The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

Free-threaded Python (Interview)

Oct 2, 2024

Pablo Galindo and Łukasz Langa, contributors to Python internals and co-hosts of the core.py podcast, dive into the transformative changes coming with Python 3.13. They discuss the experimental optionality of the Global Interpreter Lock (GIL), making Python free-threaded and boosting multi-threading capabilities. The conversation also touches on Just-In-Time compilation, transitioning to modern architectures, and improving error messages for better user experience. Their insights promise an exciting future for Python developers!

01:26:52

Creator website

Episode guests

Pablo Galindo

Łukasz Langa

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Quick takeaways

The experimental removal of the Global Interpreter Lock (GIL) in Python 3.13 allows for true parallelism and enhances computational performance.

Transitioning from the GIL introduces challenges like deadlocks and race conditions, necessitating careful management of thread safety and concurrency strategies.

Python 3.13's improved error messaging aims to enhance the developer experience by making debugging more efficient and informative for users.

Deep dives

The Excitement Around Python 3.13

Python 3.13 is generating considerable enthusiasm in the developer community, particularly due to the global interpreter lock (GIL) being made optionally experimental. This change signifies a historic moment for Python, as it allows for true parallelism and frees the language from its previous threading constraints. Developers can now run multiple threads concurrently, enhancing performance, particularly for computationally intensive tasks such as NumPy operations. This development is aimed at improving Python's scalability and efficiency, making it more competitive for use in high-performance applications.

Locking Limits: Concurrency Without Parallelism

00:53

Unified Controls Prevent Chaos

00:47

Invest in Progress, Not Perfection

00:49

Leverage Infrastructure for Early Bug Detection

00:43

Intro

2min

Enhancing Debugability with Tracing in Sentry

2min

Navigating Python Internals: The GIL and Beyond

13min

Navigating Python's GIL and Cloud Deployment

10min

Navigating Free-Threaded Python and Performance

22min

Enhancing Python Performance and Developer Efficiency

6min

The Evolution of Python's Release Cadence

21min

Building Python Applications for iOS: Challenges and Solutions

3min

Aspirations for Python 3.14: Performance and User Experience Enhancements

5min

10.

Improving Python: Error Messages and Free-threading

3min

Jerod is joined by the co-hosts of core.py , Pablo Galindo & Łukasz Langa, a podcast about Python internals by people who work on Python internals. Python 3.13 is right around the corner, which means the Global Interpeter Lock (GIL) is now experimentally optional! This is a huge deal as Python is finally free-threaded. There’s more to discuss, of course, so we get into all the gory details.

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Featuring:

Pablo Galindo – Twitter, GitHub
Łukasz Langa – Mastodon, Twitter, GitHub, Website
Jerod Santo – Mastodon, Twitter, GitHub, LinkedIn

Show Notes:

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

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