Python as your main language. Possible?

Question

I am currently attending college and the languages that I will 'know' by graduation are C++ and Java. That being said, i am also in the process of teaching myself Python. I know that every programming language has its own pros and cons, but would it be possible to become a python developer out of school? I always have more 'fun' programming in Python than i do in C++ or Java, and I am also in love with Pythons documentation. I know C++ will always be on top in terms of speed, but what would be the benefit of memorizing every javadoc against focusing on Python instead? are there good jobs to be had with Python?

edit: also, would it be beneficial for me to look at C# as well? Microsoft is really throwing their support at it so that could be a decent career path as well.

Answer 1

I know a talented guy whose primary operating system is ubuntu and successfully uses Python as his primary language. Of course, he knows C/C++/Java/... too, but likes Python more. I think if you work mostly with open source stack, it's gonna be a great tool. In Windows world, however, I suggest C#.

Answer 2

Dice.com has 972 results (posted within the last 30 days) for Python, so it's eminently possible. That's not to say there aren't more jobs available for Java or C#, but you also have to weigh the much larger pool of applicants for those languages.

Answer 3

Any software engineer worth his salt can pickup new languages relatively quickly. There are certainly jobs to be had doing Python, but there are many more jobs doing Java and C#. My suggestion is to find a job that you are interested in where they are flexible about picking the right language for the task at hand rather than dictating a corporate standard.

I also suggest that you learn one language per year, even if you will never use it at work. It's good for your mind.

Answer 4

A lot of the current "business" jobs (especially with the US Govt) either use C# or Java. At this stage in your life, you shouldn't have to pick one or the other. For that matter, you shouldn't have to pick at any stage in your life. As a technology professional, you should be able to adapt to changing and emerging technologies as necessary.

However, you should also do what you like, not necessarily where the money is. If writing Python makes you happy, I'd say try to find a job where you can write Python. Your job should be fun because you're going to be doing it 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for the foreseeable future.

With that said, there are Python jobs out there, you just need to look outside of the "big" career sites like Monster and Dice. Slashdot jobs, Daily WTF jobs and even Python user groups often post job listings.

Answer 5

It's definitely possible and one of the big reasons why is because it's such a good 'glue' language. There is a good interface to C/C++ that lets you cross-call in either direction without too much trouble. For your java needs, you've also got jython which lets you do the same thing, right out of the box.

Answer 6

It is beneficial for a good developer to know many languages. Some languages are better for certain tasks than others. Other languages are just fundamentally different and using them helps you to discover new solutions to problems.

Python is a great language. Knowing C is a must (as Joel would agree with and Jeff still needs to learn!) But, be adventurous! Learn a new language every year. Play with Erlang or Scala or Clojure just to see what they are about.

You will likely reach for a particular language as your general everyday tool, but don't get locked into thinking that you should use it for everything.

"When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."

Answer 7

Employers look for "smart and gets things done" before they look at the number of languages you know. Learning Python certainly won't do you any harm, and is a better choice than C#. If you know C++ & Java you'll pick up C# no problem (my employer hires previously Java & C++ people directly into C# positions). Just beware of turning down interesting jobs because they don't use your favorite language; what makes for a good/interesting/fun job/project/workplace has very little to do with the language used.

Answer 8

Depends on your career path. Either way, exposure to multiple languages is good and will make you a more flexible programmer.

Please do the rest of us programmers a favor and don't pick a career path based on money or job availability. Choose something you like and that you are good at.

On languages:

• Python is good for rapid prototyping and "fast enough" purposes, not as popular on Windows systems.
• Java is cross-platform and enterprisey, never hurts to be familiar with it.
• C# is very Windows-centric, ignore if you don't want a career in Windows systems.
• C/C++ is also cross-platform but depending on your interests, you could put more focus on standard/GTK/QT/Windows libraries.

Answer 9

It's a good idea to find something you enjoy which you can also get paid for. It's worth knowing C++/Java as well but you will get more out of your career doing something you enjoy.

Answer 10

In the six month contract I finished last December, I used Python + GTK for a code generation plugin into a UML tool and for file conversion, C++ and machine code to generate trampolines to call an API that took callback function pointers without user data, C to generate bindings for that API from Java, Java for a UI (since the rest of the project's UIs were Java), a domain specific language for configuring SCADA systems, and helped debug some VB6 and some XAML.

Every large project I've worked on has been multi-language. A oft repeated pattern is to have a scripting/configuration language and a heavy-lifting core. I started out with Lisp and C++, then VBA and C++, then JS, Java (which often tried to be both, without quite being a good application language or a good systems language), then Python. Lately I'm refreshing myself with C99.

If I were starting over, then Python and C# would be a good combination to focus on for employment. But having at least a passing familiarity with C and having enough understanding of assembly to be able to read the ABI of the OS you work with would be good too.

Answer 11

Instead of python I would devote some time to learning perl and ruby. perl is ubiquitous with developers and with cpan has a VAST number of modules for absolutely anything you may need to do. ruby is the preeminent object oriented scripting language. I've never really loved a programming language (I tend to reserver that feeling for family, close friends, and some very hot women) but I fell in love with ruby after about 2 weeks of programming in it. After a while of programming ruby (and I swear this is no exaggeration) your code becomes a natural extension of your thinking processing. In other words your thoughts are immediately translated into code with any intervening "translator". I've NEVER experienced this with a programming language. When it happens it's almost like a mystical experience, no joke!

Answer 12

Python is a great language. This year we had a big website project come and the boss made the brave step of making us all (including himself) learn python and django to do it. I am very happy he did. I've been programming for years in loads of other languages, Java, C, ObjC, Haskell, C#, javascript. With python I've been more productive than ever. Python seems to have the best features of all of them, without the clutter.

