[boost] [proposal] Atomically Thread-Safe Reference Counting Algorithm...

From: Chris Thomasson (Cristom_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-10-18 19:59:19

Currently, Boost doesn't provide support for atomic reference counting; 
shared_ptr<T> falls under 'basic' thread-safety. I propose a reference 
counting algorithm that falls under 'strong' thread-safety. Here is a 
experimental prototype I created:

http://appcore.home.comcast.net/vzoom/refcount/

A SPARC 32-64 version is underway. Here is some more information on my 
algorithm:

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.programming.threads/browse_frm/thread/4e
8717d3bcdedfe9
(initial idea; pseudo-code)

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.programming.threads/msg/2f21a151d3916592
(mostly lock-free...)

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.programming.threads/msg/0022ef08ae26e2f3
(async-signal-safe aspects of my algorithm)

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.programming.threads/msg/667b1867c19e6288
(async-signal...)

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.programming.threads/msg/9ee468f341a33ee2
(adding more async-signal-safety characteristics'...)

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.programming.threads/msg/64a46f3ef24b786a
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.programming.threads/msg/e363f874241bcaf4
(possible improvements...)

Does anybody think that Boost could possible benefit from this level of 
thread-safety? Any thoughts?

Thank you all for you time!

--
Chris Thomasson
http://appcore.home.comcast.net/
(portable lock-free data-structures)