Python in the future

[Thomas Wouters]

On Wed, Apr 19, 2000 at 07:46:15AM -0600, j vickroy wrote:

> I'm relatively new to Python and am trying to gain support for it at my
> work place.  To that end, I'm giving a brief (overview) presentation.
> One of the items I have been asked to consider is where will Python be
> 5-10 years from now.  I certainly don't know where C++ or Java will be
> in that time frame!  Any ideas on where to research the future plans for
> Python would be appreciated.

Well, if you want to see glimpes of Pythons' future, what better way than
Guido's very own timemachine ? Guido is being the true visionary, saying
more about the *direction* in which Python is going (or he wishes it to go,
which ammounts much to the same thing, currently) than the lowlevel,
technical, unimportant bits. And Guido is working on CP4E, Computer
Programming For Everyone -- making programming easy, for everyone, even
those with no affinity for computers what so ever. Python is a good step in
that direction, and hopefully other tools will follow. Other languages,
because diversity is good, but also good developement tools, interfaces, new
toys to play with, new areas for Python to concur.

Ten years, even five years, is a long way for computers. (For humans too,
seeing that five years ago i'd dropped out of school and was hauling pallets
of boxes at the local hospital, and today I could get any job I would wish
for.) We can say very little about how technology will look in ten years.
It'll still be recognizable, but the cutting edge of the techworld will
definately be new and exciting. And Python will definately be there, even if
only propelled by momentum. I, for one, would probably still port Python to
every OS I can get my hands on. Maybe I can even be the first for once, then
;)

For more information about CP4E, follow the 'essays' link on Guido's
homepage (http://www.python.org/~guido) or go directly to
http://www.python.org/doc/essays/. You can probably find some more
information in the edu-sig, and perhaps even some in other places by using a
normal search engine.

Gee-i-hope-i-understood-that-cp4e-thing-correct-ly y'rs

-- 
Thomas Wouters <thomas at xs4all.net>

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