Why GIL? (was Re: what's the point of rpython?)

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:54:18 -0800, Carl Banks wrote:

> On Jan 23, 5:48 pm, Bryan Olson <fakeaddr... at nowhere.org> wrote:
>> Carl Banks wrote:
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> > BTW, class instances are usually immutable and thus don't require a
>> > mutex in the system I described.
>>
>> Then you are describing a language radically different from Python.
> 
> Bzzt.
> 
> Hint: aside from the reference count, most class instances are immutable
> in Python *today*.


That seems so utterly wrong that either you're an idiot or you're talking 
at cross purposes to what Bryan and I think you're saying. Since I know 
you're not an idiot, I can only imagine you have a different 
understanding of what it means to be immutable than I do.

For example... is this instance immutable?

class Foo:
    bar = None

f = Foo()
f.baz = True



If so, what do you mean by immutable?



-- 
Steven