Dialogue with the father of Python: the path to success in Python (1)

Guido van rosum, father of Python, talked about the history of Python, the impact of the ABC language, and the initial design goal of Python.

Guido van rosum is the author of Python. Python is an explanatory and interactive object-oriented programming language. in the late 1980 s, Van rosum began to work on Python at the National Institute of mathematics and computer science in the Netherlands. in Dutch, he was working in Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica (CWI ). since then, Python has become increasingly popular among developers, thanks to its concise and clear syntax and high development efficiency.

Rossum, founder of Python language

This interview will be divided into several parts, one of which will be published every week. van Rossum will give his insights on the following topics: the design goal of Python, where the efficiency of Python programmers comes from, what the weak type means, and so on. in the first article, Van rosum Python will have a major impact on Python's history and design goals.

Bill Venners: If developers have never used Python, how do you describe the language to them?

Guido van rosum: in one aspect, you can say that Python is a very high-level language. on the other hand, you can say that it is a very high-level language, and its implementation method just places great emphasis on interactivity. python and scripting have many commonalities, but they also have many commonalities with more traditional programming languages.

Impact of ABC on Python

Bill Venners: Can you briefly introduce the history of Python?

Guido van rosum: at the end of the 1980 s, I worked on development in a group in Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica (CWI). The task of this group was to design and implement a language called ABC. I don't know how much people know about the impact of ABC on Python. the reason why I mentioned the influence of ABC is that I learned a lot when I was engaged in this project, and I learned a lot from my colleagues. I am very grateful to them.

ABC's design motivation is very clear. ABC wants to be a programming language designed by a rather intelligent computer user for non-computer programmers or software developers. at the end of the 1970 s, ABC's primary designer taught such users some traditional programming languages. their students have scientists in various disciplines: From physicists, scholars, to linguistics. To use super large computers, these scientists need help. although these people excel in their own fields, they are still surprised and uncomfortable with the limitations of traditional languages. according to user feedback, ABC designers try to develop a new language.

Another reason for the disappointment of ABC designers is Basic. at that time, Basic was a very poor language. although Basic is designed for non-Programmer Computer users, its focus is completely different. at that time, all the Basic versions on the market were very difficult to use. almost all of the fun Basic programs are full of underlying tricks. For example, if you want to yellow the screen background color, you need to modify the 714th bytes of memory.

Bill Venners: I'm also impressed. When did you start ABC?

Guido van rosum: the author of ABC began designing the language in the late 1970s s and early 1980s S. I joined this group in 1983. I think we have been doing this until 1986 or 1987. for various reasons, the ABC project has not been very successful. maybe it was too early. At that time, there was no Internet for large-scale promotion.