[cpp-threads] Alternatives to SC

[Jeremy Manson]

Doug Lea wrote:

> As always, I don't want to sound like I'm against simplicity.
> I think locking is a great thing to teach programmers.
> It just doesn't suffice for all needs. (I sometimes
> introduce my concurrency course saying it has two parts.
> Part 1: Always use locks; Part 2: Never use locks. :-)

Doug,

How do you find your students react to this?  I have actually always 
thought that people would have a lot less of a hard time with the 
concepts of concurrent programming -- even non-blocking / non-locking 
concurrent programming -- with the right educational preparation.

I mean, honestly, I think non-blocking queues are simpler (by a fair 
bit) than other things we expect undergraduates to understand, like quad 
trees and B+ trees.

					Jeremy