Academic citation of Python

Hello!

I wish to properly cite Python in an academic paper I am writing.

Is there a preferred document etc to cite?

Thanks in advance,

MArkL

Maybe quote the "Programming Python" book, since Guido wrote the forward?

http://www.python.org/doc/essays/foreword2/

On Sat, Jun 16, 2012 at 1:24 PM, Mark Livingstone
<livingstonemark@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello!
>
> I wish to properly cite Python in an academic paper I am writing.
>
> Is there a preferred document etc to cite?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> MArkL
> --
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list

Mark Livingstone <livingstonemark@gmail.com> writes:

> I wish to properly cite Python in an academic paper I am writing.
>
> Is there a preferred document etc to cite?

I think you're best positioned to answer that. Python isn't a document,
so what specifically are you citing it as?

--
\ “A ‘No’ uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater |
`\ than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to |
_o__) avoid trouble.� —Mohandas K. Gandhi |
Ben Finney

Well, maybe something like:

G. Van Rossum. The Python Language
Reference Manual. Network Theory Ltd., September 2003.

In other languages I use, the proper citation is obtained from the
interpreter itself, and it points you to the language reference.

Hope this helps.

El Sat, 16 Jun 2012 14:18:48 +1000
Alec Taylor <alec.taylor6@gmail.com> escribió:

> I think it's more like when you see articles with a passage like:
>
>
> The C programming language[1] or the C++ programming language[2] are
> both

> > examples of...
> >

>
>
> Are both easy to find the proper reference for.
>
> On Sat, Jun 16, 2012 at 2:13 PM, Ben Finney
> <ben+python@benfinney.id.au>wrote:
>

> > Mark Livingstone <livingstonemark@gmail.com> writes:
> >

> > > I wish to properly cite Python in an academic paper I am writing.
> > >
> > > Is there a preferred document etc to cite?

> >
> > I think you're best positioned to answer that. Python isn't a
> > document, so what specifically are you citing it as?
> >
> > --
> > \ “A ‘No’ uttered from deepest conviction is better and
> > greater | `\ than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or what
> > is worse, to | _o__) avoid trouble.�
> > —Mohandas K. Gandhi | Ben Finney
> > --
> > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
> >

On 16/06/2012 04:24, Mark Livingstone wrote:
> Hello!
>
> I wish to properly cite Python in an academic paper I am writing.
>
> Is there a preferred document etc to cite?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> MArkL

The main website www.python.org and possibly the sites for Jython,
IronPython and PyPY?

--
Cheers.

Mark Lawrence.

That's a rather vague question. What do you want to cite about python?
If you're just mentioning python, that shouldn't warrant a citation,
though a parenthetical note linking to python.org might be useful.

The standard documentation should be acceptable, or possibly a link to
the source code at a given revision.

Cheers,
Cliff

On Sat, 2012-06-16 at 13:24 +1000, Mark Livingstone wrote:
> Hello!
>
> I wish to properly cite Python in an academic paper I am writing.
>
> Is there a preferred document etc to cite?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> MArkL

On Sat, 16 Jun 2012 14:01:12 +0100, Mark Lawrence
<breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

>On 16/06/2012 04:24, Mark Livingstone wrote:
>> Hello!
>>
>> I wish to properly cite Python in an academic paper I am writing.
>>
>> Is there a preferred document etc to cite?
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>>
>> MArkL
>
>The main website www.python.org and possibly the sites for Jython,
>IronPython and PyPY?

He's probably looking for an IEC or ANSI standard, like "Information
technology — Programming languages — C INCITS/ISO/IEC 9899-2011[2012]
(ISO/IEC 9899-2011, IDT)". I don't think URLs qualify as standards
documents.

--
Rich Webb Norfolk, VA

Or copy a citation from Guido:

http://www.python.org/~guido/Publications.html

Emile

Olmo Hernández Cuba <olmo.hernandez-cuba@gmx.es> writes:

> Well, maybe something like:
>
> G. Van Rossum. The Python Language
> Reference Manual. Network Theory Ltd., September 2003.

Are you referencing material from that document? If so, go ahead and
reference that document's URL.

