Regardless of the command-line flag there are a few methods that should always release the GIL, those that are expected to block or to take a long time. Add the annotations now in case I ever decide to change the default again.

git-svn-id: https://svn.wxwidgets.org/svn/wx/wxPython/Phoenix/trunk@70984 c3d73ce0-8a6f-49c7-b76d-6d57e0e08775

samples/simple/giltest.py

@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+#
+# A simple test to verify that the GIL is released while in long running
+# wrappers like MainLoop, ShowModal, and PopupMenu so background threads can
+# be allowed to run at those times.
+#
+
+import wx
+import threading
+import time
+import random
+
+print wx.version()
+
+
+class ThreadedTask(threading.Thread):
+    def __init__(self, *args, **kw):
+        threading.Thread.__init__(self, *args, **kw)
+        self.counter = 0
+        self.sleepTime = random.random()/2
+        self.timeToDie = False
+        
+    def run(self):
+        while not self.timeToDie:
+            time.sleep(self.sleepTime)
+            self.counter += 1
+            print 'thread: %5s count: %d' % (self.name, self.counter)
+            
+            
+
+class MainFrame(wx.Frame):
+    def __init__(self):
+        wx.Frame.__init__(self, None, title="GIL Test")
+        self.pnl = wx.Panel(self)
+        btn = wx.Button(self.pnl, label='modal dialog', pos=(10,10))
+        self.Bind(wx.EVT_BUTTON, self.onButton, btn)
+        self.pnl.Bind(wx.EVT_CONTEXT_MENU, self.onShowMenu)
+        btn = wx.Button(self.pnl, label='timed test', pos=(10, 60))
+        self.Bind(wx.EVT_BUTTON, self.onOtherButton, btn)
+        
+        
+    def onButton(self, evt):
+        dlg = wx.Dialog(self, title='close this dialog', size=(300,150))
+        dlg.ShowModal()
+        dlg.Destroy()
+
+
+    def onOtherButton(self, evt):
+        # A simplistic benchmark test that times many repititions of some
+        # simple operations so they can be tested with and without releasing
+        # the GIL
+        start = time.time()
+        reps = 100000
+        for x in range(reps):
+            s = wx.Size(100, 100)
+            for n in range(10):
+                s.DecBy(4,6)
+            for n in range(10):
+                s.IncBy(4,6)
+        wx.MessageBox('%d reps performed in %f seconds' % (reps, time.time() - start),
+                      'Results')
+        
+   
+    def onShowMenu(self, evt):
+        menu = wx.Menu()
+        menu.Append(-1, 'one')
+        menu.Append(-1, 'two')
+        menu.Append(-1, 'three')
+        self.pnl.PopupMenu(menu)
+        menu.Destroy()
+        
+        
+
+threads = [ ThreadedTask(name='one'), ThreadedTask(name='two'), ThreadedTask(name='three') ]
+for t in threads:
+    t.start()
+        
+app = wx.App()
+frm = MainFrame()
+frm.Show()
+app.MainLoop()
+
+for t in threads:
+    t.timeToDie = True
+    
+