[Python-Dev] bpo-33257: seeking advice & approval on the course of action

[Terry Reedy]

On 5/2/2018 4:38 PM, Ivan Pozdeev via Python-Dev wrote:
> The bottom line is: Tkinter is currently broken

This is way over-stated.  Many modules have bugs, somethings in features 
more central to their main purpose.

> -- as in, it's not thread-safe (in both Py2 and Py3)

Meaning that tkinter calls in threads sometimes work, and sometimes not. 
Most people do not think of trying this, and are therefore not affected. 
  Others who want do either play it safe and desist or experiment to 
find out what does dependable work on their system.

> despite being designed [as such].

Martin Loewis said this on a tracker issue several years ago, when he 
invited submission of patches he could review.  Too bad he is not active 
now that someone (you) finally submitted one.

The intention for Tkinter to be thread safe may have predated tcl/tk 
having a decent Mac version.

 > and advertizing itself as such.

Where?  According to Firefox, the current 3.6 tkinter chapter does not 
contain the string 'thread'.

> All the fix options require some redesign of either `_tkinter', or some 
> of the core as well.

This should be discussed on the tracker.  Posting here was premature.

> So, I'd like to get some kind of core team's feedback and/or approval 
> before pursuing any of them.

Serhiy Storchaka is the tkinter maintainer.  He is aware of your patch,
https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/6444
having added himself as a reviewer.  Your comments since then on
https://bugs.python.org/issue33257
suggest that this is a first-draft patch that you yourself consider 
obsolete. In particular, your message today seems to, in effect, cancel 
the patch pending discussion of which fix option to pursue.  He might be 
waiting for you to push updates.

In any case, Serhiy is an extremely productive core developer, either 
submitting or merging nearly a patch a day.  I am sure he saw fixing 
other issues, including some other and older tkinter issues, before the 
releases this week, as higher priority.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy