As an experienced programmer, I often get asked how to choose between languages like C and Python. Which one is better? When should you use each? Here I‘ll compare these two powerful yet contrasting languages to help you decide the right tool for your next programming project. I‘ve been coding in both C and Python for over 15 years across operating systems, embedded devices, web apps, and data analysis.
A Quick History
First, a little background. C was created by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs between 1972 and 1973 for the UNIX operating system. It was designed as a "general-purpose programming language" optimized for structure, simplicity, and low-level memory access. To this day, it remains very closely tied to UNIX and Linux.
Comparatively, Python was conceived in the late 1980s by Guido van Rossum at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica. First released in 1991, Python was designed to be easy to use, readable, intuitive, open-source, and suitable for everyday programming tasks. It is an interpreted, object-oriented language.
Fundamental Differences
Despite their wide use, C and Python have key differences in their technical approach, syntax, typical applications, use cases, and learning curves.
When deciding which language to use in your next project, consider these contrasts:
Performance and Speed
- C code executes much faster due to being a natively compiled language while Python is interpreted at runtime.
- However, Python‘s simplicity and built-in functions means faster developer productivity even if runtime performance lags behind C.
Readability and Syntax
- Python has far simpler and more consistent syntax rules, making development less tedious and faster.
- Code reads closer to natural language with indentation signifying scope and descriptive names.
- C relies much more heavily on symbols, punctuation, braces and is a very terse language.
Memory Management
- In C, the developer manually allocates and frees memory requiring more work and expertise.
- Python automatically handles memory allocation and cleanup through garbage collection freeing developers from this manual task.
Built-in Capabilities
- Python ships "batteries included" with an extensive standard library full of built-in modules for tasks like regular expressions, JSON, web services, unit testing and scientific computing.
- C has a smaller standard library requiring use of external third-party libraries.
Hardware Access
- C contains pointers allowing direct access and manipulation of memory addresses – critical for system programming.
- Python abstracts away pointers and hardware access from developers.
Type Checking
- C uses static type checking requiring every variable have an explicitly defined type at compile time.
- Python uses dynamic typing and infers variable types automatically at runtime without type declarations.
Applications and Use Cases
With its efficient use of memory and ability to directly manipulate hardware at a low level, C continues to dominate performance-critical system programming like operating systems, embedded devices, robotics, VR systems and graphics programming. For example, much of the Linux kernel and databases like PostgreSQL and MongoDB are written in C.
Python excels as a general-purpose language for the majority of everyday applications like web apps, data analysis, machine learning models, scripting system tasks, ETL pipelines, APIs, prototyping ideas and gluing components together. The wide availability of math/science libraries has made Python the language for data analysis and AI. Companies like Google, Facebook, and Instagram rely heavily on Python.
To understand why, consider frameworks and libraries available for each language:
| Domain | Example Frameworks and Tools |
|---|---|
| Web Applications | Django and Flask (Python) vs CGI and libonion (C) |
| GUI Desktop Apps | Tkinter and PyQt (Python) vs GTK and Qt (C) |
| Machine Learning | NumPy, SciPy, Keras, PyTorch, TensorFlow (Python) vs Tiny-dnn (C) |
| Mobile Development | Kivy (Python) vs Corona SDK (C) |
Though C has some options, Python dominates key fields like data science through strong community packages.
By the Numbers
Let‘s look at some usage statistics:
- According to the February 2023 Tiobe Index, C is the #2 programming language in terms of overall popularity while Python holds the #1 slot.
- On GitHub, Python is also #1 ranking far above C in terms of contributors and number of new repos created.
- In Stack Overflow‘s 2022 survey, over 75% of professional developers use Python while 61% use C.
- Python surpassed C in search traffic in Google Trends back in 2012 reflecting expanding adoption.
While Python usage has rapidly grown in the the last 15 years, especially in data science and web development domains, C remains deeply embedded in critical lower level system software. It‘s not going away anytime soon!
Guidance from Experts
Here what programming luminaries have said about Python vs C:
“Python to me is what BASIC used to be, very easy to use and high level. And C is still my go to language for absolute speed and low level hardware access. They both have big eco-systems and do things the other can’t." – Linus Akesson, creator of hardware demos like RC2014, and Chip-8 emulator
"Bjarne Stroustrup, creator of C++, noted about Python and C: ‘To argue whether Python or C++ is the "best" language is about as sensible as to argue about whether hammers or saws are the ultimate woodworking tool.‘"
Well said! Each language excels for particular jobs just as we use different tools for different building tasks.
Conclusion
So in summary, while C and Python take distinctly different technology approaches, both languages continue to thrive and expand based on core strengths:
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For sheer processing efficiency, close hardware control and lightning fast performance with minimal memory usage, C still dominates systems programming even 50 years later. It‘s not going anywhere due to its unmatched speed and low level capabilities.
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For developer productivity, ease of use across so many everyday application domains from data science to DevOps, Python provides a simpler, faster path to working software. Python is extending its lead as the #1 general purpose programming language powering much of AI and modern web apps.
There‘s no universal "best" language crowned yet between C vs Python. Know the core capabilities and limitations of each language, then decide what best suits your coding needs!
I hope this comparison helps provide some guidance as you embark on upcoming software projects. Please reach out with any other programming language questions!
