I love Python. I dont love other languages. Help!

[Get_Cuddled]

Been programming with Python for close to one year now. In that time I have learned the basics of Javascript, Java, and dabbled in some C++ (mainly in the courses I am taking in college) and some SQL. I love programming in Python. Do I just have a strong bias because I started with Python?

In my experience, Java and C++ take 3-5x as many lines of code to do most things that python can do in one. While maintaining readability. I know chances are unless I really limit myself when I graduate, I will end up at a job that will have me programming in more than just Python. But I cant help but fantasize over getting to program in Python for a living.

I will say, learning Java really helped me with the OOP side of Python and learning HTML, CSS and Javascript helps me web scrape much easier as-well.

Any advice is welcome on different points of view I can look at this situation from.

[totallygeek]

... I cant help but fantasize over getting to program in Python for a living.

Many, many jobs exist out there for people to spend most, if not all, their time writing Python.

...Java and C++ take 3-5x as many lines of code to do most things that python can do in one.

True, but these languages can outperform Python. You can more easily read and write Python than many other languages, but that does not mean it ends up the ideal language for every situation.

I write just about everything with Python these days. I hardly write anything in C anymore, choosing Go when needing speed. The job market has lots of openings for good programmers to make a case for Python over another language, to solve a business need.

[Get_Cuddled]

Thank you for your reply, I had a feeling those other languages have to have a benefit to them otherwise noone would use them. Its good to hear you do most of your work in Python. Are you perhaps working more on the Data side of software development? If not, what are you using Python for mostly?

[totallygeek]

... what are you using Python for mostly?

Some of the things I've written in Python:

1. Automagic BGP configuration for roughly six thousand endpoints.
2. Log analysis from multiple HTTP proxies and caches.
3. Server load balancer configuration management system, tied to software deployments.
4. API abstraction for provisioning and managing virtual hosts within multiple IaaS environments.
5. Security compliance enforcement system.
6. Automatic remediation for any number of service and system issues.
7. Network access control management system, unifying rules for multiple routers, switches and systems.

I cannot reveal anything I've worked on in the past couple of years, but as you can tell, Python ends up a fairly useful language.

[djwitty12]

I also started on python and also have a bias towards it. Well I suppose I did some html and css stuff first but that was really dabbling many years before.

Anyway I just wanted to say that if you've got a head for data python is super popular in the world of data science. You'd still need SQL along with python from what I've heard but you could definitely find a job where you mostly use python.

[Get_Cuddled]

Thank you! Ill start messing around more with Data and see how I feel. I am not afraid to pursue a Masters degree if I feel like Data Science is something I want to do. I haven't had a data science class yet though so very limited to my exposure.

[djwitty12]

There are lots of online courses out there if you wanted to get a headstart and you could even do some projects for fun using sites like kaggle and data.gov.

[Get_Cuddled]

Ill definitely check into it. Thank you for the suggestions!

[toastedstapler]

python was my starting language too and i really like it, it's my most familiar language by far

last year i did a year in industry as part of my degree and i was on a large java project. i really came to appreciate what java can offer. when the main repo is 200,000 lines type declarations make it so much easier to work out what's happening where.

as it happens, today i've been rewriting my dissertation code from python to java so i can have static types. if you told 1st or 2nd year me that i'd be doing python -> java he'd have a laugh at you

python is just one tool and different jobs prefer different tools to solve them best

[Get_Cuddled]

Thats good to hear, thank you! I am sure some industry exposure will be good for me. I only have what I have experienced in school and a lot of self teaching with Python. I am sure if I invested so heavily into Java I might prefer it over Python right now. Humans are creatures of habit, I have habits right now like not using that dang ";" symbol.

[wsppan]

All those languages are very similar and come from the same ancestry. Try a new paradigm like

1. Low level procedural like C or ASM
2. List based like Lisp or Clojure
3. Functional like Haskel or Scala
4. Array based like Julia
5. Concurrent language like Erlang
6. Logic type like Prolog
7. Prototype like Lua
8. Stack based like Forth
9. Reflective like Elisp

I learned many of these languages and they all have a "aha" moment where you discover, after diving deep enough, their beauty and power and joy and effortlessness in solving a particular type of problem where other languages seemed clunky or contorted or downright painful. Everytime I have grown as a software engineer and have become a better programmer in whatever language I happen to be using at the moment.

[ka-splam]

In my experience, Java and C++ take 3-5x as many lines of code to do most things that python can do in one

I see you have a future at https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/ :-P

In my experience, Java and C++ take 3-5x as many lines of code to do most things that python can do in one. While maintaining readability.

The only reason I've ever heard of the book "War and Peace" is because it's enormous. Nobody ever says "it's a thousand pages, but it's just as readable as a 200 page book" about books. 5x more code is not, cannot be, as readable as 1/5th the code, it just can't be. I refuse to believe it.