What is Python?
Python is a popular programming language.
It was developed in the late 1980s by Guido van Rossum, and released in 1991.
Python is still maintained by a core development team, and Guido is still in charge.
Who uses Python?
Here’s a list of some top-tier companies that you know that use Python.
Google: Python is an official language at Google; alongside Java and C++
YouTube: Previously it was written in PHP but eventually it was replaced by Python. Now, the site uses Python heavily for various purposes.
Reddit: Reddit was originally coded in Lisp, but in December of 2005, six months after its launch, the site was recoded into Python.
Instagram: Instagram moved to Python 3 is just great example of a gigantic tech company using python in combination with Django
Amazon: Amazon uses Python because of its popular, scalable & appropriate for dealing with Big Data.
Quora: Quora is a portal where you get your answers. Quora’s language programming has been developed using Python’s framework.
Why Choose Python?
Here are some of the features that make Python an appealing choice.
Python is Popular: Accordin to Stack Overflow Developer Survey, Python is the 7th most popular and the number one most wanted technology.
Python is Simple: Python has a simple syntax similar to the English language.
Python is Free: The Python is developed under an open-source license, making it free to install, use, and distribute, even for commercial purposes.
Python is Platform Independent: Python works on different platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux etc).
Python is Portable: Code written for one platform will work on any other platform.
Python is Interpreted: Meaning that code can be executed as soon as it is written. This means, quicker development cycles.
Should I use Python 2 or Python 3?
In-short: Python 2 is legacy, Python 3 is the present and future of the language.
Python 2 and 3 are very similar. However, Python 3 contains a few relatively small but significant changes that are not backward compatible with the 2.x versions.
Note that after January 1, 2020 Python 2 will no longer be maintained.
So, if you are a newcomer to Python, it’s recommended that you focus on Python 3.