[python-committers] An alternative governance model

Tim Peters tim.peters at gmail.com
Wed Jul 18 15:08:43 EDT 2018


[Barry Warsaw, on the origin of BDFL]

> I’d put my money on Uncle Timmy coining that term,


Don't be insulting, Barry.  I have no patience - let alone love - for
frivolous wordplay.

It wasn't me, but Guido doesn't remember either.  Here's his best guess:

https://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=235725


Short course:  BDFL first appeared in a 1995 email sent by Ken Manheimer
summarizing a PSA meeting.  Guido was apparently named at that meeting as

*First Interim Benevolent Dicator* [sic]* for Life*

and

While I can't prove my title (with or without the First Interim prefix) was
> never used before, I'm pretty certain that it originated in this meeting.
> Given what I know of how their minds work, it was most likely invented by
> Ken Manheimer or Barry Warsaw, though it may well have been a joint
> invention by all present.


Some titles just _fit_.  Like Kim Jong Il's

Great Man, Who Is a Man of Deeds

and

 Dear Leader, who is a perfect incarnation of the appearance that a leader
should have


More inspiring ideas where those came from:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Kim_Jong-il%27s_titles
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