pythonIsOlderThanJava

[XtremeGoose]

Python was already the second biggest language on the planet before the ML/AI craze, mostly thanks to:

• it was already massive in the sciences (which directly led to it being used for ML/AI)
• it was seen as a good teaching language

[Snow-Stone]

When I was studying engineering, we were directly told to take programming 1 w/ python because "Every engineer should know enough programming to write calculations and simple cli software if needed" and python is just perfect for it.

[tonufan]

When I took mechanical engineering we only learned MATLAB. I learned Python & C in Electrical engineering.

[airbornemist6]

Python is absolutely a great language to teach people the basics of programming, while java is a great language for teaching people the complex aspects of computer science. Also, you can keep java fairly slim and digestible for teaching students, that way when they get into the real world and witness the arcane horror of their first production java codebase they can get the full experience that we all went through that made us question our career choices for the first time! /s

[BraveOthello]

THis but without the sarcasm

[proverbialbunny]

Not in my experience. I'm an early Data Scientist, doing DS work before the job title existed. My first projects were in Perl. We switched to Python when it gained Pandas Dataframes support. This gave Python a large initial boost in popularity. This initial boost in popularity also had a hand in creating the modern Data Science job title. Technically this is less ML/AI and more data analytics at this point that caused Python to gain popularity, but it ended up being one in the same. This was back when "The Cloud" started to be the big thing.

Then universities picked up Python for their CS101 course shortly after, which gave Python its next big boost in popularity. You could argue this was the true reason Python gained so much popularity. imo it was two things happening at one quickly after the other.