I run an ML team whose primary language is Python, and I’ve been doing scientific computation in Python (eg finite elements, numerical optimisation) in Python for a long time.
My personal impression is that Python is used in more fields than almost any other language, but that every community is only peripherally aware of other communities.
For example, Python is big in Earth Sciences (or so I am told). Almost nobody outside Earth Sciences knows that.
Until maybe 5 years ago, I had no idea that people used Python for web development. It had just never occurred to me. GvR famously had to google what wsgi was.
So I think your final sentence probably applies to most users of Python.
Yup. Python has some really good GIS libraries. So field that needs to deal with map data will often find itself drawn to python. And since it's a pretty newb friendly language you find that people who wouldn't otherwise program write simple scripts to manipulate the data and maybe output it to a csv so they can import it to excel.
Re:Why Aren't There C Conferences?
by marcosdumay on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @03:47PM
(#18505945)
At this point, Python is probably the second most used language for system programming (after C), one of the top 4 in web development (no idea on their ordering), around the top for other network protocols (I'd guess 3rd), the top language for data science, on the top 5 of scientific computing, on the top 5 for embedded computing (what sounds completely crazy, but there are few languages there), on the top 4 for game creation (probably 4th), the top one for electronics CAD and among the top for other kinds of CAD, the top one for GIS...
I can't think of other niches right now, but whatever one you think, it's probably on the top 5 there.
Re:Why Aren't There C Conferences?
by kevin_thibedeau on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @02:45PM
(#18505422)
Python was popular (though smaller) before NumPy and everything dependent on it came about.
The first version of the project later renamed NumPy was released in 1995, so it's been around almost as long as Python.
Re:Why Aren't There C Conferences?
by fiddlerwoaroof on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @05:03PM
(#18506471)
Yeah, I started using python around 2.0 and stopped using it because of 3, but from the beginning of my time using it, there always was numeric or numpy
Re:Why Aren't There C Conferences?
by anothergoogler on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @07:26PM
(#18507132)
Please don't project your narrow viewpoint onto PL communities.
You think? I'll admit that my view of the Python community is super narrow, but I was thinking Django, me writing a bunch of test scripts, backend stuff. I know data science is a "thing" with Python, but I just didn't imagine that it had become it's main use. I guess TIL there's a whole other world of how people use Python, and it might be most of them. :-)