Old Python Archives

I have kept (almost) all messages posted to the Python mailing list and newsgroup while I lived in Amsterdam -- until mid April 1995. These are accessible as hypertext, converted by Kevin Hughes' hypermail program. (Except the last quarter of 1994, which was -- as an experiment -- maintained by Sam Leffler's MLA tools.)

More recent archives are available through Google Groups and other archives.

The archive here is divided up in chronological sections, as follows:

• 1995, until April 24
• 1994 -- we have a newsgroup!
  • fourth quarter (MLA) -- What language would you use?
  • third quarter -- Tcl wars and more
  • second quarter -- growth of comp.lang.python
  • first quarter -- including the birth of comp.lang.python
• 1993 -- growth of mailing list
• 1992 -- birth of mailing list

Historic Notes

The first Python distribution was made through a USENET source newsgroup (comp.sources.unix?), on February 19, 1991. The following distributions were done through CWI's ftp site.

The mailing list was created on February 22, 1992. The comp.lang.python newsgroup was created on March 29, 1994. The moderated comp.lang.python.announce newsgroup was created almost exactly four years later, on March 12, 1998.