Programming columnist Mike Melanson assesses the news that Guido Van Rossum, the creator of the Python programming language, has come out of retirement to join Microsoft’s developer division:
The news brought a flurry of congratulations and feature requests, though a few of the suggested features indeed, already exist. Others still were met with informative responses that make the resulting threads worth a perusal, especially if you’re looking for a quick “who’s who” on Twitter for the world of programming languages. Microsoft’s Miguel de Icaza pointed out that this addition adds to the company’s now growing list of language designers and contributors:
“The developer division at Microsoft now employs the language designers and contributors to Python, Java, JavaScript, Typescript, F# C#, C++. We just need some PHP, Rust and Swift magic to complete the picture.”
[Microsoft senior software engineer Kat Marchán added “We actually have some early ex-moz Rust people too!”]
So, what can we expect from all of this? Is it a corporate takeover of open source, as some further down in the long list of replies always seem to suggest? Or is Microsoft planning the Frankenstein of all languages, with a little bit of this, a little bit of that? In all likelihood, you Python developers using Microsoft products probably have some good features to look forward to in the near future, and that’s that, but there’s always lingering fears…especially when it comes to Microsoft. As van Rossum suggests, stay tuned.
After Slashdot’s earlier story, long-time reader alexgieg posted his own theory: “Several months ago the Excel folk within Microsoft asked users whether they’d like to have Python as an alternative scripting language in Office. Support for that was overwhelming, but nothing more was said on the matter since then. I guess this is Microsoft’s answer.”
of this story at Slashdot.
Source:: Slashdot