I use Python in my day-to-day work, and I aspire to being able to write about things that I would want to know more about if I were reading this column instead of writing it. I use Python with Saltstack for writing internal APIs, for templating, for writing one-off tools, and for trying out ideas. It’s my first choice as a go-to tool for almost anything at this point. I’ve come to realize that it’s the lens that I view my computer and my job through.
Between writing my first column and this one, there was the announcement that Python is changing in a fundamental way. So I feel the need to take this opportunity to reflect on the extraordinary nature of this change: on July 12, 2018, Guido van Rossum elected to step down as the BDFL of the Python language.
A lot has been written about the circumstances, and I am not able to add useful commentary or knowledge about Guido’s decision to retire from his title and his position in the community. I just want to add my own voice to those who have thanked him for shepherding the language for as long as he has done.
This is also a great chance to give props to all of Python’s maintainers who will be guiding the language to its next phase of governance and to discuss what that may mean for those of us who mainly use the language. So while this article will be non-technical, I hope it will at least be informative, interesting, and useful.
