mcdonc wrote:

"[Tim] took up Python on a lark in its very early days, becoming something like Python’s second real user after Guido.

Guido came to rely on Tim heavily. Tim will demur about this, but as far as I can tell, Tim and Guido were largely partners in the design evolution of very early Python, and before most important features made it in to Python, you could be sure that they had been examined from every angle, shaken, stirred, and thunk about very hard by both of them.

Tim often played the role of gatekeeper and polisher. You have Tim to thank at least partially if you were a refugee from Java or Microsoft languages, which made excuses for their sprawling verbosity, complexity, and poor readability. Python, at the time, made none of those and had none of that (it now does). Tim was crucial in ensuring it stayed that way during his most active years.

[...]

Tim was a Director of the Python Software Foundation from 2001 to 2014, bringing Python across an uncanny valley from a time where it was “interesting but ignorable” to “the planet’s default language” along with a cast of other incredible people. If you use Python, it’s not in small part due to Tim."

Yesterday, out of nowhere I remembered Zen of Python and looked it up to refresh my memory. Prior to that I hadn't known who the author was, so when I saw Tim Peter's name I had a moment of realization that it's the same person who invented Timsort and the same person who was banned from python forums a few years ago for opposing arguing agains bylaw changes.

It feels surreal to learn about his death just the next day. RIP

Tim's Blog https://tim-one.github.io/psf/

"Question everything. Love everyone" (from his page)

RIP "Uncle Timmy".

For anyone with more context, could you please help me understand why this wasn't announced earlier? Seems like such a great loss to the community. But, waiting until November to announce the death of a pioneer in July doesn't seem to sit right. Unless there's any historical or cultural context (in which case, I apologize in advance).

Tim's description of dicts always stuck with me by describing the hash table slot states as one of citizen, virgin, or turd[1]. <wink>

1: https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2000-March/048...

The Tim of Tim Sort, for those that want to identify him quickly.

Thanks, Tim. Your contributions have helped me feed me family over the years. RIP

(I've taught the Zen of Python, doctests, timsort, and more during my career.)

I was honored to work with Tim for a couple of years. He was one of the smartest and funniest people I've ever known. He will be missed.

I learned how to be a person on the internet in large part by watching Tim back in the day. RIP.

Tim (of Timsort) was a long time python contributor (aka 90s), and a foundation of its early community (>>> import this). Rip.