Python vs. Ruby: threads - advice appreciated

[Jean-Paul Smets]

Hi,

I am currently comparing Python and Ruby for a personal project which requires
many many threads.

I came across the "philosophers" example in Ruby and was surprised by its
compacity (see below).
I am wondering if it would be easy to write such an example in Python with as
few lines of code ?

Also, I tried to push Ruby to its limits (N=10000) and everything went OK (50 Mo
RAM was occupied though but this is only 5Ko per thread which I find quite
good). I wonder if it is possible to go that far with Python, either with native
threads or with microthreads in stackless Python ?

Finaly, I found that Ruby has a very nice and completely transparent interface
to Python libraries and extensions. So, I am wondering now what would be the
inconvenience for me of switching to Ruby for my project.

Any advice will be deeply appreciated.

JPS.

--------------------------------------------

#
# The Dining Philosophers - thread example
#
require "thread"

srand
#srand
N=10				# number of philosophers
$forks = []
for i in 0..N-1
  $forks[i] = Mutex.new
end
$state = "-o"*N

def wait
  sleep rand(20)/10.0
end

def think(n)
  wait
end

def eat(n)
  wait
end

def philosopher(n)
  while TRUE
    think n
    $forks[n].lock
    if not $forks[(n+1)%N].try_lock
      $forks[n].unlock		# avoid deadlock
      next
    end
    $state[n*2] = ?|;
    $state[(n+1)%N*2] = ?|;
    $state[n*2+1] = ?*;
    print $state, "\n"
    eat(n)
    $state[n*2] = ?-;
    $state[(n+1)%N*2] = ?-;
    $state[n*2+1] = ?o;
    print $state, "\n"
    $forks[n].unlock
    $forks[(n+1)%N].unlock
  end
end

for i in 0..N-1
  Thread.start{philosopher(i)}
  sleep 0.1
end

sleep