Hey everyone,
I know I've posted several questions regarding python and python's
parallel capabilities so bear with me as I've never attempted to incite
discussion. However, today I'm interested in sparking discussion over
having an OpenMP style of interface in python.
For those of you familiar with OpenMP, its a pragmatic api for
parallelizing software. For more information I invite anyone to do some
google searches, there's a plethora of information available. Just to
give a simple example of what i'm talking about, in OpenMP you would
insert a pragma above a section of code you want to parallelize.
In C it might look something like:
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
#pragma omp parallel
printf("Hello, world.\n");
return 0;
}
In which case threads are spawn and handled. OpenMP of course has more
than this available for developers, but I'm just trying to paint a
picture before I start asking questions.
Anyhow, onto the meat of the discussion. Would the python community be
interested in parallel programming this way? Although I understand
python already supports threading I thought that this was a real
interesting (and easy) way of writing parallel code.
For example, new keywords could be added to the python interpreter, such
as parallel:
Ex:
#######
#!usr/bin/python
parallel:
print "I am a thread"
#######
Taking this a step further, OpenMP or an OpenMP style implementation
could be added to python. In addition easy to use/read, one possible
benefit I could see of writing parallel python code this way would be
providing a layer of abstraction between parallel code and threading
constructs. For example, as a developer or community standards change
threading in python code would not have to be re-written. Developers
would create an interface between python's OpenMP style code and
whatever their new threading libraries may be (this is one of many ways
it could happen). Ultimately providing more code portability between
people using different threading standards (should they ever become
available). I see other use cases as well, but I just wanted to throw a
couple ideas to see if this was worth thinking about further.
Thanks for reading this one, I know it was long but I'd really
appreciate your comments!
-Carl
--
Carl J. Van Arsdall
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Build and Release
MontaVista Software
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