Turbocharged – Programming with Python

by Python Software Foundation — last modified Apr 13, 2014 12:00 PM Copyright 2011-2014 by evenios.com | Armin Stroß-Radschinski (acsr.de), Jan Ulrich Hasecke (hasecke.com) | Marc-André Lemburg (lemburg.com) Text: CC BY-SA 3.0 Image: flickr.com/xmatt: CC BY 2.0

Software quality is a vital ingredient to success in industry and science. Ubiquitous IT systems control the business processes of the global economy. Increasingly powerful computers and sophisticated algorithms provide the platform for new scientific discoveries. And global communication is inconceivable without intelligent software.

In the race for customers, the pole position belongs to those who get to market faster than their competitors. Better and more creative solutions combined with the ability to respond instantly to new challenges drive the race. Writing secure and reliable programs in a fraction of the time normally required gets you first across the finish line.

The Programming Language of the Agile Era

Agility is the hallmark of our times and Python is the programming language of the agile era. The Python universal programming language is the turbocharger of the IT department. Compared with other modern programming languages such as Java or C, Python achieves superior results in significantly shorter timescales for a number of different reasons.

For example, Python is a very lean programming language. Python programs are a great deal shorter than code written in other modern programming languages. As a result, both development times and maintenance costs are drastically reduced. Less code means fewer errors, meaning the cost of identifying and eliminating these errors is also reduced.

A comprehensive standard library and thousands of additional libraries in the Python Package Index provide developers with high-quality solutions which they can easily integrate into their applications to meet virtually any requirement.

In this way, Python frees up vast resources, which can be earmarked for more productive use elsewhere.

The Master Key for System Integration

Python offers unique benefits for system integration. On the one hand, there are huge numbers of Python libraries, with which virtually any third-party system can be integrated. On the other hand, the libraries of many other programming languages can also be used in Python.

Once they have been programmed, Python applications can run on all operating systems for which a Python interpreter exists, significantly reducing the cost of operating-system-specific applications.

The Language that has Changed Everything

For over 20 years, Python has been used successfully throughout the world as a programming language in industry, in the service sector, and also in research and science to meet a wide range of different requirements. In this time, the language has changed many things.

The Python programming language is easy to learn. It has blurred the boundaries between users and developers. Increasing numbers of scientists, engineers, financial experts and others with little programming experience are using Python to solve specific complex technical problems.