[erlang-questions] Semaphores

[ok]

On 16 Mar 2007, at 2:27 am, Danesh Daroui wrote:
> Also in that file "Barrier Synchronization" problem has been solved
> using semaphores.

Barriers are very easy to solve with message passing.
So are the other examples you mention.

The interesting question is not "are there problems that could be solved
in Erlang using semaphores", but "are there problems that arise in  
'natural'
Erlang programming could be solved BETTER using semaphores".

I note that a certain other programming language, designed over a period
of decades with input from literally thousands of experts for  
embedded and
concurrent programming, while it does have tasks and monitors (which  
it calls
'protected records') and some other concurrency stuff, does not have  
and never
has had anything resembling a semaphore.  I am, of course, referring  
to Ada 2005
and its predecessors Ada 95, Ada 83, Ada 81, and Ada 79.

The big thing that Erlang is interested in is concurrency mechanisms  
which are
reasonable to use across a network as well as within a single UNIX  
process.