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Weblog:   Python Creator Guido van Rossum now working at Google
Subject:   Good for Guido!
Date:   2005-12-22 05:33:07
From:   Fuzzyman
Response to: Good for Guido!

The last person who tried to get rid of the GIL ended up *slowing* cPython considerably.


Last discussion I saw concluded that the GIL makes threaded programming considerably easier.


A decent interprocess communication protocol would do more for solving the 'Python programs on multi-processor systems' IMHO.
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  • Good for Guido!
    2005-12-22 14:21:04  gstein [Reply | View]

    Yeah... I was that last person. I got rid of the GIL in Python 1.4. It introduced a lot of lock contention around other data structures. With further work, I imagine it could have been fixed, but Python is a lot more complicated nowadays. No way would I try it again.

    As for whether this will be good for Python? I'd say "yes", as a significant portion of Guido's time is dedicated to working on Python. Much more than the 'day a week' at his previous employers.
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