I haven't used Python in many years, but it was the first programming language I really could say I loved. Everything was was either completely in tune with my intuition or well-documented.
I had a lot of fun with Python, and I learned a lot about programming by (ab)using it. I am very grateful to Guido van Rossum and the work he has done, and I wish him all the best for his future.
I totally agree with this. In 1999 I had only used C and shell (well lisp a little bit in college), and python was such a breath of fresh air...
Even though I am hardwired to C and 'thinking like a machine would/prefers', python was probably the first and only language I didn't feel like it was a programming language at all. Always when I write something in it, it's always 'huh, and that's it? I'm... done?'. Sure, it's equal part due to language and 'batteries', but neither would happen without GvR and awesome community that built around his project and him. Python, to me, is like lisp without parens and with libraries - the future we were promised. Only thing I, personally, can't do is write large(er/ish) codebases with it. I tend to get lost, but that's probably due to my C-like brain. In any case, thanks for everything!
'Basically, Python can be seen as a dialect of Lisp with "traditional" syntax'
-- To quote Peter Norvig, Director of Research at Google and author of multiple books on AI and Lisp.
norvig is the only one anyone ever quotes for python vs lisp. he is beyond my knowledge, but i just cannot see what he says in this quote. python doesn’t feel like lisp at all when programming in it. the mindset is completely different.
edit: i thought this quote was much more recent. it was from around when he first joined google or even before.
That wasn't his motivation for using Python.
His motivation was much like many others -- it's the language that looks closer to pseudocode than any other.
His first attempt at doing the AI book using Java was a failure because it's verbosity and lack of features.
Students found the Python version much easier to comprehend than the Lisp one.