

Parallel Python or Ruby? - randomhack

If you were to add some parallel language constructs to Python or Ruby or &#60;insert your favourite language&#62;, what would you add?
Lets assume you are only allowed to add 1 or 2 constructs so you dont go changing the whole language upside-down. Also assume that you are not allowed to take something out of the language only add to it.
Please describe in detail with actual examples if possible. Dont just say "I will add actors" at a very high level.
======
kilowatt
Keep in mind that Python 2.6 already has the new multiprocessing package,
which presents a simple interface for multiprocess computation.

I'd like to poke around with Python's compiler module and look at the AST--you
could enforce that a certain class of functions have no side effects, and then
spawn multiple processes to execute them semi magically.

Futures like the ones in IO
([http://www.iolanguage.com/scm/git/checkout/Io/docs/IoGuide.h...](http://www.iolanguage.com/scm/git/checkout/Io/docs/IoGuide.html#Concurrency-
Futures)) always struck me as a pretty cool way to abstract away
synchronization problems. Using the multiprocess stuff as a background would
be fun.

~~~
randomhack
Hmm is poking around the AST necessary? What about looking at the bytecode
instead?

------
dhotson
One change to ruby that would be useful, would be to make Enumerable.collect
run in parallel.

There's probably a whole bunch of other Enumerable methods that could be made
to run in parallel as well.

~~~
fizx
gem install facets require "rubygems" require "facets/thread" %w[a b
c].threaded_map{|str| puts str }

It's multicore if you're using jruby.

------
jrockway
If you use Coro with Perl, you can say something like:

    
    
      async {
        do_something;
        cede;
        do_something;
      }
    
      do_something_else;
      cede;
    
    

See <http://search.cpan.org/dist/Coro/Coro.pm> for more information.

[Edit: If you want to see a continuation-based web framework built with Coro,
look at Continuity:
[http://search.cpan.org/~awwaiid/Continuity-0.994/lib/Continu...](http://search.cpan.org/~awwaiid/Continuity-0.994/lib/Continuity.pm)

It's very cool.]

------
Kaizyn
Hello randomhack,

Have you heard of Stackless Python? That might be what you are looking for.
<http://www.stackless.com/>

~~~
randomhack
I have read a bit about stackless. Neat implementation but it still suffers
from GIL? You can launch thousands of microthreads but apparently they still
run on single core?

------
tzury
Do we have here a solution looking for a problem?

~~~
tptacek
Very yes.

------
throttle
Haven't you heard about the egregious buffer overflow vulnerabilities found
recently in Ruby? Not a good idea to use it for anything serious in light of
those, IMO.

~~~
jrockway
I'm not a Ruby fan, but wouldn't finding those buffer overflows make it _more
secure_? Now that they've been found, they're fixed. (Sure, it could be
indicative of overall careless design, but I don't think that's the case here.
A few silly mistakes, now no longer a problem.)

Finally, Ruby has more than one implementation. Finding a hole in one
implementation says nothing about the language overall.

~~~
throttle
The mistakes are so amateurish that it should raise questions about the rest
of the codebase (i.e. the defects which are yet to be found)...

~~~
jrockway
_should raise questions about the rest of the codebase (i.e. the defects which
are yet to be found)_

It has.

~~~
tptacek
By who? Cite someone who matters.

