Robert A. Rosenberg has rehearsed the obvious, focusing on the details of inventory management.
My point was a different one. It was to illustrate in a homely way that serialization requirements are ineluctable. It is of course possible to avoid the explicit use of the word 'serialization', say by using the mnemonic CS[D], Compare and Swap [Double], instead. It is not possible to avoid its substantive use to resolve 'race' conditions satisfactorily. This topic has always been a vexed one that, from time to time, still gives rise to Luddite denials and Lysenkoist excursions like Dijkstra's semaphores. Its pursuit in fora like this one is, I suppose, all but hopeless. I should have known better. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
