From: Christopher Currie (codemonkey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-06-28 11:28:47
Michael Glassford wrote:
> To address these problems, I would like to redefine the lock concept
> constructors as follows (changes indicated with "^"):
>
> Definitions
> -----------
> L: lock type
> l: lock variable (type L)
> m: mutex variable (appropriate Mutex type)
> s: initial lock state (enum type {NO_LOCK=0, LOCK=1})
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> b: block? (enum type blocking_state {NON_BLOCKING=0, BLOCKING=1})
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Lock Concept
> ------------
> L l(m,s) //Blocking lock if s
> L l(m) //Blocking lock
>
>
> TryLock Concept
> ---------------
> L l(m,s,b) //Lock if s; blocking if b
> ^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> L l(m,b) //Lock; blocking if b
> ^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> TimedLock Concept
> -----------------
> L l(m,s,b) //Lock if s; blocking if b
> ^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> L l(m,t) //Blocking lock, failing if not obtained by time t
>
I like this proposal, if for no other reason than the move to enums
makes the arguments clearer. A couple of points:
TryLock: What would be the semantics of l(m, NO_LOCK, b)? In other
words, if you're not going to lock on construction, why specify a
blocking policy? L l(m, b) and L l(m, s) seem to cover the two
scenarios: either I don't want to lock, or I do and I need to specify
the blocking policy.
TimedLock: I'm not sure I follow the reasons why TimedMutex refines
TryMutex. (This is a comment on the original design, not your specific
changed, but bear with me.) I think a timeout of zero seconds achieves
the same goal, even if TimedLock/TimedMutex don't implement the same
operations. So I don't think that TimedLock needs a constructor that
takes a blocking argument, and ultimately I think TimedLock/TimedMutex
should refine Mutex/Lock, and not TryMutex/TryLock.
Also, the current implementation of TimedLock doesn't support a single
argument constructor, even though it is supposedly a refinement of
TryLock, which does. I'd like to see TimedLock implemented in such a way
that I could use it as if it were a simple Lock, which I currently cannot.
In summary, this is what I'd like to see:
Lock Concept
---------------
L l(m) //Blocking lock
L l(m,s) //Blocking lock if s
TryLock Concept
---------------
As Lock, *plus:*
L l(m,b) //Lock; blocking if b
TimedLock Concept
-----------------
As Lock (not TryLock), *plus:*
L l(m,t) //Blocking lock, failing if not obtained by time t
//If t == 0, acts as TryLock.
Comments and criticism welcome,
Christopher