2777	 On a Solution to the Cigarette Smoker s Problem Without Conditional Statements	 This report discusses a problem first introduced by Patil who has claimed that the cigarette smoker s problem cannot be solved using the P and V operations introduced by Dijkstra unless conditional statements are used. An examination of Patil s proof shows that he has established this claim only under strong restrictions on the use of P and V. These restrictions eliminate programming techniques used by Dijkstra and others since the first introduction of the semaphore concept. This paper contains a solution to the problem. It also discusses the need for the generalized operators suggested by Patil. operating systems co-operating processes process synchronization primitives
