Hi there

According to the framework documentation, a generic List is thread-safe for
multiple readers, as long as it is not being modified:

"A List can support multiple readers concurrently, as long as the collection
is not modified. Enumerating through a collection is intrinsically not a
thread-safe procedure. In the rare case where an enumeration contends with
one or more write accesses, the only way to ensure thread safety is to lock
the collection during the entire enumeration."

What I need is a generic list that supports thread-safety amongst multiple
readers and only one writer. Locking the list during both read and write
operations would result in all readers blocking eachother, violating the
current support for multiple concurrent readers.

Specifically, I need to be able to periodically add and remove list items
via one thread while multiple other threads are periodically enumerating the
list. While updating the list, the readers should wait for the update
operation to complete, but if no update is occurring, all readers should be
able to read simultaneously.

Is there a way to accomplish synchronization between only the writer and any
number of concurrents readers of a list, without the penalty of readers
blocking eachother?

Regards,
Torsten Seemann