Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!ucsd!network.ucsd.edu!weber!pbiron From: pbiron@weber.ucsd.edu (Paul Biron) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: What can't it do? Loss of... Summary: Multi-Finder is not multitasking Keywords: Multi-Finder, multitasking, Finder Message-ID: <2619@network.ucsd.edu> Date: 11 Jul 90 23:36:01 GMT References: <82023@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Sender: news@network.ucsd.edu Reply-To: pbiron@weber.ucsd.edu (Paul Biron) Organization: Division of Social Sciences, UCSD Lines: 36 Nntp-Posting-Host: weber.ucsd.edu In article <82023@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> RD Francis writes: >It is perhaps important to note that the Finder is even now not >designed to multi-task, per se. Multi-tasking is handled by the >System; the Finder is simply a program that is used to manipulate >files and access other applications. > >Multi-Finder, as most Mac people know, is something of a misnomer. As ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ see below. >far as I am aware, the Multi-Finder is simply a chunk of code that the >system uses to do multi-tasking. It is, of course, true that this >code was added to the Mac a few years after it came out. However, I >do not know if it was necessary to make any significant changes to the >Finder in order for it to work with Multi-Finder. > >-- >R David Francis francis@cis.ohio-state.edu It's even more of a misnomer than you think. When you switch between applications with Multi-Finder, the application you WERE using goes to sleep. I may be mistaken here, I don't get to use Multi-Finder very often because none of the Macs that I work on have enough memory. (If I am I'm sure someone will point it out :-) To be truely multi-tasking, an operating system must allow multiple processes (or applications) to be running AT THE SAME TIME (well, actually they each get a time slice). The closest thing to true multitasking I've seen on a Mac is the print spooler. Paul Biron pbiron@ucsd.edu (619) 534-5758 Central University Library, Mail Code C-075-R Social Sciences DataBase Project University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, Ca. 92093