Python Risk

[Tim Peters]

[Daniel Klein]
> I'm now a strong Python advocate but a question that seems to be
> comming up quite a bit lately is,

Where?  I haven't seen it come up here lately, or on the network news last
night either <wink>.

> what would happen to the language if something happened to our
> BDFL (aka GVR)? Would the language stagnate or is there enough of a
> 'machine' out there to continue its evolution and support?

Monitor the Python checkins mailing list, or dig thru the CVS history files,
and you'll see that Guido hasn't had much to do with Python coding since
1.5.2 was released (endless huge checkins to fiddle license and copyright
notices to the taste of the employer du jour, but we could have found a
monkey to do *that* stuff <wink>).  He's getting back into it for 2.2, and
that's great, but he couldn't kill Python now whether by vanishing or by
will.

That said, Guido's ability to say "no!" and make it stick is what's kept
Python Python so far.  If he vanished, there would be no lack of programmers
to keep Python going, but I'm not sure it would remain Python for long.  I
expect it would splinter, with Andrew Kuchling reviving the 1.2 codebase,
John Skaller merging 2.2 with O'Caml, and Barry Warsaw renaming his variant
(with builtin Mailman support) to >>thon.

urging-that-nobody-kill-him-just-to-find-out-ly y'rs  - tim