Python - The Programming Language
Python has been around for a long while now. It was invented by Guido van Rossum in winter 1989/1990, first published on the web in 1991 and has since been enjoyed by millions of programmers around the world.
My Introduction to Python
I first touched base with Python in 1994. At the time I was mostly a C programmer, having come from Basic, Assembler and Pascal. When I found an implementation of Python for OS/2 on a freeware CD, I was immediately hooked. The readily available data structures, beautiful syntax and simplicity of the language convinced me that this was going to be the way forward.
Core Development
I later got involved with the Python development team and joined which was to become the core developer team in 1997. I worked on several smaller things such as a new coercion mechanism for Python, or making Python accept any callable as method of a class. In 1999, HP decided to fund work on getting Unicode supported in Python and I got contracted by CNRI to add native Unicode support to Python. The result was PEP 100, Unicode support in Python 2.0 and the codecs sub-system, all added in 2000. Over the years, I contributed several Python modules, tools and enhancements (such as the platform module, the pybench suite, the locale aliasing engine, etc.).
New Goals and Challenges
Today, I mostly discuss with other developers about new developments (on the bug tracker, python-dev and python-ideas) and add a perspective on things coming from a more business oriented side, where stability and backwards compatibility often count more than the latest new features.
Available for Python Core Development
I’d love to do more, but can no longer invest free time into this anymore. I am available as consultant, if you are interested in Python customizations, backports, extensions or would like to take Python to new levels by funding Python core development work.