Dutch programmer and creator of Python
Van Rossum at the 2008
Google I/O
Developer's Conference
Van Rossum at the 2006
O'Reilly Open Source Convention
(OSCON)
Guido van Rossum
(
Dutch:
[??ido
v?n
?r?s?m,
-s?m]
; born 31 January 1956) is a Dutch
programmer
. He is the creator of the
Python programming language
, for which he was the "
benevolent dictator for life
" (BDFL) until he stepped down from the position on 12 July 2018.
[4]
[5]
He remained a member of the Python Steering Council through 2019, and withdrew from nominations for the 2020 election.
[6]
Life and education
[
edit
]
Van Rossum was born and raised in the
Netherlands
, where he received a master's degree in mathematics and
computer science
from the
University of Amsterdam
in 1982. He received a bronze medal in 1974 in the International Mathematical Olympiad.
[7]
He has a brother,
Just van Rossum
, who is a
type designer
and programmer who designed the
typeface
used in the "Python Powered" logo.
[8]
Van Rossum lives in
Belmont
, California, with his wife, Kim Knapp,
[9]
and their son.
[10]
[11]
[12]
Work
[
edit
]
Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica
[
edit
]
While working at the
Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica
(CWI), Van Rossum wrote and contributed a
glob()
routine to
BSD
Unix
in 1986
[13]
[14]
and helped develop the
ABC programming language
. He once stated, "I try to mention ABC's influence because I'm indebted to everything I learned during that project and to the people who worked on it."
[15]
He also created
Grail
, an early
web browser
written in Python, and engaged in discussions about the
HTML
standard.
[16]
He has worked for various research institutes, including the
Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica
(CWI) in the Netherlands, the U.S.
National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST), and the
Corporation for National Research Initiatives
(CNRI). In May 2000, he left CNRI along with three other Python core developers to work for tech startup BeOpen.com, which subsequently collapsed by October of the same year.
[17]
[18]
From late 2000 until 2003 he worked for
Zope
Corporation. In 2003 Van Rossum left Zope for Elemental Security. While there he worked on a custom programming language for the organization.
[19]
Google
[
edit
]
From 2005 to December 2012, Van Rossum worked at
Google
, where he spent half of his time developing the Python language.
At Google, he developed Mondrian, a web-based
code review
system written in Python and used within the company. He named the software after the Dutch painter
Piet Mondrian
.
[20]
He named another related
software project
after
Gerrit Rietveld
, a Dutch designer.
[21]
On 7 December 2012, Van Rossum left Google.
Dropbox
[
edit
]
In January 2013, Van Rossum started working at the
cloud file storage
company
Dropbox
.
[23]
[24]
In October 2019, Van Rossum left Dropbox and officially retired.
[25]
[26]
[27]
Microsoft
[
edit
]
On 12 November 2020 Van Rossum announced that he was coming out of retirement to join the Developer Division at
Microsoft
. He currently holds the title Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft.
[28]
[29]
[30]
Python
[
edit
]
In December 1989, Van Rossum had been looking for a
"
'hobby' programming project that would keep [him] occupied during the week around Christmas" as his office was closed when he decided to write an
interpreter
for a "new scripting language [he] had been thinking about lately: a descendant of
ABC
that would appeal to
Unix
/
C
hackers". He attributes choosing the name "Python" to "being in a slightly irreverent mood (and a big fan of
Monty Python's Flying Circus
)".
[31]
He has explained that Python's predecessor,
ABC
, was inspired by
SETL
, noting that ABC co-developer
Lambert Meertens
had "spent a year with the SETL group at
NYU
before coming up with the final ABC design".
[32]
On 12 July 2018, Van Rossum announced that he would be stepping down from the position of
benevolent dictator for life
of the Python programming language.
