91–100 of 213 posts
Why Guido left? That's the question.
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Yeah, I don't think that trait distinguishes Python from Ruby or Perl, or even Java, for that matter. Cross-platform compatibility is an advantage of interpreted languages in general.
Not if we're talking about the real world (implementation), rather than the theoretical capability of a language in itself. Perl and Ruby don't see much love on Windows, particularly with GUI toolkits and the like. Python is the only one of the three that feels comfortable using on Windows, from the skeleton of the app down to actually distributing it. Java is really good at cross platform apps though. This is one of…
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I know nothing about Guido outside of his work with Python but I assume he's not hurting for money at all. Nevertheless, our capitalist system does not reward people for brilliance alone; it rewards people for taking risks . Some very wealthy people are still being rewarded for the risks of their ancestors, and others have managed to keep wealth gathered in different economic systems, but that is generally how new we…
I don't get it. How is creating a new programming language in your spare time not a risk? You're spending valuable time creating something that is likely to fail (see the scores of niche languages no one uses). I think what you mean by "risk" is something very specific: financial risk. If Guido had instead put time and, more importantly, money into starting a "lifestyle" startup on the side, he would have been financ…
People tend to overestimate the amount of money required to start a successful business.
It always strikes me as odd when something like this happens. Guido is still working nine-to-fives and Drew never has to work again. Can someone tell me why a brilliant person like Guido isn't worth a billion dollars? Have tons of fancy cars and a fancy house? Has to work for another company?
Why Guido left? That's the question.
If I was a language designer looking for a change, I'd go to Yosemite and apply as park ranger. That would be a change. But dropbox?
Guido's last commit? http://code.google.com/p/rietveld/source/detail?r=f66cc90304...
Anyway, most of what he was working on was AppEngine itself.
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Are you saying that a start-up can't have more than a certain number of employees?
It's a genuine question. To my mind, a startup has a small number of employees and not very much money. This is hardly the first time I've heard of a company with >100 employees described as a startup, so I'm interested to know what people's definitions are.
By this definition, they didn't fit the bill. Dropbox might, depending on whether or not they're still in a rapid growth phase.
I wonder, will Dropbox still allocate 50% of Guido's time toward Python development? Further, donning our tinfoil hats, is it reasonable to suspect that Google is phasing out the use of Python internally? I've heard rumors that Python is no longer permitted for new projects within Google; hoping some Googlers here can confirm or deny this.
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Dunbar's number makes little sense for directly determining/classifying organizational sizes. Most of peoples' relationships lie outside of the organization they work for. You'd probably have little to no relationship with people in your organization way before you reach Dunbar's number.
Well, it may be 50, it may be 150, but the point is, it's probably fine to call a company of 10 a startup, and it's absurd to call a Google or Facebook a startup. Which leaves open the question of what to call Dropbox. Well funded, profitable, late-stage startup? Sounds like too much of a mouthful.