Re: [boost] Re: More on Boost.Threads

From: William Kempf (williamkempf_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-10-18 06:54:56

>From: Jonathan Biggar <jon_at_[hidden]>
>David Abrahams wrote:
> > > Although you could have a version of wait that takes another template
> > > "action" functor, and call it like this:
> > >
> > >       cond.wait(predicate, action);
> > >
> > > and encapsulate the loop entirely.
> >
> > I don't see what you're getting at here. The loop is already entirely
> > encapsulated in the current version. What's action supposed to do?
>
>Sorry, I meant encapsulating the loop *and* the locking, so it would be
>equivalent to:
>
>     lock->acquire();
>     while (!predicate())
>	cond.wait();
>     action();
>     lock->release();

As yet another alternative, possibly, but not as a replacement.  If the 
above were encapsulated into the wait(pred, act) function, the action 
function object would be difficult to construct in many cases since it would 
require access to data outside of the current scope (i.e. a closure).  This 
will occur more frequently with the action then with the predicate, btw.

Dave, this answers why we have a non-predicated version as well.  Without a 
very elaborate lambda library (which isn't available on all compilers, and 
with out language support is still complex enough to be confusing and 
difficult to use for some users, etc.) there are many use cases where the 
predicate version puts a very high burden on the developer, where the 
non-predicated version, though easier to misuse, is by far easier to code.  
More rationale, and possibly a lessening of the emphasis on the "danger" of 
using the non-predicate version.

As for locking the unlocked mutex in the wait... I'll have to ponder that 
one some.  It hadn't occured to me to do that since it would be wrong to do 
so in the non-predicated version.  For consistency, I'd probably reject this 
idea, but I should be fair and evaluate all the pros/cons of this.

Bill Kempf

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