[Python-Dev] GIL, Python 3, and MP vs. UP

[Brett Cannon]

On 9/20/05, John J Lee <jjl at pobox.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 19 Sep 2005, Florian Weimer wrote:
> 
> > The real problem is that you can ditch most extension modules. 8-(
> [...]
> 
> *Is* that a showstopper for Python 3.0, though?

Who knows.  I bet Guido doesn't even know how much breakage he is
going to want to push.  Some people have rather strongly pointed out
(usually after I have proposed something), breaking stuff without a
good reason is not worth the added level of breakage for when people
try to update code to Python 3.0.  Completely changing how garbage
collection works is not exactly a minor thing and there is the
possibility it won't pan out.  It would really suck for everyone to
have to learn an entirely new way of handling garbage collection and
have there not be a perk for doing so, especially since this kind of
change will not be directly visible to the language itself.

-Brett