Question about JavaSpaces functionality

[Patricia Shanahan]

The current FastList implementation stops a scan when it reaches a node 
that was the tail at a critical point in the head() call that started 
the scan.

As far as I can tell, the benefit is that it ensures that every scan 
reaches a finite set of nodes, even if other threads are continually 
adding new nodes to the list.

I expect this passes through to the Outrigger JavaSpaces implementation, 
ensuring that every search will terminate. Otherwise, a search for a 
non-existent entry could go on forever, as long as new entries are being 
added as fast as the search processes them.

Is this correct?

I'm interested in this issue because maintaining that property costs 
extra logic in IterableFastList. It would be simpler to let the scan go 
on until it reaches a node with a null next pointer, indicating the 
current end of the list.

Patricia