According to the latest ratings from the software company TIOBE, Python is now the most popular programming language in the world.
The so-called TIOBE Index is based on the number of online language searches, which may also measure a language’s popularity.
For the first time in more than 20 years, we have a new leader of the pack: the Python programming language. The long-standing hegemony of Java and C is over.
Python is widely regarded as a programming language that’s easy to learn due to its simple syntax, extensive library of standards and toolkits, and integration with other popular programming languages such as C and C++.
It is a free, open-source programming language with extensive support modules and community development, easy integration with web services, user-friendly data structures, and GUI-based desktop applications.
You can learn more about Python on the official website.
Why Python is the Most Popular Programming Language?
So Python is now the most popular programming language, but why is this the case? Why do so many people love Python? What makes Python unique?
1. Community
When you are coding Python, you are not alone. As you know, Python is an open-source programming language with community development. So Python’s popularity and its community are two interrelated things
Python was created more than 30 years ago, which is a lot of time for any programming language community to grow. Imagine thousands of software engineers working with Python as you are working with Python.
So whenever you have a problem, chances are someone has already faced that problem, and someone else has already solved that on the internet.
In other words, if somebody has an issue with Python, they can get instant support from developers of all levels ranging from beginners to experts in the community.
2. Simplicity
One of the main reasons for the popularity of Python would be its simplicity in syntax so that it could be easily read and understood even by amateur developers. In addition, it is easily readable as compared to other languages. This is one of the reasons developers like working on it.
If you start programming, you will find Python very close to the English language. Therefore, python language is straightforward to use and learn for new beginners and newcomers.
And since it is an interpreted language, it also helps that one can quickly change its code base, adding to the popularity of Python among developers and making it the most popular programming language.
3. Libraries
A programming language library is a module with pre-written code that helps the user use the same functionality to perform different actions. In other words, libraries make development much easier since you no longer need to write all code from the ground up.
The more libraries and packages a programming language has, the more diverse use cases it can have. Python has excellent libraries that you can use to select and save time and effort on the initial development cycle.
Some of the most popular Python libraries are listed below:
- Django – Web development framework.
- TensorFlow – Used for making production-quality machine learning applications.
- SciPy – Engineering applications.
- NumPy – Powerful machine learning library.
- Pandas – Data analysis and manipulation library.
- Plotly – Visualization library.
- Flask – Web application micro-framework.
- SQLAlchemy – Library for creating Domain Object Models that can interact with relational databases such as MySQL and Postgres.
While many people are grateful that Python is a straightforward language to understand, they should be thankful for the extensive libraries being created because Python is simple to learn and work with.
4. Machine Learning
Cloud Computing, Machine Learning, and Big Data are some of the hottest trends in the computer science world.
Machine Learning (ML) is a branch of AI (Artificial Intelligence) that works toward making systems perform specific tasks and make decisions without the supervision of human beings.
Python has become a staple in data science and machine learning. It allows data analysts and other professionals to use the language to conduct complex statistical calculations, create data visualizations, build machine learning algorithms, manipulate and analyze data, and complete other data-related tasks.
Hundreds of Python libraries are used daily in thousands of machine learning projects, such as TensorFlow for neural networks and OpenCV for computer vision.
When writing this, Python is the most popular language for Machine Learning, with 57% of data scientists and machine learning developers.
