Python: A brief history

Gone are the days when python was the name of a non-venomous snake. Nowadays this one big snake is biting a lot of people so that they can earn enough to buy that pie. On a serious note, Python is an interpreted high-level programming language that came into existence in 1991. But here is a fun fact, Python was not named after the snake but a British TV show Monty Python. 

Python was gestated in the late 1980s by Guido van Rossum ( no, it wasn’t Ross from friends) at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in the Netherlands. The best thing about it is that Guido picked it as a hobby to keep him a bit busy during Christmas. And hence started working on his application based project.

Python is known to have succeeded in the programming language ABC. ABC had the interfacing with the Amoeba Operating System and had the concept of exception handling. Rossum earlier in his career had already contributed to create ABC and dealt with the issues that came across too but seemed to like most of the features. After that, he did a very clever thing. He discreetly picked up the best features of ABC such as its syntax to create python, showing how he could have been a great director if he had been given a chance on Monty. He fixed all the issues he encountered along the way and realized what gem he just created. It was the beginning of a new era, the language that was going to rule the market in the coming future.

Guido van Rossum was the “Benevolent Dictator for life” until he stepped down from the position as the leader on the 12th of July, 2018. He worked for Google and currently is working at Dropbox. Now that is what you call a living legend.

Python was released in 1991. Its main agenda is readability. Where in other languages you have to write numerous lines to simply say hello to the world, python is a much easier and readable option and also provides advanced developer productivity.

In conclusion, Python is a great and easy way to jump-starts your career. Zero or minimal knowledge of the programming world is not going to be a problem as you can start from the basics here. And if you are a coder it is always better to add another feather to your cap.