The concept of buffered channels in C can be simulated using a thread-safe queue. We’ll use a simple array-based queue implementation with mutex locks for thread safety.
This C program demonstrates a concept similar to buffered channels using a thread-safe queue. Here’s how it works:
We define a BufferedQueue structure that holds an array of strings, along with front and rear indices, a count, and a mutex for thread safety.
The initQueue function initializes the queue and its mutex.
The enqueue function adds a message to the queue if it’s not full. It uses the mutex to ensure thread safety.
The dequeue function removes and returns a message from the queue if it’s not empty. It also uses the mutex for thread safety.
In the main function, we create a buffered queue that can hold up to 2 messages.
We enqueue two messages into the queue without needing a corresponding receive operation.
Later, we dequeue and print these two messages.
To compile and run this program:
This example demonstrates how to implement a concept similar to buffered channels in C using a thread-safe queue. While C doesn’t have built-in support for such high-level concurrency primitives, we can create similar functionality using lower-level constructs like mutexes and condition variables.