title: What is the global interpreter lock (GIL) in CPython?
body: <p>What is a global interpreter lock and why is it an issue?</p>
  
  <p>A lot of noise has been made around removing the GIL from Python, and I'd like to understand why that is so important. I have never written a compiler nor an interpreter myself, so don't be frugal with details, I'll probably need them to understand.</p>