[Python-ideas] [Python-Dev] [ANN]: "newthreading" - an approach to simplified thread usage, and a path to getting rid of the GIL

[Adam Olsen]

On Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 17:40, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote:
> On Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:09:55 -0700
> Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:
>> I'm moving this thread to python-ideas, where it belongs.
> [...]
>
> For the record, I really think the solution to the "try to remove the
> GIL" problem is to... try to remove it.
> I believe it implies several preparatory steps:
> - take full control of memory allocation
> - on top of that, devise a full garbage collector (probably including a
>  notion of external references such that existing ways of writing C
>  extensions are still correct)
> - then, do the the tedious, delicate grunt work of adding locking to
>  critical structures without slowing them down (too much)
>
> Trying to invent schemes to make multithreading easier to program with
> is a nice endeavour in itself, but quite orthogonal IMO.

+1.

Designing an API in C for a precise GC is tedious, and would probably
be very ugly, but it's entirely doable.  We simply need the will to go
through with it.

I can't say what the overhead would look like, but so long as it
scales well and it's a compile-time option it should find plenty of
users.