Locking and try/finally

[Daniel Dittmar]

Duncan Grisby wrote:
> One way to make this kind of thing cleaner is to make locking part of
> the language syntax. Modula-3, one of the inspirations of Python, did
> things like this... (the syntax is probably wrong, but you get the
> idea)
>
>   PROCEDURE critical_function(self: T) =
>     BEGIN
>       LOCK self.mu DO
>         (* Manipulate data... *)
>       END;
>     END;
>
> The compiler turned such statements into the equivalent acquire /
> release pair using TRY..FINALLY.

If Python had Smalltalk like blocks instead of list comprehension, then one
could write

self.mutex.do ([ ... code running in critical section ...])

And it would be possible to do the same for all ressources that have to be
released in a timely manner.

Daniel