# [concurrency-interest]RE: RE :RE: JSR 166 draft API (David Holmes)

[Jerry Schwarz]

At 09:01 PM 8/7/2002, David Holmes wrote:
> > Is the Condition class now less like a POSIX condition variable and more
> > like an abstraction for a monitor? It just adding the ability to wait
> > uninterruptably or will there be subclasses that sort waiter lists or
> > something along those lines?
>
>I'm not sure what you mean by this last part but the Condition class is used
>to provide the effect of multiple condition/wait queues per monitor.
>
>To use a classic example of the BoundedBuffer:
>
>   public class BoundedBuffer {
>       Condition notFull = new Condition(this);
>       Condition notEmpty = new Condition(this);
>
>       int size = 0;
>       final int CAPACITY = 10;
>
>       public synchronized void put(Object o) {
>           while (size == CAPACITY)
>               notFull.await();
>
>           // store o
>           size++;
>           notEmpty.signalAll();
>      }
>
>      public synchronized Object get() {
>          while (size ==0)
>              notEmpty.await();
>          size--;
>          Object temp = ... // remove
>          notFull.signalAll();
>          return temp;
>      }
>}

Is notFull.await() releasing the synchronization lock on "this"?  If not, 
then no other Thread could execute get, and there would be a deadlock.  And 
you obviously can get rid of the synchronization without creating 
races.  I'm sure you can clean this up, but by the time you do I suspect it 
will be complicated enough that you would be better off using some 
alternative to Condition's.


>Condition also allows uninterruptible waiting and timedwaits that don't
>require you to jump through hoops to see if you timed out.
>
>The order in which waiting threads are signalled is not specified - as per
>Object.wait().
>
>A Condition class with ordering guarantees would have to use a "specific
>notification" style approach.
>
>David Holmes
>
>
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