I suggest that scoped_lock::release be either renamed or be hidden from easy use. I spent about 45 minutes tracking down a bug in my code where I used scoped_lock::release instead of scoped_lock::unlock.

The mistake was due to my experience with other libraries. For example, java's concurrency library uses release() instead of unlock(). Win32 API is called ReleaseMutex. More generally, the terminology acquire/release is often used with synchronization constructs.

The current semantics of scoped_lock::release() are consistent with auto_ptr and other C++ idioms. But I think they may still suprise users.

-Costa