{1 Conventions}

Many operation in the Picos libraries use

{{:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-blocking_algorithm} non-blocking}

algorithms. Unless explicitly specified otherwise,

- non-blocking operations in Picos are {i atomic} or {i strictly linearizable}

(i.e. {{:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linearizability} linearizable} and

{{:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_transaction_schedule#Serializable}

serializable}), and

- {{:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-blocking_algorithm#Lock-freedom}

lock-free} operations in Picos are designed to avoid having competing

operations of widely different complexities, which should make such operations

much less prone to starvation.