ONLIX Blog » @programming (Last update: Mon 08/08/2022)

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Should YOU learn Python?

Instead of focusing on the pros & cons, let's discuss projects and reasons you should learn Python for!

I think that this is a better way to decide wether you want to learn Python or not because Python is something like a tool after all, and some tools are better for certain things than others. Because of that, I think that straight out claiming Python is a bad or good language by weighing the pros & cons isn't helpful.

Furthermore, I will suggest other languages or alternatives that might be more useful in the case mentioned.

Disclaimer: Some of the following statements are from my personal subjective opinion and experiences.

Learn Python for/if...

• You're a beginner with not much experience

  • Python is - because of its simple syntax - quite easy to understand.

  • Contrary: C++ or Java - of course, there are a lot of people who don't have problems challenging themselves. But keep in mind that skipping the simple things can lead to frustration afterwards. You might write bad code, because you just don't know how to make it more efficient (for example using loops) - even though this obviously can happen to everyone, also those learning Python as their first programming language, I think you should always go step by step. Your motivation to learn just won't be there (most of the time), trust me.

• You're creative and try to "connect" things

  • There are so many possibilities to create awesome and unique projects, here are just a few examples:
    • Controlling hardware-pins on your Raspberry
    • Creating a web backend with Flask
    • Creating GUIs with Tkinter
    • Data Science/Analysis
    • Working with APIs

• You want to try coding a web backend, get into data science and AI or (server) automation

  • These are, according to this graph, the most popular use cases for Python. Because of that, there are a lot of tutorials out there on the internet that can help you.

Don't learn Python for/if...

• Mobile development

  • Python is just not made for mobile development and there aren't that many libraries supporting mobile UI.

  • Even though libraries such as Kivy aim to be cross-platform (supporting mobile devices as well), it's usually not the preferred option when it comes to mobile development. Tools such as Android Studio just are way more popular and easier to use.

  • Use Kotlin instead, it's like Java, but easier. In my view, you shouldn't learn platform-specific languages such as Swift for iOS - it's not going to be worth it.

• Games, especially 3D ones

  • Python is an interpreted language and is far from a perfectly efficient & optimized language.

  • Even though optimization tools such as pypy can significantly improve the code speed, most developers prefer languages like C#.

  • You should consider using a game engine such as Unity, UnrealEngine or GoDot because they're specifically made for games. They offer exporting the game for various devices, as well as a great overview of your project and it's assets. Especially when it comes to 3D-Modeling, textures and more, it can be very helpful for not just developers, but also game designers and more.

Overview

Python is a great language to learn, maybe it's not something for everyone, but it's quite popular and a perfect allrounder.

Decided yet?

I want to learn Python

Great! Be sure to check out this guide created by me. There are a lot of ways to learn Python programming, and it's completely free to try it out! What are you waiting for?

I want to learn other programming languages

Thats okay, there are tons more out there waiting to be discovered by you! I already named a few alternatives above, so be sure to check them out. It depends on your use case, again, I'm convinced that there is not and will never be perfect programming language for everything.

Sources

• https://www.netguru.com/blog/python-pros-and-cons
• https://kotlinlang.org/
• https://theninehertz.com/blog/python-mobile-app-development-tools-apps
• https://dev.to/akshaychhajed1998/strapping-django--android-application-e57
• https://www.goskills.com/Development/Resources/What-can-I-do-with-Python
• https://www.mobileappdaily.com/python-for-mobile-apps-development

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