The When of Python Blog

Guidance on when to use Python features (and when not to).
Comment your opinions on our articles to join the discussion.
Follow us on Twitter and GitHub to get the latest updates first.

The Who of Python


Python is used by very different groups of people and how we decide which features are Common Python and which are Situational Python must take that into account. If something is common to one group only e.g. data scientists, or enterpise web application developers, it should be considered Situational Python even if the use case is very common for that group.

Nick Coghlan loosely and tentatively divided Python use cases up in a 2017 blog post (Considering Python's Target Audience Nick Coghlan 2017-10-09):

  • Education
  • Personal automation & hobby projects
  • Organisational process automation
  • Set-and-forget infrastructure
  • Continuously upgraded infrastructure
  • Intermittently upgraded standard operating environments
  • Ephemeral software
  • Regular use applications
  • Shared abstraction layers

He also suggested that largest split in Python's user base is between Python as a scripting language and Python as an application development language.

Another useful split would be between full-time developers and people who are astronomers, biologists etc first, and developers second.

However we divide things up the main point is that there is no such thing as an Everyday Python that is the same for everyone. But having said this, there is still a need for a Common Python so we can all basically read each other's work.