There can hardly be any doubt about the usefulness of programming. Most of us use numerous computer programs and web applications daily both at work and in our free time.
Some of them are helpful tools that make our lives easier and allow us to be more efficient. Thanks to search engines, we can get the information we need in the blink of an eye, thanks to social networks and email, we can communicate with people. Others, such as video games, simply bring us a lot of fun.
It can be hard to imagine right now but a couple of decades ago, all that software we use daily didn't exist. For it to be available now, someone had to take on its development in the first place and spend weeks and even months programming the machine.
What's more, development doesn't generally stop once a computer programme has been put together, it may still not be perfect. Some of its errors may need to be patched or some of its features may need to be adapted over time.
As you can see, programming the machine is not really a simple task, but it is also an area that constantly needs specialists able to write good code.
A professional coder can usually have plenty of job opportunities in web and software development as well as data science. Coding skills can also be useful to a specialist in another area because they can use their particular expertise to tweak the software they work on.
So, learning to code can be a great idea for any person who'd like to boost their career and make their job a bit more interesting.
In this article, we will look at 8 possible uses of one programming language, in particular, Python. We chose Python because it is a popular and versatile language used in a lot of development projects.
At the same time, it is relatively easy to learn, so anyone can get started in Python programming quickly. Who knows, maybe, it can help you achieve great results too.
You can get a short introduction to Python in our article.
Creating video games in Python
Probably one of the most common reasons that push people to learn a programming language is the creation of video games. They are very popular entertainment and as we discover games created by other people, it can make us want to fulfil our own ideas.
So, is it possible to create a video game in Python? The answer is definitely yes. The Python language is perfectly suitable for game development and even has a special programming library called Pygame.
With the help of the Pygame tools, you can build characters, add graphic elements and set the gameplay rules. The Pygame library and documentation are available on the web, so you can download it whenever you want and learn it on your own.
Of course, the Pygame library has its limits too. As Python is not a fast programming language, you may not be able to create a very complex video game with a dynamic world uniquely in it.
Still, if you are a complete beginner, Python can help you understand the basics of video game development, see how a video game works under the hood and even build a simple original game of your own that you can play with your friends.
That will be an invaluable experience that will help you become a great software developer later on.
Python in data science
Another very important area where Python is used in data science. You have certainly heard this term on TV or seen it in an article, but what exactly does it mean?
When we talk about data, we basically refer to a collection of facts that can be found in a text or a database.
In the past, our access to data was quite limited. We could learn new facts from books or other people but that was it. In most cases, people had just to resign themselves to not knowing certain things because they did have any other choice and it was not that important either.
You can find more information about Python in our article.
These days, on the contrary, data is everywhere. We can obtain all kinds of facts within a few clicks on the Internet, companies have huge databases containing millions of figures and statistical services constantly conduct more and more new surveys.
As a result, we have to face a new kind of problem, which is to make sense of all that data. That is precisely the objective of data science.
A data scientist uses the machine to extract useful facts from databases and other digital sources, so we can interpret them and base our management decisions on them.
Data science specialists are needed in lots of digital companies all across Australia, so once you learn Python and a data science library, like Pandas, you can easily find an interesting and well-paid job.
Explore these python courses Melbourne here.
Natural language processing
Human language is one of the biggest mysteries that scientists have been trying to solve for centuries. With the invention of the first computers, the question naturally arose whether language couldn't be processed by the machine.
Today, several technologies have been developed to achieve that goal. They help people work with texts more efficiently and have numerous repetitive tasks done by the machine. Still, it remains a very complex area, so a developer is often needed to put those processes into place and monitor them.
Python is a great programming language for natural language processing. It has helpful libraries that you can use to extract data from written sources or even integrate into more complex software, like online applications.
Machine learning
This is another promising field in which Python has a leading role. It has numerous open-source libraries for that purpose, such as NumPy, SciPy, Scikit-learn, etc, that you can access online and use in your projects.
The main idea of machine learning is to train the machine to recognise patterns and make predictions without setting strict rules for it.
You can discover the differences between Python and Java in our article.
Machine learning can be applied to plenty of areas from languages to image recognition and fraud detection, so it can be a job on its own or you can use it as a specialist along with other tools.
Web development
One of the areas constantly looking for programming specialists is web development. A lot of companies invest in online applications to offer their clients a better experience and build a stronger relationship with them.
Python has several libraries and web development frameworks that will help you code your applications. You will make them compatible with various platforms, like Windows, Android or iOS and add interactive features for your users to have fun.
A lot of web development specialists work on projects for big companies but if you have good ideas, you can also build your own application or software from scratch. If it's something really original, it will certainly become popular and people will be willing to pay you to use your product.
Check out python classes here.
Python in Science
So far, we have mainly talked about the uses of Python in business but it can also become a very helpful tool in the area of science.
For example, a mathematician could use a machine to carry out complex calculations. Thanks to its easy syntax, you can tell Python exactly what you want to do and it will do all the operations and deliver relevant data to us.
One of the popular libraries that may interest you is SciPy. As its very name indicates, it is dedicated to science and gathers plenty of useful tools that will help you do research.
As Python is relatively easy to learn, it is a perfect language to code in even if you are not a professional programmer. You will have fun learning Python and writing short applications and it will help you make a real difference in your work.
Try out our online python course on Superprof
Web Scraping Applications
One of the uses we don't often think of when learning Python is web scraping. The idea of web scraping is to make the machine browse through numerous websites and collect relevant information for us. We can then use it to make compare the prices of products or learn more about our business competitors.
Once web scraping is done you can code the machine to present the data in a neatly formatted graph and read the most important pieces of information without losing time.
Your application will help you improve your time management and achieve better results in your projects.
Python for students
Given the importance of computers in our lives, learning more about programming languages can be very useful to school and university students.
As Python is both very versatile and relatively easy to learn, it can be a great language to get an introduction to the world of programming.
Students can learn the basics of Python with their school tutor and if one day they need it for a bigger project, they can just read up on the particular libraries for the project.
They will understand how the machine works much better in general and even learning other programming languages will be much easier for them afterwards.
There is more on Python resources in our article.
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