Python's rise from a 1990s side project to a dominant language in AI and data science is explored through interviews with its creators.
This is the story of the world's most beloved programming language: Python. What began as a side project in Amsterdam during the 1990s became the software powering artificial intelligence, data science and some of the world’s biggest companies. But Python's future wasn't certain; at one point it almost disappeared.
This 90-minute documentary features Guido van Rossum, Travis Oliphant, Barry Warsaw, and many more, and they tell the story of Python’s rise, its community-driven evolution, the conflicts that almost tore it apart, and the language’s impact on... well… everything.
Thanks to our sponsors for making this documentary possible:
Anaconda: anaconda.com/ @AnacondaInc.
Dropbox: dropbox.com/ @Dropbox
Meta: opensource.fb.com/ @FacebookOpenSource
OpenTeams: openteams.com/ @openteams
PyCharm: jetbrains.com/pycharm/ @PyCharmIDE
Quansight: quansight.com/ @quansight
And to all the amazing people who are featured:
Armin Ronacher, Barry Warsaw, Benjamin Peterson, Brett Cannon, Drew Houston, Guido van Rossum, Jessica McKellar, Ken Manheimer, Lambert Meertens, Lisa Guo, Lisa Roach, Mariatta Wijaya, Paul Everitt, Patrice Lyons, Peter Wang, Robin Friedrich, Robert Kahn, Sjoerd Mullender, Steven Pemberton, Tim O'Reilly, Ton Roosendaal, and Travis Oliphant.
Additional thanks to The Python Software Foundation and Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI).
Picture of Guido at Dropbox by Dan Stroud from Squero (Brand and Creative Studio) Squero.com
Python comic (Import Antigravity) by xkcd: xkcd.com/353/
Clips used from Fun: A Python Love Story (2001): openbookproject.net/pybiblio/pythonvideo.php
Massive thanks for the Korean subtitles translation to: Haen Noh, Junwon Lee, Haeyong Lee, Mir Jung and Hwanseok Joo.
Follow us:
x.com/CultRepo/bsky.app/profile/cultrepo.bsky.socialinstagram.com/cult.repo/
Chapters
- Intro
- ABC - the predecessor to Python
- The Amoeba system
- Guido creating Python
- Open source release
- A growing community
- Famous 1994 Workshop
- Corporation for National Research Initiatives
- Origins of the BDFL
- Early scientific Python community (Travis Oliphant)
- Importance of Python being open source (Blender)
- Early Python contributors and the importance of fun
- The Zen of Python
- Tumultuous start-up life
- Birth of the Python Software Foundation
- The community is the true strength of Python
- Growth: Web development (Dropbox)
- Growth: Data science (Anaconda)
- Dropbox hiring Guido
- Python 2 to 3
- "Python is for Girls"
- Mariatta's story
- Growth: AI/ML (Meta)
- Guido at PyCon
- The Walrus Operator
- Guido stepping down as BDFL
- "Can this work without Guido?" (Governance)
- Guido never expected Python's success
- Python h
Why it's here
2 people recommend this
What people say. Highly recommended as an engaging, high-quality documentary about the history and community of the Python programming language.
m
u/maxw85in r/Clojure • Recommends
Would be lovely to have similar documentary about the origin story of Clojure
They are made by CultRepo. The style reminds me of Netflix's Chefs table, but they cover programming languages and communities instead. Maybe one for Clojure is already in their pipeline. I guess the Clojure community would find enough companies as sponsors to cover the production costs.