The novel 2019 corona-virus has affected the world in a colossal way. Our way of life has changed since the outbreak of the virus and its spread throughout the globe. Since most people have been forced to stay home, people are finding ways to take advantage of the time they are staying at home to learn something and in this article we will cover the current state of Python as of May 2020.
Maybe you are one of those people who wants to learn something new while you stay at home. You may have settled at learning a programming language and have settled on Python. Well, let me assure you that the choice of learning python is a good one.
However, before you start learning this programming language or if you are a newbie to programming languages, you probably want to know more about Python, like what are the hot trends in Python or if coronavirus and Python have a relationship. We will address your concerns in this article.
Python is a programming language that is used for both general as well as high-level purposes. You can use python to develop websites, web applications, as well as to develop GUI applications. Since python is a high-level programming language, it takes care of common programming tasks leaving you to concentrate on the application’s core functionality.
Who’s using Python?
Python is used by major companies such as JP Morgan Chase, NASA, Pixar, and IBM, among other companies. Python is one of the four main languages used by Google. The video streaming giant YouTube is written largely in Python. Instagram, Pinterest, and Reddit are also written in Python.
Academic research, especially in the fields of bioinformatics, biology, and mathematics relies heavily on Python. Many university computer science programs use Python as a standard introductory language.
Why is Python preferred for writing software applications?
You may be looking for reasons why you should consider Python as the application for use in writing software applications. Here are some of the reasons.
Readable and maintainable code
When you are writing a software application, your focus should be on the quality of the application’s source code so as to make its maintenance and update a simple process. In Python, the syntax rules allow you to express concepts without you having to write additional codes. Python also allows you to use English keywords as opposed to punctuations making code readability easy.
Multiple Programming Paradigms
Python, like other modern programming languages, supports other programming paradigms. Programming that is object-oriented and structured is fully supported by Python. Or do you like a more functional style? You can do that too! Then you can take your programs and run them on multiple platforms without needing to change anything or rebuilding your programs!
Latest trends
You might be curious to know about the hot trends in python. Well, your curiosity is about to be satisfied. Here are some interesting things you can do with Python in 2020.
Automation of daily routine tasks
You can use Python to automate the tasks in your routine that you view as tedious and that consume most of your time on a daily basis. All you have to do is write a few lines of code. Python can make your work easier by automating the following tasks:
• Searching for text in files or files in a database.
• Python can automate your folders and files by updating, renaming, and creating them.
• Doing web searches and creation of dictionaries.
• Python can automate your process of sending reminder emails as well as sending message notification.
• Your invoices can be tracked and sorted using Python.
Automatic detection of images
Artificial intelligence and Machine learning technology are what enable the detection of faces from an assortment of images. AI and ML technology both use Python. This is because both technologies involve the gathering of huge amounts of data every day. Python syntax is easy, and in turn, it makes it easy for scientists to easily work with complex systems.
So, how do Python and a computer or phone work together to identify images? Python has an open-source library dedicated to face recognition. What people are doing is using this library in their Python script to enable their devices to pick out faces in images.
Creation of games
Staying at home the whole day can be a bit boring. What people are doing to kill the boredom is creation of games using Python. Adventure games, puzzle games, as well as adventure games are all being created using Python. Python has a library dedicated to game development. This library is known as Pygame. Pygame features various modules that have functionalities for playing sound, graphics drawing, and more.
Having looked at some of the hot trends in python at the moment, let us shift our focus to how coronavirus and python are interacting.
With the coronavirus spreading across the globe and the numbers associated with coronavirus changing every day, you can use Python to visualize the projections of the virus. Python is being can is being used to create visualizations of the spread of the coronavirus in the world using open data that is provided as well as open-source libraries.
The total number of cases confirmed that involve COVID-19 can be projected using Python as well as some graphing libraries. The number of deaths per country on a given date can also be displayed on the visuals created using Python. There are three steps involved in this process. First, the data about the coronavirus cases is downloaded. The data for a given country or region is selected and, finally, the data is plotted on a chart.
Using Python to model the COVID-19 epidemic
When an epidemic like the coronavirus strikes in a given location, questions like how will the virus spread or what can be done to contain it are asked. The relationship between coronavirus and Python gives us the answer to this question. Python is used to build a compartmental model that simulates the spread of the virus in a given location.
The SIR model is used when the goal is to show the general principles of coronavirus spread in a certain location. This model starts by dividing the population into 3 categories. For each location, represented as i, at a given time represented by t, the three categories appear as follows:
Si, t – this represents the number of individuals who are not yet infected by the virus and neither are they susceptible to it.
Ii, t – represents the number of individuals who are already infected with the virus and are able to spread the virus to the individuals categorized in the susceptible group.
Ri, t – this category represents individuals who have been infected with COVID-19 but have been removed from the group that has infected people because they have recovered or they died. Individuals in this category are not in a position to either contract the virus again or transmit it to other people.
The SIR models operate by describing the population changes in each of the three categories by use of two parameters, β and ϒ. β represent the diseases’(coronavirus) contact rate while ϒ describes the average rate of recovery. From these two parameters, differential equations are drawn and then a Python code integrates the equations. That is how Python is used in coronavirus modelling.
Coronavirus and python also interact through the tracking of the virus using Python. With Python people have come up with a fun way to keep themselves up to date with information related to coronavirus via SMS. Tracking of the coronavirus is being done using a text-message-based coronavirus tracker created using Python.
In the United States there is a Tracking Project for coronavirus that provides up-to-date statistics related to COVID-19 for the whole nation as well as individual states. The statistics provided by this Tracking Project include the number of tests that have been administered, the number of positive cases discovered and the number of deaths. The text-message-based coronavirus tracker aims to operate the same way that the COVID Tracking Project is working. Python programming language is used to bring the tracker to life.
Wrapping up
Before we wrap this up there is good news for Android users. A new full set of BeWare tools is close to coming out. These tools can run on Android. With BeWare tools running on Android, programmers will be able to write apps for iOS, Android and other platforms in Python UI widgets that are native.
There you have it, everything that is happening in the Python programming language world during this time that the corona-virus has affected the globe. Corona-virus and Python interact through the tracking of the virus as well as the creating of models to depict how the virus is spreading. Now it’s your turn to have fun with Python.
Be A Python Dev 