1 year ago

In a move to ease use for large-scale data analysis work, the Python Steering Council has elected https://discuss.python.org/t/a-steering-council-notice-about-pep-703-making-the-global-interpreter-lock-optional-in-cpython/30474 on https://thenewstack.io/an-introduction-to-python-for-non-programmers/ that restricts a Python user program to using only a single thread. This restriction has become a serious performance impediment for running Python code across multicore CPUs, which is to say most all CPUs sold today. Specifically, the Python global interpreter lock (“GIL”) prevents “multiple threads from executing Python code at the same time,” according to the proposal ”https://peps.python.org/pep-0703/.”

“The GIL introduces a global bottleneck that can prevent other threads from making progress if they call any Python code.”

Python libraries, for instance, are often made more complicated by GIL, necessitating needless complexity within API design.