Scheduler pattern

In computer programming, the scheduler pattern is a software design pattern. It is a Concurrency (computer science) pattern used to explicitly control when thread (software engineering)s may execution (computers) single-threaded source code.

The scheduler pattern uses an object that explicitly sequences waiting threads. It provides a mechanism to implement a scheduling policy, but is independent of any specific scheduling policy — the policy is encapsulated in its own class and is reusable.

The Read write lock pattern is usually implemented using the scheduler pattern to ensure fairness in scheduling.

Note that the scheduler pattern adds significant overhead beyond that required to call a synchronized method (computer science).

The scheduler pattern is not quite the same as the scheduled-task pattern.

=See also=

Lock pattern, Mediator pattern, Interruptible command, Reactor Pattern