For any programming really, but I think Python got big due to

  a) the huge influx of beginners into IT,
  b) lots of intro material available in Python and 
  c) having a simple way to run your script and get feedback (same as PHP)

I say that as someone urging people to look beyond Python when they master the basics of programming.

▲ shadowgovt 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Python has a terseness that is hard to rival. I think that was a major selling point: its constructs and use of whitespace mean that a valid Python program looks pretty close to the pseudo-code one might write to reason out the problem before writing it in another language.

	▲	exceptione 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I doubt that this is the selling point. Imho it is nothing special compared to Haskell, F# and the likes.