[Python-Dev] Thoughts fresh after EuroPython

[Guido van Rossum]

On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 8:31 PM, Peter Portante
<peter.a.portante at gmail.com> wrote:
> FWIW: We use Python at Tabblo, straddled across Python 2.5.4 and 2.6.5. They
> work. And they work well. But we make light use of threads (mostly
> background I/O handling), and heavy use of multiple processes because we
> can't take advantage of our multi-core systems otherwise.

Isn't this an indication that the GIL is, in fact, not (much of) a problem?

I wish those trying to get rid of the GIL well. But it may not be the
panacea some folks are hoping for. Multi-threaded programming remains
hard (and removing the GIL might actually make it harder).

Jython and IronPython don't have a GIL, and I think PyPy may not
either. Does anyone have experience with GIL-free programming in one
of those?

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)