To Mutex or Not To Mutex?

Question

Do I need a mutex if I have only one reader and one writer? The reader takes the next command (food.front()) from the queue and executes a task based on the com

Answer 1

What happens if the reader sees the size is greater than zero, but the structure isn't yet completely updated?

That can be avoided by very carefully coding the updates, but the way to make the code resistant to future tampering updates is to use a mutex.