Multiple scripts versus single multi-threaded script

[Chris Angelico]

On Fri, Oct 4, 2013 at 2:01 AM, JL <lightaiyee at gmail.com> wrote:
> What is the difference between running multiple python scripts and a single multi-threaded script? May I know what are the pros and cons of each approach? Right now, my preference is to run multiple separate python scripts because it is simpler.

(Caveat: The below is based on CPython. If you're using IronPython,
Jython, or some other implementation, some details may be a little
different.)

Multiple threads can share state easily by simply referencing each
other's variables, but the cost of that is that they'll never actually
execute simultaneously. If you want your scripts to run in parallel on
multiple CPUs/cores, you need multiple processes. But if you're doing
something I/O bound (like servicing sockets), threads work just fine.

As to using separate scripts versus the multiprocessing module, that's
purely a matter of what looks cleanest. Do whatever suits your code.

ChrisA