Sad news: Fredrik Lundh ("Effbot") has passed away

[jkn]

On Saturday, December 11, 2021 at 1:37:07 AM UTC, Roel Schroeven wrote:
> Message from Guido van Rossum 
> (https://mail.python.org/archives/list/pytho...@python.org/thread/36Q5QBILL3QIFIA3KHNGFBNJQKXKN7SD/): 
> 
> > A former core dev who works at Google just passed the news that 
> > Fredrik Lundh (also known as Effbot) has died. 
> > 
> > Fredrik was an early Python contributor (e.g. Elementtree and the 're' 
> > module) and his enthusiasm for the language and community were 
> > inspiring for all who encountered him or his work. He spent countless 
> > hours on comp.lang.python answering questions from newbies and 
> > advanced users alike. 
> > 
> > He also co-founded an early Python startup, Secret Labs AB, which 
> > among other software released an IDE named PythonWorks. Fredrik also 
> > created the Python Imaging Library (PIL) which is still THE way to 
> > interact with images in Python, now most often through its Pillow 
> > fork. His effbot.org site was a valuable resource for generations of 
> > Python users, especially its Tkinter documentation. 
> > 
> > Fredrik's private Facebook page contains the following message from 
> > November 25 by Ylva Larensson (translated from Swedish): 
> > 
> > """ 
> > 
> > It is with such sorrow and pain that I write this. Fredrik has left us 
> > suddenly. 
> > 
> > """ 
> > 
> > A core dev wrote: "I felt privileged to be able to study Fredrik's 
> > code and to read his writing. He was a huge asset to our community in 
> > the early days. I enjoyed his sense of humor as well. I'm sad that he 
> > passed away." 
> > 
> > We will miss him. 
> > 
> 
> -- 
> "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't 
> stop to think if they should" 
> -- Dr. Ian Malcolm

Thanks for passing on this sad news. Effbot was one of the luminaries when
I started writing Python (v1.4/v1.52 times). I still have his 'standard library'
book, as well as being a user of PIL/Pillow.

Jon N