Python for Business Majors?

Python has become the programming language of choice for many businesses. Colleges and Universities are rapidly designing courses to teach Python to meet the growing demand. Marian University will be offering a class in Python, CST 280, this Fall. This course is designed primarily for Management and Business Analytics majors. Previously, our Business students took courses in C++ and JavaScript. Our Computer Science and Engineering programs will continue to require C++ and offer Python as an elective.

Christine Spang of SD Times has written an excellent article on What to Expect for Python. Below are some excerpts from her column:

“Python has grown significantly in popularity since its initial release in 1991. The open source language now consistently ranks among the world’s most popular programming languages, having overcome those who claimed it was too slow or couldn’t scale. In fact, these days, leaders such as PayPal, Instagram and Yelp use Python as part of their core software stack.”

“Python 3 has now been around for 10 years, and it’s no longer a question of if organizations will migrate to it, but when . Early versions of Python 3 had significant downsides that hindered adoption of the backwards-incompatible update to the language— but no longer. Python 3.6 is more featureful, more consistent, and in many cases, more efficient than Python 2.7. The tools for migrating to Python 3 have become mature and significantly decrease the burden of migrating. Most major libraries now support Python 3, meaning your dependencies should no longer block migrating. I believe we’ll see more and more organizations incrementally migrating their codebases to Python 3, and the majority of new Python projects will be started with Python 3.”

“Having secured a loyal following among new and experienced developers alike, the next phase of Python growth will come from non-traditional coders. As fields such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning increase in demand, we’ll see data scientists, physicists, bioengineers, and other professionals drive the spread of Python.”

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