The next 20 years of Python

The EuroPython 2013 conference in Florence, Italy opened with a keynote by Van Lindberg about the next twenty years of Python. Lindberg, a lawyer with an engineering background, is the chairman of the Python Software Foundation (PSF) and the author of the book Intellectual Property and Open Source (reviewed by LWN in 2008). His keynote looked at the challenges facing the Python community and the work underway to ensure that Python will remain an attractive programming language and have a healthy community for the next twenty years (and beyond).

The design philosophy of Python

Lindberg began his keynote with a retrospective of the last twenty years of Python. He described the origins of Python as a skunkworks project, which led Guido van Rossum, the creator of Python, to a number of interesting design choices. One is that Van Rossum borrowed ideas from elsewhere, such as ALGOL 68 and C. Another design approach was to make things as simple as possible. This involved taking the same concepts and reusing them over and over again. Python also follows the Unix philosophy of doing one thing well, he said. Finally, perfection is the enemy of the good, as "good enough" is often just that. Cutting corners is allowed, as you can always go back and improve it later. Lindberg summarized that Van Rossum "got a lot right in the early days".

Lindberg noted that Van Rossum also succeeded in creating a community around Python. Lindberg identified four factors that were crucial for the success of Python. First, Python was an excellent language. This was a necessary basis because "otherwise there's nothing to gather and rally around". Second, Van Rossum chose an open source license even before the term "open source" was invented. Third, Van Rossum encouraged a sense of humor, naming the language after the Monty Python crew. Finally, Python had a sense of values.

The values behind Python, in particular, are what differentiates Python from many other programming languages. Lindberg asked the audience whether they knew about "import this". This is an Easter egg in Python which displays the Zen of Python, the guiding principles behind Python. Unlike Perl, which proudly proclaims that there's more than one way to do it, Python encourages a certain programming style. This is reflected in the Zen of Python, which says that there should be one — and preferably only one — obvious way to do it.

Challenges for the Python community

Lindberg emphasized that Python is a remarkable story of success. There are hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, of people using Python as part of their jobs. Python is widely deployed — it has become the de facto standard in the movie and animation industry, is overtaking Perl in bioinformatics, and is the implementation language of two of the leading cloud platforms. Python is also a significant player in education, "finally replacing Java as the primary teaching language for a lot of universities", he said.

Despite the success, Python is facing what Lindberg described as "market share challenges". JavaScript, which used to be stricken by buggy, browser-only, and inconsistent implementations, has become a fairly big competitor in the desktop and server spaces, and particularly in mobile. Lua is increasingly used as an embeddable extension language. Lindberg sees Go as another contender. What makes Go attractive is its concurrency and ability to create easily deployable binaries that you can just drop on a system and run. "Frankly, deployment is a challenge for us", admitted Lindberg, as are mobile and other areas with highly constrained space requirements. Lindberg also mentioned the statistical and graphic abilities of R as a potential competitor.

Asking "why do I care?", he explained that it's important to keep growing — otherwise Python will end up where Smalltalk and Tcl are today. He rhetorically asked the audience when the last time was that anyone did anything interesting in Tcl. Noting that these are fantastic languages, Lindberg argued that "they have died because they have not grown". It's not just the language, but also the community around it, that can die. He observed that in addition to technical challenges facing Python, there are also challenges with scaling the Python community that need to be addressed. Lindberg believes that ten or twenty years ago it was enough to focus on the programmer, whereas these days you have to form a culture around programming.

There is something special about the Python community, according to Lindberg. He quoted the mission of the Python Software Foundation, which is to "promote, protect, and advance the Python programming language, and to support and facilitate the growth of a diverse and international community of Python programmers", observing that "these are important words". Lindberg argued that the current community is getting older and that actions have to be taken that will create the Python community twenty years from now: "if we don't build and grow the community, it will go away".

Big changes coming

Lindberg emphasized three areas that the Python Software Foundation is focusing on to grow the Python community, now and in the future. One is the Code of Conduct the PSF adopted in April. The Zen of Python has been important in defining Python, but its focus is on code. The Code of Conduct, on the other hand, captures what the community itself should be like — it should consist of members from all around the world with a diverse set of skills. He said that a member of the Python community is open, considerate, and respectful: members are open to collaboration, to constructive criticism, and to fostering an environment in which everyone can participate; they are considerate of their peers; and they are respectful of others, their skills, and their efforts. The Code of Conduct condenses what is great about the Python community. "It's about being the best people that we can be and being the best community that we can be", Lindberg said. Alluding to Python's reputation as the language with batteries included, he summarized that "Python is the language with community included".

The second focus for PSF is education. As we're all getting older, we have to think about where the next generation is coming from, Lindberg said. He told the story of Sam Berger, an eleven year old school boy from South Africa, who attended PyCon and participated in professional level tutorials and classes. This is an illustration of where the next generation of Python leaders is coming from. In order to encourage that next generation, the PSF is supporting initiatives to promote young coders, such as making a curriculum to teach kids Python available online. Lindberg is also very supportive of the Raspberry Pi. He reminisced about the 80s when computers booted into BASIC. The default way to interact with the computer was through programming. If you wanted to do something else, you had to make an explicit decision. This led to an entire generation that understood that computers are tools — tools that won't break if you play around with them.

Finally, the PSF itself is adapting to better serve the needs of the Python community. It is working on a new web site (a preview of which can be found at preview.python.org). The design goal of the new site is to make it easy for the community to get involved. It is also putting a lot of thought into representing the community, and there will be efforts to address various needs, such as learning Python or teaching Python. Lindberg also lamented that the PSF is not broad and inclusive enough. Membership in the PSF currently requires a nomination from an existing member, but Lindberg believes that every member of the Python community should be a member of the PSF. In April, the PSF voted to completely redo its membership program and to open up membership to anyone. Answering a question from the audience, Lindberg clarified that basic membership will be available to anyone who signs up. Further rights, such as voting privileges, will be given to those members who have demonstrated a commitment to the Python community, such as by contributing code, documentation, or test cases — or by organizing events.

Lindberg closed by saying that the PSF is "changing to be your home". It is fundamentally saying that "we need each of you" and that "this is all about you". This is the most significant change the Python community has seen since the formation of the PSF, according to Lindberg, and it's about building the next twenty years of Python.