Vishal Goenka

Java thread synchronization primitives are based on object instances. Multithreaded access to a shared resource requires a unique object instance that all threads accessing the resource can synchronize upon. This is especially challenging for resources that may have multiple views. For instance, multiple threads can independently open a given file and will have separate instances of the java.io.File object, each corresponding to the same file. The different object instances that correspond to multiple views of the same resources don't allow synchronized multithreaded access to these resources. This article illustrates the problem and examines approaches to solving it with an emphasis on their synchronization and concurrency trade-offs. It presents a few use-case examples where this problem manifests itself, followed by a simple and elegant solution with the complete... (more)

Thread Pooling in Java Applications

There are several textbooks and Internet articles that dwell on the performance and scalability benefits of using a thread pool versus creating new threads in a multithreaded Java application. While some of them overstate the benefits, most fail to emphasize some of the caveats of Java thread pooling. Due to space contraints, this article provides only a brief summary of the benefits and emphasizes the drawbacks. A list of references that covers the benefits in more detail is provided at the end. What Is Thread Pooling? Thread pooling refers to a technique where a pool of worker ... (more)