This week we welcome Ezio Melotti as our PyDev of the Week! Ezio is a core developer of the Python language. You can get an idea of what he’s been up to via his bitbucket page. Let’s take a few moments to get to know him!
Can you tell us a little about yourself (hobbies, education, etc):
At the moment I live in Finland, where I studied and graduated in Information Technology. While I was graduating I taught a university course on Python programming and now I work remotely as a developer/educator.
I’ve been a CPython core developer since 2009 and I’m the maintainer of the bug tracker and the html package. I spend a good slice of my free time improving Python in different ways, including work on the stdlib, documentation, tests, infrastructure, mentoring for Google Summer of Code, organizing sprints, and doing talks at conferences.
My hobbies include traveling, learning new languages (Chinese and Spanish), and wildlife photography.
Why did you start using Python?
Back when I was still learning C++ in high school, Python started gaining more and more popularity, so one day I decided to learn it. I was impressed by its combination of power, simplicity, and versatility. Since then, I’ve been able to use Python for most of my projects.
What other programming languages do you know and which is your favorite?
My first language was Pascal, followed by C and x86 assembly. While learning functional programming, I studied Scheme and then Haskell. When I first started working on the web, I had to learn PHP and JavaScript too. Nowadays I mostly use Python, but occasionally I still use C (when I need performance), JavaScript (on the client-side), and others. It shouldn’t be difficult to guess which one is my favorite 🙂
What projects are you working on now?
For Python, I’m currently preparing to update the tracker for the upcoming migration to Git/GitHub (PEP 512). I also collaborated with the OeWF (Austrian Space Forum) and other organizations on a scientific project that, among other things, aims to provide an immersive virtual reality simulation of Mars.
Which Python libraries are your favorite (core or 3rd party)?
There are so many great libraries that it is difficult to pick favorites. The standard library already covers a wide range of use cases, and when it’s not enough you can almost always find a valid alternative on PyPI.
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
Contributing to Python is easier than you might think. If you want to make your favorite language even better, get in touch with us on the core-mentorship mailing list at http://pythonmentors.com/ and https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/core-mentorship.
Thanks for doing the interview!