Python's statements shares much resemblance to statements in English language. It is probably the easiest to learn language in widespread use today. The code syntax is less cryptic than most other languages and it's expressivity makes it possible to write far fewer lines of code for the same program written in another language, say Java or C++.
Here are some reasons why any new developer today should consider learning python
Easy to learn
Programming by itself requires a lot of mental effort to grasp the various concepts, add a little more convolution to programming languages and you now have one of the most dreaded field with as high as 50% drop-out rate . Python tries hard to make writing programs easy and enjoyable , it is therefore one of the most recommended languages to newbies in programming. It emphasizes on code clarity more, making it's syntax look more like a natural language than a typical C-like programming language. Consider the simplest program in C++ to print "Hello, World" to the console.
#include <iostream>
using namespace std
int main(){
cout<< "Hello, World!";
return 0;
}
Before you even start trying to understand what the above program is doing, as a beginner , you will first need to understand what each part is doing otherwise you will just not 'get it'. You will have to include the iostream header files otherwise the program will not work. You will have to specify the namespaces being used , initiate the main function, don't forget to add a semi-colon at the end of the cout statement, curly braces to show the function block and all other overheads. Now consider the below program in python, which is supposed to accomplish the same task.
print("Hello, World!")
You are just telling the computer to print the words, you don't even require a knowledge of computers to understand what the program is doing, you just need to know what the word print means.
Huge library
There is a python module for almost any problem you will encounter while programming . Python comes with a standard library for performing the general tasks , for example you can do things like creating web servers, downloading files over the internet, working with dates and interacting with your operating system. All this you can do without extra installations but if you need to perform a task in which there is no standard module for , python allows you to install libraries hosted over the internet. You will not even need a browser to download the modules , you will just need the python's package manager pip, a command interface and a working internet connection. You can as well download the files by your own means and pip will install them for you. As of now there are over 125,000 python libraries that you can download and the number increases daily
Huge global community.
Python being on top of the most widely used languages in the world, have one of the most active global community of developers . At any time , you are always a single Google search away to solving your pressing python bug. One of the most active platform is stack-overflow which hosts millions of answers to python questions for common problems that python programmers encounters. Python also has a very active official community at their website here , where you can post your issue and someone will try to help you in real-time.
Versatile with multiple use
Python is applied in almost every field known to programming . Some of these fields includes web-development, game development, machine learning, Graphic design, scripting, embedded systems, automation and many more. Python is being used by tech giants across palettes of domains such as social networking e.g Facebook, search engines e.g Google, image sharing e.g instagram and Pinterest, Q&A platforms like Quora , transportation services e.g Uber just to mention a few.
Cross-platform
A python program will be executed in almost all modern operating systems with little to no modifications. Python being an interpreted language eases program portability. Programs written in interpreted languages are generally more portable than compiled ones. In compiled languages the source code is turned to machine code directly in the platform used thus reducing portability, python in the other hand being an interpreted language first converts the source code into bytecode which can be run in any platform which has a python interpreter before it is interpreted into equivalent machine code.
Extensibility
Extending python with other languages is relatively easy and most languages today allows integration with python in one way or another. This allows programmers who are experienced in another language as well as python to combine their features to suit the needs of the program. It is even common to use some relatively low-level languages like C to do computationally intensive tasks and python for general logic of the program. This is especially prevalent in cases where speed is a major factor for example in game-development.
Free and open-source
Downloading , installing and using python is entirely free. It's source code is available for anyone through the python's official website python.org and you can download , use and distribute it as well for free.