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Van Rossum was born and grew up in the Netherlands. He received a master degree from the University of Amsterdam in 1982, and later worked for various research institutes, including the Dutch National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI) (Amsterdam), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (Gaithersburg, Maryland), and the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) (Reston, Virginia). He worked on the development of the ABC programming language, a descendant of the Simula language.
Over the origin of Python, Van Rossum wrote in 1996:
Over six years ago, in December 1989, I was looking for a "hobby" programming project that would keep me occupied during the week around Christmas. My office ... would be closed, but I had a home computer, and not much else on my hands. I decided to write an interpreter for the new scripting language I had been thinking about lately: a descendant of ABC that would appeal to Unix/C hackers. I chose Python as a working title for the project, being in a slightly irreverent mood (and a big fan of Monty Python's Flying Circus). (Introduction to Programming Python, by Mark Lutz, published by O'Reilly)
In 1999, Van Rossum submitted a funding proposal to DARPA called Computer Programming for Everybody, in which he further defined his goals for Python:
Many of these ambitions have since been realized. Python has grown to become a popular programming language, particularly in the Internet environment. In the Python community, Van Rossum is known as the Benevolent Dictator for Life (BDFL), meaning that he continues to oversee the Python development process, taking the ultimate decisions where necessary.
In 2002, Van Rossum received the Free Software Award of 20012001 is a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar), and also: The International Year of the Volunteer The United Nations Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations Events January January 1 A black monolith measuring approximately nine feet tall ap from the FSF at the FOSDEMThe Free & Open Software Developers European Meeting or Fosdem has been the venue for the FSFs Award for the Advancement of Free Software, since 2000. FOSDEM happens in Brussels, Belgium. In 2004 it was attended by 2000 people. External links . conference in BrusselsBrussels ( French: Bruxelles Dutch: Brussel German: Brussel is a major city in Belgium and its capital. Overview Brussels is first of all a city located in the middle of Belgium and its capital, but it sometimes also refers to the main municipality of the, BelgiumFor alternate meanings, see Belgium (disambiguation). Belgian redirects here. For the horse breed commonly used as a draft horse, see Belgian. The Kingdom of Belgium ( Dutch: Belgi French: Belgique German: Belgien is a country in Western Europe, bordered.