Re: [boost] 'stable' priority queue

From: Kostya Altukhov (kostya_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-04-17 08:53:46

Hello, Diethard,

Dietmar Kuehl wrote:

>> This problem seems to come up so now and then
>> at several places. For what I know, also boost
>> doesn't provide a stable one (right?).
> 
> 
> - Add a time stamp to the element and make it part of the priority key:
>   If the priority is identical, compare the time stamp. This is the way
>   to go and a viable approach with all priority queues I have provided.
>   It desired, it should be reasonably simple to create a wrapper which
>   aides in doing so.

I recently considered using this approach but rejected it
as completely not viable.
Just think, we can not use precision of one second for timestamps
(i.e. time() function), because it is very much possible that several
events happen in one second and with this approach they will have
the same timestamp. On the other hand, we can not use higher
precision (i.e. clock() function) because of overflow problems
(our applications can run for a very long time unattended, but
millisecond-precision timers will overflow in about 49 days).

So timestamp is not an option for reliable queue.

Best regards,
Kostya