ABC and The Birth of Python

As I have mentioned in a previous post, I am very interested in the how and why of programming, which includes the history of different languages. One of the posters at PyCon 2012 held in Santa Clara over the past week was about the programming language ABC. There is a Youtube video that is unfortunately edited poorly and has the microphones off during the most important part of the interview here.

Guido van Rossum is often called "The Father of Python" because of his critical involvement in the development of the language. He wanted programming to be more intuitive, easier to learn, written in true English, and available to everyone. However, he did not start Python until ABC lost its funding. He also did not come up with all the basic principles on his own. Although he did work on the ABC project, he was not one of the original creators, nor is he attributed a large portion of the credit. Leo Geurts, Lambert Meertens, and Steven Pemberton are acknowledged as the leads on the ABC Project sponsored by CWI, Netherlands.

Like Python, ABC uses indentions (white space) to organize loops. ABC is also much easier to read than the programming languages of its time, BASIC, Pascal, and AWK. Tuples, lists, and strings were important in ABC, as they now are in Python. Tuples and indentations were actually utilized by SETL before they were used by ABC.

By looking at examples of SETL developed in the late 1960's, then examples of ABC from the 1980's, and finally modern Python, the progression of the structure and readability is apparent. Python is a beautiful language because of its intuitive design.