Here's a short list of Python packages making a splash this year:
- pyscript: execute Python code in your web browser
- ruff: code linting package built with Rust and Python
- FastAPI: a rapidly adopted web framework for building APIs
- polars: high performance pandas drop in replacement, also built with Rust and Python
- buzz: Python package that accesses the Whisper API's text transcription of audio
- tomllib: new in the Python 3.11 standard library. It's quietly picking up steam amongst Python developers. Tom's Obvious Minimal Language, TOML, "a config file format for humans"
Python + Rust = High Performance
A common theme I've noticed is the emergence of Rust as a performance complement to Python code. It seems we can expect modularity between the two languages to strengthen their collective abilities.
Python is still growing and evolving.
It's great to see. Including the ability to parse TOML config files in the standard library is a vote of confidence by the Python community. I will now seek to use TOML in my own projects.
Web frameworks and web browsers are king.
FastAPI is the new option in a space dominated by Flask and Django. Web frameworks allow developers to quickly create websites.
Running Python in a browser has been a movement in recent years. First Pyodide, WASM euphoria, and now a Python library that takes Python in a browser to new levels. Excited to see where these projects go and what new buzzy libraries will emerge this year!
Here is a list of external Python modules you can install with pip.
These are not included with your Python version and need to be installed separately. In some cases, other options may be suitable.
To keep the list shorter, I picked libraries that were chosen based on having at least one of these qualities:
- most obvious library for its category
- a library I have experience using effectively
- provide a niche, useful functionality or tool
In alphabetical order:
- black: code formatting
- chardet: detect file encoding (useful for reading CSVs)
- diagrams: make cloud architecture diagrams
- Django: web framework
- fastapi: web framework for building APIs
- ffn: financial function library
- Flask: web framework
- ftfy: fix mojibake in text
- fuzzywuzzy: fuzzy matching library
- matplotlib: data visualization
- numpy: array operations
- openpyxl: foundational Excel library
- pandas: working with tabular data
- pelican: static site generator
- psutil: process and system utilities
- pygame: video game creation
- pyodbc: Open Database Connection client
- py-spy: sampling profiler to visualize your program
- pyheat: visualize code bottlenecks
- pytest: testing framework
- pytrends: research trends in the Google Trends API
- pytube3: YouTube video downloading library
- pywin32: Python for Win32 Extensions
- requests: HTTP requests
- scikit-learn: machine learning
- soltrack: calculate the location of the sun
- sqlfluff: SQL linter
- streamlit: build data apps
- tqdm: add a progress bar to loops
- wxPython: Graphical User Interface
- xlrd: supplementary Excel library
- xmltodict: convert XML to nested Python dicts
Python Documentation: Installing Python Modules