> In other languages I use, the proper citation is obtained from the
> interpreter itself, and it points you to the language reference.

But why cite the language reference, or any document, if you're not
actually referencing material in that document?

I don't see how merely writing programs in a language warrants
bibliographic citation for it. Perhaps just referring to the main URL
for the Python website?

--
\ “What you have become is the price you paid to get what you |
`\ used to want.� —Mignon McLaughlin |
_o__) |
Ben Finney

On 6/15/2012 11:24 PM, Mark Livingstone wrote:
> Hello!
>
> I wish to properly cite Python in an academic paper I am writing.
>
> Is there a preferred document etc to cite?

At present, I would use something like

Rossum, Guido van, et al, *The Python Language Reference*, Python
Software Foundation; http://docs.python.org/py3k/reference/index.html

with punctuation adjusted to your target. That url should continue to
work as new versions are released. If you want to cite a particular
version, http://docs.python.org/release/3.2/reference/index.html with
3.2 replaced by x.y as appropriate.

--
Terry Jan Reedy

Am 16.06.2012 22:44, schrieb Terry Reedy:
> Rossum, Guido van, et al, *The Python Language Reference*, Python
> Software Foundation; http://docs.python.org/py3k/reference/index.html

Actually it's "van Rossum, Guido", not "Rossum, Guido van". The "van" is
part of the family name, not a middle name. It's like "da Vinci,
Leonardo" or "von Sydow, Max". On one occasion Guido complained that
Americans always get his name wrong.

Christian

On 6/16/2012 5:01 PM, Christian Heimes wrote:
> Am 16.06.2012 22:44, schrieb Terry Reedy:
>> Rossum, Guido van, et al, *The Python Language Reference*, Python
>> Software Foundation; http://docs.python.org/py3k/reference/index.html
>
> Actually it's "van Rossum, Guido", not "Rossum, Guido van". The "van" is
> part of the family name, not a middle name. It's like "da Vinci,
> Leonardo" or "von Sydow, Max". On one occasion Guido complained that
> Americans always get his name wrong.

Thank you for the correction. I was going by an old book (1996) he
co-wrote that just had 'Rossum' on the spine. I guess that must have
been done without consulting him and must have annoyed him.

--
Terry Jan Reedy

On Sat, 16 Jun 2012 20:25:29 -0400, Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu>
declaimed the following in gmane.comp.python.general:

>
> Thank you for the correction. I was going by an old book (1996) he
> co-wrote that just had 'Rossum' on the spine. I guess that must have
> been done without consulting him and must have annoyed him.

If ALL they had on the spine was "Rossum", that may have been
correct usage for a surname only reference. The "van", "von", "da"
prefixes sort of translate to "of the" and for a book spine "of the XYZ"
may be meaningless unless the given name is included, a la "ABC of the
XYZ"...
--
Wulfraed Dennis Lee Bieber AF6VN
wlfraed@ix.netcom.com HTTP://wlfraed.home.netcom.com/

Dennis Lee Bieber, 17.06.2012 02:46:
> On Sat, 16 Jun 2012 20:25:29 -0400, Terry Reedy
> declaimed the following in gmane.comp.python.general:
>
>> Thank you for the correction. I was going by an old book (1996) he
>> co-wrote that just had 'Rossum' on the spine. I guess that must have
>> been done without consulting him and must have annoyed him.
>
> If ALL they had on the spine was "Rossum", that may have been
> correct usage for a surname only reference. The "van", "von", "da"
> prefixes sort of translate to "of the" and for a book spine "of the XYZ"
> may be meaningless unless the given name is included, a la "ABC of the
> XYZ"...

It's a bit like using "New York" as a surname, when you refer to that guy
Jason who was born there, as in "Jason of New York".

Stefan

On 2012-06-16, Christian Heimes <lists@cheimes.de> wrote:
>
> Actually it's "van Rossum, Guido", not "Rossum, Guido van". The "van" is
> part of the family name, not a middle name. It's like "da Vinci,
> Leonardo" or "von Sydow, Max". On one occasion Guido complained that
> Americans always get his name wrong.

I've read that now he prefers Guido V. Rossum, Jr.