Dining Philosophers Problem in Python

This repository contains a Python implementation of the Dining Philosophers problem. The Dining Philosophers problem is a classic synchronization and concurrency problem that explores challenges in resource sharing among multiple processes or threads.

Contributors

• Mehmood Ul Haq
• Muhammad Shahzaib
• Kashif Muneer
• Talal Muzammil

Problem Description

• There are five philosophers sitting around a dining table.
• Each philosopher thinks and eats spaghetti.
• To eat, a philosopher must have two forks (one on the left and one on the right).
• There is a single fork between each pair of adjacent philosophers.
• Philosophers must pick up both forks to eat and put them down when they're done.

Implementation

The Python implementation in this repository uses threading and synchronization techniques to solve the Dining Philosophers problem. It includes a solution that avoids deadlock and starvation.

Solution to the problem

The dining philosopher’s problem is a typical synchronization problem. A group of philosophers is sitting around a dining table, and in front of each philosopher having a bowl of spaghetti. Between each pair of adjacent philosophers is a fork. The problem is to construct a solution that avoids deadlock and resource contention. Here's a representation of a solution:

1. Concurrency and Threading:

• The code represents each philosopher as an individual thread, allowing multiple philosophers to execute concurrently.

• The threading module is utilized for creating and managing threads.

2. Resource Allocation and Synchronization:

• The code employs a locking mechanism (threading.Lock) to ensure mutual exclusion, preventing multiple philosophers from accessing shared resources simultaneously.

• Conditions (threading.Condition) are used to coordinate the synchronization between philosophers, allowing them to communicate and signal each other based on their states.

3. Philosopher States:

• The state of each philosopher is represented by the state list, where 0 indicates thinking, 1 indicates being hungry, and 2 indicates eating.

• Transitions between states are managed to prevent conflicts and ensure that no two adjacent philosophers are eating at the same time.

For issues or feedback, please contact me at [email protected].