GIL in Python 3.1

Question

Does anybody knows fate of Global Interpreter Lock in Python 3.1 against C++ multithreading integration

Answer 1

I guess there will always be a GIL. The reason is performance. Making all the low level access thread safe - means putting a mutex around each hash operation etc. is heavy. Remember that a simple statement like

self.foo(self.bar, 3, val)

Might already have at least 3 (if val is a global) hashtable lookups at the moment and maybe even much more if the method cache is not hot (depending on the inheritance depth of the class)

It's expensive - that's why Java dropped the idea and introduced hashtables which do not use a monitor call to get rid of its "Java Is Slow" trademark.