[33]
"Computer Programming for Everybody" proposal
[
edit
]
In 1999, Van Rossum submitted a funding proposal to the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) called "Computer Programming for Everybody", in which he further defined his goals for Python:
- An easy and intuitive language just as powerful as major competitors
- Open source
, so anyone can contribute to its development
- Code that is as understandable as plain English
- Suitability for everyday tasks, allowing for short development times
In 2019, Python became the second most popular language on
GitHub
, the largest
source code
management website on the internet, after
JavaScript
.
[34]
According to a programming language popularity survey
[35]
it is consistently among the top 10 most mentioned languages in job postings. Furthermore, Python has been among the 10 most popular programming languages every year since 2004 according to the
TIOBE Programming Community Index
and got the number one spot on the index in October 2021.
[36]
Awards
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
van Rossum, Guido (31 January 2007).
"(Python-Dev) Happy Birthday, Guido!"
. Python-Dev mailing list.
Archived
from the original on 8 September 2009.
- ^
Hsu, Hansen (5 April 2018).
"2018 Museum Fellow Guido van Rossum, Python Creator & Benevolent Dictator for Life"
.
Computer History Museum
.
Archived
from the original on 24 July 2018
. Retrieved
19 May
2021
.
- ^
"Guido van Rossum"
. CodeCall Programming Wiki. Archived from
the original
on 31 October 2008.
- ^
"Benevolent dictator for life"
.
Linux Format
. 1 February 2005. Archived from
the original
on 1 October 2006
. Retrieved
1 November
2007
.
- ^
"[python-committers] Transfer of power"
.
www.mail-archive.com
.
Archived
from the original on 12 July 2018
. Retrieved
12 July
2018
.
- ^
"Steering Council nomination: Guido van Rossum (2020 term)"
. 27 November 2019.
Archived
from the original on 14 December 2021
. Retrieved
13 November
2020
.
- ^
"International Mathematical Olympiad"
.
www.imo-official.org
.
Archived
from the original on 10 March 2023
. Retrieved
23 May
2022
.
- ^
Thomas, Jockin (28 May 2016).
"Learning Python Makes You A Better Designer: An Interview with Just van Rossum"
. Medium.
Archived
from the original on 25 October 2019
. Retrieved
25 October
2019
.
- ^
Manheimer, Ken (6 June 2000).
"(Python-Dev) Guido and Kim married"
. Python-Dev -- Python core developers.
Archived
from the original on 28 September 2010.
- ^
"Guido van Rossum - Brief Bio"
.
Archived
from the original on 19 August 2014.
- ^
"(Mailman-Announce) forwarded message from Guido van Rossum"
. 30 May 2000.
Archived
from the original on 27 May 2008.
Oh, and to top it all off, I'm going on vacation. I'm getting married and will be relaxing on my honeymoon.
- ^
van Rossum, Guido.
"What's New in Python?"
(PDF)
.
"Not your usual list of new features". Stanford CSL Colloquium, 29 October 2003; BayPiggies, 13 November 2003
. Elemental Security.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 27 June 2010.
- ^
"
'Globbing' library routine"
. Archived from
the original
on 19 December 2007.
- ^
"File::Glob - Perl extension for BSD glob routine"
. metacpan.org.
Archived
from the original on 7 August 2013.
- ^
Venners, Bill.
"The Making of Python"
.
www.artima.com
.
Archived
from the original on 1 September 2016
. Retrieved
14 September
2016
.
- ^
"Re: xmosaic experience"
.
Archived
from the original on 28 August 2016.
- ^
"Oral History of Guido van Rossum, part 2 - Computer History Museum"
(PDF)
.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 17 November 2021
. Retrieved
17 November
2021
.
- ^
"Python 2.3.2 License A. HISTORY OF THE SOFTWARE"
.
Archived
from the original on 17 November 2021
. Retrieved
17 November
2020
.
- ^
"2018 Museum Fellow Guido van Rossum, Python Creator & Benevolent Dictator for Life - Computer History Museum"
. 5 April 2018. Archived from
the original
on 24 July 2018
. Retrieved
23 August
2018
.
