The signaling code is pretty awful. Lots of unnecessary locking and unlocking, and it's far more complicated than it needs to be. Here it is improved: 

use threads;
use threads::shared;
use Thread::Queue;

my $a :shared = 0;
my $q = Thread::Queue->new();

sub set_positive {
    lock $a;
    while (1) {
        cond_wait($a) while $a > 0;

        $a = int(rand() * 100) + 1;
        cond_signal($a);

        $q->enqueue($a);
    }
}

sub set_zero {
    lock $a;
    while (1) {
        cond_wait($a) while $a == 0;

        $a = 0;
        cond_signal($a);

        $q->enqueue($a);
    }
}

sub printer {
    while (1) {
        my ($v_a, $v_b) = $q->dequeue(2);
        print "At printer $v_a $v_b\n";
    }
}

threads->create($_) for qw( set_positive set_zero printer);
$_->join for threads->list;

[download]

cond_wait should always be used as cond_wait($lock) while !desired_condition();.

cond_signal (or cond_broadcast) is used when you change something checked by a thread's desired_condition().

Remember, your lock is released when you call cond_wait, and re-obtained before cond_wait returns.

In reply to Re^2: Threads sharing global variable by ikegami
in thread Threads sharing global variable by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.