The Little Book of Semaphores
by Allen Downey
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In most computer science curricula, synchronization is a module in an Operating Systems class. OS textbooks present a standard set of problems with a standard set of solutions, but most students don't get a good understanding of the material or the ability to solve similar problems.
The approach of this book is to identify patterns that are useful for a variety of synchronization problems and then show how they can be assembled into solutions. After each problem, the book offers a hint before showing a solution, giving students a better chance of discovering solutions on their own.
The book covers the classical problems, including "Readers-writers," "Producer-consumer", and "Dining Philosophers." In addition, it collects a number of not-so-classical problems, some written by the author and some by other teachers and textbook writers. Readers are invited to create and submit new problems. 
Book Description
The Little Book of Semaphores is a free textbook that introduces the principles of synchronization for concurrent programming.In most computer science curricula, synchronization is a module in an Operating Systems class. OS textbooks present a standard set of problems with a standard set of solutions, but most students don't get a good understanding of the material or the ability to solve similar problems.
The approach of this book is to identify patterns that are useful for a variety of synchronization problems and then show how they can be assembled into solutions. After each problem, the book offers a hint before showing a solution, giving students a better chance of discovering solutions on their own.
The book covers the classical problems, including "Readers-writers," "Producer-consumer", and "Dining Philosophers." In addition, it collects a number of not-so-classical problems, some written by the author and some by other teachers and textbook writers. Readers are invited to create and submit new problems.
This open book is licensed under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-SA). You can download The Little Book of Semaphores ebook for free in PDF format (1.2 MB).
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Introduction
Chapter 2
Semaphores
Chapter 3
Basic synchronization patterns
Chapter 4
Classical synchronization problems
Chapter 5
Less classical synchronization problems
Chapter 6
Not-so-classical problems
Chapter 7
Not remotely classical problems
Chapter 8
Synchronization in Python
Chapter 9
Synchronization in C
Appendix A
Cleaning up Python threads
Appendix B
Cleaning up POSIX threads
Book Details
Title
The Little Book of Semaphores
Subject
Computer Science
Publisher
Green Tea Press
Published
2016
Pages
291
Edition
2
Language
English
PDF Size
1.2 MB
License
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