Guido van Rossum
Creator of the Python programming language.
Most quoted
"The Zen of Python, by Tim Peters: Beautiful is better than ugly. Explicit is better than implicit. Simple is better than complex. Complex is better than complicated. Flat is better than nested. Sparse is better than dense. Readability counts. Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules. Although practicality beats purity. Errors should never pass silently. Unless explicitly silenced. In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess. There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it. Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch. Now is better than never. Although never is often better than *right* now. If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea. If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea. Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those!"
— from PEP 20 -- The Zen of Python, 1999
"The joy of coding Python should be in seeing short, concise, readable classes that express a lot of action in a small amount of clear code — not in reams of trivial code that bores the reader to death."
— from Blog post
"I'm a benevolent dictator for life, but I'm not a dictator. I'm a benevolent dictator for life, but I'm not a dictator. I'm a benevolent dictator for life, but I'm not a dictator."
— from Conference talk, 2008
All quotes by Guido van Rossum (330)
The most important thing is to have fun while programming.
Beautiful is better than ugly.
I am the benevolent dictator for life (BDFL).
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).
Don't you hate code that's not properly indented? Making it part of the syntax was one of my best decisions.
The joy of coding Python should be in seeing short, concise, readable classes that express a lot of action in a small amount of clear code — not in reams of trivial code that bores the reader to death.
I've never programmed in Java, so I can't really say anything about it.
The GIL is one of the biggest stumbling blocks for people who want to use Python for high-concurrency applications.
I'm not a fan of design patterns as a silver bullet. Often they add unnecessary complexity.
I'd rather have a language that is easy to learn and easy to remember, even if it's not as powerful.
My original goal for Python was to make it a language that I enjoyed using.
Python's 'batteries included' philosophy means you can do real work without hunting for third-party libraries.
The problem with threads is that they are hard to get right.
I'm not dead yet! (On retiring as BDFL).
I've given up the BDFL title, and I'm not planning to appoint a successor.
Python succeeded despite my many mistakes, not because of my few brilliant decisions.
The use of significant whitespace was a controversial decision, but I'd make it again.
I never expected Python to become as popular as it did.
Perl's 'there's more than one way to do it' is not the ideal I strive for.
Python is a glue language. It's great for connecting components written in other languages.
Contemporaries of Guido van Rossum
Other Computer Sciences born within 50 years of Guido van Rossum (1956).