*
   * <p>Among the improvements that this method and {@code LoadingCache.get(K)} both provide are:
   *
   * <ul>
   *   <li>{@linkplain LoadingCache#get(Object) awaiting the result of a pending load} rather than
   *       starting a redundant one
   *   <li>eliminating the error-prone caching boilerplate
   *   <li>tracking load {@linkplain #stats statistics}
   * </ul>
   *

 * actions taken by the java garbage collection system:
 *
 * <ul>
 *   <li>invoking the {@code finalize} methods of unreachable objects
 *   <li>clearing weak references to unreachable referents
 *   <li>enqueuing weak references to unreachable referents in their reference queue
 * </ul>
 *

     * <li>The parent uses aggregation and refers to the child via the modules section</li>
     * <li>The module path to the child is considered to
     * point at the POM rather than its base directory if the path ends with ".xml" (ignoring case)</li>
     * <li>The name of the child's base directory matches the artifact id of the child.</li>
     * </ul>

 * Benchmarks (as of December 2011) show that:
 *
 * <ul>
 *   <li>for an unnested {@code lock()} and {@code unlock()}, a cycle detecting lock takes 38ns as
 *       opposed to the 24ns taken by a plain lock.
 *   <li>for nested locking, the cost increases with the depth of the nesting:
 *       <ul>
 *         <li>2 levels: average of 64ns per lock()/unlock()
 *         <li>3 levels: average of 77ns per lock()/unlock()

   *
   * <p>Similar methods:
   *
   * <ul>
   *   <li>To retrieve a result from a {@code Future} that is already done, use {@link
   *       Futures#getDone Futures.getDone}.
   *   <li>To treat {@link InterruptedException} uniformly with other exceptions, use {@link
   *       Futures#getChecked(Future, Class) Futures.getChecked}.
   *   <li>To get uninterruptibility and remove checked exceptions, use {@link

   *
   * <ol>
   *   <li>If {@code index >= end}, {@link IndexOutOfBoundsException} is thrown.
   *   <li><b>If the character at the specified index is not a surrogate, it is returned.</b>
   *   <li>If the first character was a high surrogate value, then an attempt is made to read the
   *       next character.
   *       <ol>

     * <ul>
     * <li>{@code *} (since 2.0.5)= everything,</li>
     * <li>{@code external:*}  (since 2.0.9)= everything not on the localhost and not file based,</li>
     * <li>{@code external:http:*} (since 3.8.0)= any repository not on the localhost using HTTP,</li>
     * <li>{@code repo,repo1}  (since 2.0.9)= {@code repo} or {@code repo1},</li>

 * </ul>
 *
 * <p>This class is similar to {@link MoreExecutors#newSequentialExecutor}. This class is different
 * in a few ways:
 *
 * <ul>
 *   <li>Each task may be associated with a different executor.
 *   <li>Tasks may be of type {@code AsyncCallable}.
 *   <li>Running tasks <i>cannot</i> be interrupted. (Note that {@code newSequentialExecutor} does

 * that wrap {@link MessageDigest}s.
 *
 * <p>Parameters for the benchmark are:
 *
 * <ul>
 *   <li>size: The length of the byte array to hash.
 *   <li>algorithm: the algorithm to hash with (e.g. MD5, SHA1, etc.).
 *   <li>hashMethod: how to hash the data (using the Hashing API or the MessageDigest API).
 * </ul>
 *
 * @author Kurt Alfred Kluever
 */

 * that wrap {@link MessageDigest}s.
 *
 * <p>Parameters for the benchmark are:
 *
 * <ul>
 *   <li>size: The length of the byte array to hash.
 *   <li>algorithm: the algorithm to hash with (e.g. MD5, SHA1, etc.).
 *   <li>hashMethod: how to hash the data (using the Hashing API or the MessageDigest API).
 * </ul>
 *
 * @author Kurt Alfred Kluever
 */