Re: [PATCH 1/19] MUTEX: Introduce simple mutex implementation

Erik Mouw
2005-12-16T12:18:07Z

On Thu, Dec 15, 2005 at 05:52:55PM +0100, Erik Mouw wrote:
> Just FYI, according to Dijkstra[1] V means "verhoog" which is dutch for
> "increase". P means "prolaag" which isn't a dutch word, just something
> Dijkstra invented. I guess he did that because "decrease" is "verlaag"
> in dutch and that would give you the confusing V() and V()
> operations...

Last night I've been browsing a little more through Dijkstra's papers,
and in a completely unrelated paper[1] about a now obsolete computer I
found that "prolaag" is a neologism coming from "probeer te verlagen",
which means "try and decrease".

Erik

[1] http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD00xx/EWD51.html

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