In some ways, Java was the key language for machine learning and AI before Python stole its crown. Important pieces of the data science ecosystem, like Apache Spark, started out in the Java universe.

From graphing calculators to interactive notebooks, Python eases you into programming, no GOTOs required.

It took the programming community a couple of decades to appreciate Python. But since the early 2010’s, it has been booming — and eventually surpassing C, C#, Java and JavaScript in popularity. But ...