Adoption of Python in arts faculties of Sri Lankan universities

Abstract

A variety of programming languages are used to teach fundamentals of programming in Universities in Sri Lanka. Among them Python is a modern language with readable and clean syntax. Python is a widely used high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes code readability, and its syntax allows programmers to express concepts in fewer lines of code than possible in languages such as C++ or Java. The language provides constructs intended to enable writing clear programs on both a small and large scale. Python supports multiple programming paradigms, including object-oriented, imperative, functional programming, and procedural styles. It features a dynamic type system and automatic memory management and has a large and comprehensive standard library. Its design was informed by experiences with other teaching languages so it is considered suitable for such use. However some universities teach PASCAL which is rarely used now. In this research I will discuss the possibility of replacing this Pascal with Python.