8 Rarely Used Python Libraries & How to Get the Most Out of Them

8 Rarely Used Python Libraries & How to Use Them

Python has an extensive library of open source packages and modules available for use. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned programmer, there are always more ways to utilize the language. Here we outline 8 of the lesser-known Python libraries and how to use them.

1. Plyer

Plyer is a library that provides access to hardware and platform-specific features on various operating systems. In other words, it bridges the gap between native device features and Python code. It currently supports Windows, Linux, MacOS, Android and iOS. With Plyer, you can access and use device-specific features such as sensors, cameras, audio, notifications, messages, contacts and more.

2. Rawpy

If you're looking for a library to work with raw images, Rawpy is a great choice. It is a Pythonic binding for the popular LibRaw library, meaning it can parse and decode raw images from most digital cameras. It also provides functions for manipulation and conversion. Rawpy is compatible with Python 2.7 and 3.4+, as well as OS X, Linux and Windows.

3. Pika

Pika is a library that allows you to integrate RabbitMQ (a messaging queue) with your Python application. This makes it easy to exchange data between different applications. Pika allows you to handle basic messaging scenarios like sending and receiving messages, create queues, exchanges and bindings. It supports both synchronous and asynchronous programming.

4. Numba

Numba is a just-in-time compiler for Python. It allows you to compile Python code down to machine code, which boosts performance significantly. Numba works with any array-oriented python code, and is especially beneficial when used with numpy arrays and scikit-learn algorithms. It also works with CUDA, so you can take advantage of GPU computing.

5. SymPy

SymPy is a library for symbolic mathematics. It can be used for algebraic manipulation, calculus, differential equations, geometry, linear algebra and much more. With SymPy, you can define and manipulate mathematical expressions, solve equations, work with matrices and even generate plots.

6. Requests

Requests is a library that simplifies HTTP requests. It allows you to make HTTP requests in a much simpler and cleaner way. Requests supports a variety of different request methods, such as GET, POST, PUT and DELETE, as well as custom headers and other useful features.

7. Gevent

Gevent is a coroutine-based Python networking library. It uses greenlet to provide a high-level synchronous API on top of libev event loop. Gevent makes it easy to build networked applications, allowing you to write networked code in a much simpler and easier to understand way.

8. Geocoder

Geocoder is a geocoding library that helps you convert addresses and locations into geographic coordinates. It supports multiple services – including Google Maps, OpenStreetMap and others – and makes it easy to find the coordinates of any location. You can also use it to find nearby places, streets, cities and more.

These are just some of the rarely used but very powerful Python libraries. There are many more out there, so if you’re a Python programmer looking for new ways to utilize the language, be sure to give them a try.