Do you remember our Unravelling The Mystery series? We found out the naming inspirations for our rooms at Parkway Parade and King Albert Park (KAP). Up next is our newest addition to the Bukit Timah campus, the Van Rossum room at KAP Mall #02-05!

Room 4. Van Rossum

Van Rossum Room

So, who is Guido Van Rossum?

Our spacious new room is named after Guido Van Rossum (born 31 January 1956). Van Rossum is a Dutch programmer widely credited with the creation and development of Python, beginning in 1989 in the Netherlands [1]. If you have heard of Python, one of the world's most popular and fastest-growing programming languages [2], then you should know who Van Rossum is!

Van Rossum wanted a programming language centred around the computer scientist, not the machine.

(Photo from Van Rossum's Github)

Van Rossum first created Python while working on other projects, including a failed language called ABC. Through that experience, he observed that he needed a computer language that had more readability, while retaining the features of shell scripts and C, another programming language [3].

The logo of Python

Thus, Python was born, and it was a simple language which stripped away any extraneous code, making it more enjoyable for amateurs and beginners to code! Van Rossum also made Python open-source, which means it does not have a proprietary license that controls who uses it. This allows its group of learners to grow year on year. In fact, in 2015, Python overtook French to be the most popular language taught in primary schools in England [4]!

"For someone who is not yet a programmer, who wants to become a programmer, for those people, Python is particularly easy to get." [5]

Did you know? The name of the language, 'Python', did not originate from the snake! Fans of the British comedy series "Monty Python's Flying Circus", aired on BBC during the 1970s, will be pleased to know that it was the inspiration. That's right! Van Rossum was a huge fan of the show and it entertained him as he developed the programming language, and he chose "Python" because it was short, mysterious and catchy [6].

So, what is Van Rossum up to now? Van Rossum then went on to become a Principle Engineer at Dropbox for almost seven years, before retiring shortly. He is now part of the Microsoft Developer division [7].

Our Van Rossum room is filled with awe-inspiring quotes from other greats. The room is not only for teaching Python, but all of our classes for ages 5 to 18. If the story of Van Rossum piques your interest in coding, sign up for our classes by clicking here.

(Written by Nicole Loo)

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