What is Python?

[Alex Martelli]

"François Granger" <francois.granger at free.fr> wrote in message
news:1eha5k2.kxgxg85fmpvrN at paris11-nas8-55-47.dial.proxad.net...
    [snip]
> Funny, these guy don't know french ;-)
>
> It's worse on the "consistentness" side

But better in many ways thanks to many centuries' worth of
effort by the Academie -- isn't the language itself spelled
(cedillas apart) Francais (consistently with its pronunciation)
rather than Francois (as it used to be in the 18th Century)
thanks to the Academie's 1835 edition of its Dictionary, for
example?  Despite my rather-libertarian leanings in most
fields, I can't help thinking that French has been more
helped than hindered by this specific case of "dirigisme"
(wrt the other tongues I know passably well, Italian, my
mothertongue, and beloved-but-hopelessly-tangled English).

Quite similarly, I think, Python's benevolent dictator is
a big help to Python's quality as a language...


Alex