This is important. It's not just reliability and performance that Stackless gives microthreads. At the level of game-playing, it means that there will be a thoroughly natural and complete way to pause or save any simulation object, or even to relocate it to a different process or host. A game player might choose to pack his identity away, and then re-start again at the same point months later. While serialization isn't available in a finished form, it's already in Tismer's plans.
Early experiments suggest it'll work nicely, once the API becomes more definite.
The challenge of this introduction has been to explain Stackless' promise for the future, without losing contact with its present reality. To help bring the abstractions back into proper focus, tune in again next week for an article on Stackless Programming. There you'll see how easy it is for you to start to practice with Stackless Python for your own work. Cameron Laird is Vice President of Phaseit, Inc., and writes frequently on open-source technologies. Discuss this article in the O'Reilly Network Python Forum .