Python the GIL, unladen swallow, reference counting, and atomic operations.
The unladen swallow project comments on the global interpreter lock and suggests long term dropping reference counting in favour of GC. http://code.google.com/p/unladen-swallow/wiki/ProjectPlan#Global_Interpreter_Lock . They are also now favouring an incremental GIL removal from python. However, confusing getting rid of the GIL, with requiring using garbage collection is wrong. This mini-essay will explain why reference counting is good for python, and why you do not need to get rid of it for multiple CPU systems. Then there will be descriptions of other improvements to python for multiple CPU systems that can be made. Reference counting has a number of advantages over various GC schemes see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_counting#Advantages_and_disadvantages . As a python programmer, optimizing for the programmer is what is most important... and reference counting makes it easier for the programmer. It makes programs much more deterministic, meaning that reference counti...