Will multithreading make python less popular?

[Aleksa Todorovic]

Hi, Rushen!

I'm also new to using Python but from what I've found, GIL is very
intentional decision. It is one of the features of Python which make
it so powerful. I believe that if it didn't have GIL, Python wouldn't
be half near where it is now (regarding it as a language, community,
platform support, popularity, ...).

The most important question is do you really need multi-threading for
what you do? There is lot of software which doesn't require mt at all,
or could be written without mt. Also, if you haven't learnt C++ or
Java yet, mt is not something you should be worried about in the near
future - there are lot of other, more important things, you need to
learn before opening door mt hell :-)

Best,
Aleksa


On Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 10:34,  <rushenaly at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi everybody,
> I am an engineer. I am trying to improve my software development
> abilities. I have started programming with ruby. I like it very much
> but i want to add something more. According to my previous research i
> have designed a learning path for myself. It's like something below.
>      1. Ruby (Mastering as much as possible)
>      2. Python (Mastering as much as possible)
>      3. Basic C++ or Basic Java
> And the story begins here. As i search on the net,  I have found that
> because of the natural characteristics of python such as GIL, we are
> not able to write multi threaded programs. Oooops, in a kind of time
> with lots of cpu cores and we are not able to write multi threaded
> programs. That is out of fashion. How a such powerful language doesn't
> support multi threading. That is a big minus for python. But there is
> something interesting, something like multi processing. But is it a
> real alternative for multi threading. As i searched it is not, it
> requires heavy hardware requirements (lots of memory, lots of cpu
> power). Also it is not easy to implement, too much extra code...
>
> After all of that, i start to think about omiting python from my
> carrier path and directly choosing c++ or java. But i know google or
> youtube uses python very much. How can they choose a language which
> will be killed by multi threading a time in near future. I like python
> and its syntax, its flexibility.
>
> What do you think about multi threading and its effect on python. Why
> does python have such a break and what is the fix. Is it worth to make
> investment of time and money to a language it can not take advantage
> of multi cores?
>
> Thank you...
> Rushen
> --
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>



-- 
Aleksa Todorovic - Lead Programmer
Eipix Entertainment
http://www.eipix.com/