[Python-Dev] Making python C-API thread safe (try 2)

[Mitch Chapman]

On Saturday, September 13, 2003, at 09:09  AM, Skip Montanaro wrote:
>     Mitch> Unlike Andrew I don't think the lack of maintenance for  
> 1.4's
>     Mitch> free threading packages is due to any perception that  
> threading
>     Mitch> performance is unimportant.  It seems more likely that the
>     Mitch> packages were not updated because they proved not to solve  
> the
>     Mitch> performance problems, and that no alternatives have emerged
>     Mitch> because the problem is hard to solve.
>
> One reason (maybe the primary reason) it never went further than a  
> patch to
> 1.4 was that it was slower in the (common) single-threaded case.

For more on the patch, see the FAQ:
http://www.python.org/doc/faq/library.html#can-t-we-get-rid-of-the- 
global-interpreter-lock

I wish I'd read this entry before my latest reply to Andrew Kuchling.
It explains why somebody (GvR, according to the old FAQ) believes
free-threading would decrease the suitability of Python for existing
users.

> You can read the few messages in
> python-dev in the archive for September:
>
>      
> http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-September/thread.html
>
> Search for "thread safe".

Thanks for publishing the pointers.  I didn't consider that others
might be interested in the original thread.

--
Mitch