Singleton

Boy, the Singleton lecture was fun! You all did a great job with the dining philosophers game. It's interesting to me how many different variations of solutions students come up with for that problem. For this class, the details of that problem are irrelevant; my goal in playing the game was for you to see the devious scheduler and I think we achieved that goal very well.

When we went into the various options for Singleton implementations, more of you were participating than ever before and, more than any class I've ever had, you seemed able to spot the places where the devious scheduler could rear it's ugly head. In previous classes, the double checked locking examples have always confused everyone and making them see why you need two conditionals was a terrific challenge. This time, you were right with me!

At this point, I'd say at least three quarters of you are actively participating in class and are really thinking about what we're doing and where we're going. That's a HUGE improvement from where we started the year and I'm really impressed with you. With those skills, we'll have some fascinating discussions as we get into the more complex patterns.

Obviously, I think Singleton went well. However, if you have questions, please ask them. We aren't going to do a Singleton lab (we have an exam and it'd be pretty trivial), but I think you'll see one in our big project.

If you have questions about the exam, I'll be on line most of tonight and I'll be in my office early (7ish) tomorrow morning!