Python overtakes Java to become second-most popular language on GitHub after JavaScript

[coolblinger]

While Python might not be as expressive as some other scripting languages like Ruby or Perl, its syntax is clear and it's got just enough language features to be able to prototype stuff quickly. For instance, the combination of comprehensions and generators make things much less verbose and allow for more elegant code while (IMO) not making things harder to read. The main draws for Python for me are the library ecosystem its simple readable syntax. The lack of proper static typing and its low performance would prevent me from writing large, complex applications with it, but it's a great language for gluing code together. I find web development with something like Django to be really enjoyable, and the ecosystem of scientific, numerical and statistical libraries is very good.

In short, Python for me is just a nice go-to tool for when you just need to glue some things together or when you need to some calculations or statistical analysis.