Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uwm.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!daveh From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Multitasking at home is great!! (Was Reality check: ....) Message-ID: <17193@cbmvax.commodore.com> Date: 7 Jan 91 20:34:28 GMT References: <1990Dec13.155848.8152@maytag.waterloo.edu> <1990Dec22.082240.2443@news.iastate.edu> <26060@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA Lines: 38 In article mwm@fenris.relay.pa.dec.com (Mike (My Watch Has Windows) Meyer) writes: >In article <26060@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> cr1@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Anubis) writes: > ..and why it can be given the honored term 'true multitasking' ? >Sigh. The term "true multitasking" was born of immature Amiga users.. It's much more far reaching than that. For example, Personal Workstation magazine equates "true" with "preemptive" in much of their writings on 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. That's silly. Preemptive multitasking has quite a few advantages, and few disadvantages, over non-preemptive multitasking. I have seen a few limited cases where non-preemptive multitasking makes some real sense, but in most cases, it is the wrong solution. It makes the job of task switching dependent on the application program being well behaved, which is just as flawed as moving any other OS job, such as graphics support, memory management, etc. into user programs. >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". I do agree, anyway, that it would be technically correct for Amiga users to say that. However, it is far from an Amigaizm to equate the two. >