The Dining Philosopher's problem exemplifies what is called "deadlock." In the problem, there are five hungry philosophers, five forks, and one big plate of food. Each philosopher needs two forks in order to eat. The issue of "deadlock" arises when each philosopher is hungry for food, picks up a fork, and awaits the second fork to be put down (which will not happen, because each philosopher is holding a fork). In this case, the philosophers wait infinitely, and eventually starve. A similar event can happen in your computer, where a few programs need access to a shared resource. If the programs wait indefinitely, they can starve, and freeze up. But let's get back to those philosophers...

My solution? As with any restaurant, the philosophers should be managed by a waiter. In my program, I set up a dining room, five philosophers, five chopsticks (or forks), and one waiter to manage the five philosophers. The waiter goes around to each philosopher, and asks if the philosopher is hungry if he isn't already eating or preoccupied with thought. If the philosopher is hungry, the food is served to him, and he can eat with both chopsticks. There will be instances where a philosopher is waiting for a chopstick to be placed down, however the issue of deadlock will never happen: because the first philosopher is the only one served food when the program begins, he can eat with two forks, and when he is finished he places the forks down so philosopher #2 can eat. My variation also allows for many philosophers to be eating simultaneously (okay, at most 2), because the waiter serves food, then proceeds to ask the next philosopher.