Re: Java memory model

[Vladimir G Ivanovic <address@hidden>]

Would anyone care to speculate on why it's taking so long to fix the
Java memory model? The problem has been known since at least June 1999,
but JSR-133 gives this timetable:

   Initiation: June 2001
   Community Review: October 2001
   Public Review: November 2001
   Final Draft Proposal: January 2002

That's roughly 2 1/2 years just to get to the draft proposal stage.
(AFAIK, Step 2, the community review, didn't happen in October 2001.)

I can understand that (a) the problem is hard and (b) it's important to
get it right, but I'm still left with the feeling that progress has
slow. What seems to be the holdup?

--- Vladimir

Vladimir G. Ivanovic                        http://leonora.org/~vladimir
2770 Cowper St.                                         vladimir@acm.org
Palo Alto, CA 94306-2447                                 +1 650 678 8014

"GS" == Guy Steele <- Sun Microsystems Labs <gls@labean.East.Sun.COM>> writes:

  GS> Maybe it will help to douse the flames (with H2O or C8H18?)
  GS> if I remark that, in my opinion, the memory model of the
  GS> Java programming language is broken.  Consider it so remarked.

  GS> I am very proud that Bill Joy and I tackled the problem of
  GS> specifying a memory model for an explicitly multithreaded
  GS> programming language instead of just ignoring it and hoping
  GS> for the best.  I think we broke new ground here in the art of
  GS> programming language specification.

  GS> I am embarrassed that the model we set forward has certain
  GS> obvious technical and practical flaws, and certain other very
  GS> subtle flaws.

  GS> I am grateful that Bill Pugh has worked so hard to clean up the
  GS> mess and propose an alternative memory model that looks very
  GS> promising.

  GS> I am hopeful that, once a revised memory model is adopted,
  GS> implementors will make an effort to ensure that their
  GS> implementations obey the memory model instead of just ignoring
  GS> it and hoping for the best.

  GS> --Guy