Monitor preprocessor for Pthreads

A monitor construct is an abstract data type, which encapsulates private data with public methods to operate on that data. Mutual exclusion is provided implicitly by ensuring that procedures in the same monitor are not executed concurrently. Condition synchronization in monitors is provided explicitly by means of condition variables. This makes a concurrent program easier to develop and easier to understand. Although the Pthread library contains dozens of functions for threading and synchronization, it does not provide direct support for the monitor. Students must explicitly provide mutual exclusion around "monitor procedures" using mutex locks. However, monitor procedures by definition execute with implicit mutual exclusion. This makes it hard to teach the monitor concept in class and explain the semantic differences between monitors and semaphores. To solve this problem, we have designed and implemented a monitor preprocessor for Pthreads that provides explicit support for monitors in Pthreads.