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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


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