On 20/11/2018 22:35, Steven D'Aprano wrote: > On Tue, Nov 20, 2018 at 08:22:01PM +0000, Alan Gauld via Tutor wrote: > >> I think that's a very deliberate feature of Python going back >> to its original purpose of being a teaching language that >> can be used beyond the classroom. > > I don't think that is correct -- everything I've read is that Guido > designed Python as a scripting language for use in the "Amoeba" > operating system.
I think both are true. Guido was working on Amoeba at the time he built Python so it was an obvious choice of platform, although he first built it on a Mac. But he didn't set out specifically to build a scripting language for Amoeba but rather to build "a descendant of ABC" which was also usable in the real world, specifically The C/Unix world. To do that he believed it had to address the major barriers to ABC which were 1)being capable of being extended and 2) improved I/O. My source for that conclusion is Guido's forward to "Programming Python" 1st edition. https://www.python.org/doc/essays/foreword/ Also his comments when he set up the "Computer Programming for Everybody" initiative, which he led for several years. (Which I can't locate...) So I believe that ease of teaching was definitely part of the original game plan and was definitely a factor in some of the later developments around v2.0 or so. -- Alan G Author of the Learn to Program web site http://www.alan-g.me.uk/ http://www.amazon.com/author/alan_gauld Follow my photo-blog on Flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alangauldphotos _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
