[ originally developed on invitation, for the Citizendium Wiki, to get the the ball rolling on a more up to date Python article ]
Origins
Python, the computer language, was first designed and implemented on an Apple Lisa, a forerunner of the more reasonably priced Macintosh. Written in the C language, by Guido van Rossum, Python was meant as a next generation ABC, the name of a shell-based interactive language, used in house at Stichting Mathematisch Centrum (Amsterdam), the think tank where Guido, a Dutchman, then worked (circa 1991).
Python, like ABC before it, was created for busy professionals already well versed in technical disciplines and needing to avail themselves of computing power without detouring into computer science for yet another degree. The Python language “fits your brain” (gets out of the way) and comes with “batteries included” (lots of libraries).
That the language could live up to its own hype is testament to Guido’s strong sense of design and resistance to cruft (unnecessary complexity). The language has only two looping constructs for example, based on keywords while and for. Coders extend the built-in type system using the keyword class to define new types.
“Computer Programming for Everybody” (CP4E) was Guido’s rallying cry, later the title of his successful DARPA…
