A weekly Python podcast hosted by Christopher Bailey with interviews, coding tips, and conversation with guests from the Python community. The show covers a wide range of topics including Python programming best practices, career tips, and related software development topics. Join us every Friday morning to hear what's new in the world of Python programming and become a more effective Pythonista.
Free-Threaded Python: Why Python Devs Should Know About the ABI
Why should every Python developer know about the CPython ABI? This week on the show, we speak with Nathan Goldbaum about free-threaded Python and the changes to the Python Application Binary Interface.
Nathan recently joined the CPython core developer team and has been building community support for free-threaded Python. Nathan shares his NumPy background and his work on shipping a new DType in NumPy 2.0. He also discusses his work on PyO3 and leading the effort to support thread-safe Rust extensions for use with the free-threaded build of Python.
This episode is sponsored by PropelAuth.
Spotlight: Converting Documents to Markdown With MarkItDown
Learn how to use MarkItDown to convert Excel files, PDFs, and images into clean Markdown that’s ready for LLMs and AI workflows.
Get Your Code: Click here to download the free sample code that shows you how to work with the experimental free threading and JIT compiler in Python 3.13.
Topics:
- 00:00:00 – Introduction
- 00:01:51 – The evolution of Free-Threaded Python
- 00:03:42 – Changes to the Application Binary Interface
- 00:05:16 – Improving the garbage collector
- 00:07:04 – Why should developers know about the ABI?
- 00:11:31 – What has changed with ABI?
- 00:19:42 – Sponsor: PropelAuth
- 00:20:18 – Python 3.13 and the updated PyObject
- 00:23:15 – EuroPython talk - What Every Python Developer Should Know About the ABI
- 00:31:13 – How did you get involved with NumPy?
- 00:35:33 – Video Course Spotlight
- 00:37:24 – Working on NumPy conference talk
- 00:42:23 – LLMs, aesthetic taste, and intentional software design
- 00:43:16 – Working on NumPy 2.0, DTypes, and building the String DType
- 00:54:43 – The stages of intentional design
- 00:57:34 – How does it connect to working on the ABI?
- 00:59:11 – Rust, PyO3, and the Spinning Jenny Project
- 01:04:03 – What are you excited about in the world of Python?
- 01:05:23 – What do you want to learn next?
- 01:06:34 – How can people follow your work online?
- 01:06:50 – Thanks and goodbye
Show Links:
- What Every Python Developer Should Know About the CPython ABI - Quansight Labs
- What every Python developer should know about the CPython ABI - Nathan Goldbaum - YouTube
- Python Free-Threading Guide
- Unraveling Community Support For Free-Threaded Python - Lysandros Nikolaou & Nathan Goldbaum - YouTube
- Compatibility Status Tracking - Python Free-Threading Guide
- PEP 779 – Criteria for supported status for free-threaded Python
- PEP 703 – Making the Global Interpreter Lock Optional in CPython
- Memory Management in Python – Real Python
- Nathan Goldbaum - From no CPython C API experience to shipping a new DType in NumPy 2.0 - YouTube
- The yt Project: Home
- yt - PyPI
- The Recurse Center
- Working with Arrays of Strings And Bytes — NumPy v2.6.dev0 Manual
- NEP: add NEP-0058 for bytestringdtype by ngoldbaum · Pull Request #32433 · numpy/numpy
- PyO3: Rust bindings for the Python interpreter
- Quansight Labs - Blog
- Nathan Goldbaum - LinkedIn
- Nathan Goldbaum - ngoldbaum - GitHub
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