A synchronization mechanism used to control access to a shared resource by [Thread]s.
A synchronization semaphore that can be used to synchronize multiple [Thread]s. Initialized to zero on creation. For a binary version, see [Mutex].
[b]Warning:[/b] Semaphores must be used carefully to avoid deadlocks.
[b]Warning:[/b] To guarantee that the operating system is able to perform proper cleanup (no crashes, no deadlocks), these conditions must be met:
- When a [Semaphore]'s reference count reaches zero and it is therefore destroyed, no threads must be waiting on it.
- When a [Thread]'s reference count reaches zero and it is therefore destroyed, it must not be waiting on any semaphore.
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Lowers the [Semaphore], allowing one thread in, or more if [param count] is specified.
Like [method wait], but won't block, so if the value is zero, fails immediately and returns [code]false[/code]. If non-zero, it returns [code]true[/code] to report success.
Waits for the [Semaphore], if its value is zero, blocks until non-zero.