We are excited to announce the beta availability of Python language support for Xsemble. Now you can create Python-based console applications or web applications (based on Flask) using Xsemble. Read on to understand the new possibilities this unlocks.
Note that Python support is not generally available yet. Write to us to become a beta user and try it out before the rest of the world.
About Python
While Python is a relatively old language, its simplicity has attracted a wide fan following in recent years. We have always known that well-indented code looks clean and is easy to read. Python enforces it. It also does away with braces and semicolons to reduce the geeky feel, and make the code easy-to-read. Python gained rapidly in new evolving areas such as IoT, data science, Web 3.0 and then in AI/ML. New age startups love Python’s no-nonsense approach to achieve more with just a few lines of code. The credit for this goes to some incredibly powerful libraries available to Python programmers.
On the other hand, Python has some serious shortcomings too. Its weak type support is prone to runtime failures. It is also poor in performance. Its runtime inefficiency often leads to inability to scale up and high cost of cloud services. Some companies therefore use Python for initial prototyping and then start from scratch with another language once they want to build the real product.
Merits of Using Python with Xsemble
Against this backdrop, the newly added Python support opens up 5 great scenarios for both Xsemble and Python communities, which qualifies it to be called a alliance made in heaven.
More Robustness
The robustness emerges from strong Type support that Xsemble has (and Python does not).
- The in arguments and out arguments of an Xsemble component are defined with specific data types.
- The data nodes too are defined with explicit types, in Xsemble.
- While making connections, these types are checked and mismatches are caught.
- Similarly, the Health Check facility catches type mismatches across the project.
The collective effect of these is that there is type checking at component boundaries. This adds robustness to the application. At the same time, at the Python code level you are still benefiting from the simplicity of the language. This way, you are getting the best of both worlds.
More Ease of Development
The primary appeal of Python is its simplicity. Now the application development can be simplified further, with a visual approach to assembly, which is way simpler than any coding… even Python coding.
The central visual model in Xsemble is called an X-flowchart (because of its similarity with a flowchart). The nodes in the X-flowchart are based on Xsemble components, and those components can now be coded with Python. A programmer who codes them can make use of the same Python libraries as in raw programming. Thus the full power of Python libraries is available.
More Ease of Migration
As we saw, some times Python applications need to be migrated to other technologies. Likewise, some times applications from other technologies may need to be migrated to Python. Such kind of migration becomes super-easy when both application technologies are supported by Xsemble.
A migration from one technology to another is done quickly without re-doing the design. You need to translate only the component level code, rest assured that the glue code that orchestrates between the components would get auto-generated. Component code being small, this translation is very easy. Artificial Intelligence based code translators may be employed to save human effort substantially.
Once the component implementations are translated, the remaining work is trivial and is done at the X-flowchart level visually. We shall make a note of creating a blog post elaborating the complete migration process.
A good example of migration can be seen in the various flavors of the Demo1.Hello application. (We supply this with Xsemble.) Their X-flowcharts look identical, and the applications also run in an identical fashion. However, internally they are very different, as they are based on distinct technologies/languages.
More Possibilities with Microservices
Think about an application architecture that utilizes microservices written with different tech stacks. Such applications may be hosted easily on modern cloud services. Xsemble lets you design and develop such applications, and the layer-wise node coloring gives the visual understanding.
There may be several reasons that such hybrid architectures evolve:
- You are in the process of migrating from one tech stack to another, and that activity is partially complete. Some times, you may take a conscious call to stop the work at that level. For example, while migrating away from Python for performance reasons, you come across some little Python code that makes a call to a hosted LLM service, like say, image processing. Here, the performance considerations prominently apply to the LLM and the performance considerations of Python are negligible in front of that. So you just leave it in Python.
- Sometimes, the availability of libraries dictates the best technologies to be used for given parts. You use Python microservices in areas where Python is strong, and you use some other language for microservices where the other language is strong.
More Opportunity for Xsemble Users
If you know how to use Xsemble, your skills now immediately apply even to create Python applications. Given Python’s popularity, this opens up a wide number of opportunities. You can contribute to any project that uses Python.
Did we miss any benefit? Tell us in the comments.
