WHY LEARN PYTHON? 12 REASONS WORTH READING

WHAT IS PYTHON?

Python is an interpreted, object- oriented, high-level programming language with dynamic semantics. Python’s simple, easy to learn syntax emphasises readability and therefore reduces the cost of program maintenance. It supports modules and packages, which encourages program modularity and code reuse.

WHY USE IT?

1. Learning programming language doesn’t sound as exciting as a break dance competition on an aircraft carrier. Luckily, python was designed with the newcomer in mind. Python reads like kindergarten math and is easy on the layman’s eye. The use of white space and common expressions has eliminated the need for tedious variable declarations and unattractive curly brackets. Python also requires less code to complete basic tasks, making it an economical language to learn. Python code is often 3-5 times shorter than java, and 5-10 times shorter than C plus plus. But while python is easy to learn in itself. Companies such as Google, Yahoo!, Disney, Nokia, and IBM all use Python. In fact, among programming languages, python had largest year-on-year job demand growth. In New York, python developers ranked 8 of the most in-demand tech workers.

2.    Python programming eliminates the complexity of Artificial intelligence which is the study and design of intelligent agents, where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximise its chances of success.

3.     Python is the best software for analysing and modelling data.

4. Many organisations are using python like Corel, D-link, Eve-online, forcastWatch.com, Frequentis, Honeywell, HP, industrial light and magic, Philips, United space alliance just to mention but a few these days to perform major tasks. You don’t necessarily hear about them because organisations are usually reserved about giving their trade secrets. However, python is still there making a big difference in the way organisations work and toward keeping the bottom line from bottoming out.

5. Paintshop pro is a product that many people have used over the years to grab screenshots, modify their pictures, draw images, and perform a lot of other graphics-oriented tasks. The amazing thing about this product is that it relies heavily on python scripting. In other words, to automate tasks in paintshop pro, you need to know python

Using python to create a multi-threaded application to drive updates to the devices allow one machine to service multiple devices, and a new methodology allowed by python reduces the number of reboots to just one after that new firmware is installed. Python is chosen because it provides an easier-to-use serial communication.

6. Python can be used to compare the forecasts produced by thousands of weather forecasters each day against actual climatological data to determine their accuracy. The resulting reports are used to help improve weather forecasts. In this case, the software used to make comparison is written in pure python because it comes with standard libraries useful in collecting, parsing, and storing data form online sources. In addition, python’s enhanced multi-threading capabilities make it possible to collect the forecasts from around 5,000 online sources each day. Most important of all, the code is much smaller than would have been needed by other languages such as java or PHP

7. The next time you fly somewhere, you might be relying on python to get you the ground safely again. It turns out that frequentis is the originator of TAPTools, a software product that is used for air traffic control in many airports. This particular tool provides updates on the weather and runaway conditions to air traffic controllers

8. Documenting large systems is expensive and error prone. Python can be used to perform automated testing of applications. Additionally, python can be used to control a co-operative environment between applications used to generate documentation for the applications. The result is that python helps generate the reports that form the documentation for the setup.

9. The use of python makes it easier to modify search engine to meet specific needs. In addition, python provides smoother multi-threaded operation than some other language, such as java, do.

10. Python can be use in the production process for scripting complex, computer graphic-intensive films. Originally, some industries relied on Unix shell scripting, but it was found that this solution just couldn’t do the job. Python was compared to other languages such as Tcl and Perl, and chosen because it’s easier to-learn language that the organisation can implement incrementally. In addition, python can be embedded within larger software system as a scripting language, even if the system is written in a language such as C plus plus. It turns out that python can successfully interact with these other languages in situation in which some language can’t

11. Automation is essential in the semiconductor industry, so imagine trying to coordinate the effort of thousands of robots. After a number of solutions, many industries decided to go for python sequencing language (the language that tells which steps each robot should take). The low-level code is written in C plus plus, which is another reason to use python because python works well with C plus plus.

12. Workflow Automation System(WAS), an application designed to manage NASA and other third-party projects. The setup uses a central oracle database as a repository for information. Python was chosen over languages such as java and C plus plus because it provides dynamic typing and pseudo-code-like syntax and it has an interpreter. The result is that the application is developed faster, and unit testing each piece is easier.

Watch out for the tutorial on Python, More so, don't forget we are still on SPSS training this weeks. Feel free to ask questions.