages is over 200 000 and it only gets bigger. Brilliant developers that are part of the Python community from all over the world continue to create and share new bundles of code specifically for solving different problems.

These libraries make the development that much easier, since you no longer need to write all code from the ground up. Why waste time on something that already exist? It’s like solving the problem that has already been solved. You can just use someone’s library. You can also take advantage of its explanatory documentation to completely understand how to use it. This way you get a carcass and you can make whatever input you want to achieve the desired output.

The vast number of Python libraries and frameworks that are out there in your disposal can used for web development (Django, Flask, Sanic, Pyramid, etc.), creation of scripts, in data science for various mathematical and statistical operations (Numpy, Pandas, Quantecon.py, etc.), and so many others.

3. AI & ML 💻

Python is the number one choice when it comes to the rapidly developing and demandable technologies as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. These fields are trending so much because of the importance of work that they can do and insights that they can provide. AI & ML became a necessity in a world where there are large quantities of data that needs to be processed and analyzed intensely, conveniently and accurately in order to get the desired outcome. It can be deep research to improve user experience, or aimed at solving real-life issues, getting predictions to increase productivity, create effective strategies, etc. Basically things that cannot be done manually. Such technologies are very useful for businesses and for industrial development.

So, the fields themselves are quite awesome and many are interested in their growth. Consequently, the programming language prefered for their purposes gains a lot of interest as well. But why Python? The answer is easy. Python provides flexibility, stability, tools, community support and, again, libraries. Even though we’ve already stated just above that Python libraries are extremely cool and useful, still, we wanted to separately notice the specialized libraries for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. First of all, because there are a lot of them (like Keras, Mlpy, Scikit-learn, TensorFlow, Nilearn, etc.), and secondly, because they allow to access and handle data faster and simpler.

4. Community 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦

Python’s popularity and its community are two interrelated things. The more popular the language becomes, the bigger its community, and vise versa. Due to the fact that Python has been around for quite a while, the number of its supporters is significant. And it continues growing by the day. This is an important factor for many reasons, like many of the existent libraries has been written by the programmers and groups from this community.

Pythoniasts (as some may call them) are very helpful. There are less trouble to find Python developers for a project or seek advice, share knowledge among them. This kind of support system extremely helps to improve one’s knowledge and the language itself, and of course makes it easier to learn it.

Thanks to so many supporters, there are a lot of online resources dedicated to learning Python and different aspects of its usage. A huge number of courses, tutorials, YouTube videos and articles, practically everything you need to know is out there available for you in a vast majority at any given moment.

5. Business 📈

Here you might think that for business Python is very useful due to the large number of developers that support it. And it’s partly true, since you can faster find the person to get the job done. But here what’s up. At the beginning I’ve already mentioned that every language has its challenges. For Python it’s execution speed. Python is considered to be slightly slower than many other languages. But why it’s still not that big of a deal?

We live in a world full of different companies that compete against each other and the development speed matters a lot more than the program’s performance speed. The last companies can deal with using horizontal scaling, so that the servers will improve the execution. Anyway, innovation moves forward, computing power gets higher and multi-core processors get cheaper. But companies cannot delay the development process. To get ahead of the competition, you have to work faster and deliver prototypes within the shortest feasible time-frames.

In addition, employee’s time becomes more expensive. Even now it’s considered nearly the most expensive resource. So, the companies are interested not only in reduction of the development time, but also in saving money by reducing the amount of time spent by the developers working on the project. And those are good money, if you know what I mean.

You can see for yourself that Python, when compared to other programming languages, is a great choice for those companies, since it requires less time for writing code and building programs.

Conclusion 😊

We’ve highlighted just a few points that in my opinion are ones that influenced Python’s popularity the most. Without a doubt, every programming language has advantages and disadvantages. And Python is no exception. But it gained such big support and usability in so many different areas that its power is undeniable. And we really don’t think that Python will be suppressed or eliminated any time soon. Quite possible, it’ll continue evolving and dominating as a high-level programming language that it is.

So, what do you think about these reasons for Python’s popularity? Can you suggest any other points? We’re very interested in your thoughts on the matter.