I have heard of Python's GIL problem, which states that there can only be one Python thread executing the Python bytecode at one time in a multicore machine. So a multithreaded Python program is not a good idea.
I am wondering if I can write a C extension that uses pthread
to potentially boost the performance of my program. I'd like to create a thread in my C extension and make it runs in parallel with Python's main thread.
My assumption is that the Python main thread will do things more related to IO, while the pthread
in my C extension will spend most of its time doing computation. The Python main thread communicates with the thread in the C extension using a queue (like a producer consumer model).
Is there any difference between multithread with Python and C extension?