[Twisted-Python] Twisted, Threading, Extension Modules and th e GIL

[Grant McDonald]

I just realised after re-reading my post that the call to deferToThread
should have been:
 
d = threads.deferToThread(self.builder.newbuild, buildJob)
d.addCallback(self.builderFinished)

How silly of me, i'll test it now and see if there are still problems!

-----Original Message-----
From: twisted-python-bounces at twistedmatrix.com
[mailto:twisted-python-bounces at twistedmatrix.com]On Behalf Of Grant McDonald
Sent: 04 March 2005 09:20
To: twisted-python at twistedmatrix.com
Subject: [Twisted-Python] Twisted, Threading, Extension Modules and the GIL



Hi everyone, 

I have a threading question regarding Twisted and the explanation is a bit
long-winded but please bear with me. 

The scenario: 

I have created an automated build system in Python for PowerBuilder (awful
language) that allows a scheduler to assign build jobs to dispatcher
programs across a network.  These dispatchers have a GUI component coded in
wxPython.  The initial implementation involved also creating a separate
builder program that was spawned by the dispatchers when a build job was
received.  The builder code called an extension module to interface with the
low-level PowerBuilder compiler library.  This was done due to the fact the
calls to rebuild the application and deploy it are exceptionally
CPU-intensive and don't return for many minutes (approx. 30 or so for a
large application) and all attempts to include this in the dispatcher
resulted in the user interface freezing.

Recently I came across twisted documentation with regards to programming
using twisted threads.  As an experiment on this concept I amalgamated the
dispatcher and 

builder programs and called the builder code using the following: 

d = threads.deferToThread(self.builder.newbuild(buildJob)) 
d.addCallback(self.builderFinished) 

It should be noted that the extension module (a pyrex extension I have
created myself) implements the releasing and re-acquiring of the Global
Interpreter Lock for all blocking calls.  From my understanding this should
work but the user interface freezes.  Can someone please point me in the
direction of a solution?

Thanks, 

Grant McDonald 

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