[IPython-dev] Discussion on Bruce Eckel's blog

[Steven H. Rogers]

Brian Granger wrote:
>>  Stack frames, threads, processes, IPC and netowrking are, clearly,
>>  related but wildly different subjects... not to mention that none of
>>  these have anything to do with solving parallel computing problems other
>>  than we might want to use multiple computers and electricity...
>>     
>
> I completely agree with this evaluation.  Parallel and distributed
> computing is a very complex and rich field and throwing all of these
> things together really confuses the problems and solutions.
> ...
>   
Bruce seems to be a bit confused, but I think this represents the state 
of most programmers w.r.t. concurrent, parallel, and distributed 
processing.  They want to continue programming the way they're 
accustomed to and just have it magically take advantage of parallel 
and/or distributed hardware.  They're not interested in, and don't 
really want to know about, the technical difficulties.
> ...  This is evidenced by the fact that Parallel Processing and
> Processing are being spoken of as the leading solutions in this area -
> even though IPython1 is more mature and technically superior.  I
> should say though that I really like both Parallel Processing and
> Processing - I just think we are trying to accomplish something much
> more ambitious with IPython1 and are having good successes with our
> efforts
Those successes need to be communicated.  I believe a PEP in in 
preparation to include some sort of parallel solution into the Python 
Standard Library. 

# Steve