The compiler canard

[Alex Martelli]

Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters wrote:
   ...
> Python never had an "aspiration" of being "just a scripting language",

Hmmm, at the start it sure seemed like that.  Check out 

http://www.python.org/search/hypermail/python-1992/0001.html

actually from late '91.  By 1991 Guido was already calling Pyhton
"a prototyping language" and "a programming language" (so, the
"just a scripting language" was perhaps only accurate in 1990), but
in late '91 he still wrote:

"""
The one thing that Python definitely does not want to be is a GENERAL
purpose programming language. Its lack of declarations and general laziness
about compile-time checking is definitely aimed at small-to-medium-sized
programs.
"""

Apparently, it took us (collectively speaking) quite a while to realize
that the lack of declarations and compile-time checks aren't really a
handicap for writing larger programs (admittedly, Lispers already knew
it then -- so did I personally, thanks also to experiences with e.g.
Rexx -- but I didn't know of Python then).  So, it _is_ historically
interesting to ascertain when the issue of large programs first arose.

> nor WAS it ever such a thing.  From its release, Python was obviously a
> language very well suited to large scale application development (as

Well, clearly that was anything but obvious to Guido, from the above
quote.  Or maybe you mean by "release" the 1.0.0 one, in 1994?  At
that time, your contention becomes quite defensible (though I can't
find a Guido quote to support it, maybe I'm just not looking hard
enough), e.g. http://www.python.org/search/hypermail/python-1994q1/0050.html
where Bennett Todd muses
"""
I think Python will outstrip every other language out there, and Python
(extended where necessary in C) will be the next revolutionary programming
tool ... Perl seems (in my experience) to be weak for implementing large
systems, and having them run efficiently and be clear and easy to maintain.
I hope Python will do better.
"""
So, here, the idea or hope that Python "will do better" (at least wrt
Perl) "for implementing large systems" seems already in evidence, though
far from a community consensus yet.


I do find it fascinating that such primary sources are freely available
on the net -- a ball for us amateur historians...!-)



Alex