[Python-Dev] Compiling without multithreading support -- still useful?

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Wed, 6 Sep 2017 10:50:11 -0700
Ethan Smith <ethan at ethanhs.me> wrote:
> I think this is useful as it can make porting easier. I am using it in my
> attempts to cross compile CPython to WebAssembly (since WebAssembly in its
> MVP does not support threading).

The problem is that the burden of maintenance falls on us (core CPython
developers), while none of us and probably 99.99% of our userbase have
absolutely no use for the "functionality".

Perhaps there's a simpler, cruder way to "support" threads-less
platforms.  For example a Python/thread_nothreads.h where
PyThread_start_new_thread() would always fail (and with trivial
implementations of locks and TLS keys).  But I'm not sure how much it
would help those porting attempts.

Regards

Antoine.