[Stackless] Questions and Advice for Upcoming Talk

[Andrew Francis]

Hi Folks:

I just finished a new version of my implementation of select (I actually call it an eventHandler) using stackless.py. Let me write some more tests and examples before posting. I don't think I will have time to implement the minimal hooks in C Stackless Python by Monday. Now time to write slides. I would like to solicit my fellow Stackless Pythonistas for some advice.

Anyhow, I believe Richard in his blog, discusses the difference in approach between Stackless and Go. It seems to me that Stackless by
exposing more of the scheduler to the programmer, is promoting a tool box approach - if you don't like the way the scheduler works, there is enough API and classes to do what you want in a module. Also Stackless is more trusting and puts more responsibility on the shoulders of the programmer. I haven't written any serious Go programmes yet but Stackless seems to me more flexible. Does this seem to be a reasonable assessment of Stackless philosophy? 

The other thing in the Pike paper and in Go, is the attempt to put a certain amount non-determinism into the system, to prevent programmers from manipulating the system. On the other hand, from reviewing Kristjan's EVE talk, fairness (tasklets run in the order that they are ready) seems to a very important concept in Stackless design. Again, would this be an accurate statement? 

As for the direction of Stackless? I will assume with integration with Psyco, this will be one less reason to write C extensions?

Any other comments?

I will probably ask similar questions in the Go mailing list. 

Cheers,
Andrew