CSC112 homework assignment

	       Due Soon



Written part (individual assignment)
chapter 8 number 8.2, 8.4, 8.8, 8.13


Programming part: To be completed as a group of no more than four.

Devize a simulation of the dinning philosophers problem that is deadlock
free, prevents starvation, and satisfy the "progress" condition.  

YOU MUST FIRST DESCRIBE THE SOLUTION IN ENGLISH (imagine you're in the
eighteenth century and there are no computers).  Explain which of the
four necessary conditions for deadlock is prevented by your scheme.

You must formulate a solution that is different from the one I did
in class.

You can consider the following solution:

Write a separate "supervisor" thread that checks the philosophers and
forces some of them to put down chopsticks.  

Associate a "hunger level" with each philosopher.  Do not allow a
philosopher to pick up chopsticks unless neither neighbor is hungrier.
Becareful about not introducing a new possibility for deadlock.  Note:
this solution is harder than it first looks.  There's only one mutex
for all the philosophers.  A thread may wake from pthread_cond_wait
and still couldn't get chopsticks, but that doesn't necessarily mean
that one of its neighbors got them first (it could be somebody
elsewhere on the table).

Have philosophers alternately leave the table for a certain duration.

Implement the resource allocation graph algorithm (I may give extra 
credit if this is done well).

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  This is a group assignment to be conducted as a miniature software 
engineering project.  You are to form teams of 3-4 members each.  Each
group will have the following members:

  Organization Leader
  Technical Leader
  Design and Documentation Leader
  Freelance Consultant (if 4th member present)

  All members are to cooperate on all aspects of the project, but 
individual "leaders" represent the entire team in their responsible area.  

  The organizational leader is responsible for getting team members
together, making sure that the project is finished before the due
date, resolve any conflicts, etc ...  This does NOT mean however, that
the organization leader doesn't have to do any programming.  I stress
that ALL teams members should collaborate on the entire project.  The
organizational member must keep a log of team activities.  A one-page
report will be expected from this leader at the conclusion of the
assignment.

  The technical leader should be your best programmer.  For example,
if there's something about the C language that you need, this leader
should assume reponsibility of finding the solution.

  The design and documentation leader should be someone good with
English.  This leader need to submit before spring break a half-page
description of the algorithm the team will attempt to implement.  In
addition to making sure that sufficient comments exist in the program,
this leader must also write a "user's manual" of the program, so one
can interpret the results.

  If there's a freelance consultant in your team, you must be able to
specify this person's duties.  Write a one-paragraph statement
describing the role of the consultant.  This must be approved by the
Supreme Leader.  The freelance consultant must write a one-page
summary of his or her activities at the completion of the assignment.

  In addition to an overall grade for the assignment, individual grades
will also be given to each member of the group.


  I stress AGAIN that these roles are guidelines for areas where
individuals should assume responsibility for the whole group.  It does
not mean that people will *only* be responsible for the area that
they're supposed to "lead".  Everyone should contribute to all aspects
of the assignment.