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# Python — Design Philosophy and the PEP Process

## Design Philosophy

Python was designed to be highly readable. It uses English keywords frequently where other
languages use punctuation, and it has fewer syntactic constructions than other languages.

Guido van Rossum published the first version of Python's design philosophy in 1999 in
"The Zen of Python" (PEP 20). Its key principles include:

- Beautiful is better than ugly.
- Explicit is better than implicit.
- Simple is better than complex.
- Readability counts.
- Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
- Errors should never pass silently, unless explicitly silenced.
- There should be one — and preferably only one — obvious way to do it.

These aphorisms are accessible from any Python interpreter by typing `import this`.

## The PEP Process

Python Enhancement Proposals (PEPs) are the mechanism by which changes to Python are proposed,
discussed, and accepted or rejected. Notable PEPs include:

| PEP | Title | Introduced |
|-----|-------|-----------|
| PEP 8 | Style Guide for Python Code | 2001 |
| PEP 20 | The Zen of Python | 2004 |
| PEP 257 | Docstring Conventions | 2001 |
| PEP 484 | Type Hints | Python 3.5 (2015) |
| PEP 492 | Coroutines with async/await | Python 3.5 (2015) |
| PEP 498 | Literal String Interpolation (f-strings) | Python 3.6 (2016) |
| PEP 572 | Assignment Expressions (walrus operator) | Python 3.8 (2019) |
| PEP 634 | Structural Pattern Matching | Python 3.10 (2021) |

## Python Software Foundation

The Python Software Foundation (PSF) is a non-profit organisation founded in 2001 that holds
intellectual property rights for the Python programming language. The PSF organises PyCon,
the annual Python conference, and manages the Python Package Index (PyPI).

Guido van Rossum served as Python's Benevolent Dictator For Life (BDFL) until July 2018, when
he announced his permanent vacation from the role. A five-person Steering Council was elected
to guide the language's development thereafter.
