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A comment on No-GIL mode coming for Python. Parent comment

Re:No-GIL mode coming for Python by csmpltn on Saturday July 29, 2023 @10:11AM (#36920505)
> "It's about time Python rids itself of that needless limitation."

I want to correct one thing that I see plastered all over this thread.

The GIL isn't a programming language construct. It's an implementation detail. The GIL isn't a "Python limitation" in any way, because it has nothing to do with Python.

CPython (aka. Cython), probably the most popular and widely used VM for Python, was built around a GIL.

There are other VMs out there that don't have a GIL (ie. Jython, IronPython) and can be used out of the box.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:No-GIL mode coming for Python by usrbinbash on Saturday July 29, 2023 @12:08PM (#36921590)
> It's an implementation detail.

It's an implementation detail of CPython. Which is by far the most common Python interpreter. And it limits parallelisation via threads in Python, a language that otherwise natively supports threading.

So yes, it IS a needless limitation.

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