Advantages and Disadvantages of the Python Programming Language

In this article, I want to explain the advantages and disadvantages of the Python programming language.

Python is a language that focuses on code readability. Its syntax helps programmers code in fewer steps than Java or C++.

The language founded in the year 1991 by the developer Guido Van Rossum makes programming easy and fun. Python is widely used in bigger organizations because of its multiple programming paradigms. They usually involve imperative and object-oriented functional programming. It has a comprehensive and large standard library that has automatic memory management and dynamic features.

Why Companies Prefer Python?

Python has topped the charts in recent years over other programming languages like C, C++, and Java, and is widely used by programmers. The language has undergone a drastic change since its release 25 years ago, as many add-on features have been introduced.

Python 1.0 had the module system of Modula-3 and interacted with the Amoeba Operating System with varied functioning tools. Python 2.0, introduced in the year 2000, had features of a garbage collector and Unicode Support. Python 3.0, introduced in 2008, had a constructive design that avoided duplicate modules and constructs. With the added features, now the companies are using Python 3.5.

The software development companies prefer the Python language because of its versatile features and fewer programming codes. Nearly 14% of programmers use it on operating systems like UNIX, Linux, Windows, and Mac OS. The programmers of big companies use Python as it has created a mark for itself in the software development with characteristic features like-

• Interactive
• Interpreted
• Modular
• Dynamic
• Object-oriented
• Portable
• High level
• Extensible in C++ & C

Advantages or Benefits of Python Programming

The Python language has diversified applications in software development companies, such as in gaming, web frameworks and applications, language development, prototyping, and graphic design applications. This provides the language a higher plethora over other programming languages used in the industry. Some of its advantages are

• Easy-to-learn and Easy-to-use
• Open-source
• Extensive Support Libraries
• Integration Feature
• Improved Programmer’s Productivity
• Productivity
• Easily Portable

Easy-to-learn and Easy-to-use

The Python programming language has a syntax similar to the English language, making it extremely easy and simple for anyone to read and understand its code. You can pick up this language without much trouble and learn it easily.

This is one of the reasons why Python is better compared to other programming languages such as C, C++, or Java. Besides, Python requires relatively fewer lines of code to perform the same operations and tasks done in other programming languages with larger code blocks.

Open-source

Python has an open-source license and is available for users for free, allowing you to easily distribute it. With Python, you can download any source code and further modify and distribute your version of the code in Python. This feature can come in handy, especially when you wish to reuse the code and save time to build innovative applications. Besides, you can change its behavior and use the older version of the code for development.

Extensive Support Libraries

It provides large standard libraries that include areas such as string operations, Internet, web service tools, operating system interfaces, and protocols. Most of the highly used programming tasks are already scripted into it, which limits the length of the code to be written in Python.

Integration Feature

Python integrates the Enterprise Application Integration that makes it easy to develop Web services by invoking COM or CORBA components. It has powerful control capabilities as it calls directly through C, C++, or Java via Jython. Python also processes XML and other markup languages as it can run on all modern operating systems through the same bytecode.

Improved Programmer’s Productivity

The language has extensive support libraries and clean object-oriented designs that increase two to tenfold programmer productivity while using languages like Java, VB, Perl, C, C++, and C#.

Productivity

With its strong process integration features, unit testing framework, and enhanced control capabilities, it contributes to the increased speed and productivity of applications. It is a great option for building scalable multi-protocol network applications.

Easily Portable

In most languages, including the ones you have learned to read, write, and use, such as C, C++, etc., you need to make changes in the code to run a given program on distinct platforms. However, that is not the case with Python programming. In Python, you need to write the code only once, and you can run it on any platform, adapting the ‘write once, run anywhere’ feature. However, you need to make sure that you do not include any features that are system-dependent.

Besides the advantages, let’s listen to the disadvantages of Python

Limitations or Disadvantages of Python

• Difficulty in Using Other Languages
• Weak in Mobile Computing
• Gets Slow in Speed
• Run-time Errors
• Underdeveloped Database Access Layers
• Inefficient Memory Consumption

Difficulty in Using Other Languages

Python lovers become so accustomed to its features and its extensive libraries that they face problems in learning or working on other programming languages. So Python experts may see the declaring of cast “values” or variable “types”, syntactic requirements of adding curly braces or semicolons, as an onerous task.

Weak in Mobile Computing

Python has made its presence on many desktop and server platforms, but it is seen as a weak language for mobile computing. This is the reason very few mobile applications are built in it, like Carbonnelle.

Gets Slow in Speed

Python executes with the help of an interpreter instead of a compiler, which causes it to slow down because compilation and execution help it to work normally. On the other hand, it can be seen that it is fast for many web applications too.

Run-time Errors

The Python language is dynamically typed, so it has many design restrictions that are reported by some Python developers. It is even seen that it requires more testing time, and the errors show up when the applications are finally run.

Underdeveloped Database Access Layers

As compared to popular technologies like JDBC and ODBC, Python’s database access layer is found to be a bit underdeveloped and primitive. However, it cannot be applied in enterprises that need the smooth interaction of complex legacy data.

Inefficient Memory Consumption

To offer some simplicity to programmers and developers, Python needs to make some tradeoffs. This language uses a huge amount of memory, which acts as a disadvantage, especially when you are developing an app with a preference for memory optimization.

Summary

Python is a simple, versatile, and complete programming language. It is a great choice for beginners up to professionals. Although it has some disadvantages, we can observe that the advantages exceed the disadvantages. Even Google has made Python one of its primary programming languages.

I hope that our article was useful to you.

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