# Before Python

DevFeed: [Before Python](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/before-python-38891.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<http://neopythonic.blogspot.com/2011/07/before-python.html>)

Author: Guido van Rossum (noreply@blogger.com)

Published: 2011-07-25T18:17:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Guido van Rossum](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/guido-van-rossum.md>)

Topics: [Programming](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/programming.md>), [Programming language](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/programming-language.md>), [Python](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/python.md>), [Mathematics](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/mathematics.md>)

Tags: [computer](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/computer.md>), [cpu-time](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cpu-time.md>), [electronics](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/electronics.md>), [languages](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/languages.md>), [mathematics](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mathematics.md>), [network](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/network.md>), [personal](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/personal.md>), [programming](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/programming.md>), [programming-languages](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/programming-languages.md>), [python](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/python.md>), [students](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/students.md>), [university](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/university.md>)

## AI overview

The author recounts his early experiences with electronics, mathematics at university, punch-card computing, and early programming before Python. He reflects on how programming languages have changed and how programmers may write software in the future.

## Source excerpt

This morning I had a chat with the students at Google's CAPE program. Since I wrote up what I wanted to say I figured I might as well blog it here. Warning: this is pretty unedited (or else it would never be published :-). I'm posting it in my "personal" blog instead of the "Python history" blog because it mostly touches on my career before Python. Here goes. Have you ever written a computer program? Using which language? HTML Javascript Java Python C++ C Other - which? [It turned out the students had used a mixture of Scratch, App Inventor, and Processing. A few students had also used Python or Java.] Have you ever invented a programming language? :-) If you have programmed, you know some of the problems with programming languages. Have you ever thought about why programming isn't easier? Would it help if you could just talk to your computer? Have you tried speech recognition software? I have. It doesn't work very well yet. :-) How do you think programmers will write software 10 years from now? Or 30? 50? Do you know how programmers worked 30 years ago? I do. I was born in Holland in 1956. Things were different. I didn't know what a computer was until I was 18. However, I tinkered with electronics. I built a digital clock. My dream was to build my own calculator. Then I went to university in Amsterdam to study mathematics and they had a computer that was free for students to use! (Not unlimited though. We were allowed to use something like one second of CPU time per day. :-) I had to learn how to use punch cards. There were machines to create them that had a keyboard. The machines were as big as a desk and made a terrible noise when you hit a key: a small hole was punched in the card with a huge force and great precision. If you made a mistake you had to start over. I didn't get to see the actual computer for several more years. What we had in the basement of the math department was just an end point for a network that ran across the city. There were card readers a