Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!smosjc!brett From: brett@smosjc.UUCP (Brett Coon) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Multitasking is slower Keywords: games, multitasking Message-ID: <280@smosjc.UUCP> Date: 4 Jun 90 20:11:54 GMT Organization: S-MOS Systems, San Jose, Ca., USA Lines: 26 >>In article <279@smosjc.UUCP> brett@smosjc.UUCP (Brett Coon) writes: >>NO! For a program to allow multitasking, it has to be "nice". It must own >>and disown the system resources (esp. blitter) using OS calls, and do so >>often enough to allow other tasks a chance to use them. Depending on the >From: Dave Schreiber >Are you reading all of the original message? If the machine is in a state >so that the game is going "without anything else running", then there won't >be "other tasks" that demand system resources like the blitter. This >seems fairly self-evident. Yes, but the rule on the Amiga is that as soon as a program isn't using a limited resource like the blitter, it tells the operating system this to allow other tasks (if there are any) a chance to use the resource. Then, the next time the program wants the resource, it must request it from the OS and, if anything else is using it, wait for it to be free. Even if no other programs are using any of these resources, the game must still suffer the additional overhead of communicating with the operating system to learn this fact. -- |Brett Coon | uunet!smosjc!brett | |S-MOS Systems, Inc. | "You like 'em, anchovies?" | |San Jose, CA | -Runaway Train |