Feature: 'Programming Multi-Threaded Architectures - Mutex Objects and Critical Sections'

n this next-gen oriented article and today's main Gamasutra feature, Reflections (Driv3r) Core Technology Manager Philippe Paquet explains how mutex and critical sections can avoid the concurrent use of un-shareable resources, when multiple threads have shared access to the same resource such as a file or a block of memory. With regard to debugging mutex and critical sections, Paquet comments: "As always, plan for debugging from the very beginning. Planning for debugging is important for any type of application but it is crucial in multi-threaded architectures. The first thing you should be writing is debugging code. More precisely, thread safe versions of the following systems: * trace message system * log system * dump system If those facilities are available in the API you are using - don't reinvent the wheel - use them. Design your application to run both as a serial application and as a parallel application. By doing so, you will be able to debug your application as a serial application before having to debug it as a parallel application." You can now read the full Gamasutra feature on the subject, including plenty more information vital to next-gen programmers (no registration required, please feel free to link to the article from external websites).