Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
From: awessels@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Allen Wessels)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Multitasking at home (Was Reality check: ....)
Summary: Amiga/Mac multitasking discussion; what the Amiga can do
Message-ID: <41791@ut-emx.uucp>
Date: 23 Dec 90 22:51:57 GMT
References: <1990Dec18.002802.624@lavaca.uh.edu> <37101@cup.portal.com> <41689@ut-emx.uucp> <1990Dec23.103612.7666@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>
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Reply-To: awessels@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Allen Wessels)
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin
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In article <1990Dec23.103612.7666@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) writes:

>Well, I'm not sure what your Mac can do, but here is a very typical scenario
>for me, all running at once (I've got a _lot_ of RAM):
>
>    Terminal session going, highest priority, downloading a series of
>    files with kermit from my host site into recoverable ram disk
>    storage; this typically takes several hours; I have a slow modem.
>    The download status is continually being displayed, and I flip to
>    this screen with a keypress occasionally to see how things are
>    going.

Hmm, I can't do anything about prioritizing tasks, other than deciding what teh
foreground task is.  I'm not sure why I'd download to RAM, but I don't have 
what I think you mean by a recoverable RAMdisk.  (I assume you mean that the
RAMdisk RAM is recoverable by the OS for other tasks.)  The rest of the above 
I do regularly on my Mac (an 030 machine with 5 meg RAM.)

>    On another virtual screen, accessible with a keypress, in a window,
>    one of the just downloaded files being unpacked into a recoverable
>    ram disk directory for repackaging from .zoo to .lharc to save 20%
>    of the storage space.

I can do this too.  The Mac doesn't have the same virtual screen setup that
the Amiga has (I like the way the Amiga does it, but I like the Mac way too.)

>    In another window, a several hour mail merging program is appending
>    newly arrived mail to the nearly 2000 existing mail files on my hard
>    disk; this requires occassional attention from me.

I don't have an analogous task that I do.  I have text indexing program that
continuously updates an index of all the text on my hard disk while the above
stuff is going on.

>    Two small windows controlling formatting the two blank floppies in
>    my disk drive onto which to store the reformatted files.

I can't do this one, but I bulk format all my disks anyway en batch.  When I 
need a blank floppy, I usually want it right away.  Of course, this is just 
another example of changing the way I work to accomodate the limitations of my
machine, but the problem doesn't come up all that often.

>Me? I'm not looking at any of this; I'm either using emacs in a window
>that covers all the others to whip up a control script for the next
>operation, or writing some new code, or, if all is under control for a
>moment, I use the mouse to switch to a third screen, and pick up my
>nethack game in progress. Now, granted, there are a lot of cpu cycles
>being sucked up here, so the nethack motion is a little jerky, but it's
>not a real time game, so that doesn't matter much, and it beats staring
>at a screen waiting for something to finish, in a monotasking machine,
>or whipping from paralyzed program to paralyzed program with a system
>that suspends all but one, or possibly one and a trivial one, processes.

One of the things I miss the most on the Mac is a CLI for scripting.  There are
alternatives, but I don't really like any of them.  I want the scripting built
into the OS, and the Mac isn't gonna get that for a while, unless Microsoft
decides to make a move on the Mac OS.

I just tried a few experiments by loading some games under MultiFinder.  
Stategic Conquest is back  of this window fighting battles (with sound and all
as I type this.  I switch over to SimEarth and can do things while Strategic
Conquest is running the computer opponenet's moves.  I got tired of SimEarth
and loaded Pool of Radiance.  I set Strat Con to Autoplay and played some PoR.

(I'm thinking of upgrading my RAM to 20 meg.  One problem with the Mac is that
it isn't very resource efficient.  I end up filling 5 meg fast and that is
WITHOUT a RAMdisk or a disk cache.)

>Supporting my keypresses is very undemanding on a cpu, in fact is is
>nearly dead idle when I edit a file, yet under vanilla DOS, editing a
>file ties up the entire machine, and when the machine is doing almost
>any other task I need done, it can't find time to serve my keypress and
>editing display needs. The Amiga redresses this imbalance, to my great
>benefit.

There are a bunch of tasks you have to wait for on the Mac, but usually the 
work process can be modified to accomodate those things.  If I have to wait
for a compile or similar task, I can usually do some non-computer task during
that wait.  I can't switch tasks when a modal dialog is displayed (a window 
that requires information), I can't switch tasks, but background tasks still 
run.

I plan on getting an Amiga no matter what, but I want more than just a game
machine, and it is clear that the Amiga is a very cost-effective and efficient
one.  All I need to do now is figure out how it will figure into my computing
enviroment and how best to use it.

The responses I've received have gone a long way towards informing me.  I really
appreciate the help.  

- Allen