global interpreter lock

[sjdevnull at yahoo.com]

km wrote:
>
> is true parallelism possible in python ? or atleast in the coming versions ?
> is global interpreter lock a bane in this context ?

I've had absolutely zero problems implementing truly parallel programs
in python.  All of my parallel programs have been multiprocess
architectures, though--the GIL doesn't affect multiprocess
architectures.

Good support for multiple process architectures was one of the things
that initially lead me to pick Python over Java in the first place
(Java was woefully lacking in support facilities for this kind of
architecture at that time; it's improved somewhat since then but still
requires some custom C coding).  I don't have much desire to throw out
decades of work by OS implementors on protected memory without a pretty
darn good reason.