Will multithreading make python less popular?

[Paul Rubin]

Tim Rowe <digitig at gmail.com> writes:
> > That Python is so much slower than C is yet another area where Python
> > can use improvement.
> 
> No, because we don't use Python where C would be more appropriate.

C is basically never appropriate.  C should be outlawed by Congress
with the ban enforced by roving pie-throwing squads <wink>.  If a
Python program is too slow, making Python faster is far preferable to
switching to C.

> Sure nobody would complain if Python were faster, but it's not for
> speed that we choose Python. Not speed of /execution/ that is.

I would say, slow execution is a drawback that we put up with in order
to gain benefits of Python programming that are mostly unrelated to
the causes of the slowness.  The slowness itself can be addressed by
technical means, such as native-code compilation and eliminating the
GIL.  I believe (for example) that the PyPy project is doing both of
these.

> Different languages have different trade-offs. Python's trade-offs
> suit us. If they don't suit you, use a language with trade-offs that
> do.

I don't think Python's slowness is inherent in the language.  It's
mostly a shortcoming of the implementation that should be fixed like
any other such shortcoming.