[Python-Dev] The endless GIL debate: why not remove thread support instead?

[Michael Foord]

Lennart Regebro wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 02:13, Sturla Molden <sturla at molden.no> wrote:
>   
>> I genuinely think the use of threads should be discouraged. It leads to
>> code that are full of bugs and difficult to maintain - race conditions,
>> deadlocks, and livelocks are common pitfalls.
>>     
>
> The use of threads for load balancing should be discouraged, yes. That
> is not what they are designed for. Threads are designed to allow
> blocking processes to go on in the background without blocking the
> main process. This, they are very useful for. Removing thread support
> would therefore be a very big mistake. It's needed, it has it's uses,
> just not the one *you* want.
>
>   

That's an interesting assertion about what threads were designed for. Do 
you have anything to back it up?

Michael

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