I took a college freshman level course on Python and got hooked on it from that experience. What is the best way to deepen and extend my knowledge of and proficiency with more advanced Python development? I’m a mostly self-taught developer who codes mostly in Java and .Net; I have had some college coursework in software development and I’m a pretty sharp cookie. I’ve been designing a new programming language for several years and I’m planning to include several Pythonic features into my language/compiler.
I’m very curious about how long it took Guido to complete development on Python.
There are many different paths and everyone’s story is different, but at least drawing from my own personal experience, you could consider contributing to an established open source project written in Python. You’ll learn firsthand how such projects are designed, structured and implemented, and have the opportunity for your code to be reviewed and learn from more experienced developers. In time, with enough contributions you may be invited to join the project team, as well as have the opportunity to review others’ code as well. Not only will you have learned a lot, about both Python and the overall process of development, but you’ll also have plenty of tangible contributions to an established project to show for it, and benefit the entire community as well.
This was how I got my start in Python as a whole only a few years ago, contributing to the Spyder scientific environment/IDE, first by triaging issues, then fixing small bugs, then making larger changes writing grants and strategic planning, then mostly focusing on code review and UX, and finally now helping maintain and guide core pieces of the projects. And I didn’t even have a “real” programming background, being a scientist by training and trade. Bonus points if you pick project(s) that you use/have a strong interest in, so (like I did) you can actually benefit the rest of your work too.
About 14 months between starting the initial implementation and the first public release of 0.9.0 to comp.lang.sources, per Gudio’s timeline.