[Dixonary] Round 1637, CLARTY: Carolyn's Votes

[Dodi Schultz]

Okay, it's now clear:

Carolyn's votes for #2 (Russ's def) and #16 (Dan's) did appear at the
tapcis.com site, as comfirmed by Dan and Hugo. Let the record show a vote
for each, and--in case he misses THIS message--I'm e-mailing Mike so that,
when he catches up on the rolling scores upon his return, he'll be sure to
include them.

Dan, Hugo, and Tim Bourne (so far) have also confirmed that Carolyn's
message was never sent via Yahoo, and a bunch of us--including your dealer
for the round--never saw it. That "mirror" mechanism failed.

I do hope it gets fixed!

--Dodi


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[Daniel Widdis]

Carolyn's votes ... did appear at the tapcis.com site ... Carolyn's message was never sent via Yahoo ... That "mirror" mechanism failed.

I do hope it gets fixed!
That would require us knowing what about it "broke". :) Other messages seem to be getting through (I'm sending this from the tapcis.com site as a test) and other of Carolyn's messages have made it in the past. This could have been a one-time glitch that we'll never be able to track down.

[Paul Keating]

> This
> could have been a one-time glitch that we'll never be able to track
> down.

If I guess right that the forwarding takes place at :00, :15, :30 and :45,
then this looks to me like a race condition.

For the benefit of the nonprogrammers who play the game, something like this
scenario:

Program builds a list of messages to forward (all those posted since the
last time it ran). Program is forwarding messages. Carolyn posts her
message, but it's not in the list because that's been built already, so it
doesn't get forwarded. Program shuts down, noting the time. Next invocation
of program selects all messages posted since the "last time it ran", which
was after Carolyn posted her message.

Here, the solution is simple, because I deliberately chose an obvious race
condition for the sake of the example: program should note the time when it
finishes building the list, not the time it shuts down.

But in the real world such problems can be far more subtle.

--
Paul Keating
The Hague



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[chm]

I appreciate the correction. : ) Don't want anybody missing votes for their defs.

Yes, it's odd. But perhaps just a glitch, as already mentioned.

It might help if I give folks my usual M.O. for visiting you all.

While I have added the TAPCIS Yahoo Group to My Yahoo Page, I usually use it only for its link to the TAPCIS Forum (tapcis.com) and for sending my defs (it's so easy to E-Mail from the Yahoo Group).

So, 98% of the time you see my public ramblings, it's been posted @ www.tapcis.com

I'm @ Pacific Time (GMT + 8, I believe), if that means anything regarding scheduling, but I doubt if it would. A FYI, just in case.

Now, I'm off to wonder what "GNEEVE" means...?

Thanks.

Carolyn

[Daniel B. Widdis]

chm wrote:
>
> I appreciate the correction. : ) Don't want anybody missing votes for
> their defs.
As someone who got the points belatedly, thanks. :)

Little glitches like this (or a similar thing with a new player and
moderated message) are easily fixable. The worst thing that could
happen is the wrong dealer could end up dealing.

--
Dan



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[mshefler]

Paul,

Actually, the program should note the time it begins to build the list, since that takes a finite amount of time. Even then, due to other possibilities for delays, a message may be missed. The best solution would be to keep a list of messages sent, but that may use up too many resources.

--Mike