[Python-Dev] Threading, NPTL, CPU affinity, Linux 2.6, etc.

[Jeff Epler]

I think the answer is: who cares?

Python is programmed to the pthreads API on Linux, so as long as NPTL
isn't a buggy implementation of the standard, Python will run there.
(well, Python bugs are possible too, but rarely observed in real life)

Python has never IMO been interested in getting absolute best speed in
threading situations, favoring simplicity (and portability to non-linux,
non-pthreads environments) and a small thread API.  There's no reason an
extension couldn't be added for systems using pthreads or NPTL to tweak
these parameters, but I'd expect this to start in a third party library
somewhere (I dunno, maybe zope or numarray) and move to the Python
standard library later or never.

And then there's the whole Twisted cult, who will cut your heart out
with an event-driven spoon if they hear you've been using threads...

Jeff