Sun 12:30 | Rm. TRS 1-067
Based on interviews with leading developers of Python and with Python, we take a look at how the Python language specification and the reference implementation are developed. The subcommunity of core developers not only produces a great programming language that's fun to use, but sets the tone for a vibrant, productive, and inclusive community of user-developers.
Known as the Unwelome Guest on several channels because he professes the Dismal Science of Economics, Steve nonetheless has found a ray of light among the zero-profit theorems: open source software and the communities that develop, support, and use it. He teaches in Japan, where he learned the virtues of Unicode from living in an environment with 5 different encodings (and many nonstandard variants) in use for the same language. He was introduced to Python development during the discussion of PEP 263 (which appropriately enough allows you to be explicit about encoding of Python programs), when he was turned into a newt by none other than GvR for the sin of misusing the word "pythonic". (It got better!) He mentors in GSoC for Systers & GNU Mailman, and spends what's left of his free time fighting DMARC to make the Internet safe for mailing lists again. He's also been know to write Emacs Lisp (ssh! it's a dirty secret!)
