| Guido van Rossum | |
|---|---|
Van Rossum at OSCON 2006 |
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| Born | 31 January 1956 Netherlands |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Alma mater | University of Amsterdam |
| Occupation | Computer programmer, author |
| Employer | |
| Known for | Python programming language |
| Spouse | Kim Knapp |
| Children | Orlijn Michiel Knapp-van Rossum[1] |
| Awards | Award for the Advancement of Free Software (2001) |
| Website | |
| python.org/~guido/ neopythonic.blogspot.com/ |
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Guido van Rossum (born 31 January[2] 1956) is a Dutch computer programmer who is best known as the author of the Python programming language. In the Python community, Van Rossum is known as a "Benevolent Dictator For Life" (BDFL), meaning that he continues to oversee the Python development process, making decisions where necessary.[3] He is currently employed by Google, where he spends half his time working on Python development.
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Van Rossum was born and grew up in the Netherlands, where he received a masters degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Amsterdam in 1982. He later worked for various research institutes, including the Dutch Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), Amsterdam, the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, Maryland, and the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), Reston, Virginia.
In December 2005, Van Rossum was hired by Google.[4] He wrote a web-based code-review tool for Google in Python.[5][6]
Guido van Rossum is the brother of Just van Rossum, a type designer and also a programmer. Just van Rossum designed the font that is used in the "Python Powered" logo. Currently Guido lives in California together with his American wife Kim Knapp[7] and their son Orlijn.[8][9][10]
While working at the Stichting Mathematisch Centrum (CWI), Guido van Rossum wrote and contributed a glob() routine to BSD Unix in 1986.[11][12] Van Rossum also worked on the development of the ABC programming language.
About the origin of Python, Van Rossum wrote in 1996:
Over six years ago, in December 1989, I was looking for a "hobby" programming project that would keep me occupied during the week around Christmas. My office … would be closed, but I had a home computer, and not much else on my hands. I decided to write an interpreter for the new scripting language I had been thinking about lately: a descendant of ABC that would appeal to Unix/C hackers. I chose Python as a working title for the project, being in a slightly irreverent mood (and a big fan of Monty Python's Flying Circus).[13]
In 2000 he further wrote:
Python's predecessor, ABC, was inspired by SETL – Lambert Meertens spent a year with the SETL group at NYU before coming up with the final ABC design![14]
In 1999, Van Rossum submitted a funding proposal to DARPA called Computer Programming for Everybody, in which he further defined his goals for Python:
Arguably, several of these ambitions have since been realized. Python has grown to become a popular programming language. For example, as of November 2011, it is the 3rd most popular language on the GitHub.com social coding website[15], and according to a programming language popularity survey[16] it is consistently amongst the top 10 most mentioned languages in job postings. Additionally, it is consistently in the top 10 most popular languages according to the TIOBE Programming Community Index [17].