What Are the Pros and Cons of Python Programming Language
Before you select a programming language for a project, you must be aware of all its capabilities.
You must know how it can be efficiently used in the project and any problems that might arise.
In this article, we will be discussing the pros and cons of Python to help you determine if you should go for the Python training or not.
Python Programming Language: Pros
- Extensive Libraries – Python comes with a vast library that can be used for several purposes, such as regular expressions, unit-testing, threading, documentation-generation, web browsers, email, CGI, image manipulation, databases, and more. So, you won’t have to manually write the complete code.
- Extensible and Embeddable – Python can extend into other languages. Some of the code can be written in other languages such as C or C++. This becomes handy for projects. The language is embeddable as well. Python code can be embedded in the source code of another language like C++. This way, you can add scripting capabilities to the code.
- Improved Productivity – Thanks to extensive libraries and simplicity offered by Python, you can get more things done by writing less.
- IoT opportunities – Python is the foundation of platforms such as Raspberry Pi that makes it the preferred language for IoT. It can help in connecting the language to the real-world.
- Easy, Simple, and Readable – If you want to print ‘Hello World’ in Java, you must create a class. But, with Python, a simple print statement is enough. It is easy to code, learn, and understand. This is the reason why Python is the preferred programming language for several programmers. Also, Python is a lot like reading the English language. There is no need for curly braces for defining blocks. The mandatory indentation further improves the code’s readability.
- Object-Oriented – Python supports object-oriented and procedural programming. While functions can be used for code reusability, objects and classes can help in modeling the real world. Through the class, you can encapsulate functions and data into one.
- Open-source and Free – Python is available for free. You can even download the source code and make changes to it. There is also a vast collection of Python libraries for helping you with the tasks. Also, since it’s free, individuals, small companies, or large corporations can leverage the freely-available resources for building applications. Also, with Python, you will get better community support.
- Portable – If you are programming in a language such as C++ and have to run the code on some other platform, you have to make a few changes to it. This is not the case with Python. You can code just once and run it on any platform. However, you have to ensure that there are no system-dependent features in the code.
- Interpreted – Python programming language is an interpreted language. The execution of statements is carried out line by line. So, debugging gets more manageable than the compiled languages.
- Less Coding – Almost every task that is done in Python needs less coding than when it is done in other languages. With outstanding library support, you won’t need any third-party libraries for getting the job done. That is why Python is an excellent option for beginners.
Cons
- Speed Limitations – Python is executed line by line. However, the interpreted nature of Python causes slow execution. This is usually not an issue unless the focal point of the project is speed.
- Weak in browsers and mobile computing – Python is an amazing programming language for the server-side. But, it is rarely used on the client’s side. Also, it is not commonly used for implementing smartphone applications.
- Design restrictions – Python is a dynamically-typed language, which means that there is no need to declare the variable type while coding. While this can be easy for the programmers while coding, it can sometimes raise runtime errors.
- Underdeveloped database access layers – When compared to other popular technologies like ODBC (Open DataBase Connectivity), JDBC (Java DataBase Connectivity), and others, the database access layers of Python are a little underdeveloped. This is why it is not often used in large projects.
While there are some issues with speed, runtime, and security, Python is a great programming language.
Its popularity is proof of this and ranks as the number one embedded language. And this popularity can be attributed to its being easy, free, extensible, interpreted, portable, readable, embeddable, and object-oriented.
