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Tales from the abyss: some of the most obscure CPython bugs

Track:
Python Internals & Ecosystem
Type:
Talk
Level:
intermediate
Room:
Forum Hall
Start:
11:55 on 12 July 2024
Duration:
30 minutes

Abstract

Working on one of the major programming languages surely is a lot of fun but sometimes very weird things happen. In these moments Python stops behaving like Python and you enter a new dimension where everything is possible. And debugging what’s going on in this new world of weirdness is quite a daunting task given the size of the CPython codebase. In this talk you will learn some of the most obscure, mind-bending and difficult bugs that we faced when developing CPython and how we solve them. You will also learn all the advanced tips and tricks that we used to slay these dragons so you can fight similar monsters in your own codebases or if you want to contribute to CPython itself!


The speaker

Pablo Galindo Salgado

Pablo Galindo Salgado

Pablo Galindo Salgado works in the Python Infrastructure team at the Software Infrastructure department at Bloomberg L.P. He is a CPython core developer and a Theoretical Physicist specializing in general relativity and black hole physics. He is currently serving on the Python Steering Council and he is the release manager for Python 3.10 and 3.11. He has also a cat but he does not code.