Advanced Python Programming

An analysis of memory management in Python

Before we jump into the specifics of the GIL and its effects, let's consider the problems that Python core developers encountered during the early days of Python, and that gave rise to a need for the GIL. Specifically, there is a significant difference between Python programming and programming in other popular languages, in terms of managing objects in the memory space.

For example, in the programming language C++, a variable is actually a location in the memory space where a value will be written. This setup leads to the fact that, when a non-pointer variable is assigned with a specific value, the programming language will effectively copy that specific value to the memory location (that is, the ...