c++ Queue Simulator (cinema booking)

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Based on the question below, I have finished Part 1 of the Sales System. Going into Part 2, there are things that I don't really get.

Problem Statement

You are hired to develop a sales system for cinema ticket and a simulator for queuing. The business
rules are listed below:

Part 1 Sales System (13 marks):
All tickets are priced at RM10 per person.
There are 3 types of customers:
Non-member: No annual fee, do not enjoy any discount or benefit.
Gold member: RM10 annual fee, enjoy a 10% discount for every ticket purchased.
Platinum member: RM50 annual fee, enjoy a 20% discount for every ticket purchased and
get a free ticket for every 5 tickets purchased.

Part 2 Queue Simulator (2 marks)
There are 2 sale counters serving one queue. Your program may start (and loop) by asking the
user to choose one of the following 3 options:
A customer joins the queue.
Counter 1 takes the next customer.
Counter 2 takes the next customer.

For every option selected, your simulator should list following:
The queue.
The customers already served by the counters.
The customers currently being served by the counters.


My question:
What is the correct algorithm to tackle Part 2?

My ideas :

1. First is, Save all records into a file so that two instances of the program can access the file. Is this possible?

2. Second, create an "in-program" queue - where only an instance of the program is run and queue could be a simple array or LinkList. What I don't get is, when/how to create and store the customer on that queue? can we have somewhere in the program, an interrupt mechanism to prompt for adding a customer into queue while it is running on different sections of the program?

is there any other method/algorithm?

 

[hate]

An event driver system might be a good solution. Like you create a queue first and when a new customer arrives you insert a new event for a new customer in a random number of time and loop the events. Search for the word 'event driven'.