Python Bytes is a weekly podcast hosted by Michael Kennedy and Brian Okken. The show is a short discussion on the headlines and noteworthy news in the Python, developer, and data science space.

#346 Have you lost your GIL?

August 02, 2023 00:28:09 27.16 MB Downloads: 0
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Brian #1: A Steering Council notice about PEP 703 (Making the Global Interpreter Lock Optional in CPython)

  • Thomas Wouters
  • Suggested by John Hagen
  • “We intend to accept PEP 703, although we’re still working on the acceptance details.”
  • Moving forward in 3 stages
    • short-term, no-GIL experimental build in 3.13 or 3.14
    • mid-term, declare support for no-GIL version
    • long-term, no-GIL becomes default and remove any vestiges of the GIL
  • No commitment and timeframe is nebuous
  • long-term means 5+ years
  • Need community support
  • “We want to be able to change our mind if it turns out, any time before we make no-GIL the default, that it’s just going to be too disruptive for too little gain.”

Michael #2: Google's post-cookie world could turn into DRM for the internet

  • A new authentication system could let websites block extensions or jailbroken devices.
  • Google has been trying to implement plans to move beyond cookies for years without denying its partners the means to sell targeted ads.
  • One recent proposal to guarantee user privacy and security could come at the cost of freedom of functionality.
  • Comments are somewhat interesting.
  • More info in a second article.
  • Vivaldi has a response here.
  • Brave won’t ship with it.

Brian #3: How ruff changed my Python programming habits

  • Matthias Kestenholz
  • “…there’s always a trade off between development speed (waiting on git commit is very boring) and strictness. “
  • “ruff is so fast that enabling additional rules is practically free in terms of speed...”
  • ruff has way more rules since last I checked. They are just mostly turned off by default.
  • The article suggests a bunch to try turning on.
  • See also

Michael #4: pathlib api extended to use fsspec backends

  • via Justin Flannery
  • Expanding on the capabilities of fsspec, the same GitHub organization also supports another powerful library called universal_pathlib.
  • universal_pathlib is a python library that aims to extend Python's built-in pathlib.Path api to use a variety of backend filesystems using fsspec.
  • This seamless replacement allows developers to leverage the familiar and powerful pathlib API on any type of filesystem. upath.Path is a drop-in replacement for pathlib.Path and is an excellent addition to your toolkit.

Joke: Understanding pointers