Python is great because:

• It expands your mind: one of the few languages where you can usefully write a meta-meta-metaclass. Most other languages can't even express that.
• Extremely versatile. You can, for example, safely completely alter how inheritance works, if you wish, using simple code (again through metaclasses). You could even dump inheritance altogether, for your own classes. You can completely alter how attribute lookup works via descriptors.
• Decorators are another great idea. Check them out.
• __getattribute__ is another great idea.
• operator overloading is as easy as in C++, perhaps easier.
• Multi paradigm: you can explore functional and OOP design.
• Easy to start with - let me recommend you to install ipython along with your python distro and just mess around with it.
• Decent, thorough documentation. Plus, documentation is built right into objects. in the shell you can do e.g. reduce.__doc__ to see documentation for that function.
• Plays well with lots of other languages. If you are using C++ and boost, have a look at boost python, you'll be able to interface your c++ code with python, in an almost criminally easy fashion. With distutils it is easy to import c code into python, hence:
• There are loads of libraries for just about anything you want to do. It's easy to install them using setup.py or python eggs. You can import them right into the python shell and start testing them out, and see instant results.
• Easy to install. Should be < 5 mins, no brainer.
• The iterator idiom makes your code look, well... like poetry. Not to mention list comprehensions, blissful.
• If you are writing anything to do with the web, you have django. This is a big plus.
• Platform independent. Always a bonus.
• IronPython lets you use it in dot net. This will give you an advantage - as you can make use of python libs/language to solve problems where expedient (probably a load of cases).

Python has its warts:

• The major one for me is that in their natural form, python objects don't enforce encapsulation. However, python is flexible enough that you can roll your own, and besides, this is also a disciplne thing. We can always write getters/setters which are just as bad.
• It's true the layout style takes a little getting used to, but once you are used to it, it feels just as natural and somehow seems to get out of your way.
• Coming from a C++ background you may be more used to strong type checking. It is true that python's lack o it sometimes bites, but by and large it is not a problem, and means less typing and more readable code. Python is also strongly typed, just dynamically!

Python is a language for people who love coding. It's great for beginners, and great for experienced coders. It is absolutely viable as a main language.

So, yeah, go for it, you won't regret it.

Answer 13

Yes, it's possible to have a career (and a good one) using Python (or any other niche-language) as your primary language - but only if you are lucky and live in a city big enough to require these kinds of niche roles.

it's all about supply and demand: If there are more companies looking for a particular skill than people qualified to offer it then you can charge a good rate. If there are fewer people looking than can offer it, then you might find it hard to get a good job. The challenge is to find a skill-set that will be in demand so that you have a good chance of getting well-paid work.

In most developed countries 99% of the professional developers you meet will be experts at one or more of the mainstream languages. If you are a good C or Java developer you might be qualified for a large number of roles, but then again you will find yourself competing against a large number of similarly qualified people.

Chances are there will not be too many jobs for newbie Python developers without spesific industry experience. On the other hand, if you have some kind of relevant background - for example in credit-banking or mobile communications there are many companies which really need Python and will pay well for people with a few years of developer experience.

So yes - you can have a career in a non-mainstream language but you need to know a little bit more than just programming to do it.

Answer 14

At my current job, we use Python almost exclusively (except for a little bit of VBA in Excel when we are forced to). It was a decision I made here when I started and have never regretted it. It is a little tougher to find people with Python experience, though, so I really look for good programmers that are interested in learning.

But that's also an opportunity for you: while there may be fewer Python jobs than Java jobs, for example, there are also fewer people with Python skills than Java skills so if you know Python, you may have a better shot at those openings.

Answer 15

looking through the previous peoples answers, I note they is a hint on the speed factor about python in it being "fast enough" for most jobs, and i agree. However, i would definitely recommend a lower level language (C or C++) aswell as python. The reason is that it gives you flexibility.

I come from a embedded industry and so started with C and C++ (i just missed the assembler trend). Now C will always beat python code in speed and you will not find an interpreted language like python used on lower level components of an embedded device.

But python will beat low level languages for ease of prototyping and gui toolkit related apps.

So, in a nutshell, learn both to be a good all rounder.

Plus I do find the object orientated training and knowledge in C++ very useful when doing any design work in qny language (including python).

One last thing. I COMPLETELY agree with the response of "do what you enjoy"... enough money to live on is good. but i find no matter how big your salary, if you hate the work, 8 hours goes REAL SLOOOOOOWWW.

Regards

Answer 16

If you are worried about carrer path, I sugegst you look at jobs in your area which are asking for Python. Are there any and do these jobs look interesting to you? If the answer is yes, then Python is fine. If either is no, look at another language.

Or to take another approach, I suggest you look for the jobs you would like to be doing in three, five, tens years time and look at what skills they ask for.

Answer 17

Most of my software development career has been using languages such as C, Ada, C++, Java, and C#. However, years ago I learned Perl as a utility language because I could use it to do quick jobs that would be too tedious and time consuming to do in the target language I was using. Later, I discovered Python, and I liked the structure of it better than Perl, but it was just as powerful as a utility language. (I later tried Ruby for the same thing, but ended up going back to Python.) Now I am no longer in a product software job, and Python is the primary language I use for any software I do write.

All of this is to say that even if you don't end up getting a job where you are specifically paid to write Python, you still may find it to be a useful tool to have available to you.

Answer 18

I didn't have much working experience, but I think it is necessary to learn more than one programming languages before leaving college. And I should make a life by coding for a certain time. Python is great, and it is heard many Google apps were developed using python. Anyway, you could get more chances if you could master more than one kind of language.

Answer 19

Learn deeply the language you currently want to learn which, in this case, is Python. If you bore of it, move on unless you have a paying project or thesis to finish. Rinse and repeat. This is my life :)