Boston Linux & UNIX was originally founded in 1994 as part of The Boston Computer Society. We meet on the third Wednesday of each month at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Building E51.

BLU Discuss list archive


[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

[Discuss] Guido van Rossum steps down



On 07/17/2018 04:46 PM, Derek Martin wrote:
> I'm sure you're aware the
> reason it hasn't been fixed is because no one has come up with a
> solution that does not cause non-threaded programs to take a
> significant performance hit.

Isn't the Python GIL analogous to the Linux kernel's old "Big Kernel Lock"?

In both cases the fix is fine-grained locking, and that is work to get 
right.

There is a man who has been working on a GILectomy for a few years, I 
think pretty much on his own. He gives talk at PyCon (?) every year on 
his progress. Sounds like he is getting impressive results. But no one 
else seems to care very much, and breaking every binary library makes it 
seem like it will never happen.

> there are workarounds (like writing an
> extension in C),

Or in Cython: I nice way to write glue (or actual code) that can be fast 
if you define all your types. Cut all your ties to data Python thinks it 
owns, and you can declare no GIL...

-kb




BLU is a member of BostonUserGroups
BLU is a member of BostonUserGroups
We also thank MIT for the use of their facilities.

Valid HTML 4.01! Valid CSS!



Boston Linux & Unix / webmaster@blu.org