Why Python

You might wonder why I chose Python as the language to promote and teach.

Why do I care so much about Python? Isn't it just another programming language amongst many?

Well, that is the weird thing. It is one programming language amongst an incredible amount of options, with more coming along all the time. The choice is bewildering, so I can understand someone being nervous about hitching to the wrong horse, so to speak.

Python by many standards isn't even objectively the best programming language. It doesn't perform the best, and some would argue, still has major flaws even at this mature time in its lifecycle.

It does, however, have some major plus points. Attributes that alone are not perhaps dealbreakers, taken together make for a considerable amount of benefit for anyone who wants to put the effort into learning the language.

Plus, I would suggest if you are going to learn a language, Python has an edge over the competition in two significant areas.

First of all, picking up Python, even for someone brand new to coding, no matter what your age, is easier than most of the other "industrial strength" options out there. That is a big reason why major education institutions all the way through to kids code camps are focusing on Python.

The second reason is Python is becoming more and more adopted all around. While popularity is not always the signal of quality you would look for, it does open up many more opportunities for you as a developer, both in terms of projects to work on, and projects that are possible to achieve.

As the popularity grows, more and more fellow developers support the platform with help and code, enriching the platform even further.

You can program everything from the smallest microcontroller, through to the most massive servers. Mobile, and desktop. Python is used from the front end through to the backend, from websites to devops. Games through to IT infrastructure. Big data and AI, to flashing LED lights, media centers, and toys.

It is not just the language itself, but the accessibility that I love also. In fact, it is highly likely you could be up and running within minutes. Your computer might already have it installed ready to go, or it might be a click or two away. There are very capable development environments for hard core professionals, but all you need is a text editor such as notepad to get started with your first "hello world" code.

You see, this is another benefit making Python easy to work with. Python itself is interactive. You can enter programming commands and get an immediate response. This reduces the feedback cycle, increasing the speed in which you can make mistakes and learn from them - Programming is all about trying things and testing to see what works, I encourage you to embrace positive mistake making! It's not the mistakes, it's recovering and improving because of them that is valuable. It's harder to learn when everything goes right but you don't know why ;)

Lastly, if you do move on to another platform or programming language, what you learned in Python is still extremely valuable, because you can learn robust programming practices that translate very well into other systems.