[Python-Dev] [PEP 3148] futures - execute computations asynchronously (original) (raw)

Stephen J. Turnbull stephen at xemacs.org
Sat Mar 6 06:47:03 CET 2010

Guido van Rossum writes:

"Future" is a pretty standard CS term for this concept (as noted "promise" is another),

I like the term "promise" better. "Future" is very generic ("not now, but later"), whereas a "promise" is something I don't get from you now, but you will give me later.

The wikipedia article is not very helpful on the implicit vs. explicit distinction. As far as I can tell from it, that distinction isn't really attached to "future" vs "promise." The only distinction the article described was in the context of the Alice language, where a future = promise (read-only) plus resolver (mutator). IMO that's not a compelling reason for adopting "future" in Python.

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