Why These Tech Teams Turn to Python for Major Projects

by Stephen Ostrowski
March 13, 2020
recharge payments team_colorado
recharge

Appearing at Oxford Union this past winter to discuss Python, creator Guido van Rossum said, “Trends in programming languages are really hard to predict,” adding, “It takes 10 years for any language to get any respect.” 

Van Rossum’s, though, has aged well: Nearly three decades after its release, the language remains a popular choice with developers for its uncluttered syntax, open-source ethos and overall approachability. In that same talk, van Rossum noted that Python can be taught to  middle school students.

Just ask Adam Licht and Adam Walker of Denver-based ReCharge and CyberGRX, respectively. Both software engineers have witnessed firsthand the benefits of Python-driven projects. According to Licht, the language has been an indispensable foundation for the payment solution platform’s API, thanks to its general ease of use for developers. Walker, meanwhile, praised Python for its plethora of libraries, as well as its ability to endure the demands of database updates.

Colorado Companies Building with Python

  • ReCharge
  • CyberGRX

 

Adam Licht
Development Manager • ReCharge

Python project: We’re currently building out a single platform API for all of ReCharge’s business capabilities. This API not only powers our external customers who wish to integrate directly, but it also powers our own user interfaces.

 

Why was Python the best language for the job?

Using Python for this gives us two primary advantages. First, we hold code maintainability as very important. Python is easy to read and comprehend, so it’s very easy for new developers to jump into the code base and immediately understand what the code is doing. Second, Python has a fantastic development community. By leveraging existing open-source tools built by the community, we’re able to focus our time on solving hard problems for our customers.

Python has a fantastic development community.” 

 

What impact will this project have on your customers, your company or the industry as a whole?

API lets our customers build rich, customized experiences. ReCharge powered by API allows our feature teams to be faster and focus on the customers’ needs, not the details of how to fetch our data. Our API-driven payments and billing solution connects to any tech stack and exists wherever our merchants choose to exist, creating a world where payments are frictionless.

 

Adam Walker
Software Engineer • CyberGRX, Inc.

Python project:  The integration of an internally developed migration framework, with a microservice that is geared toward both executing database migrations on our Neo4j graph data model and data set, as well as helping to maintain graph data integrity for our platform by means of a GraphQL API served by an asynchronous Python server implemented with aiohttp.

 

Why was Python the best language for the job?

I think Python is very well-suited to rapid development cycles. Since Python has an extensive set of well-supported third-party libraries to choose from, it is robust enough as a general-purpose language to transform those prototypes into production-quality, resilient, mature features.

Python is very well-suited to rapid development cycles.”

 

What impact will this project have on your customers, your company or the industry as a whole?

Our customers will benefit directly from this project by experiencing the additional stability and data integrity that it provides. In turn, CyberGRX is able to proceed with confidence throughout changes we may make to our graph data model and our existing data set when necessary.

Exploring the uses and limitations of Python’s asynchronous features through its core asyncio library, new community-driven implementations of the GraphQL specification, and our Neo4j graph database integrations will benefit the community by helping to redefine what those limitations can be.

Jobs from companies in this blog

Colorado startup guides

LOCAL GUIDE
Best Companies to Work for in Denver & Boulder
LOCAL GUIDE
Coolest Tech Offices in Denver & Colorado Tech
LOCAL GUIDE
Best Perks at Colorado Tech Companies
LOCAL GUIDE
Women in Colorado Tech