The fastest growing programming language Python is on its way to becoming the most popular programming language in the world. Technology giants like Facebook,…
Python is on its way to becoming the most popular programming language in the world. Tech giants like Facebook, Amazon, Instagram, and Uber have used Python to build their mobile and desktop applications. In fact, 2018 ended with Python as the fastest growing programming language – with an increase of over 10% in the number of users.
The future looks bright for Python. The language's open source community continues to develop innovative libraries with a wide range of applications. Additionally, the world's big tech companies and top Python development companies are using it to build cutting-edge data analytics software that will change the way companies interact with their consumers.
These are just some of the things Python has in store for 2019 and beyond. Read on to learn more!
Python's growing user base
The number of Python users has increased steadily over the past ten years and continues to grow at more than 8% per year. Additionally, Stack Overflow's 2018 developer survey found that more software engineers are interested in learning Python than any other language.
Python has become so popular in part because it is so easy to learn – many novice programmers are excited to discover that they can start writing real code on the first day of learning. This is because Python was built specifically to overcome code readability issues found in Java and C languages. Additionally, developers can write code in fewer steps using Python.
The number of users is expected to continue growing as developers around the world continue to use the language to create successful websites and web applications. Furthermore, the rise of data science – a task for which Python is well suited – means that Python's user base will also grow outside of the traditional technology community.
Today, top technology companies use Python to create video games, enterprise software, and web applications.
Big Tech Loves Python
Facebook is a company that uses Python extensively. The Facebook development team uses Python to maintain its libraries and binary distribution. In fact, 21% of the company's business infrastructure code base is written in Python.
However, it's not just Big Tech that loves Python. Developers also went crazy about the language. Results from Stack Overflow's 2019 developer survey found that Python is the second most loved programming language among software developers, with 73% of Python developers saying they are “interested in continuing to develop with it.”
This bodes well for the future of Python. Developers are at the forefront of emerging technology – and Python is becoming the language of choice for new technologies like big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and more.
Python Frameworks
Frameworks are an essential time-saving tool for Python developers. They help software engineers deliver products faster by providing a ready-made framework for application development and reducing the amount of code.
The three most popular Python frameworks, Django, TurboGears, and Pyramid, are expected to undergo major changes over the next two years. Its open source communities are poised to release new libraries, plugins, and framework updates that will expand Python's capabilities and user base.
Django
Django is one of the most popular and versatile Python frameworks used across the industry. This open-source full-stack framework focuses on reducing web application development time. It achieves this goal through its open source nature – the community is constantly releasing new plugins and code to simplify the process.
Additionally, Django developers describe the framework as “batteries included.” This means it comes with a variety of third-party libraries – features that have made the framework popular with big companies like Spotify and YouTube, as well as Python development services. This includes authentication, administrative interface, session management, and more.
Experts expect Django's user base to continue to grow as more developers adopt Python for emerging technologies such as big data and machine learning. The framework community is expected to release several other database and data analysis-oriented libraries to keep up with demand.
TurboGears
TurboGears is another popular and open-source Python framework. This full-stack framework is designed to make web application development a much easier and faster process.
The framework is based on Ruby on the Rails and was built using the model-view-controller pattern. It allows developers to redirect business logic across platforms and reduce the amount of code written.
TurboGears users should be very excited about the future as the framework's community continues to improve its stability and capabilities. The developers hope to release a “minimal mode” in the future, which will serve as a microframework. This simplified version will help engineers create simple software quickly and efficiently, saving time and money.
Pyramid
Pyramid is an ultra-flexible and lightweight Python framework. Developers often use Pyramid to get basic web applications up and running as quickly as possible.
The team behind Pyramid refers to the framework as “the start small, finish big, stay finished framework.” It operates according to the principle of minimalism. This makes it a great option for experienced developers who value freedom. But, newcomers may want to avoid the language in favor of Django or TurboGears.
Pyramid 1.10 was released in late 2018 and comes with a variety of new features. This includes additional testing, execution policy improvements, and additional support for Python 3.7. Developers will also continue to flock to the framework in increasing numbers, largely because of the framework's minimalism and the freedom it offers.
Data analysis
The data analytics market is expected to double in size from $42 billion in 2018 to $103 billion in 2027. This growth means big things for Python since an estimated 58% of Python developers use the programming language for analytics of data.
The 72,000+ libraries in the Python Package Index are one of the main reasons why developers prefer Python for data analysis. Additionally, the Python Data Analysis Library called Pandas is used to import data and conduct time series analysis.
Python's extensive open source community has also created several popular task-specific libraries. SciPy is an excellent resource for traditional scientific analysis, while PyBrain is being used to model and build neural networks.
Interestingly, Python is not the most suitable programming language for data analysis. Still, many companies choose Python for data analysis because they can use the same development teams for multiple projects and because the language is already integrated into their company.
Facebook's quantitative engineering manager described his motivations for using Python, saying “One of the reasons we like using Pandas is because we like to stay in the Python ecosystem. We have a lot of systems within Facebook… that allow us to use Python to talk to these systems or they integrate with Python very easily or they are written in Python.”
More companies will start using Python to consolidate most of their development tasks into a single programming language. The language's open source community will likely release even more data analysis libraries over the next two to three years as the big data market continues to grow rapidly.
The future of Python
Python will remain one of the most popular programming languages in the world for the foreseeable future. The language's gentle learning curve, combined with its high degree of flexibility and wide range of plug-ins, will help it win over even more users in the coming years, especially in big tech.
Additionally, the Python community has created a wide variety of frameworks that make this language a great choice for many projects. Frameworks like Django, TurboGears and Pyramid reduce the amount of work required to develop web applications. They also shorten the length of the development cycle and increase data privacy protections.
Python is also an excellent tool for data analysis. Companies can improve their big data capabilities by using the same language used for other development projects, saving time and reducing team size.
Observers can expect more large companies to adopt Python software development in the coming years as they seek a single full-stack language that can be used for most of their development needs.
If you liked this article, check out one of our other Python articles.
- Diving into Django's REST framework
- Is Django the web framework for perfectionists?
- The 5 best websites created with Python
- What can a good Python developer do to help your company?
- How to hire a Python programmer
- Is Python good for software development?
Source: BairesDev
