Feb 6, 2008

util.concurrent Synchronizer Framework

There is a lot of stuff on Doug's page so it is relatively easy to miss something. I did and only by chance came across of thispaper. In 6 terse pages (a few more are dedicated to performance measurements) it covers the design of the AbstractQueuedSynchronizer class on which many implementations depend in the framework. Highly recommended.

Feb 5, 2008

non-blocking util.concurrent

I used to think that Doug Lea was the only Java concurrency god out there and that his library would stay the ultimate achievement. I know that the second Java concurrency bible was a joint venture but even after reading it cover-to-cover four times I see it as a significantly updated revision of the original Doug's bible. After all he authored the library, others mostly extended the java docs :)

I stumbled upon a small non-blocking contender. It's limited but interesting because it promotes the non-blocking (i.e. CAS-based) approach. The developer's credentials are stunning although the code itself looks like a mongrel between Java and C. Anyway let's see, we might be witnessing a nascent branch of util.concurrent in Java 7+