
Revisiting thread priorities and the new GIL - gthank
http://www.dabeaz.com/blog/2010/02/revisiting-thread-priorities-and-new.html
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viraptor
Can anyone explain shortly, or point to a source describing why is the GIL
actually needed? Lots of sources say "it would make GC very complicated
otherwise", or "current design would need lots of changes", but I cannot find
any detailed answers. The question is - why cannot python migrate to a Boehm-
like GC with "stop the world" step and kill the GIL completely?

What is the biggest problem?

Update: actually the official wiki turned out to have some of the answers...
<http://wiki.python.org/moin/GlobalInterpreterLock> \- it seems that backwards
compatibility (extensions, destruction timing) is the biggest problem

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ableal
You're asking a bit more than is answered directly here, but it may help, if
you haven't seen it yet (skip to the middle of the page):
[http://jessenoller.com/2009/02/01/python-threads-and-the-
glo...](http://jessenoller.com/2009/02/01/python-threads-and-the-global-
interpreter-lock/)

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viraptor
Yup - that link's got a lot more details missing elsewhere. Thanks a lot!

