[Python-Dev] Removing the GIL (Me, not you!)

[Jon Ribbens]

On Fri, Sep 14, 2007 at 03:30:49PM -0400, Jean-Paul Calderone wrote:
> > I don't really like the maxint/2 idea because it requires us to
> >differentiate between globals and everything else. Plus, it's a hack. I'd
> >like a more elegant solution if possible.
> 
> It's not really a solution either.  If your program runs for a couple
> minutes and then exits, maybe it won't trigger some catastrophic behavior
> from this hack, but if you have a long running process then you're almost
> certain to be screwed over by this

You misunderstand - the point of the 'maxint/2' thing isn't to prevent
something from happening at all, it's to prevent it from happening
*frequently*.