[boost] Re: Lock unification [move]

From: Howard Hinnant (hinnant_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-07-27 11:20:10

On Jul 27, 2004, at 10:45 AM, Christopher Currie wrote:

> Howard Hinnant wrote:
>> Ok, new spec up at:
>> http://home.twcny.rr.com/hinnant/cpp_extensions/threads.html
>
> So, I understand that the prevaling opinion is that we should drop 
> try_lock and timed_lock in favor of one all-encompasing scoped lock. 
> Are we going to eliminate variations of Mutex as well, or will 
> mutex/try_mutex/timed_mutex still exist?

The mutex end is still under debate.  It's a good deal with locks 
because you can just not use (instantiate) the try_lock and timed_lock 
stuff if you don't want it, or if the mutex you're using doesn't 
support it.  No harm is done.  This is because the lock just contains a 
mutex reference and a bool, no matter what the capabilities.

But it isn't that simple for the mutex.  There's a tradeoff to be made. 
  The more capability you stuff into a mutex, the more bloated it 
becomes.  But even that statement is platform dependent.  Some 
platforms already supply a native mutex with all the capability stuffed 
in, so there is no further penalty in supplying an all-in-one 
boost::mutex on such a platform.

I think at some point we realized that we could make progress on the 
locks without tackling the very question you ask.

-Howard