[Python-Dev] Re: marking shared-ness

[Tim Peters]

[Greg Wilson, on Linda and JavaSpaces]
> ...
> Personal opinion: I've felt for 15 years that something like Linda could
> be to threads and mutexes what structured loops and conditionals are to
> the "goto" statement.  Were it not for the "Huh" effect, I'd recommend
> hanging "Danger!" signs over threads and mutexes, and making tuple spaces
> the "standard" concurrency mechanism in Python.

There's no question about tuple spaces being easier to learn and to use, but
Python slams into a conundrum here akin to the "floating-point versus
*anything* sane <wink>" one:  Python's major real-life use is as a glue
language, and threaded apps (ditto IEEE-754 floating-point apps) are
overwhelmingly what it needs to glue *to*.

So Python has to have a good thread story.  Free-threading would be a fine
enhancement of it,  Tuple spaces (spelled "PyBrenda" or otherwise) would be
a fine alternative to it, but Python can't live without threads too.

And, yes, everyone who goes down Hoare's CSP road gets lost <0.7 wink>.