Unveiling Python's Soaring Success

Python, a versatile and general-purpose programming language, has witnessed a meteoric rise in popularity, now standing as one of the foremost programming languages globally. Its ubiquity spans from fledgling startups to Fortune 500 behemoths and caters to individuals ranging from coding novices to seasoned software engineering experts.

This ascendancy began to replace Java and PHP as one of the primary languages taught in undergraduate computer science courses at prestigious American Ivy League institutions in 2016, a shift attributed to Python's widespread industry acceptance and its user-friendly learning curve—exemplified by the adoption of Python over PHP in Harvard's acclaimed CS50 course (1).

The upward trajectory of Python's popularity persists, securing a coveted third place in Stack Overflow's 2023 Developer Survey for the most extensively used language in the previous 12 months. It trails only behind JavaScript and the inseparable duo of HTML/CSS. This is a remarkable leap from its 2016 position, where it ranked sixth, trailing behind Java, C#, and PHP (2).

But what accounts for Python's popularity?

Firstly, its versatility is unparalleled. Python finds extensive application in diverse domains such as web development, DevOps, data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and game development. Frameworks like Flask, FastAPI and Django have witnessed a surge in popularity in web development, while Python stands unchallenged as the language of choice in data science and machine learning, boasting frameworks like PyTorch, TensorFlow, and Scikit-learn. Can you guess what language the foundation model (FM) for ChatGPT was written in? You guessed it. Python. Even industry giants like Amazon Web Services (AWS) favor Python for DevOps tasks, showcasing its prevalence in cloud infrastructure provisioning, configuration management, monitoring, and deployment.

Notably, Python's expansive and active developer community plays a pivotal role in its success. The community continually contributes to new libraries and frameworks, fostering an inclusive and supportive environment. If you need an API for a given use case, chances are that someone in the community already has a well maintained library that you can import for your project and then contribute on. Major cloud computing platforms, such as AWS and Microsoft Azure, underscore Python's significance through extensive code examples in their documentation, affirming its role as a linchpin in cloud computing. Just this year, AWS funded the first full time Safety and Security Engineer role at the Python Software Foundation to enhance security for PyPI, the centralized Python package repository (3). This demonstrates AWS's reliance on Python and their dedication to safeguarding their cloud customers, partners, and their own infrastructure from supply chain attacks.

Ease of adoption further propels Python's acclaim. A high-level programming language, Python abstracts away complexities while maintaining human readability. The wealth of available learning resources, with realpython.com's comprehensive offerings being a personal recommendation (I regularly tune in to their insightful podcast each week, which I suggest for those new to Python and as a valuable resource for seasoned users), greatly streamlines the onboarding experience (4). The community's passion and enthusiasm further contribute to Python's welcoming and inclusive atmosphere.

Addressing a common critique, it is true that Python is considered slower and more resource-intensive than some languages. However, this perceived drawback is outweighed by Python's 'batteries included' philosophy, prioritizing ease of use over raw performance. While performance may be a crucial factor in specific contexts, Python's ecosystem and community support make it the preferred choice for a myriad of applications. Notably, core Python developers actively pursue performance improvements, with Python 3.12's October 2023 release marking a stride towards genuine multi-core parallelism (5) —an essential evolution in the current hardware paradigm emphasizing increased core count.

In conclusion, Python's rise to preeminence is a testament to its adaptability, community support, and commitment to continuous improvement. From academia to industry giants, Python's influence remains unparalleled, ensuring its place at the forefront of the programming landscape. Embrace this language in your technology stack, and make the leap to try out a new framework, package or application. I promise you won’t be disappointed. And if you need help with anything, feel free to get in touch.

References:

(1) Harvard CS50 by David J. Milan: https://cs50.medium.com/this-shall-be-cs50-2016-faed96945f81

(2) Stack Overflow 2023 Developer Survey: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2023

(3) AWS Security Sponsorship of the Python Package Index (PyPI): https://blog.pypi.org/posts/2023-05-09-announcing-pypi-safety-and-security-engr-role/ and https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/securing-pypi-for-the-future/#:~:text=We%20are%20excited%20to%20announce,to%20the%20Python%20programming%20language.

(4) Realpython.com learning resources: https://realpython.com/

(5) Multi-core parallelism in Python, PEP684: https://peps.python.org/pep-0684/