[Tutor] What Is Python Based On?

[Magnus Lycka]

At 10:55 2002-10-08 +0100, James.Rocks@equant.com wrote:
>what language (if any) is historically behind Python? Does anyone know?

Python is more original than Delphi/Kylix which is
a kind of Pascal.

The main inspirations were ABC and Modula-3. Guido had some
summer job at Digital and worked with Modula-3 at the place
where it was developed. He worked with the development of
ABC in Amsterdam, in Andrew Tannenbaum's Amoeba project.

The perhaps most noticable python element: That indentation
determines block structure is a ABC feature.

The parts of Python that aren't coded in Python are
coded in C, and this shines through in places. For
instance "import time, math" will give you two modules
that are basically thin wrappers over std C libraries.

There are some syntac elements that are C-like, for
instance = for assignment and == for equality, but
it's certainly not a C look-alike like Java and C#.

Some functional elements have been borrowed from Lisp
(map, reduce, filter, lambda) and recently list
comprehension was borrowed from Haskell.

You can find some examples of code written in all these
languages at http://99-bottles-of-beer.ls-la.net/ so
you can compare...


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Magnus Lycka, Thinkware AB
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