Imagine you have a really cool toy box filled with all your favorite toys. Now, you really love playing with your toys and sometimes your other friends come over to play too. But you don't want them to take all your toys when it's time for them to go, so you come up with a plan.
You decide to put a lock on your toy box, but this lock is special. It has two keys - one for you and one for your friend. When you want to play with your toys, you use your key to unlock the box, and when your friend comes over to play, they use their key to unlock the box.
This way, you and your friend can play with your toys without getting in each other's way or accidentally taking each other's toys. This is like a read/write lock pattern.
In computer programs, there are lots of different parts of the program that may need access to some data. Just like you and your friend both need access to the toys in the toy box. But if lots of different parts of the program can access the data at once, it can get really confusing and things might not work correctly.
The read/write lock pattern is a way to make sure only one part of the program can access the data at a time. Just like how you and your friend each have your own key to access the toys in the toy box.
When a part of the program wants to read the data, it uses the "read" key to access the data. This is like looking at the toys in the toy box without taking them out. Then, when a different part of the program wants to write to the data (like adding a new toy to the box), it uses the "write" key to access the data. This is like unlocking the toy box and putting a new toy inside.
By using this pattern, we can make sure that no two parts of the program accidentally try to access the data at the same time and cause problems. Just like how you and your friend can each play with the toys in the toy box without getting in each other's way.