Path: utzoo!attcan!ncrcan!becker!censor!comspec!tvcent!lethe!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mtecv2!mtecv2.mty.itesm.mx!al158305 From: al158305@mtecv2.mty.itesm.mx (Gustavo Cordova) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Multifinder - Just the Facts, man. Message-ID: Date: 5 May 90 06:52:28 GMT References: <18410@snow-white.udel.EDU> <70465@srcsip.UUCP> Sender: al158305@mtecv2.mty.itesm.mx Organization: Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey Lines: 52 In-reply-to: cs163wed@sdcc10.ucsd.edu's message of 2 May 90 01:52:10 GMT In article <10143@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> cs163wed@sdcc10.ucsd.edu (see far) writes: > ISn't the AMiga's multi-tasking program swapping? Unless you have > several amigas at once, you can never run programs simultaneously. > Amiga's multitasking only tricks you into thinking it is running > programs "simultaneously". > After all, you get only one 68000 in an amiga, don't you? > >Chris Everhart >chrise@hubcap.clemson.edu > -- > What is the Final Outcome for China's current situation? > In China, 1992, (Lee Huan of) Taiwan will liberate Mainland! > --a prediction appearing in Usenet since Sept 1989.----- > More info available in 2 articles. You can request by E-mail So? What's one CPU got to do with it? SUN and Apollo workstations also only have one cpu and nobody questions them. The point is, if you run a program in multifinder and send it to the background to do it's transforms or whatever-Mac-geeks-do, and then enter your word processor and do some foreground work there, when you finish your WP job and re-enter the other program you'll likely find the calculations right where you left them the last time (ok, maybe an addition or a substraction more); why is this you might ask? Because ALL mac progs do.... (drum roll)... BUSY WAITING!!! Yes ladies and gentlemen, mac programs commit that capital sin in every multitalking world, so if your program doesn't have provisions to return control to the OS after a certain amount of time, you might as well run it alone; but in the amiga, each task (what a neeto name :) has an amount of time alloted to each one, besides, when doing I/O, the program simply goes to sleep until it gets what it wants, tha way, the communications program doesn't take much CPU slices, it simply tell the OS to awaken it when data is available at the port, at the same time, the WP tell the OS to wake him up when a keypress is available, and so, the spreadsheet has a bunch of CPU time available to do some number crunching... fun, isn't it? +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ | Isn't it refreshingly similar the syntax of | My other mainframe| | UNIX commands and AmigaDOS stuff? :) | is an Amiga :) | +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ | Gustavo Cordova | Computer Systems majoring @ ITESM, Mexico | +=================+ Internet: al158305 @ mtecv2.mty.itesm.mx | | If at first you | al158305 @ 131.178.1.5 | | don't succeed, | BitNet: bl158305 @ tecmtyvm.bitnet | | to hell with it.| al158305%mtecv2.mty.itesm.mx@tecmtyvm | +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ -- disclaimer: These are my opinions, only mine, freely distributable, for non-commercial use only.