Twelve reasons to program in Python

Why Learn to Program using Python?

1. Python is fun!

2. Python may well be the easiest to learn programming language ever devised. Guido van Rossum began the design and implementation of Python in 1990 while he was still living in his native Netherlands. He was on the design team for ABC, an excellent educational language, but he wanted to extend it, make it even easier and more powerful, and make it available on as many computing platforms as possible. He succeeded.

3. Python is easy to use. Once you have learned the core language, which can be done in a few days, it is relatively easy to just sit down and program, keeping the entire syntax in your head and writing programs much like you would write English text.

4. Python is an extremely powerful programming language. It seems too good to be true, but Python allows you to start out with relatively simple procedural programming, then leads you gently into more advanced functional and object oriented programming. Expert Python programmers are creating some of the most useful and powerful computer programs in the world.

5. Python has a community of people who are friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable. The comp.lang.python newsgroup is a source of help when you get stuck, as well as lively and intelligent discourse. Oh, and, in addition, Python folks have a sense of humor (Python is named after the comedic troupe, Monty Python's Flying Circus.)

6. Python is very portable and it runs on just about any computing platform you might use, including all versions of Windows, Linux, other UNIX's, Macintosh, various PDA's, DOS, OS/2, etc.

7. Python programs can often be written in as little as one tenth the time it takes to write the same program in other languages, making Python programmers very productive.

8. Python programs usually require many fewer lines of code than would be required to accomplish the same tasks in other languages.

9. Python programs are very easy to read, making it much easier to understand other people's Python programs, understand your own Python programs when you return to them after a long period of time, and making Python programs much easier to maintain and modify, which adds immensely to programming productivity.

10. Python is open source, and is also completely free; it will never cost you anything.

11. Python gives you more understanding of computers and the web, and empowers you to contribute to a grass roots, world wide community.

12. Python is fun!