# A fast, free threading Python

**URL:** <https://discuss.python.org/t/a-fast-free-threading-python/27903>\
**Category:** Ideas\
**Created:** [June 15, 2023, 3:28pm UTC](https://discuss.python.org/t/a-fast-free-threading-python/27903 "2023-06-15T15:28:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 10

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**Author:** ![jamestwebber](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discuss.python.org/jamestwebber/32/12799_2.png) [@jamestwebber](https://discuss.python.org/u/jamestwebber)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2023, 10:03pm UTC](https://discuss.python.org/t/a-fast-free-threading-python/27903/10 "2023-06-15T22:03:27Z")

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> [@ppolewicz](#):
>
> Is there a way to provide a backward compatibility layer which would allow a nogil-enabled CPython to still use old-abi native extensions (perhaps somewhat inefficiently)?

PEP 703’s [current suggestion](https://peps.python.org/pep-0703/#py-mod-gil-slot) is to re-enable the GIL (globally) in this scenario, with a message so the user (hopefully) notices that this has happened.

[edit: those extensions would still need to be compiled for the same ABI, though. But I thought that a major python release (almost?) always required this]

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