Guido van Rossum

Guido van Rossum
Van Rossum at OSCON 2006
Born	31 January 1956 Haarlem, Netherlands[1][2]
Nationality	Dutch
Alma mater	University of Amsterdam
Occupation	Computer programmer, author
Employer	Dropbox[3]
Known for	Creating the Python programming language
Spouse(s)	Kim Knapp (m. 2000)
Children	Orlijn Michiel Knapp-van Rossum[4]
Awards	Award for the Advancement of Free Software (2001)
Website	www.python.org/~guido/

Guido van Rossum (born 31 January^[5] 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.^[6] He was employed by Google from 2005 until 7 December 2012, where he spent half his time developing the Python language. In January 2013, Van Rossum started working for Dropbox.^[3]

Biography

Van Rossum was born and grew up in the Netherlands, where he received a master's 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.

Personal life

Guido van Rossum is the brother of Just van Rossum, a type designer and programmer. Just van Rossum designed the typeface that is used in the "Python Powered" logo. Guido lives in Belmont, California with his wife, Kim Knapp,^[7] and their son, Orlijn.^[8][9][10]

Work

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.

Python

Van Rossum at the 2008 Google I/O Developer's Conference.

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]

Computer Programming for Everybody

In 1999, Van Rossum submitted a funding proposal to 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

Python has grown to become a popular programming language. As of November 2011, it was the 3rd most popular language on the GitHub social coding website.^[15] According to a programming language popularity survey^[16] it is consistently amongst the top 10 most mentioned languages in job postings. Furthermore, python is consistently in the top 10 most popular languages according to the TIOBE Programming Community Index.^[17]

Mondrian

While working for Google, Van Rossum 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.^[18] He named another related software project after Gerrit Rietveld, a Dutch designer.^[19]

Dropbox

In December 2012, Van Rossum joined the cloud file storage company Dropbox.^[20]

Recognition

• At the 2002 FOSDEM conference in Brussels, Van Rossum received the 2001 Award for the Advancement of Free Software from the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for his work on Python.
• Van Rossum received a NLUUG Award in May 2003.
• In 2006, Van Rossum was recognized as a Distinguished Engineer by the Association for Computing Machinery.

References

1. "Old interview – Guido van Rossum". Retrieved 28 January 2014. I only took some time to visit my family in Haarlem.
2. "Schoolbank profile". Retrieved 28 January 2014.
3. Constine, Josh. "Dropbox Hires Away Google’s Guido Van Rossum, The Father Of Python". Techcrunch. Retrieved 7 December 2012.
4. "Guido van Rossum". CodeCall Programming Wiki. Archived from the original on 31 October 2008.
5. van Rossum, Guido (31 January 2007). "(Python-Dev) Happy Birthday, Guido!". Python-Dev mailing list.
6. "Benevolent dictator for life". Linux Format. 1 February 2005. Archived from the original on 1 October 2006. Retrieved 1 November 2007.
7. Manheimer, Ken (6 June 2000). "(Python-Dev) Guido and Kim married". Python-Dev -- Python core developers.
8. "Guido van Rossum - Brief Bio".
9. "(Mailman-Announce) forwarded message from Guido van Rossum". Oh, and to top it all off, I'm going on vacation. I'm getting married and will be relaxing on my honeymoon.
10. 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.
11. "'Globbing' library routine". Archived from the original on 19 December 2007.
12. "File::Glob - Perl extension for BSD glob routine". metacpan.org.
13. "Foreword for "Programming Python" (1st ed.)".
14. "Python-Dev] SETL (was: Lukewarm about range literals)".
15. "GitHub.com Top Languages". Archived from the original on 23 July 2013.
16. "Programming Language Popularity".
17. "TIOBE Programming Community Index for November 2011". November 2011.
18. van Rossum, Guido (May 2008). "An Open Source App: Rietveld Code Review Tool". Retrieved 24 August 2012. ... the internal web app, which I code-named Mondrian after one of my favorite Dutch painters
19. "An Open Source App: Rietveld Code Review Tool". Archived from the original on 17 October 2015.
20. "Dropbox Tech Blog » Blog Archive » Welcome Guido!". Tech.dropbox.com. 7 December 2012. Retrieved 6 September 2013.

External links

• Official website
• The History of Python Guido's blog on the History of Python and design decisions
• Computer Programming for Everybody
• Interview with Guido van Rossum on FLOSS Weekly
• Guido van Rossum Guido's interview on Workspiration
• Computerworld Interview with Guido van Rossum on Python
• Google App Engine — Run your web applications on Google's infrastructure — technical talk on Google App Engine given by Guido van Rossum at Stanford University. (online video archive)