From: John Maddock (john_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-09-19 08:02:57
Peter Dimov wrote:
> Anthony Williams wrote:
>
>> The mutex algorithm is fairly simple, but I guess it's the condition
>> variables that you are thinking of. I believe it to be reliable, but
>> that can only be borne out with experience. Putting it on HEAD would
>> allow more people to try it out, and more people would actually look
>> at the code. If it's broken, I'd like to know.
>
> Inventing mutex and condition variable algorithms is a slight cause of
> concern, I have to admit. The easiest way to get a free review of the
> algorithms is to post the code on comp.programming.threads and hope
> that someone of the experts there has enough time to look at them.
> CVs in particular have proven to be quite hard to implement
> correctly, and
> Alexander Terekhov's "8a" algorithm has emerged as a de-facto
> standard.
I think I'd agree with that: the issue is that no amount of experimental
testing will ever be enough. Only a really thorough theoretical analysis
is up to the job, and that's hard :-(
Using a known good algorithm is definitely the way to go here IMO.
Just another 2c worth...
John.