Why Python is Good for the Bottom Line
May 10, 2018
Rocket introduced support for Python programming in the latest versions of UniVerse and UniData to give partners and customers an alternative to BASIC. And now, younger developers who were brought up using more modern, popular development languages can also work on the platform. While that is, in fact, a great reason to adopt Python, the business advantages go far beyond augmenting your staff with millennials to address an aging MultiValue development workforce.
No doubt you’ve heard that Python is the fourth most popular, fastest-growing language. Not only is it easy to learn, but Python has over 138,000 packages you can deploy to expand the functionality and efficiency of your existing MultiValue application. Initially, Python and its libraries were skewed toward developing for mathematics, science, large data, and memory management. Over time, however, the Python Package Index (PYPI) has grown to host countless standard and community-continued modules for:
- Web and Internet Development
- Database Access
- Desktop GUI
- Scientific & Numeric
- Education
- Network Programming
- Software & Game Development
Customers are integrating Python to enhance their applications in a wide variety of ways. For instance, NumPy, which provides a fast, compact, multidimensional array facility, and Pandas, which provides high-performance, easy-to-use data analysis tools, are used to counter BASIC limitations such as the inability to access low-level system resources, load or manipulate images, or calculate statistics. Other customers are adopting Kafka as a distributed streaming platform. Kafka captures streams of content, processes the data efficiently and in real time, and then stores and transforms the streams, making the results available for application integration.
Python libraries can help enhance your existing MV application in countless ways. What are your Python MV integration options today and moving forward? The diagram below depicts how to best integrate with Python at all three tiers; server, middle and client side.
The Initial product roadmap for Python development within the MV platform was on the server or backend where UniVerse and UniData applications can invoke Python code, or Python code residing on the server can call BASIC programs and add a GUI element for a more modern look and feel. Changes you make on the server side are powerful as they align with all things data; retrieval, parsing, query, analytics, machine learning. Combine the power of the MV data structure with Python and you have a winning combination that quickly leads to business transformation.
If you’re planning to move some business logic development to the middle tier then you’ll need to incorporate MVRESTful Services for communication to the MV database. The upcoming release of Rocket UniVerse 12.1 will introduce UOPY as an additional option for direct communication. And finally, communication from the Client-Side to Python must be done by calling a BASIC subroutine, which in turn calls Python.
As you begin to understand how Python integration can positively impact your business, I’m confident you’ll want to reassess your application development strategy. And as we continue to develop our Python roadmap, it’s critical that we hear from our partners and direct-end-users. I want to know how you plan to leverage Python, what packages you will use and how the integration will provide greater business value to your end-users? Will your application be more efficient because you can use Python to address memory management issues? I’d also love to hear about your business requirements and how your Python development efforts might impact the future MV/Python roadmap. So, don’t hesitate to contact me directly at [email protected].
