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Two philosophers A and B, two forks numbered "1", "2"; A needs both "1" and "2" for eating, so does B.

Is this theoretical a dining philosopher problem? I'm questioning about the forks philosopher A needs all come from B. However, the DP problem usually gives an example of 5 philosophers, in which case, for example, philosophers A requests 2 forks from two different neighbors.

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Short answer: yes, though it could be considered a "degenerate case" (that is, a case that ends up being somewhat different from most others).

Long answer: the Dining Philosophers problem is really about having $n$ philosophers, and coming up with an algorithm that works for any $n$. A good algorithm should work for even "degenerate cases" like zero philosophers or one philosopher—by hard-coding them if necessary ("if there's only one philosopher, eat whenever you feel like"). So $n=2$ is a perfectly valid Dining Philosophers problem.

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  • $\begingroup$ I still can't treat n = 2 as a Dining Philosopher. Consider when n = 2, you can easily allow one philosopher to pick up 2 forks once(not one by one) to solve this problem; however, when it comes to Dining Philosopher, the circumstance gets complicated so that we figure out three ways 1. resource hierarchy 2.arbitrator and 3.Chandy/Misra to solve dining. I mean not because of this problem(n=2) but the Dining Philosopher problem make the scientists conclude the three solutions above. $\endgroup$ – asap diablo Jan 3 at 8:21
  • $\begingroup$ @asapdiablo That's why it's considered a degenerate case. It's not as interesting as with higher $n$, but it's still a dining philosopher problem. It's like how sorting two elements is still a list-sorting problem, it's just a trivially easy one. $\endgroup$ – Draconis Jan 3 at 17:05
  • $\begingroup$ Fine, you've persuaded me $\endgroup$ – asap diablo Jan 4 at 1:04
  • $\begingroup$ In fact, 2-philosophers problem is not degenerate at all in the sense that it can go into deadlock. Allowing each philosopher "to pick up 2 forks once (not one by one)" is a solution to all Dining Philosopher problems whether there are 3, 4, 5 or more philosophers. (It is a solution that cannot be implemented in general, though.) $\endgroup$ – Apass.Jack Jan 4 at 5:24

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