There are already many solutions to the “Santa Claus Problem” by John Trono1. It’s a “problem simple to understand and yet far from easy to solve”; the author’s original solution (based on semaphores) was only partly correct. The probably most known analysis of the problem was written by Mordechai Ben-Ari2, who also provided solutions in Ada95 and Java. This is the original problem description:
Santa Claus sleeps in his shop up at the North Pole, and can only be wakened by either all nine reindeer being back from their year long vacation on the beaches of some tropical island in the South Pacific, or by some elves who are having some difficulties making the toys.
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