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 global interpreter lock (GIL) is a necessary evil for CPython's performance.
Python's philosophy is to make things easy for the programmer, even if it means making things a little harder for the implementer.
I wanted to create a language that was both powerful and easy to use, a language that could be used for a wide variety of tasks.
The Python language is a living language, it's constantly evolving.
One of the reasons for Python's success is its extensive standard library.
Python is a language for adults. You can do anything you want, but you're responsible for the consequences.
The design of Python is a continuous process of refinement and improvement.
Python's success is a testament to the power of open source.
I never expected Python to become as popular as it is today.
The most important thing for a language designer is to listen to the users.
Python is not just a language, it's an ecosystem.
The beauty of Python is its simplicity and versatility.
Python is a language that empowers people to create amazing things.
I'm a pragmatic person. I'm not a theoretician. I'm not a mathematician. I'm an engineer.
Python was an experiment in how much programmer productivity could be gained by using a very high-level language.
Readability counts. Explicit is better than implicit. Simple is better than complex.
I'm not a dictator, but I do have a strong vision for Python.
The BDFL (Benevolent Dictator For Life) title was a joke at first, but it stuck.
My goal for Python was to make it easy to use, easy to learn, and powerful.
I believe in gradual evolution, not revolution.
Contemporaries of Guido van Rossum
Other Computer Sciences born within 50 years of Guido van Rossum (1956).