- ^
van Rossum, Guido (May 2008).
"An Open Source App: Rietveld Code Review Tool"
. Archived from
the original
on 17 October 2015
. Retrieved
24 August
2012
.
... the internal web app, which I code-named Mondrian after one of my favorite Dutch painters
- ^
"An Open Source App: Rietveld Code Review Tool"
. Archived from
the original
on 17 October 2015.
- ^
Constine, Josh (7 December 2012).
"Dropbox Hires Away Google's Guido van Rossum, The Father Of Python"
. Techcrunch.
Archived
from the original on 9 December 2012
. Retrieved
7 December
2012
.
- ^
"Welcome Guido!"
. Dropbox Tech Blog. 7 December 2012.
Archived
from the original on 7 September 2013
. Retrieved
6 September
2013
.
- ^
@gvanrossum (30 October 2019).
"It's bittersweet: I'm leaving @dropbox, and am now retired. I've learned a lot during my time as an engineer here -- e.g. type annotations came from this experience -- and I'll miss working here"
(
Tweet
)
. Retrieved
30 October
2019
– via
Twitter
.
- ^
"Thank you, Guido"
.
Dropbox Blog
.
Dropbox
.
Archived
from the original on 16 February 2021
. Retrieved
1 February
2021
.
- ^
Tung, Liam (31 October 2019).
"Python programming language creator retires, saying: 'It's been an amazing ride'
"
.
ZDNet
.
Archived
from the original on 21 January 2021
. Retrieved
1 February
2021
.
- ^
"Guido van Rossum"
.
Python's BDFL-emeritus, Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft, Computer History Fellow.
[
self-published source
]
- ^
@gvanrossum (12 November 2020).
"I decided that retirement was boring and have joined the Developer Division at Microsoft. To do what? Too many options to say! But it'll make using Python better for sure (and not just on Windows :-). There's lots of open source here. Watch this space"
(
Tweet
)
. Retrieved
12 November
2020
– via
Twitter
.
- ^
Lardinois, Frederic (12 November 2020).
"Python creator Guido van Rossum joins Microsoft"
.
TechCrunch
.
Archived
from the original on 24 January 2021
. Retrieved
16 November
2020
.
- ^
"Foreword for "Programming Python" (1st ed.)"
.
Archived
from the original on 24 July 2014.
- ^
"Python-Dev] SETL (was: Lukewarm about range literals)"
. 29 August 2000.
Archived
from the original on 14 May 2011.
- ^
Fairchild, Carlie (12 July 2018).
"Guido van Rossum Stepping Down from Role as Python's Benevolent Dictator For Life"
.
Linux Journal
. Archived from
the original
on 13 July 2018
. Retrieved
12 July
2018
.
- ^
"The State of the Octoverse"
.
The State of the Octoverse
.
Archived
from the original on 5 April 2017
. Retrieved
6 May
2021
.
- ^
"Programming Language Popularity"
. Archived from
the original
on 12 April 2015.
- ^
"index | TIOBE - The Software Quality Company"
.
www.tiobe.com
.
Archived
from the original on 15 October 2023
. Retrieved
29 May
2020
.
- ^
"Guido van Rossum Ontvangt NLUUG Award"
.
NLUUG
. 28 May 2003.
Archived
from the original on 8 March 2021
. Retrieved
22 January
2018
.
- ^
"Guido van Rossum"
.
Computer History Museum
.
Archived
from the original on 3 July 2019
. Retrieved
22 February
2018
.
- ^
"David Chaum and Guido van Rossum awarded Dijkstra Fellowship"
.
www.cwi.nl
.
Archived
from the original on 21 March 2024
. Retrieved
21 March
2024
.
- ^
"NEC C&C Foundation Awards 2023 C&C Prize"
.
nec.com
. Tokyo. 10 October 2023.
Archived
from the original on 19 February 2024
. Retrieved
19 February
2024
.
External links
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]
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