Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!pa.dec.com!bacchus!mwm From: mwm@raven.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: 7 Jan 91 21:48:17 GMT References: <1990Dec13.155848.8152@maytag.waterloo.edu> <1990Dec22.082240.2443@news.iastate.edu> <26060@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <17193@cbmvax.commodore.com> Sender: news@pa.dec.com (News) Organization: Missionaria Phonibalonica Lines: 45 In-Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com's message of 7 Jan 91 20:34:28 GMT In article <17193@cbmvax.commodore.com> daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) writes: 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. So what's your point? I first saw the term "true multitasking" show up when the Mac & IBM worlds got non-preemptive multitasking; and always from Amiga users stating how the Amiga version was better than the other guys (it is, but implying that alternative is in some way not multitasking isn't the way to prove it). >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. So how does any of this make non-preemptive multitasking not "true" Note to Peter Kittel: Hey, this is the San Francisco Bay Area! We've got more than one Isetta on the roads around here. Plus a couple of Deux Chevron's, as well as other oddball cars. I'm still waiting to spot a 170H, though. What's interesting is that many of these cars have stickers in the window explaining what they are, including some history and pointers to the appropriate clubs. Parking an Isetta perpendicularly between to cars parked parallel attracts attention to it - especially in the Bay Area.