Python is actually the language most often taught in computer science 101 classes at colleges and universities. It is both human readable and capable of being used in almost any field of academia. Be it physics, biology, economics, or even art, there is a Python library that can serve a practitioner in any of these areas, and more.
Though to be honest, the programming language and framework were actually chosen by the packages that do the work. MnActivist is essentially a wrapper around the OpenStates project. The OpenStates project itself is built upon the pupa project and this in turn is built off of the Django framework. Django is built using the Python language.
I really find this to be an incredible blessing.
The number of municipalities, cities, counties and other entities that I seek to get information from is way more than any one person can maintain. And I thought that this is an opportunity to teach others, specifically those who experience historically marginalized identities, how to start coding!
Introducing students to computer science through the Python language, using the Django framework, is truly a gateway to anything else that a student may wish to do in computer science. Through this platform we are introducing students to, not only, back-end development but database management, server administration and more. Because of the content we are working with, we can expand our curriculum to teach students about data analysis, and data visualization, while introducing them to client-side libraries.
And that is the beginning of the answer to “Why Django?”.
Thank you for reading, and if ya can, we’d love for you to become a supporter, student, or volunteer 😉
luz y risas,
Canin Carlos