These discussion pop up every year or so and I think that most of them are not really all that necessary, since the GIL isn't all that bad.
Some pointers into the past: * http://effbot.org/pyfaq/can-t-we-get-rid-of-the-global-interpreter-lock.htm Fredrik on the GIL * http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2000-April/003605.html Greg Stein's proposal to move forward on free threading * http://www.sauria.com/~twl/conferences/pycon2005/20050325/Python%20at%20Google.notes (scroll down to the Q&A section) Greg Stein on whether the GIL really does matter that much Furthermore, there are lots of ways to tune the CPython VM to make it more or less responsive to thread switches via the various sys.set*() functions in the sys module. Most computing or I/O intense C extensions, built-in modules and object implementations already release the GIL for you, so it usually doesn't get in the way all that often. So you have the option of using a single process with multiple threads, allowing efficient sharing of data. Or you use multiple processes and OS mechanisms to share data (shared memory, memory mapped files, message passing, pipes, shared file descriptors, etc.). Both have their pros and cons. There's no general answer to the problem of how to make best use of multi-core processors, multiple linked processors or any of the more advanced parallel processing mechanisms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_computing). The answers will always have to be application specific. -- Marc-Andre Lemburg eGenix.com Professional Python Services directly from the Source (#1, Oct 25 2008) >>> Python/Zope Consulting and Support ... http://www.egenix.com/ >>> mxODBC.Zope.Database.Adapter ... http://zope.egenix.com/ >>> mxODBC, mxDateTime, mxTextTools ... http://python.egenix.com/ ________________________________________________________________________ :::: Try mxODBC.Zope.DA for Windows,Linux,Solaris,MacOSX for free ! :::: eGenix.com Software, Skills and Services GmbH Pastor-Loeh-Str.48 D-40764 Langenfeld, Germany. CEO Dipl.-Math. Marc-Andre Lemburg Registered at Amtsgericht Duesseldorf: HRB 46611 -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
