Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Multitasking at home (Was Reality check: ....)
Message-ID: <16715@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 21 Dec 90 00:09:35 GMT
References: <1990Dec13.155848.8152@maytag.waterloo.edu> <1990Dec15.031131.17141@isc.rit.edu> <1990Dec18.002802.624@lavaca.uh.edu> <37101@cup.portal.com>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 38

In article <37101@cup.portal.com> Lee_Robert_Willis@cup.portal.com writes:
>
>In article <1990Dec13.155848.8152@maytag.waterloo.edu> giguere@csg.uwaterloo.ca (Eric Giguere) writes:
>>Don't flame me for this, but.... most people DON'T need multitasking on
>>their computer.

>Most people *DO* need multitasking!!!  They just don't know that they need
>it because they've never experienced it.  

Actually, it goes farther than that.  Most people EXPECT multitasking.  It's
only certain computer people who have learned to put themselves into the
extremely unnatural singletasking mindset.  

Think of it this way.  Workbench, Finder, whatever are metaphores for a desk
top, workbench, whatever -- essentially a work surface on which to interact
with program objects.  Look at your real work surface.  Did it ever occur to
you that you couldn't use a pencil or stapler just because you were currently
using the phone?  Of course not!  You'll find the same thing, in most cases,
doesn't occur when a computer ignorant person plays around with Workbench.  
It's quite natural, for example, to click on the "Boxes" demo, then click on
the "Lines" demo.  No one would ever think of it being necessary to close the
Boxes demo before opening the Lines demo unless they had learned that most
computers work that way before playing with an Amiga.

>I think anyone who works with a multitasking machine for any significant
>length of time will never want to go back.  (Having to exit an MSDOS
>program never bothered me 'til I got my Amiga)

I think you're right.  And the reason is, humans don't naturally singletask,
so you're much more artifically constrained in a singletasking environment
than you are in a multitasking environment.  Once you get used to being
free of any unnatural constraint, you rarely welcome it back.

>Lee		Lee_Robert_Willis@cup.portal.com
-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
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		"I can't drive 55"	-Sammy Hagar