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

[Paul Rubin]

Bryan Olson <fakeaddress at nowhere.org> writes:
> I'm a fan of lock-free data structure and software transactional
> memory, but I'm also a realist. Heck, I'm one of this group's
> outspoken advocates of threaded architectures. Theoretical
> breakthroughs will happen, but in real world of today, threads are
> great but GIL-less Python is a loser.

GIL-less Python (i.e. Jython) already exists and beats CPython in
performance a lot of the time, including on single processors.
Whether the GIL can be eliminated from CPython without massive rework
to every extension module ever written is a separate question, of
course.  Jython can be viewed a proof of concept.