Guido van Rossum: Python makes thinking in code easier

Over at the Dropbox blog, there's an interesting interview with Guido van Rossum, the creator of the Python programming language. Once an obscure language, Python has grown to become one of the most popular programming languages thanks to its adoption in the data science, machine learning, and scientific data processing communities:

But that are a growing number of people who are using Python in many fields. “The currently prevailing theory about Python's unexpected success,” says Van Rossum, “is that at some point, it established itself into data science and machine learning, and scientific data processing in general, and once you have critical mass, it's easier for everyone to use the same system as their colleagues and their competitors, than to try something different.” And even though it started as purely a tool for professional programmers, Van Rossum says, “Python is now also the language of amateurs, and I mean that in the best possible way.”

Van Rossum said Python makes thinking in code easier, but he also said that not everyone should be able to code. Various politicians are pushing for making coding a part of the curriculum but Van Rossum noted that while certain introductions to programming are fun for kids to do, they're not fun for all kids.