Python

Hello World in Python

Every programming journey starts with Hello World. Python makes this incredibly simple—it’s just one line.

The Code

Create a file named hello.py:

1

print("Hello, World!") …

Variables and Types in Python

Python’s approach to variables is one of the things that makes it so approachable. There are no type declarations, no keywords like int or String — you simply assign a value to a name and Python …

Who Taught Your Language to Remember? A Tour of Memory Management

In our three-part series on web backend performance, we measured idle memory ranging from 3 MB (Rust) to 500 MB (Spring Boot). We noted that a garbage collector explained much of Java’s …

def, func, fun, fn, sub: Why Every Language Has a Different Word for the Same Thing

Open almost any programming language reference and you will find, somewhere near the beginning, a section explaining how to define a reusable named block of code. The concept is universal. The word …

Strings Are Not Simple: How 12 Languages Model Text (And Why They Disagree)

Every programming language has strings. They’re so universal — so unremarkable — that we rarely stop to ask how they actually work. You type some characters between quotation marks, hand them to …

The Weight of Your Web Stack, Part 3: Choosing the Right Backend for the Job

In Part 1 we measured what web backends cost before serving a single request — idle memory ranging from 3 MB (Rust) to 500 MB (Spring Boot). In Part 2 we measured what happens when traffic arrives — …

The Weight of Your Web Stack, Part 2: What Your Backend Costs Under Load

In Part 1, we measured what web backend frameworks cost before serving a single request — idle memory, startup time, and Docker image sizes. We found a 30-100x spread between the lightest (Rust …

The Weight of Your Web Stack, Part 1: What Your Backend Costs at Rest

Last week we looked at the top web programming languages and the frameworks developers are choosing in 2026. But there’s a question those rankings don’t answer: what does each of those …

The Top Web Programming Languages in 2026: Frontend, Backend, and Full Stack

Last week we looked at the top programming languages overall. But web development is its own world with its own hierarchy. The language that tops general-purpose rankings (Python) isn’t the one …

The Top Programming Languages in 2026: What the Rankings Actually Tell Us

Every year, dozens of indices claim to rank the “top” programming languages. The problem? They all measure different things and often tell contradictory stories. TIOBE says C is #2; GitHub …