Python

Earlier I posted about Python.  Since then I’ve worked a Python project that interacted with a SQL database using SQL Alchemy and got an opportunity to do quite a bit in the way of data transformation and data integration, leveraging Python’s remarkably flexible capabilities and rich libraries for use with analytics, machine learning and deep learning, and more.  It’s a great language.  I love Java but I can certainly see why Python has the momentum right now.  It’s an easy language to pick up.  Whereas a typical Java program requires quite a bit to reach the simple “Hello, World” test program, Python gets you there much more quickly.

print("Hello, world");

That’s it! Crazy easy. Compare this to Java:

public class demonstrateHelloWorld {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println("Hello, World");
    }
}

Now – to be fair – there’s a reason this Java example is more involved, its due to Java’s requirement that code be structured in the form of a class. Python doesn’t require that but offers the same option. If you’ve seen this sort of Python code:

if __name__ == "__main__":
  print('Hello, world')

… then you know what I’m talking about.

A side-by-side comparison of the two languages is more involved that I intend to do here, my only point is that Python is very easy to start with and get productive with quickly.

For example, interacting with local text files can be involved with other languages. With Python, its simple:

file = open('output.txt', 'w')
file.write('Hello World')
file.close()

That’s it. Stupid simple.

My last project this year involved middleware servers, REST services, data tranformations of all sorts, multiple databases and data stores leveraging SQL and JSON, abstracted environment configurations to support dev ops in the larger environment, and more. Easy to manage in Python.

It’s a great language. Java is still number one, and the last I checked I think even C++ still dominates over Python on the list of world’s most in-use software languages.

But Python is the one to watch.