[Python-Dev] Threading in the Standard Library Tour Part II
Bob Ippolito
bob at redivi.com
Mon Aug 16 05:55:05 CEST 2004
On Aug 15, 2004, at 11:48 PM, Aahz wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 15, 2004, Raymond Hettinger wrote:
>>
>> All that being said, a few cautions are in order. Thread programming
>> is
>> difficult to get right. And, its overhead decreases total application
>> performance. Also, multiple processors cannot boost performance
>> because
>> Python's Global Interpreter Lock (GIL) precludes more than one thread
>> from running in the interpreter at the same time (this was done to
>> simplify re-entrancy issues). Another issue is that threading doesn't
>> work with the event driven model used by most GUIs.
>
> Python threading certainly does work with GUIs, and while the GIL adds
> some difficulty, the overall simplicity of Python's thread model makes
> it easier to get threaded GUI programs correct. See the Tkinter
> example
> from my OSCON slides.
Many platform GUIs require that all or most all GUI activities be
consolidated to one and only one thread. I don't think any of them
'care' if another thread is also running, but it can't communicate
directly with the GUI.
-bob
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