[Python-ideas] yield from multiple iterables (was Re: The async API of the future: yield-from)

[Guido van Rossum]

Maybe it would help if I was more straightforward.

I do not want to solve this problem by introducing yet another
language mechanism. This rules out codef, greenlets, and Stackless.

I want to solve it using what we have in Python 3.3. And I want to
solve it for all platforms where Python 3.3 runs and for all Python
3.3 implementations (assuming Jython, IronPython and PyPy will
eventually get there).

Basically this leaves as options OS threads, callbacks (+ Deferred),
or yield [from].

Using OS threads the problem is solved without writing any code, but
does not scale, so it does not really solve the problem.

To scale we need either callbacks or yield [from], or both.

I accept that some people prefer to use callbacks and Deferred. I want
to respect this choice and I want to see integration with this style
at the event loop level.

But for myself, I know that I want to write *most* code without
callbacks (or Deferreds), and I am quite comfortable to use yield or
yield from instead. (I have written a lot of code using yield
<future>, and I am now practicing yield from <generator> -- the
transition is quite easy and I like what I see.)

If you are not happy with what we can do in (portable) Python 3.3, we
are not talking about solving the same problem.

If you are happy using OS threads, we are also not talking about
solving the same problem. (To be sure, there is a place for them in my
solution -- but it is only needed for things we cannot run
asynchronously, such as socket.getaddrinfo().)

If you are not happy using callbacks/Deferred nor using yield[from],
you're welcome to use greenlets or Stackless. But they will not be in
the standard library.

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)