Issue 15339: document the threading "facts of life" in Python (original) (raw)

Created on 2012-07-12 22:00 by chris.jerdonek, last changed 2022-04-11 14:57 by admin.

Messages (5)
msg165336 - (view)	Author: Chris Jerdonek (chris.jerdonek) *	Date: 2012-07-12 22:00
I think it would be helpful if the Python documentation included certain high-level information about multi-threading in Python. At minimum, I think it would help for the documentation to provide a definition that can be linked to of what it means when some part of the Python documentation says something is "thread-safe". In particular, such a definition could clarify that this is different from being atomic. This might best be addressed by an entry in the glossary for the term "thread-safe". Other documentation possibilities include stating what guarantees one should or should not expect regarding thread-safety, both within and across implementations, and providing centralized guidance on how to approach multi-threaded programming in Python. A HOWTO is one possibility for addressing these other possibilities. This issue stems from the discussion in issue 15329, which is more specific.
msg165338 - (view)	Author: Antoine Pitrou (pitrou) *	Date: 2012-07-12 22:11
This sounds like a good idea. Either a HOWTO or a FAQ would sound appropriate.
msg165397 - (view)	Author: Raymond Hettinger (rhettinger) *	Date: 2012-07-13 18:09
If no one gets to it first, I'll write-up a draft when I get a chance.
msg165436 - (view)	Author: Alyssa Coghlan (ncoghlan) *	Date: 2012-07-14 07:38
Given the scope of the issue, a concurrent programming howto that lists some of the available options and the caveats associated with each of them seems worthwhile.
msg242046 - (view)	Author: Gregory P. Smith (gregory.p.smith) *	Date: 2015-04-26 06:10
This seems somewhat related to the "We need to document Python's concurrency and memory model" that came out at the language summit this year.