“I'm basically giving myself a permanent vacation from being BDFL”

Excluding the 2/3 debacle, Guido has overseen an incredible progression in Python. It has become a contemporary lingua franca for coding, and the concept of a “pythonic” approach has been hugely influential.

I’m disappointed that he broke Eric Raymond’s rule: “When you lose interest in a program, your last duty to it is to hand it off to a competent successor.”

The email sounds bitter, which is tremendously sad, and I hope that after a break Guido will be able to oversee a more constructive transition.