In what situations could an empty synchronized block achieve correct threading semantics?

Question

I was looking through a Findbugs report on my code base and one of the patterns that was triggered was for an empty synchronzied block (i.e. synchronized

Answer 1

For an in depth look into Java's memory model, have a look at this video from Google's 'Advanced topics in programming languages' series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FX4zco0ziY

It gives a really nice overview of what the compiler can (often in theory, but sometimes in practice) do to your code. Essential stuff for any serious Java programmer!