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

[Carl Banks]

On Jan 23, 11:45 pm, Bryan Olson <fakeaddr... at nowhere.org> wrote:
> Carl Banks wrote:
> > Classes in Python are mutable types, usually.  Class instances are
> > (except for the refcount) immutable objects, usually.
>
> There's where we disagree. I assert that class instances are usually
> mutable objects.

Nope, you're dead wrong, nothing more to it.  The bits of a class
instance never change.  The __dict__ is a mutable object.  The class
instance itself isn't.  It's not reasonable to call an object whose
bits can't change a mutable obect.

Anyway, all you're doing is distracting attention from my claim that
instance objects wouldn't need to be locked.  They wouldn't, no matter
how mutable you insist these objects whose bits would never change
are.


> > BTW, here's a minor brain bender: immutable types are mutable objects.
>
> Some brains are too easily bent.
[Snip attempt to take this comment seriously]

And some brains are so stodgy they can't even take a lighthearted
comment lightheartedly.


Carl Banks