RE: [boost] Re: [boost::thread] locks, exceptions and assertions

From: Glen Knowles (gknowles_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-07-21 11:13:34

>David Abrahams wrote:
>> 
>> Well, that's not my philosophy FWIW.  Mine is:
>> 
>>    if the condition is a programmer error, use assert
>>    otherwise, use a well-documented exception
> 
>
>So can I draw you back to the original question of why a locked 
>scoped_lock throws rather than asserts?  The only thing that can cause 
>this is calling lock on it twice which is a programming error, isn't it? 
>It certainly isn't dependent on any external factors that I can see. 
>Or are assert/throw decisions left up to the individual library 
>implementors boost and William Kempf has a different view to yours on 
>asserts/throws?

That is a decision that tends to end with the library author. One thing that
may make the specific case of relocking different is that the cause is
likely a race condition - something that won't show up in normal testing. 

Glen