by Scott Oaks and Henry Wong
In this chapter, we look at some of the more advanced issues related to data synchronization--specifically, timing issues related to data synchronization. When you write a Java program that makes use of several threads, issues related to data synchronization are those most likely to create difficulties in the design of the program, and errors in data synchronization are often the most difficult to detect since they depend on events happening in a specific order. Often an error in data synchronization can be masked in the code by timing dependencies. You may notice some sort of data corruption in a normal run of your program, but when you run the program in a debugger or add some debugging statements to the code, the timing of the program is completely changed, and the data synchronization error no longer occurs.
These issues can't be simply solved. Instead, developers need to design their programs with these issues in mind. Developers need to understand what the different threading issues are: what are the causes, what they should look for, and the techniques they should use to avoid and mitigate them. Developers should also consider using higher-level synchronization tools--tools that provide the type of synchronization needed by the program and that are known to be threadsafe. We examine both of these ideas in this chapter.
Programmers with a background in a particular threading system generally tend to use terms specific to that system to refer to some of the concepts we discuss in this chapter, and programmers without a background in certain threading systems may not necessarily understand the terms we use. So here's a comparison of particular terms you may be familiar with and how they relate to the terms in this chapter:
Barrier
