Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!bloom-beacon!deccrl!news.crl.dec.com!pa.dec.com!granite.pa.dec.com!mwm From: mwm@fenris.relay.pa.dec.com (Mike (My Watch Has Windows) Meyer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Multitasking at home is great!! (Was Reality check: ....) Message-ID: Date: 6 Jan 91 06:59:18 GMT References: <1990Dec13.155848.8152@maytag.waterloo.edu> <1990Dec22.082240.2443@news.iastate.edu> <26060@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> Sender: news@pa.dec.com (News) Organization: Missionaria Phonibalonica Lines: 27 In-Reply-To: cr1@beach.cis.ufl.edu's message of 22 Dec 90 22:18:29 GMT In article <26060@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> cr1@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Anubis) writes: I've heard Amiga's multitasking defined in so many ways it makes my head spin. Now, I have a general idea of how things work, but could someone with a good grasp on the topic please explain to me exactly how Amiga's multitasking works, and why it can be given the honored term 'true multitasking' ? Sigh. The term "true multitasking" was born of immature Amiga users being worried that their machine would lose some of it's "superiority" over other machines that had been single tasking before, but recently acquired a non-preemptive multitasking. It's use implies that non-preemptive multitasking is somehow "fake" or "false". This is no more true than the claim that the Isetta isn't a car because it uses a motercycle engine. Non-preemptive multitasking is every bit as much "true multitasking" as preemptive multitasking. The only thing that makes preemptive multitasking deserving of the word "true" is some Amiga users need for reassurance that they bought the best machine in the world. The world would be a better place - and the image of Amiga users would improve - if Amiga users forgot the phrase "true multitasking", and used the correct one: "preemptive multitasking".