Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!watdragon!lion!ffishman
From: ffishman@lion.waterloo.edu (Flynn D. Fishman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Multi-tasking
Message-ID: <15647@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Date: 4 Aug 89 01:48:34 GMT
References: <30339@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <15629@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu
Reply-To: ffishman@lion.waterloo.edu (Flynn D. Fishman)
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 34

In article <15629@watdragon.waterloo.edu> jyegiguere@lion.waterloo.edu (Eric Giguere) writes:
>In article <30339@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> mitchell@janus.berkeley.edu (Evan Mitchell) writes:
>>Is multi-tasking second nature for most Amiga users?

Most of the postings I have seen talk about how the "Amiga User" uses
Multi-tasking to perform multiple tasks at the same time, but fail to mention
how programmers and programs can take full advantage of multi-tasking behind
the scenes.  And that is where I feel that the power of multi-tasking lies.

The word processor is a prime example of how multi-tasking can be used to
increase its power.  It is so easy to make a word processors print in the
background with multi-tasking (so why don't most Amiga word processors do
this)  But wouldn't it also be nice if you can submit a document for
batch spell checking, that way you do not have to wait for it to agonize
over every word but can come back later after it has found all spelling errors.
this feature would be expecially nice on a large document with few errors
(I have never had any document with a few errors so I would not need this
feature :-).  And this feature is so easy to have run in the background
while you work on a different document.

Multi-tasking can also be used to speed up jobs with a lot of I/O and little
computation, such as a disk copy program.  Why aren't there any copy programs
that read the next couple of sectors while it writes what is already read.
know what would be neat.  A copy program with a window for each disk drive
you can start reading into common memory from any drive and than click
in another window to start writing that memory to the other disk drives.
(On the Amiga a single process may be the best way to copy disks if anyone
 is interested in why please e-mail me)

There are all kinds of nifty things one can do with Multi-Tasking behind
the scenes, just look at how well the Amiga's O/S and user interface work.
----
Flynn D. Fishman
The man (boy?) with no future and soon no account.