History of creation and developing python language
29.01.2024
19.12.2024
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History of creation
Sometimes, things happen, like your side project has become the most popular language in the world.
Let me introduce to you Guido van Rossum, creator, developer and as he called himself ‘’Benevolent Dictator For Life”.
Reasons to exist
To understand why Python was conceived the way it is now and why it became so popular. Let’s go backwards and find out the goals first.
- The language must be simple and intuitive
- Open source. So anyone can contribute to a project called “Python”
- Simple syntax
- Versatility.
- Fast deploying and developing process
Knowing the goals and the fact that development began in 1989. And just for a second, so you understand the context in which Python was born. There was Internet, but there were no websites yet.
There were no search engines like Google or Yandex; there were Internet catalogs and local networks of universities, where students corresponded using the IRC protocol to chat with each other. Back then C and C++ was dominant languages. They are complex, and if you wanted to write an intelligent program, you first had to understand them, the languages.
All the information and statistics from https://www.tiobe.com website
Being a programmer was difficult. There is no Internet, no one will tell you what and how to do things, you had to do everything by yourself. He (Guido) wanted to make the lives of fellow programmers a little easier.
In the late 80s, it was impossible to simply find a ready-made solution. And the Amoeba operating system, which was developed at CWI and on which Guido worked, required an extensible scripting programming language.
And so, Guido had a couple of free weeks, which he devoted to a new “hobby”. This hobby captured him and kept him for more than a year. And in February 1991, he published the source code of the language.
About creator
I briefly mentioned Guido van Rossum in the previous chapter, which is of course incorrect. Let’s talk about him.
Today's developers dream of creating a unicorn company, making a lot of money and walking off into the sunset. Do you think Guido retired when he created Python? No. Having developed the language in 1989-1991, he continued to be the head of the project until 2018. The last word was always his.
So, Guido van Rossum. Born on January 31, 1956 in The Hague (Netherlands - 🇳🇱). Graduated from the University of Amsterdam, majoring in mathematics and computer science.
He won such awards as the Free Software Award (in 2001) and in 2002 from the Dutch Association of UNIX Professionals.
At one time he worked at Google and Dropbox. Now at Microsoft. Guido wrote about his departure from Google:
After leaving Dropbox in 2018 and a short and boring retirement, after 2020, he got a job at Microsoft.
About name, how it happens
On October 5, 1969, the pilot episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus aired on BBC1. This is a surreal sketch comedy with a length of 4 seasons, a total of 45 episodes.
These are the pictures Google gave me.
Inspired by the series, that Christmas weekend in '89, Guido named his project Python. I think he doesn't take this project too seriously.
And indeed, Guido, commenting on the origin of the name, spoke about a hobby, some kind of entertainment for Christmas. Accordingly, there is no point in thinking about the name for a long time.
But we know the result, 30 years later. Almost the most popular programming language in the world.
About the logo. Two snakes ?
From 1994 (the release of python 1.0) to 1997 there was no official logo. But there were many unofficial ones:
And since 1997, the first official logo began to be used.
Guido didn't bother with the logo. He chose a random font and simply typed the word python. By the way, almost all developers of those times did this.
And since 2006, we have a familiar and recognizable logo to us.
Where do the snakes come from? In general, python evokes a very direct association — python, that is, a snake. Both in magazines and on websites of those times, amateur images of snakes often appeared that referred to Python.
Evolution of python
Before 1.0
It all started as a Christmas hobby in December '89. The first version, numbered 0.9.0, was published on alt.sources in February 1991
From 1.0 to 2.0
The official, first version numbered 1.0 appeared 3 years later in January 1994.
The popularity grew and already in 1994 a forum dedicated to the language was created,
news:comp.lang.python, Where, as everywhere else, beginners ask questions, and cool programmers answer them.
Before Guido continued development at CNRI, and this has been since 1995. Versions 1.1 and 1.2 were also released.
