[summerofcode] SoC proposal: proactive I/O in python

[Brett C.]

Vladimir Sukhoy wrote:
> The proposed goal is to bring cross-platform proactive I/O capabilities to Python.
> 
> Proactive I/O model is an alternative way to fix I/O bottlenecks without 
> multithreading (real multithreading is even more complex in Python, because of Global
> Interpreter Lock (GIL) and should be implemented with different processes).
> 
> Usual I/O is done in following way:
> 1. Find a moment when it is possible to do I/O operation (read(), write())
> 2. Do it synchronously.
> 
> Proactive I/O is another thing:
> 1. Asynchronous operations are started by the application on several I/O handles
> without a need to wait when they are completed.
> 2. As each operation completes, OS calls appropriate completion handler that 
> processes the result of the operation (success or failure and the data being delivered).
> 
> Proative I/O model is may be implemented with "overlapped" I/O on Windows (NT 4.0 or higher)
> and AIO family of functions of POSIX.4 Realtime Extension Standard, on platforms that
> implement it (including HP-UX, IRIX, Linux, LynxOS, and Solaris).
> 
> ACE Library  provides Proactor pattern implementation, which makes cross-platform proactive I/O
> possible (http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE.html).
> 
> As far as I know, there is no well-known python library which provides proactive I/O (except pywin32, 
> but it's too low-level, essentially a C-interfaces ported to python), so this
> project intends to build one that will become flexible and convenient :)
> 
> Please, let me know if this project may be eligible for the summer of code contest.
>  

All open source projects are eligible.  Specifically in regards to having the
PSF as your mentoring organization, as long as it would be helpful to the
Python community then it is fine to write a proposal.

-Brett