The origin and evolution of Python programming language
Python's development began in the late 1980s when Guido van Rossum, then at CWI in the Netherlands, wanted to create a successor to the ABC language that would appeal to Unix/C hackers. The first version, Python 0.9.0, was released in February 1991 and already included exception handling, functions, and the core data types. Python 1.0 was released in 1994 with new features like lambda, map, filter, and reduce. Python 2.0, released in 2000, introduced list comprehensions and a garbage collection system. Python 3.0 (also called Python 3000) was a major, backward-incompatible release in 2008 that eliminated many design flaws. The transition from Python 2 to Python 3 was gradual, with Python 2.7 receiving its final update in 2020. Throughout its history, Python has been influenced by various programming languages including ABC, Modula-3, C, C++, Perl, and Java. The language is now developed through a community process guided by the Python Software Foundation, with new versions released annually.