Picking the right programming language is always crucial for your software development project to be successful.
Both Python and JavaScript are quite popular programming languages in the world of software development. Before diving deep into the comparison between the two, let’s have a quick introduction to these two languages.
A quick introduction to Python and JavaScript
JavaScript is the most powerful and flexible front-end programming languages for creating dynamic web-based applications.
Applications of Python:
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Application Development.
- Applications that deal with Computation and Scientific Data Processing.
- Automation Testing framework Development
- Data Visualization Applications
Applications of JavaScript:
- Mobile App Development using React Native
- Single-page Web Application Development.
- Web server & back-end infrastructure Applications using Node.js
- Build browser games.
Python is an open source, high-level, general-purpose object-oriented programming language. The code structure is just like plain English.
According to the 2020 Stack Overflow developer survey, below are the polls mentioned.
% of developers who are not developing with the language or technology but have expressed interest in developing with it
% of developers who are developing with the language or technology and have expressed interest in continuing to develop with it
Python Vs JavaScript – Comparison
There are lots of parameters in the software development field that decide which is the better programming language among others. Here, we will be talking about the key parameters that would help application developers and entrepreneurs to pick the right programming language among the two for their businesses to succeed.
Let’s get started:-
1. Community Support
Community support is an imperative comparison metric as it assists developers to quickly get the solution of a technical problem while developing an application.
Some of the Python communities:
- PySlackers
- Python Discord
- PyCon (original conference, US / North America)
Apart from that Microsoft, the tech giant, has been a sponsor of the Python Software Foundation since 2006.
2. Some of the JavaScript communities:
- JavaScript
- Dev.to
- Apigee
JavaScript and Python are both trending programming languages in the current time. Both the languages have plenty of support from the IT community.
3. Learning Curve
This metric helps you to understand which programming language or technology is easy to learn and implement in a software development project.
Python has fewer lines of code and is quite readable. This makes it a developer-friendly programming language. While JavaScript has lots of complex concepts, syntax, and complex structure. So, when talking about the learning curve, Python is the clear winner.
4. Performance & Speed
The performance metric is the most pivotal element to look for while choosing any programming language. The reason being, it impacts the execution speed of the application.
Node.JS, a well-known ecosystem of JavaScript, is based on an event-based architecture and non-blocking I/O model that enhances the processing of CPU and computer memory. Apart from that, it uses a feature called Chrome’s V8 (Google’s open-source WebAssembly engine) that multifold the performance of a Node.js application.
While the execution of the Python application happens via interpreter instead of the compiler. Due to this Python-based applications are executed one line at a time, resulting in a slowing down of execution speed. However, by implementing CPython, developers can improve the performance to a certain extent. Still, performance & speed-wise, JavaScript is better than Python.
5. Code Debugging
Debugging a code is a cumbersome task for a developer in order to fix a bug. The more complex is the code, the more effort a developer would have to give to fix an issue.
Python has a simple syntax with no curly brackets and it has fewer lines of code. While JavaScript has lots of brackets, complex syntax & concepts, and more lines of code. That’s the reason, python-based applications are comparatively easy to debug than JavaScript.
6. Time-to-Market
Time-to-Market is one of the important parameters for the success of a product or service. The quicker is the time-to-market, the better is the chance to stay ahead of your competitors.
The Time-to-Market of a product or service depends on how quickly a product is developed with all fixes done and is launched at the market.
Python, being a simple and user-friendly programming language, developers can build a bug-free application with Python quickly. While JavaScript developers need to invest more time and effort to create and deploy an application. So, for sure, Python is better than JavaScript when comes to the Time-to-Market metric.
7. Extensibility
Some of the Python code can be written in C and C++ languages. Even it can be integrated with Java. Developers can run Python on the Java platform by the use of Jython. That means python is an extensible programming language.
While JavaScript can also be integrated with so many languages such as HTML, XML, Ajax, and many others. So, JavaScript is also an extensible programming language.
Python Vs JavaScript: Which is Better Project-Wise?
Which one is the better choice for building AI/ML Applications?
Python programming language is quite similar to English language. Python code is easy to read and write. This helps developers to invest less time and effort in writing complicated and lengthy codes. They can give more focus on building AI & ML algorithms and programs by leveraging amazing AI/ML libraries and frameworks.
Some of the libraries are:
- NumPy
- Scikit-Learn
- Pandas
- Keras
- Matplotlib
Use cases of Python in AI/ML development
- Uber developed an ML platform Michelangelo PyML using Python.
- Skyscanner, one of the well-known travel firms, predicts new airplane paths’ behavior by embracing Python unsupervised ML algorithm.
Data visualization is an important part of data Science that assists in creating outstanding dashboards, and dynamic charts. JavaScript too provides certain data visualization libraries such as D3.js, Plotly.js and so on.
The release of the TensorFlow library in JavaScript, provided some sort of opportunity for developers to build machine learning applications using JavaScript. However, JavaScript does not provide too many AI/ML libraries and built-in functions as compared to Python. So, with respect to data science projects, Python clearly wins.
Which one is the better choice for building Mobile Applications?
If you are investing in mobile app development, JavaScript is better option than python.
You can build cross platform mobile apps by embracing JavaScript mobile frameworks. Some of the popular JavaScript frameworks for mobile app development are PhoneGap, Ionic, React Native and many more.
While Python is not a good option for mobile app development projects. Actually, it doesn’t have built-in mobile development capabilities. However, there are few packages such as Kivy, PyQt, or Beeware’s Toga library, to develop mobile apps.
Which one is the better choice for building Web Applications?
For building a web application, we would say JavaScript will be the better option among the two.
JavaScript is a Cross Browser Compatible means it is supported by a plethora web browser such as Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera and many more. Lots of JavaScript frameworks are available such AngularJS, ReactJS, EmberJS, many more, to create responsive and dynamic web applications.
You can also build web applications with Python. Some of the popular web frameworks are available in the market such as Flask, CherryPy, Pyramid, Django and web2py. But web applications need speed and responsiveness. And python is slower than JavaScript.
So, JavaScript is better than Python for web development projects.
Wrapping Up
We have talked about the different metrics for comparing Python and JavaScript programming languages, however, it would be unfair to mark any one of the two as the better choice. Both have their unique capabilities and use cases in the software development niche. The two aforementioned programming languages are applied differently in the software development market.
JavaScript is the go-to choice for projects related to web and mobile application development. It has lots of powerful JS libraries such React, Angular, D3 for building responsive applications.
While Python is the preferred language for projects such as machine learning, AI, and academic computational work because it has lots of data-driven libraries such as Matplotlib, Pandas, PyTorch, TensorFlow, and lots many.
So, pick your best-fit among the two, while creating an application for your business.
Source: This article was originally published on TheCompetenza blog.
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