lecture 9 -- assignment 4

goals of the assignment

1.  learn about producer-consumer problem (the implementation) and
understand empirically about deadlocks (the experiment)

2.  use inter-process operations (semaphores, signaling, shared
memory)

3.  manage and carry out a significant programming/debugging problem
(planning, pacing, confidence)


re: #2, you can use any language you like, i am not tied to you using
the Unix/C conventions.  (though, sample code is provided for C)


subproblems:

* implementing/understanding ring buffers
* using the shared memory segment
* using/understanding semaphores
* interprocess comms (signals?)
* formatting output
* running the experiment
* makefile/coordinating code runs

recommendation:
Make headway on understanding each piece separately before trying to
bring it all together!

In other words, create for yourself a set of small code modules that
independently demonstrate to yourself your understanding of each piece
of the problem.

Then, tackle integration -- getting it all to work together.

In other words, make sure you understand the pieces before you try to
bring them together.