The Modern C++ Challenge

47. Double buffer

The problem described here is a typical double buffering situation. Double buffering is the most common case of multiple buffering, which is a technique that allows a reader to see a complete version of the data and not a partially updated version produced by a writer. This is a common technique – especially in computer graphics – for avoiding flickering.

In order to implement the requested functionality, the buffer class that we should write must have two internal buffers: one that contains temporary data being written, and another one that contains completed (or committed) data. Upon the completion of a write operation, the content of the temporary buffer is written in the primary buffer. For the internal buffers, the ...