Earlier this week we learned that Tim Peters died. Tim was probably as influential in the development of Python in the early days as Guido van Rossum, the creator of the language. He contributed many technical parts, including a list sorting algorithm that is taught in CompSci classes today, but he was also one of the most patient and helpful people when answering questions in the various Python forums.

He was most famous, though, for writing the Zen of Python. It is actually buried as an Easter egg in the code:

ed@mac-mini:~$ python3.15

Python 3.15.2 (main, Oct 25 2026, 16:57:51) [Clang 21.0.0 (clang-2100.3.34.2)] on darwin

Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

>>> import this

The Zen of Python, by Tim Peters

Beautiful is better than ugly.

Explicit is better than implicit.

Simple is better than complex.

Complex is better than complicated.

Flat is better than nested.

Sparse is better than dense.

Readability counts.

Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.

Although practicality beats purity.

Errors should never pass silently.

Unless explicitly silenced.

In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.

There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.

Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.

Now is better than never.

Although never is often better than *right* now.

If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.

If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.

Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those!

>>>

-- Ed Leafe