Technical Articles

Introduction to multi-threading and its inherent difficulties
This article is a brief introduction to multi-threading: Why it is sometimes needed, and why it is hard to get multi-threading programs to perform reliably.

Managing the inherent difficulties in multi-threading through object-oriented design
This article provides a set of classes that we have used very successfully to tame the problems of multi-threading. Using these classes cuts out a lot of the traps that lurk in writing multi-threaded programs.

An efficient design approach for the design of event-based software
Some books claim a 30x improvement in productivity and quality of software developed with this method. We can't confirm the number, but our experience is that cleanroom software engineering is a powerful method to get code right much faster than with other methods. In this article we present a brief background to the methodology, and we present a set of C++ class templates that makes it easy to transcode a design specification directly into code.

A robust solution to a coherent state of a complex software program
Keeping all parts of a program informed about changes in other parts can be a nightmare. The observer pattern can go a long way in solving this problem. This article demonstrates two families of C++ classes that can be used to implement the observer pattern for small units of information.

Our design methodology to reliably and efficiently build cross-platform applications
Do you need to have your program run on Unix or Mac, in addition to Windows? Many of the design environments make it difficult to build cross-platform applications. Here is a methodology that we have used to do this job, with a specific emphasis on minimizing and isolating platform- and tool dependencies. With this methodology porting to new platforms is a much more linear process than is typical.