Why GIL? (was Re: what's the point of rpython?)

skip at pobox.com skip at pobox.com
Fri Jan 23 10:33:08 EST 2009


    >> You mean every time you access a list or dictionary or class
    >> instance, you have to acquire a mutex?  That sounds like a horrible
    >> slowdown.

    Steve> Indeed it would, but hey, let's not let that stop us repeating
    Steve> the thinking that's gone into CPython over the last fifteen
    Steve> years. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to
    Steve> repeat it".

Also, every object is mutable at some level.  Tuples, ints and floats are
definitely mutable at creation time.  You need to hold a mutex then, so
Carl's notion of three types of objects breaks down then.

Skip



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