Difference for alternatives to evade busy waiting

flethuseo · March 6th, 2014, 12:18 AM

Hi all,
In the book two different approaches to evade busy waiting are shown:

Code:

Object theLock = new Object();
synchronized( theLock ){
Thread task = new TheTask( theLock );
task.start();
try {
theLock.wait();
}
catch( InterruptedException e ){
.... // do something if interrupted
}
}

and

Code:

Thread task = new TheTask();
synchronized( task ){
task.start();
try {
task.wait();
}
catch( InterruptedException e ){
.... // do something if interrupted
}
}

Are these two completely interchangeable or are there instances when one should be used over the other?

John Mongan · July 11th, 2017, 03:41 PM

These are functionally equivalent. You can use any shared object for the lock. It's a matter of style as to what is most convenient and most clearly communicates the intent of what you're doing.

John