synchronized confusion...

[estewh]

Hi All,

I have this bit of code like this:

shared bool varInitialized = false;
bool initVar() {
    bool ret;
    synchronized { ret = varInitialized;}
    return ret;
}

I know there are atomics and I am using them but I am curious 
about the above code. It compiles but I have no idea how safe it 
is.

Reading TDPL I got the impression synchronized works only for 
entire classes. If so why does the above compile and is it thread 
safe?

Thanks for any help

Cheers,
Stewart