Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!srcsip!nic.MR.NET!umn-cs!hall!rosenkra
From: rosenkra@hall.cray.com (Bill Rosenkranz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Multitasking on the ST
Message-ID: <4050@hall.cray.com>
Date: 7 Aug 89 03:26:35 GMT
References: <8908021826.AA05333@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> <62441@linus.UUCP>
Reply-To: rosenkra@hall.UUCP (Bill Rosenkranz)
Organization: Cray Research, Inc., Mendota Heights, MN
Lines: 47

In article <62441@linus.UUCP> rachamp@mbunix (Champeaux) writes:
=In article <8908021826.AA05333@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> 01659@AECLCR.BITNET (Greg Csullog) writes:
=>It drives me nuts to see so many people worrying about multitasking on the
=>ST. Jeez, at 8 MHz on a 68000 without a co-processor, I'm having trouble
=>getting good performance running one application at a time.
[stuff deleted...]
=>Want to run a word processor and a spreadsheet at the same time. No problem,
=>get REVOLVER and switch between apps. 
=
=First off, the majority of applications are user input driven.  Meaning that
=if the user doesn't provide input, the program is idle.  For instance,

how about compiles? these SHOULD go in the background more often than not.
no input needed...


=You asked for simple common uses for multi-tasking on the Amiga.  Here are
=two of the more common, less demanding uses of multi-tasking that I do on my
=Amiga 2000:
=
[describes a user-initiated edit/cli switch]

this is not a good example. you are simply task switching, something that
programs like revolver can do.

[describes another user-initiated switch, disk full/cli delete scenario]

this, again is a simple switch of which program is executing. i think the
general topic concerns doing several tasks simultaneously (i.e. let the os
kernel do the context switch based on some scheduling mechanism). this way
you can be compiling something (or doing some database, raytrace, etc op)
while you read mail, play a game, or compile another program.

=The question "Why do you need multi-tasking on a personal computer?" is much
=like the question "Why do you need more than 64k in a personal computer?"
=which people were asking 8-10 years ago.  Once you have, you realize that
=you can't live without it. 
=
=Rich Champeaux  (rachamp@mbunix.mitre.org)

agreed...

without an mmu to police memory, the os has to do it. this is terribly
slow, IMHO. you just don't want one task stepping on another.

-bill
rosenkra@boston.cray.com