Python AMA

(A Retrospective and Beyond)

August 2022

Barry Warsaw

barry@python.org

Python 1.1

11 October 1994

Truncate toward zero in float -> int conversion
"entirely redone operator overloading"
Asynchronous signal handling in main thread
Double clicking to run pyc files on the Mac
X11 extension module / tkinter
URL parser
curses
delattr() & tuple() built-ins
__getattr__(), __setattr__(), __delattr__() added
Support ancient C and OS versions, 64 bit!

Guido van Rossum's Python World Tour

November 1-3, 1994

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Someday, I'll be the FLUFL!

Workshop Agenda

Requirements for a "Safe" Python interpreter
A standard GUI module interface definition for Python
The requirements for persistent objects in Python
A Python engineering graphs package
The standard Python WWW interface
Embedding Python in a WWW client
Technical information management using Python
Support for dynamic loading of foreign language modules in Python
Replacing make, rcs, and cvs with Python
An Electronic Data Interchange library for Python
Discussing the formation of a Python Consortium

Workshop Agenda

12. compiling Python to a more efficient form (hard -- but not impossible???)

14. static type checking (could help to the previous one)

15. the management of large collections of modules (too many Python scripts currently embed hard pathnames in their main file so they can find their subordinate modules)

16. improving the efficiency of Python (e.g. by using a different garbage collection scheme)

17. improving portability of Python code between Unix and non-Unix
platforms (your #2 is a special case of this)

Workshop Agenda

(from the fuzzy memory vaults)

doc strings
metaclasses
Objective-C

Python 1.1.1

10 November 1994

Bug fixes

Guido and CNRI

Python 1.2

13 April 1995

(2 days before Guido starts at CNRI)

"__import__ hack"
imp module
"add hook for Don Beaudry" in build_class
docstrings for modules, classes, functions
__doc__; __name__; __self__
tp_str, tp_doc
support import A.B...Z
"restricted mode"
"THE GREAT RENAMING"
"Use = instead of == for assignment"
Class exceptions allowed
Classes became pickle-able

Python 1.3

13 October 1995

Keyword parameters
Third argument to raise
"Jim Fulton's abstract object interface"
Tk 4.0
Rewritten htmllib.py and rexec.py
New modules ni.py and ihooks.py
"And lots more that you'll have to discover on your own"

Python 1.4

25 October 1996

new power operator, new slicing and indexing syntax
__names
Misc/NEWS
__file__
Added: site, errno, operator, cmath, Bastion, mimify
complex numbers
list()
"access is no longer a reserved word"

Python 1.5

3 January 1998

assert statement, AssertionError
import a.b.c (without ni, with __init__.py)
New re module (Perl-style regexps)
raw strings
Class exceptions
New dict methods: clear(), copy(), update(), get()
$PYTHONHOME and better sys.path calculation
multiple interpreters, access to GIL, etc.
-O and __debug__ support
Grand renaming is complete
buffer protocol
string interning
Better metaclass support (instance base classes)

Python 1.5.1

14 April 1998 (?)

No argument raise to re-raise
mutex protected import
Safer finalization
python -t and -tt; tabnanny!

Python 1.5.2

13 April 1999

First mention of JPython in Misc/NEWS
IDLE, pynche, world, audiopy, ndiff
__file__ is the .py file, not the .pyc/.pyo
shamodule
buffer()
python -OO
asyncore / asynchat
os.path pretends to be a submodule
NotImplementedError, EnvironmentError
list.extend(), list.pop()

Python 1.6

5 September 2000

Built-in exceptions are always classes (no more -X)
Lots of sharing w/ Python 2.0
Unicode support
String methods
SRE regular expression engine
distutils added!
func(*args, **kws) -- apply() no longer needed
UnboundLocalError
object.__contains__()
UserString, mmap, filecmp, urllib2, zipfile, codecs, unicodedata, encodings,
pygettext.py

Python 2.0

16 October 2000

Python 1.6.1

25 February 2001

Python 1.6 was the last of the versions developed at CNRI and the only version issued by CNRI with an open source license. Following the release of Python 1.6, and after Guido van Rossum left CNRI to work with [BeOpen], it became clear that the ability to use Python with software available under the GNU General Public License (GPL) was very desirable. CNRI and the Free Software Foundation (FSF) interacted to develop enabling wording changes to the Python license. Python 1.6.1 is essentially the same as Python 1.6, with a few minor bug fixes, and with a GPL-compatible license.

To infinity and beyond

2.1 - 17 April 2001
2.2 - 21 December 2001 (new style classes)
2.2.1 - import this, True, False, bool
2.3 - 29 July 2003
2.4 - 30 November 2004
2.5 - 16 September 2006
2.6 - 1 October 2008
3.0 - 3 December 2008
2.7 - 3 July 2010

Python today

Python 2.7.18 EOL on 01-Jan-2020
Python 3.10
4th year of Steering Council
Python the language is 30 years old, stable, mature
CPython is the most popular implementation
Top most popular language (TIOBE, July 2022

So what's next?

Python 3.10

04-Oct-2021

Structural Pattern Matching
Better Debugging Support
Several type system features
Parenthesized context managers
Better SyntaxErrors and others
Improved and deprecated stdlib
Some optimizations

Python 3.11

Scheduled 03-Oct-2022

3.11.0b5 is now out
Fine-Grained Error Locations
Exceptions Groups and except*
Task Groups
Read-only TOML support in stdlib
Faster CPython results (10-60% faster)
More type system improvements
WebAssembly platforms in tier 3 (soon 2?)

Vibrant Ecosystem

Migration to GitHub Issues is complete.
Core development moving away from mailing lists to Discourse and Discord
Funding to mature and secure the packaging ecosystem
PyScript
Data Science / Machine Learning more important than ever
nogil work?
Much more to come from MSFT Faster CPython project.
New leaders stepping up (Python & PSF)

Barry Warsaw

barry@python.org

bwarsaw@linkedin.com

@pumpichank

github.com/warsaw

gitlab.com/warsaw