Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!siebren
From: siebren@cwi.nl (Siebren van der Zee)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Semaphore Questions
Message-ID: <7640@boring.cwi.nl>
Date: 12 Sep 88 11:13:58 GMT
References: <45000017@uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu>
Sender: news@cwi.nl
Reply-To: siebren@piring.cwi.nl
Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
Lines: 15

In article <45000017@uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu> jozwiak@uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu writes:
> I was just wondering if anyone knew what Dijkstra's
>semaphore functions P and V stood for in Dutch?
>  john

It is related to the train-world - of zoiets - where trains might have to
wait if there is another one on the traject (is this proper English?).
'P' stands for "passeren"; and 'V' stands for "vrijgeven".

	Hope this helps,
	Siebren van der Zee.
	siebren@cwi.nl

    In case you're interested in the meaning: passeren = pass,
    vrijgeven = free, empty.