The last released version in CNRI was 1.6. And release was fraught with some difficulties. You see, in 2000, the bulk of python developers moved to BeOpen.com without finishing version 1.6. CNRI demanded its release (Команда из BeOpen.com занималась 2.0). That is, the development was carried out simultaneously, which imposed some difficulties.
But even there, our developers did not work for long, releasing only one version 2.0. Almost immediately after the release of 2.0, Guido and the developers from PythonLab moved to Digital Creation.
From 2.0 to 3.0
Development continued, and the developers began to think about protecting their rights and works. This is how the Python Software Foundation. was founded in 2001.
Starting with version 2.2 (this is December 2001), it can be considered a big date because now python can be considered a completely object-oriented programming language.
Language version 2.7 was the last in this 2.x branch. The developers announced that there would be no further versions of the two and, if possible, advised to switch immediately to 3.4 and higher ( latest stable version).
Initially, it was supposed to support 2.7 until 2015, but then at the PyCon 2014 conference Guido delivered a clear message that support for 2.7 would be extended for another 5 years until 2020.
From 3.0 to ...
Python 3.0 was released in December 2008. This was the first backwards incompatible version. Fundamental flaws that were not compatible with previous versions have been fixed.
At the time of the end of support for version 2.7, that is, in 2020, 3.8 had already been released. The language no longer underwent any major fundamental changes.
Python release dates and periods of support
-
v0.9 - February 1991
- v0.9.1 - February 1991
- v0.9.2 - autumn 1991
- v0.9.3 - fall 1991 (never available outside of CWI)
- v0.9.4 - December 24, 1991
- v0.9.6 - April 6, 1992
- v0.9.8 - January 9, 1993
- v0.9.9 - July 29, 1993
-
v1.0 - January 26, 1994
- v1.1 - October 11, 1994
- v1.2 - April 13, 1995
- v1.3 - October 13, 1995
- v1.4 - October 25, 1996
- v1.5 - January 3, 1998 (until April 1999)
- v1.6 - September 5, 2000
-
v2.0 - October 16, 2000 (until June 2001)
- v2.1 - April 17, 2001 (until April 2002)
- v2.2 - December 21, 2001 (until May 2003)
- v2.3 - July 29, 2003 (until March 2008)
- v2.4 - November 30, 2004 (until December 2008)
- v2.5 - September 19, 2006 (until May 2011)
- v2.6 - October 1, 2008 (until October 2013)
- v2.7 - July 3, 2010 (until January 2020)
-
v3.0 - December 3, 2008 (until February 2009)
- v3.1 - June 27, 2009 (until June 2012)
- v3.2 - February 20, 2011 (until February 2016)
- v3.3 - September 29, 2012 (until September 2017)
- v3.4 - March 16, 2014 (until March 2019)
- v3.5 - September 13, 2015 (until September 2020)
- v3.6 - December 23, 2016 (until December 2021)
- v3.7 - June 27, 2018 (until June 2023)
- v3.8 - October 14, 2019 (until October 2024)
- v3.9 - October 5, 2020 (until May 2025)
- v3.10 - October 4, 2021 (until October 2026)
- v3.11 - October 24, 2022 (until October 2027)
- v3.12 - October 2, 2023 (until October 2028)
Areas of application
To answer this question, just go to the PyPI page and look at the number of topics. There are a lot of them.
So, Python is used in the following areas:
- Adaptive technologies
- Art software
- Communications
- Database
- Desktop environment developing
- Documentation
- Education
- File formats
- Games/Entertainment
- Home automation
- Internet
- Multimedia
- Office/Business
- Scientific/Engineering
- Safety
- Sociology
- Software development
- Terminals
- Text editors
- Word processing
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Used termins
- Programming language ⟶ Is a formal set of instructions that can be used to produce various kinds of output, including software applications, algorithms, and data processing. Programming languages provide a way for developers to communicate with computers, enabling them to specify operations and control the behavior of hardware.