Re: Thread safety documentation

From:

Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.java.programmer

Date:

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:11:44 -0800

Message-ID:

<KNqdne2V4dncDwjWnZ2dnUVZ_j6dnZ2d@earthlink.com>

Arne Vajh?j wrote:

On 08-03-2010 18:57, Patricia Shanahan wrote:

The "Calendar.getInstance() thread safe?" is yet another instance of a
recurring problem with Java APIs, the lack of consistent documentation
and default rules for thread safety. Often, these questions can only be
resolved by examination of the source code, which is unsatisfactory
because it is vulnerable to future changes that would preserve
everything that is documented.

I now have some free time, and would like to try to contribute to a
resolution of the problem. Is there an existing effort I should join, or
do I need to start a new one?

It would be a lot more useful if the work got merged into
the official docs for the very same reasons you mention for
looking at source code.

Yes, I believe any good resolution of this problem will end with the
necessary information in the official documentation.

Ironically, Sun did this for Solaris documentation many years ago. Every
system call or function has an "MT-Level", which has to be one of a
defined set of levels, specified in its man page. Although I am not sure
the Solaris MT-Level values all make sense for Java, they provide a
possible starting point with real world experience.

Patricia