Why Do We Love Python Language? Pros and Cons of Python

Our SoftFormance team tried and practiced quite a few different programming languages, but still our biggest love is Python. And in this post will try to explain why do like to use Python as developers, what are Python strengths and weaknesses, and why it’s so good for business owners.

Good for Developers and for Entrepreneurs

Python is high-level programming language with dynamic types and clear easy to use syntax. That’s why developers enjoy using it and write code pretty fast.

For project owner this usually means quicker development cycles and thus lower budgets.

A significant advantage of Python is that programs written in Python, usually could be easily be ported on almost all known popular operating systems. The same source code, without essential changes, can do well in Linux, FreeBSD, MacOS, Windows, and even on new mobile platforms like Android and iOS.

Cross-platform is a huge plus when developing larger projects:

• changes made ​​in code equally working on different platforms;
• no need to involve profesionals from other platforms (and other languages ​);
• cover a large range of users and devices.

Easy to read and understand code also means that any Python project could be easily picked up by a different development team. This is very good thing for Customer as it saves some time and money while also decreases the risk of being left w/o development team in the future.

Finally. one of the most critical benefits of Python is that it is a quick language to create new quickly project upon. Hence, it’s very good for 2 things:

• creating prototypes; it’s easy to use and create code from the scratch;
• adopt to new project requirements and quickly change ongoing development milestone according to updated specifications.

Disadvantages of Python

We’ve already mentioned some notable advantages of Python. However, to provide an objective overview of pros and cons of Python, we should also mention some disadvantages of this technology.

Database Access Limitations

Python may be not the best solution if you want to use some legacy databases.

Especially when it comes to complex data solutions that have been working for too long.

Memory Consumption

This programming language is often about high memory consumption.

So, the developers may take some extra time to configure Python code for some memory-intensive tasks.

Mobile Development Limitations of Python

Python may be a dream solution for web development.

However, it may be not the best solution for mobile development.

It is all about language purpose determined by its original founding fathers.

So, as you may see, the list of Python disadvantages is far from being critical. Basically, there are much more good things about this programming language.

What can be done with Python?

As a result of its simplicity, flexibility and power, Python gathered many fans and could be applied in the next most popular sectors:

• Web-programming: programming the server side (back-end), such as the provisioning of logic service, access, connectivity to the database, etc.;
• System Programming: scripts, libraries, and packages to operating systems – area that has traditionally belonged to such languages ​​as bash, perl, ruby;
• Desktop Applications: create applications with graphical user interface (GUI) – the so-called desktop applications provided interfaces to the most famous graphic libraries like PyQt, WxPython, Tkinter and others.

Such a wide range areas of applications opens additional benefits that can be obtained by studying the Python language for Developers.

So Python is programming language running on multiple platforms and could be used for many different purposes.

For Business Owners that depend on this language in their products, this means that they can hire one development team and be provided with full stack of services regardless of operational system and type of application that needs to be created (be it mobile app, website and desktop program).

Python Tools and Frameworks

Most Popular Trend – Web programming

This area is represented by a huge number of Web-frameworks and CMSes (content management systems). In this case the number directly affects the quality (competition has not been canceled):

Django – one of the most popular opensource high-level web-frameworks for rapid development of web sites with python. Here I want to mention the following features:

• MVC (Model-View-Controller) – an architectural pattern that divides the system into three parts: data model, data view and controller;
• structural product consists of a number of applications, which adds flexibility;
• ORM – technology that links a database with the concept of OOP (object oriented programming); for example, a data structure describing the class, and the data presented objects; this allows developer to focus on logic instead of wasting his time on data layer, which is usually the same for all apps.

TurboGears is a Python web framework that unlike Django is not monolithic, but consists of several third-party components:

• CherryPy  – for url dispatchering, http-server and system configuration;
• Kid – for templates;
• SQLObject –  for database;
• MochiKit – for Javascript.

Web2py – a complete framework for flexible enterprise-class web application with access database. Web2py allows you to create and develop applications online. Similar to Django.

Plone CMS. Works using server Zope (Web Application Server written on Python. A special feature is that all data are objects, which are placed in a hierarchical order and stored in a object database named ZODB. Famous for its great security record, document management collaboration tools and its awesome community. This CMS is popular among educational institutes, governments and used as company intranets.

Plone CMS is our favorite content management system.

DjangoCMS. Content management system, which is based on Django. It’s light in the context of performance, actively developed and with great documentation. One of the most popular CMSes built on top of Django framework.

Skeletonz. One of the most simple content management systems, which is written in Python. Originally based on Web frameworks CherryPy and library SQLObject. Advantages: simplicity and speed.

Scripting and Administration Related Tasks

Provided wide range of built-in Python libraries, it’s a great tool for writing quick administration scripts and libraries, parsing and analyzing different data and automating jobs.

Anything related to the next set of tasks could be easily and quickly coded with Python:

• filesystem operations with module for working with files;
• mathematics module will make it a breath to program math calculations;
• need network communications? libraries for network protocols will help do it;
• login module and output messages, and many many more things will allow you to code anything you need.

Desktop Applications

There are quick a few good UI related frameworks built with Python that make it easy and quick task to create your next desktop application.

Some of the most popular ones are:

• PyQT: this library connects python with QT. QT – is a cross-platform library of C++ classes for creating graphical interfaces (GUI); it has wide number of libraries for different platforms;
• WxPython: python bridge with wxWidgets library. wxWidgets is a C++ library that gives opportunity to create applications for different platforms;
• Kivy: an interesting library for developing cross-platform applications, sharpened for touch devices (tablets, touch phones, etc.).

To Summarize…

Having simple and nice looking syntax gives developers opportunity to quickly learn this great programming language and write code pretty fast. Wide range of libraries and adoptions allows developers to use the language for wide range of different tasks from web development to desktop applications and administration tasks, and this all could be done on different platforms!

Due to its popularity this is pretty easy to find Python language experts and hire them for your next big thing. As well as find support team for your existing applications built with Python language.

Due to its simplicity and quick programming speed we highly recommend considering this language as your tool for your next product. This will save you some time and money!