Re: GIL detector

References	<53f0ba6c$0$29982$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> <lsqhj1$ok8$1@ger.gmane.org> <70f99975cf5d47ce958ece42d61409bf@exch.activenetwerx.com>
Date	2014-08-18 02:12 +1000
Subject	Re: GIL detector
From	Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.python
Message-ID	<mailman.13074.1408291934.18130.python-list@python.org> (permalink)

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On Mon, Aug 18, 2014 at 2:01 AM, Joseph L. Casale
<jcasale@activenetwerx.com> wrote:
> If it weren't for these "useless" threads, you wouldn't have even been able
> to send that message, let alone do anything on a computer for that matter.

Not sure about that. I think it would be entirely possible to build a
computer that has no C threads, just processes (with separate memory
spaces) and HLL threads governed by GILs - that is, each process
cannot possibly consume more than 100% CPU time. Threads aren't
inherently required for anything, but they do make certain jobs
easier.

When I grew up with threads, multi-core home computers simply didn't
exist, so in effect the *entire computer* had a GIL. Threads still had
their uses (fast response on thread 0 makes for a responsive GUI, then
the heavy processing gets done on a spun-off thread with presumably
lower scheduling priority), and that's not changing. Requiring that
only one thread of any given process be running at a time is just a
minor limitation, and one that I would accept as part of the
restrictions of high level languages.

ChrisA

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Thread

GIL detector Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2014-08-18 00:21 +1000
  Re: GIL detector Johannes Bauer <dfnsonfsduifb@gmx.de> - 2014-08-17 16:40 +0200
    Re: GIL detector Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2014-08-18 01:01 +1000
  Re: GIL detector Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-08-18 00:52 +1000
  Re: GIL detector Stefan Behnel <stefan_ml@behnel.de> - 2014-08-17 17:26 +0200
    Re: GIL detector Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2014-08-18 15:05 +0000
  RE: GIL detector "Joseph L. Casale" <jcasale@activenetwerx.com> - 2014-08-17 16:01 +0000
    RE: GIL detector Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2014-08-18 02:43 +1000
  Re: GIL detector Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-08-18 02:07 +1000
  Re: GIL detector Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-08-18 02:12 +1000

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