[sqlite] locked implies exception?

[Xavier Noria]

I am trying to understand a crash I get very often. There are two  
processes accessing to the same database in a Windows XP (through  
Active Record) doing simple CRUDs on tables, and from any of the two  
at random I get an SQLite3::BusyException, for example (copied by hand):

  SQLite3::BusyException: database is locked: SELECT count(*) AS  
count_all ...

The processes use transactions, but my understanding is that if the  
database is locked the other one will wait to do its stuff until it  
is released. Is that right? If so, all of this is quite quick, is  
there any tiny timeout that raises the exception if the lock is not  
acquired? Os does it sound like an adapter issue to you?

-- fxn