Python is one of the most popular programming languages. While choosing a language to learn to code, everyone has their doubts and queries about the advantages and disadvantages of the programming language. In this article, we will discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of the python programming language. We will also discuss why you should choose Python for web development.
Python Programming- An Introduction
Python is a general-purpose, object-oriented programming language that supports modular architecture. You can use it for tasks such as software development, machine learning, web development, web scraping, and almost anything that can be done using a programming language.
Due to its object-oriented nature and modular design, python became popular among software engineers. Availability of different tools designed for special tasks also makes programming in python a cakewalk. Python is also a popular choice to learn to code. Its English-like syntax makes it easy to understand and learners find it easy to learn python compared to other programming languages.
Why Choose Python For Web Development?
Using python as a web scripting language offers us various advantages. The flexibility while development, portability of code, and scalability are some of the advantages of python. IF you need to create applications that require intensive mathematical calculations, Python is the go-to choice as no other programming language provides dedicated libraries for numerical applications as python does. Let us now discuss some of the advantages of using python for web development.
Advantages of Using Python for Web Development
- Python is a multipurpose language. You can use python in a wide array of tasks such as website development, game development, web scripting, and desktop GUI development. Python provides you with dedicated libraries and frameworks for every task.
- Python code is hugely portable. You can write a code on a Windows operating system and run the application on a UNIX platform and the code will run as desired. You can use python on various platforms for the development of different APIs and middle-ware tools. Even after developing all the APIs and tools on different platforms, you can integrate them to develop a large application. Thus, the portability of python code gives you an option to break larger tasks into smaller ones and to work on them separately.
- Productivity is considered one of the most important metrics while developing large web applications. Python’s modular architecture provides you with ways to reuse code snippets. By reusing code, you can save a lot of time. The easy-to-understand syntax and re-usability of different modules and templates make coding in python very efficient.
- Python provides you lot of frameworks and libraries. These libraries are mostly written by third-party developers for designated tasks and you can use them in your projects to execute similar tasks. Python has a huge repository of libraries as Python Index Package and you can install any library or framework by executing a single statement in the command line of your system. You can reuse the codes written for various tasks by simply installing them and importing them into your programs.
- You can also use codes of other programming languages in Python. If a library is written in Java or C++, you can use it in python using the advanced integration support that python provides. You can also choose to write different modules of an application in different programming languages and then you can assemble them in python to create an entire application. So, python also provides you an option to write code in a different programming language while developing your web application.
- Due to a large user base, python has a thriving community of developers. You can find a solution to almost any of your problems in the community-run python forums of different websites like StackOverFlow and Reddit. You can search for existing solutions to a problem and you will find answers from various experienced developers. IF you don’t find any solution, you can also post new questions in the forums. This helps you save a lot of time as you don’t need to solve each problem on your own.
- Python provides us with multiple full-stack frameworks like Django, Web2Py, Turbogears, and micro-frameworks like Flask and pyramid with which you can develop your web applications according to your requirements.
Disadvantages of Using Python for Web Development
Although there are many advantages of using Python over other programming languages, Sometimes Python might not be suitable for your web application.
- Python is a dynamically typed language. Due to this, the execution of python programs is very slow as compared to the programs written in other programming languages. Also, executing a python program requires a huge amount of memory. Hence, if you are thinking about developing a resource-friendly web application, then Python might not be a good choice for you.
- Python doesn’t provide mobile computing features. You can use Java or C++ to develop resource-efficient applications that can run on mobile devices.
- Python doesn’t have a competent database access layer like Java. If your web application requires intensive access to the database layer, Java might be a suitable programming language for you.
- The multi-threading operations in python are also inefficient. The python interpreter can execute only one thread at a time. Due to this, the whole point of creating multiple threads in a program becomes irrelevant in python. Even if you are running your program on a multi-core processor, the CPU operations will remain the same as only one thread can be executed at a time. Due to this, you will not be able to use all the available resources.
Conclusion
In this article, we have discussed various advantages and disadvantages of using the python programming language for web development. To choose the best language to develop the web application, you should first analyze the requirements of your application like on which platforms it will be used, what operations will be performed, etc. Java also offers technologies like Spring and Spring boot to create APIs and web applications. You can choose any language according to your requirements.
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