[ecshafer]

I think as far as successful languages go, the truth is the opposite. Languages with large design by committee teams are most successful. C++, Java, C, JavaScript or even going back to Cobol and Fortran. The languages with the most use are not typically designed by one person.

[chaosite]

I mean, eventually a committee takes over, sure.

But C++ is Stroustrup, Java is Gosling, C is K&R, JavaScript is Eich. Most successful languages kept their internal consistency by being designed by a single person. Historically, these single persons also had mustaches.

Yes, eventually all of those graduated to a design-by-committee approach, but that happened much later. But yes, in that sense, Python is just following the path set by others.

[johannes1234321]

Java's predecessor Oak was created by 13 guys (among them Patrick Naughton, Mike Sheridan, James Gosling and Bill Joy) over 18 months a different then relatively quickly grew to a larger team. (While that project didn't include the language spec itself only, but also runtime and library)

C++ wasn't designed by Stroustrup alone. It's based on C's design.

Sure sometimes you have cleared leaders (see also Perl/Larry Wall) but having a larger group has benefits to see more edge cases (with the risk of committee issues)

[pjmlp]

C++ was Stroustrup before C++89, Java was Gosling until about 1.5, C was K&R before C89, JavaScript was Eich until ES3.

So, all around 20 to 30 years ago.