[Python-ideas] solving multi-core Python

[Sturla Molden]

Nathaniel Smith <njs at pobox.com> wrote:

> OpenMP is an *extremely* structured and constrained subset of shared
> memory multithreading, and not at all comparable to
> pthreads/threading.py/whatever.

If you use "parallel section" it is almost as free as using pthreads
directly. But if you stick to "parallel for", which most do, you have a
rather constrained and more well-behaved subset. I am quite sure MPI can
even be a source of more errors than pthreads used directly. Getting
message passing right inside a complex algorithm is not funny. I would
rather keep my mind focused on which objects to protect with a lock or when
to signal a condition. 

Sturla