Re: [boost] [thread] RFC standard proposed mutex, read-write mutex, condition

From: Ion Gaztañaga (igaztanaga_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-08-22 11:15:52

Howard Hinnant wrote:
> On Aug 21, 2007, at 3:06 PM, Roland Schwarz wrote:
>> What does public lock unlock provide, that cannot be achieved with
>> moveable locks also?
> 
> [...}
> 
> Alternatively you may want to write your own mutexes, and have them  
> work with the std::supplied locks.  This can't be done with the boost  
> design, because there is no standard interface for your mutex to  
> implement.

A practical example: Boost.Interprocess mutexes. I had to reimplement 
all the locks (following your the proposed interface) because scoped 
lock has no public requirements on what a mutex should provide. Locks 
were also tightly coupled with boost::condition via friendship.

If generic algorithms are provided, we can safely use them with 
Boost.Interprocess mutexes and locks. I could also reuse standard locks 
with process-shared mutexes if a user prefers them or programs generic 
algorithms templatized on the mutex type.

Process-shared condition variables would be a different beast. We'll 
need to define a new condition variable type (I'm afraid that 
specialization is not enough, because this pshared_condition should also 
work with arbitrary mutex types).

Regards,

Ion