The popularity of Python has spawned a vast amount of resources and articles on learning the language and programming techniques used in the language. Most of these resources focus on the theory of the language and Python in particular. However, one aspect that is often forgotten in these articles is the ease of learning the language.
Whether you have experience in other languages or not, it is important to not make the mistake of thinking that the language is trivial to learn. This is especially true for beginners. Below is a comparison of various aspects of learning the language of the language between other popular languages and Python. I will try to answer the question: Is Python easy to learn?
The syntax
A key characteristic of Python is its “pythonic” style of writing code. This is especially true with the indentation and the way that lines are terminated. Because the indentation is based on the nesting level, the line is often terminated by semi-colons. The Python code can read more like a sentence than many other programming languages.
The fact that Python does not use curly brackets is also one of the important aspects to this style. Instead, the indentation is used to denote the scope of the code and the level of nesting. Python also uses other less known methods to denote nested code blocks. Here is a link for further explanation.
It is true that learning the syntax can be tedious but learning the syntax quickly leads to a more organized and comprehensible programming style. If the syntax was something that stood out as much as other features, the code written by new programmers would be difficult to read.
The structure of the code
The structure of the code is similar to that of the English language. This is good because English is the primary language spoken on Earth. A Python programmer would need only a few days to become comfortable with the structure.
In an English document, you would find chapters, sections, and paragraphs. In a Python document, you would find modules, classes, and functions. There are also functions and methods that are similar to sections. Another important difference is that a paragraph in English can be one paragraph while the function or method can span multiple lines.
Program execution
Program execution is a more difficult concept for beginners than structure. The execution refers to the steps and processes that are done when the program is running. This might sound difficult to understand but this concept is explained well in the tutorial.
Program execution is the step-by-step process of your program. It can also be seen as the process of the code being executed. Python is not compiled like Java. This means that Python is executed by a machine that contains one or more CPU’s and a memory for storing the instructions. You can use the shell or your OS’s Command Line Interpreter to see the execution. For instance, if you run the python print “Hello world” from the shell, you would see the output “Hello world” on your command prompt.
Python is a powerful language for use in many different areas of business. Learning it and working with it can help you to be more efficient and productive.
So, is Python really easy to learn?
Yes and no. You will need a lot of practice and patience to become a proficient programmer in Python. But you should not give up after the first time you made a mistake. You should look at each error as a lesson that will help you to learn more efficiently. So, I think that you should learn Python.
Remember that learning is a process, which means that there is never a perfect answer or a right way to learn anything.