- the first and MAIN reason is excellent windows support. Nobody wants to say this, but it was the first unix friendly community for a good scriting language to not shit on windows users.
- batteries included is frawn uppon today, but it was a BIG deal back then
- python had the best c integration system after lua and got the Numric lib because if that. It became numpy.
- it was dynamically typed, but strongly typed. No ===.
- optional parenthesis for ruby and symbols from perls were a repellant to many C and java users.
- the error messages were better than the competition.
- lisp shell without lisp
- docstrings and help()
- the packaging ecosystem that everybody craps on today was actually the best at the time. Ruby's was AWFUL at the time.
- one of the first scripting language with good namespace. Ruby could have been that but killef it with monkey patching for years.
- python found ground outside of the web unlike php, js and ruby very early
- python devs were willing to work with os devs to improve integration, and so linux and mac got system tools written in python
- django and twisted were amazing at the time. The dev server without apache was a killer feature
- google advertised they used python for the search engine and youtube. Then HN successes like reddit znd dropbox. It became so famous.
It was not inevitable at all. Just a collection of random stuff.
- the first and MAIN reason is excellent windows support. Nobody wants to say this, but it was the first unix friendly community for a good scriting language to not shit on windows users.
- batteries included is frawn uppon today, but it was a BIG deal back then
- python had the best c integration system after lua and got the Numric lib because if that. It became numpy.
- it was dynamically typed, but strongly typed. No ===.
- optional parenthesis for ruby and symbols from perls were a repellant to many C and java users.
- the error messages were better than the competition.
- lisp shell without lisp
- docstrings and help()
- the packaging ecosystem that everybody craps on today was actually the best at the time. Ruby's was AWFUL at the time.
- one of the first scripting language with good namespace. Ruby could have been that but killef it with monkey patching for years.
- python found ground outside of the web unlike php, js and ruby very early
- python devs were willing to work with os devs to improve integration, and so linux and mac got system tools written in python
- django and twisted were amazing at the time. The dev server without apache was a killer feature
- google advertised they used python for the search engine and youtube. Then HN successes like reddit znd dropbox. It became so famous.
It was not inevitable at all. Just a collection of random stuff.