1.2 Why Python?
Python has become the lingua franca for many data science applications.It combines the power of general-purpose programming languages with theease of use of domain-specific scripting languages like MATLAB or R.Python has libraries for data loading, visualization, statistics,natural language processing, image processing, and more. This vasttoolbox provides data scientists with a large array of general- andspecial-purpose functionality. One of the main advantages of usingPython is the ability to interact directly with the code, using aterminal or other tools like the Jupyter Notebook, which we’ll look atshortly. Machine learning and data analysis are fundamentally iterativeprocesses, in which the data drives the analysis. It is essential forthese processes to have tools that allow quick iteration and easyinteraction.As a general-purpose programming language, Python also allows for thecreation of complex graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and web services,and for integration into existing systems.
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