Subj : Re: Best locking methods
To   : comp.programming.threads
From : Joe Seigh
Date : Thu Apr 07 2005 08:54 am

On Thu, 7 Apr 2005 04:56:26 +0200, Uenal Mutlu <520001085531-0001@t-online.de> wrote:

>
> Say, it is a sorted vector of structures. The vector has to grow
> when new items need to be inserted.
(...)
>
> Each item is a fixlen structure consisting of a unique key, plus its data.
> Obviosly the writer threads are those who update the list.
> The readers are free how they access the list; besides using a Find(key)
> function they can also walk sequentially in the list, ie. in a for loop.
> Access to an item is done via baseptr + the physical element number ("record
> number").
>
> This works fine using Critical Section's, but since there seem to be many
> methods available I wondered whether there's maybe a significantly faster
> method.  What would others use for such a task?
>
>
As to whether there's a faster method for mutual exclusion than Critical
Section, don't you think they would be using it instead if it existed?

Also, you've picked a data structure, vector, that's rather expensive to
modify.  A binary tree with PCOW (Partial Copy On Write) would work
better but it's a rather advanced project.  I don't think anyone has
done one yet and it will probably be patented so you won't be able to
use it for free and it will be too late to do a free implementation then.

-- 
Joe Seigh

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