Finalizers etcetera

[Malcolm Wallace]

"Simon Peyton-Jones" <simonpj at microsoft.com> writes:

> |     takeMVar#   :: SynchVar# s elt -> State# s -> (# State# s, elt #)
> |     putMVar#    :: SynchVar# s elt -> State# s -> State# s
> 
> Bad idea to look at the primops.

(a) It was the first mention of MVars that I found in the docs.
(b) I only really mentioned it because the type sigs are wrong.

> |     readMVar :: MVar a -> IO a
> |     This is a combination of takeMVar and putMVar; ie. it takes the
> |     value from the MVar, puts it back, and also returns it.
> | 
> | It specifically avoids describing the combination as atomic ...
> 
> False.   readMVar is completely described by
> 	readMVar m = do { v <- takeMVar m; putMVar m v; return v }
> 
> If it gets pre-empted between the take and the put, no matter; anyone
> trying to take from that same MVar will block.

Doesn't it block if another thread manages to sneak a putMVar into
the middle?  Maybe I should read your "Awkward Squad" paper to find
out if this matters.

Regards,
    Malcolm