Queue implementation in C#

Question

I'm dealing with a hardware resource that can only handle 1 command at a time. I'm going to exposing some of it's API functions via a web interface, so obviously there's a good chance more than 1 command will get sent at a time. I have decided that queuing these commands when they're submitted is the best way to ensure serial processing.

I'm planning on implementing the queue in a static class. The web app code-behind will add a command by calling a method corresponding to the command they want. I want the calling method to wait until it gets the output of its command, so no async magic is required.

1. Am I doing this right? Is there a better way?

2. How do I start implementing the queue in C# (I usually work with Java)? I assume I'll need some sort Event to signal a job has been added, and a Handler to initiate processing of the queue...

I'm using .NET Framework 4.

Answer 1

You can use the ConcurrentQueue class for your implementation and have a dedicated thread to process items in the queue.

For the waiting part you can use an AutoResetEvent, producers pass the event instance to the singleton class along with the request, then calls WaitOne() which blocks until the processor has signaled processing is completed by calling Set().