Python experts talk Python on Twitter: Q&A Recap

To celebrate the launch of Python Interviews, we ran Q&A session on Twitter with some of the key contributors to the book. Author and interviewer Mike Driscoll (@driscollis), and experienced Python contributors Steve Holden (@holdenweb), and Alex Martelli (@aleaxit) got together to respond to your questions.

Here’s what happened…

The future of Python

We then asked Mike, Steve and Alex what they thought the future of Python is going to look like.

How to get involved with the Python community

We then asked what our experts think is the best way for someone new to the Python community to get involved. With the language growing at an immense rate, more people are (hopefully) going to want to contribute to the project.

Advice for anyone new to programming

Programmings popularity as a career choice is growing. That’s not just true of new graduates but people looking to retrain and take on a new challenge in their career. But what should anyone new to programming know when starting out?

Switching from Python 2.7 to Python 3

There’s been considerable discussion within the community on the merits of shifting from Python 2.7 to Python 3. But whatever the obvious advantages are, there will always be resistance to change when it requires an investment of time and effort. And if you don’t need to switch then why would you?

Here’s what Mike, Steve and Alex had to say…

What gives Python an advantage over other programming languages?

Why is Python so popular exactly? If it’s growing at such a fantastic rate, why are developers and engineers turning to it? What does it have that other languages don’t?

Future Python releases

If Python’s going to remain popular, it’s going to need to adapt and evolve with the needs of the developers of the future. So what capabilities and features would our experts like to see from Python in the future?

What problems does Python face as a language?

Why is Python so useful for AI and Machine learning?

AI is a growing area that has expanded beyond the confines of data science into just about every corner of modern software engineering. Python has been a core part of this, and in part it explains part of the rise of Python’s popularity – people want to build algorithms in a way that’s relatively straightforward.