20 Python Applications in Real-World

Gimena Aguerreberry
May 13, 2021

It is a well-established fact that Python is one of the most popular programming languages in both the coding and Data Science communities.

Python is an open-source, high-level, general-purpose programming language that incorporates the features of object-oriented, structural, and functional programming.

Ever since it was created by Guido Van Rossum, Python has evolved and adapted to new technologies. The uses of Python in different areas can be attributed to the simplicity of its syntax, scalability, being an open-source, and easy to learn programming language.

In this post, we’ll look at some of the use-cases for Python.

Keep in mind that Python is an incredibly versatile language. People use it for all kinds of things. The broad real-world use cases we’ll cover here are really just the tip of the iceberg!

1. Web Development

Famously known as the go-to programming language for web development, Python has an important role to play in it.

What makes Python one of the most popular programming languages for web development is that Python comes with a wide array of frameworks and Content Management Systems(CMS) that exist to simplify a web developer’s life.

Web development frameworks like Pyramid, Django, and Flask are packed with standard libraries that allow easy protocol integration and lead to a reduction in development time. Why use a framework? The security, scalability, convenience that they provide is commendable if we compare it to starting the development of a website from scratch.

2. Data Science

Its multiple libraries such as Pandas, TensorFlow, NumPy, etc help in extracting valuable information from the data. Libraries like Matplotib and Seaborn further allow a data science professional to focus on data visualization through graphs and charts. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that Python is the first thing that any data science professional needs to know.

3. Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are undoubtedly among the hottest topics of this decade. These are the brains behind the smart tech that we so rely on today to help us make optimized decisions.

Python’s stability and security make it a perfect programming language for handling the intensive computations that keep the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning systems running. More so, Python’s vast collection of libraries facilitate the development of models and algorithms that run modern AI and ML systems.

4. Enterprise Applications

Enterprise applications are used to serve the needs of an organization rather than individual users. The use of Python in building enterprise applications is done as it is a robust language that can handle multiple requests of databases at once. Even though the use of Python varies from one enterprise to another, its core functionalities like its readability, functionality, and scalability remain the same. Enterprise applications are one of the most notable uses of Python.

5. Education & Training

Python has an extremely straightforward syntax that’s similar to the English language. It has a short learning curve and hence, is an excellent choice for beginners. Python’s easy learning curve and simplicity are the two main reasons why it is one of the most used programming languages in educational programs, both at beginner and advanced levels.

6. Web Scraping

Python is a nifty tool for extracting voluminous amounts of data from websites and web pages. The pulled data is generally used in different real-world processes, including job listings, price comparison, R&D, etc.

7. Game Development

Python has time and again displayed its capacity of contributing to the gaming industry in a massive way. Battlefield 2, one of the most popular games in the early 2000s, was developed using the Python programming language. Some of the top Python frameworks that are used in game development include Pygame, PyKyra, Pyglet, PyOpenGL, Kivy, Panda3D, Cocos2D, and more.

8. Software Development

There are various aspects of Python that make it perfect for software development of any kind. Python offers a host of features, such as quick execution, high compatibility, strong community support, and an enormous collection of libraries.

Python’s ability to work with evolving technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Science makes it a highly preferred programming language by a vast number of developers.

9. Desktop GUI

Python is a simple, stable, easy to learn, open-source, and platform-independent programming language. These factors work in their favour of being used for developing desktop GUI. Toolkits like PyQt, PyGUI, and WxPython are widely used for building high-quality GUIs efficiently.

10. Operating systems

Python is one of the many programming languages that’s powering Linux-based operating systems. Well, not exactly the operating system itself but parts of it.

The combination of C and Python is highly advantageous in designing and developing operating systems.

11. Business Applications

Business applications are designed to fit the requirements of an organization rather than the needs of individual customers. These applications must be capable of integrating with legacy systems like existing databases and non-web apps.

Python’s high performance, scalability, flexibility, and readability are just the features required for developing fully functional and efficient business applications. Furthermore, Python has other tools for business application development, like Odoo and Tryton.

12. Audio & Video

When it comes to working with audio and video files, you’ll find yourself fully equipped with tools and libraries to accomplish your task. Tasks such as basic signal processing, creative audio manipulation, audio recognition, and more can be easily handled by libraries like Pyo, pyAudioAnalysis, and many others.

As for the video part, Python offers several libraries, such as Scikit-video, or OpenCV, that can help you manipulate and prepare videos for use in other applications.

13. CAD Applications

Computer-Aided Designing is quite challenging to make as many things have to be taken care of. Objects and their representation, functions are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to something like this. Python makes this simple too and the most well-known application for CAD is Fandango.

14. Embedded Applications

Python is based on C which means that it can be used to create Embedded C software for embedded applications.

The most well-known embedded application could be the Raspberry Pi which uses Python for its computing. It can also be used as a computer or like a simple embedded board to perform high-level computations.

15. Image processing & Graphic Desing

Alongside all the uses mentioned above, Python also finds a unique use case in image processing and graphic design applications. The programming language is used globally to design and build 2D imaging software like Inkscape, GIMP, Paint Shop Pro, and Scribus. Also, Python is used in several 3D animation packages such as Blender, Houdini, 3ds Max, Maya, Cinema 4D, and Lightwave, to name a few.

16. Text Processing

Text Processing is among the most common uses of Python. Text Processing allows you to handle enormous volumes of text while giving you the flexibility to structure it as you wish.

If you’re thinking about sorting lines, extracting text, reformatting paragraphs, and such, you’re correct. What else can you do with Text Processing? Well, with Python’s text processing capabilities, you can do a lot more than that.

17. Scientific & Numeric Applications

Thanks to its massive library base, Python has become a crucial tool in scientific and numeric computing. In fact, Python provides the skeleton for applications that deal with computation and scientific data processing. Apps like FreeCAD (3D modeling software) and Abaqus (finite element method software) are coded in Python.

18. Language Development

Over the years, Python’s design and module architecture has been the inspiration behind the development of many new programming languages such as Boo, Swift, CoffeeScript, Cobra, and OCaml.

19. Robotics

Python is a popular language in the field of robotics, both among hobbyists and professionals. On the hobbyist end of the spectrum, Python is frequently used together with the Raspberry Pi hardware platform, which allows for flexible and affordable experimentation.

20. Automation

Python is great for automating repetitive tasks, and there are almost endless real-world use cases for Python automation. Python it’s widely used to automate everything from complex systems to simple, personal processes like filling in a spreadsheet or responding to emails.

"20 Python Applications in Real-World" by Gimena Aguerreberry is licensed under CC BY SA. Source code examples are licensed under MIT.

Photo by Owen Beard.

Categorized under software development.

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