In the current programming scenario, Python and Scala are the two most popular programming languages in the world. If you are starting to learn programming languages and you want to concentrate on one of them to pursue your future career, you have to choose the best one. In order to do that, you have to understand the differences between the two on various important parameters. As a matter of fact, if you have certain knowledge of both the programming languages, in order to choose one for your application development, you have to know the core differences.
Ease Of Learning –
Python is one of the most developer-friendly languages. Its syntaxes are very much like English language and that is exactly why the popularity of Python increases so exponentially. In comparison, Scala is slightly difficult for rookies to grasp at once. One needs to invest a considerable amount of time to master Scala. In Python, people can start by learning a few syntaxes and they can learn on the go. Due to more people learning Python and fewer people concentrating on Scala, there is more demand for Scala developers and the pay for Scala developers is more than python ones.
Performance –
Scala programming language is multiple times faster than Python and this is the sole reason why people are migrating from Python to Scala. The difference in performance is due to the use of JVM. This difference is performance is clearly visible when you run a major project on a server with limited processing cores. If the server has sufficient cores, the performance difference may not be visible vividly. Due to this huge performance difference, Scala finds application in data analysis and various such high processing fields. The bottom line is if the application is non-complicated and you have more cores to do its processing, you can settle with Python, otherwise, Scala is always a better option.
Structure –
In today’s development environment that is dominated by frameworks, the architecture of a programming language is crucial in choosing it over others. There is no doubt that Scala wins here due to its Play framework which is capable of integrating asynchronous primitives flawlessly. The integration of various services is efficient and the multithreading is the most appropriate. It is due to this true multithreading processing power, its performance is better than Python. In Python, only one thread can be active at a time and every new process takes so much space as various connected processes starting over again. If you are looking for better utilization of resources and heavyweight processing, Scala has no replacement.
Dynamic Or Static Type –
It is said that dynamically typed language is the modern language and there is a fascination among the amateur developers to work on a dynamically typed programming language such as Python. In such a language, the developers do not have to mention a data type explicitly and the data type is assigned dynamically by the programming language. Scala, on the other hand, is still a statically typed language like the older languages. This is actually good so no time will be wasted in analyzing the data and assigning data type. Furthermore, all the scenarios where a type mismatch may happen can be avoided. It totally depends on the developers but on paper, Scala’s static typed version sounds more logical.
Modern Features –
There is no dearth of features on both the programming languages and that is why you can say that it is always a tie between the two when you measure their parameters. With a deeper analysis one can say that Python has an edge due to more machine learning and language processing libraries which is where all the modern applications are heading. Scala is not far behind as its libraries are increasing with various advanced features to experiment with and open up new scope for the applications. But if you consider what you get in the out of the box packages, one has to agree that Python brings more to the table after unboxing. Scala is good for big data works while Python is better for modern application development with advanced features.
Community Support –
Community support is extremely influential in deciding the popularity and usability of a programming language. There is no doubt that Python has twice the size of active community than Scala. The reason is that Python has more developers than Scala which is slightly complicated to master than Python. You can find more answers to Python questions and issues. Even the documentation of Python is more detailed than Scala.
Bottom Line –
Python is easy to get started with as it is easy to learn. Python is good for small projects and modern applications. But Scala is something you should take time to learn as it is having more demand and the demand is only going to increase in future. The reason is that it is the best programming language for big data analysis which is where the best-paid jobs are and there is a fewer number of people racing in.
