[Python-Dev] Free threading

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Tim Peters wrote:
> 
> [Guido]
> > ...
> > Anyway, I don't see the point: if you want two 100% independent
> > interpreters, you can get that easily by forking two separate
> > processes.  That's what separate processes are *for*...
> 
> So what is it that multiple interpreters within a single process *are* for?

This kind of application often comes up in ASP engines where a new
Python interpreter is started for each request.

> I'm comfortable with threads, and comfortable with processes, but multiple
> interpreters not-really-sharing yet not-really-isolated seem mostly an
> opportunity to track down subtle bugs <wink>.

mod_python et al. stumbled into these often enough ... it would be
a Good Thing for these engines to have *all* global data of the
interpreter on the heap rather than in static C globals.

Extensions would have to use the same logic though, so implementing
this won't be easy and will probably take a long time to get
standardized. Not sure whether it's worth the pain...

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
CEO eGenix.com Software GmbH
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