Monday, August 15, 2011

Blast from the past: removing the GIL

Way back in 1996, I created a patch to remove the GIL from Python's interpreter (version 1.4!). Dave Beazley just picked up the patch and tore it apart, and writing a fantastic blog post. It is quite nostalgic for me, from back in the day when I was working at Microsoft on their electronic commerce efforts.

[ I commented on Dave's post; it provides some context that you may also be interested in reading ]

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh wow, awesome. it's not unique to python, but the gil is still one of its most defining characteristics, at least during heavy duty usage.

did you see brett slatkin's recent proposal? curious what you think. there aren't many people who could give meaningful feedback, and you're definitely one.

http://www.onebigfluke.com/2011/07/proposal-for-working-around-python-gil.html

Dave Beazley said...

Greg,

It was a lot of fun looking at the patch and taking a tour through time. I'm just glad it could still be found online. Thanks for the great followup comment--that was really great to learn about the context in which it was created!

Greg said...

oh! I missed Brett's post. Thanks, Ryan! ... reading/responding now.