Python Is Python the Best Language for Electrical Engineering Students?

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Python is widely recommended as an excellent first programming language for electrical engineering students due to its versatility and ease of learning. It is suitable for various applications, including web interaction and scientific computing, making it a practical choice for students. While some suggest exploring other languages like C or Java for a deeper understanding of programming concepts, Python's simplicity allows for a smoother entry into coding. Resources such as official tutorials and beginner guides are available to help newcomers get started effectively. Overall, Python is a strong candidate for those looking to combine programming with electrical engineering studies.
  • #61
D H said:
Well, welcome to my world. Strong typing is just a start. Algorithms must provably run to completion in a fixed amount of space and time. A garbage collector deciding to rear its ugly head would be problematic, but fortunately there is no need to worry about garbage collection in avionics software: Memory allocation is strictly verboten. Python violates many precept of avionics software.

I'm well aware of "cleanroom" and other forms of zero-defect software engineering, and I understand the importance of languages like Ada and their strong typing for those purposes.

Despite being labeled a "zealot" in this thread, I understand that different tasks require different tools -- I know a dozen or so languages. The vast majority of programming tasks that most people want to do just don't require the rigor of Ada, though, and and they are better done in languages like Python.

In my opinion, Python just has the best mix of ease-of-use, accessibility, and power of any language available today.

- Warren
 
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  • #62
D H said:
Well, welcome to my world. Strong typing is just a start. Algorithms must provably run to completion in a fixed amount of space and time. A garbage collector deciding to rear its ugly head would be problematic, but fortunately there is no need to worry about garbage collection in avionics software: Memory allocation is strictly verboten. Python violates many precept of avionics software.
Real time, safety critical software is also a part of my world including DO-178B. Java lives there too. There are a couple of approaches to bounding garbage collection event times, such as giving it a priority like everything else, or simply declaring some memory objects outside the scope of the garbage collector.
http://www.rtsj.org/specjavadoc/book_index.html
A couple years ago I worked on a team that created an autonomous unmanned vehicle (truck size) where the _entire_ vehicle high level control and navigation system was written in Java. Oh, and I still much prefer Python, whenever I can use it.
 
  • #63
wow guys i want to learn to programme.by fact all the computer science i know is in thory and i can't do shi.tttttttttttttt
 
  • #64
foges said:
Im in my last year of high school and for about two years now I've . I want to be able to use it to make for example: applications that interact with websites, like getting prices off ebay or something.

What is a good language for this.

Well, what you need to do is adapt to many scripting languages.
Hell, I've even scripted for CGI with Forth.

Basically you need to learn some Perl, PHP, Mysql, and basic UNIX so you
can use a shell. I recommend a book; 'Unix in a Nutshell'.

With those tools you can do anything you want but there are many others
too. Basically the only difference between scripting languages is syntax.
The end result is always the same, binary for the processor.

If you choose Unix/Linux for your platform you need to learn a little
about file systems and attributes plus permissions. These are key.

BTW -CGI is Common Gateway Interface. With what you want to do you
will become quite intimate with it.
 
  • #65
I reckon Warren is the man.
Python is the s***
 
  • #66
Python IS good. So are a lot of other languages. But if you ask this question in this forum, it will be a hot topic, because (in my opinion) there are some extreme Python zealots posting in here.
 
  • #68
harborsparrow said:
Python IS good. So are a lot of other languages. But if you ask this question in this forum, it will be a hot topic, because (in my opinion) there are some extreme Python zealots posting in here.

That's quite a serious claim. It might be a good idea for you to identify these "zealots" and the specific reasons why they're guilty of such behaviour. Otherwise, you should apologise.
 

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