Java™ How To Program (Early Objects), Tenth Edition

Examples of Producer/Consumer Relationship

One example of a common producer/consumer relationship is print spooling. Although a printer might not be available when you want to print from an application (i.e., the producer), you can still “complete” the print task, as the data is temporarily placed on disk until the printer becomes available. Similarly, when the printer (i.e., a consumer) is available, it doesn’t have to wait until a current user wants to print. The spooled print jobs can be printed as soon as the printer becomes available. Another example of the producer/consumer relationship is an application that copies data onto DVDs by placing data in a fixedsize buffer, which is emptied as the DVD drive “burns” the data onto the DVD.