Guido van Rossum has joined Microsoft’s Developer Division. Van Rossum is best known as the Python programming language creator. He stepped down from his role as BDFL or Benevolent dictator for life (a title awarded to a small number of open-source software development leaders) of the Python programming language in July 2018.
Van Rossum joins Microsoft
“I decided that retirement was boring and have joined the Developer Division at Microsoft,” van Rossum said. “To do what? Too many options to say! But it’ll make using Python better for sure (and not just on Windows :-). There’s lots of open source here. Watch this space.”
I decided that retirement was boring and have joined the Developer Division at Microsoft. To do what? Too many options to say! But it’ll make using Python better for sure (and not just on Windows :-). There’s lots of open source here. Watch this space.
— Guido van Rossum (@gvanrossum) November 12, 2020
Who is Guido van Rossum?
A 64-year-old Dutch programmer created the Python programming language in December 1989. What started as a ‘hobby’ programming project to keep him occupied during the week around Christmas, van Rossum coded a new scripting language that would eventually appeal to Unix/C hackers. Van Rossum remained a member of the Python Steering Council through 2019.
Van Rossum withdrew from nominations for the 2020 election of the Python Steering Council. In 1982, Van Rossum received his master’s degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Amsterdam. Over the years, Van Rossum has served in different roles at different organizations.
Before creating the Python programming language, he worked at the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), where he helped develop the ABC programming language in 1986. Van Rossum has also worked for various research institutes, including the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in the Netherlands, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI).
Between 2000 and 2003, he worked for Zope corporation. He later quit Zope to join Elemental Security, where he worked on a custom programming language. In 2005, Van Rossum joined Google, where he spent half of his time developing the Python language. In December 2012, he quit Google. A month later, in January 2013, he started joined Dropbox.
Nearly seven years later, in October 2019, Van Rossum announced his retirement at 63.
