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From: pcooper@eecs.wsu.edu (Phil Cooper - CS495)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: How do we change the scheduler? (Was Re: Multitasking at home...)
Message-ID: <1991Jan21.101849.13078@eecs.wsu.edu>
Date: 21 Jan 91 10:18:49 GMT
References: <1991Jan18.231330.16290@Neon.Stanford.EDU> <7553@sugar.hackercorp.com> <1991Jan21.004720.25985@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> <12880@life.ai.mit.edu> <1991Jan21.055854.14130@rice.edu>
Reply-To: pcooper@yoda.UUCP (Phil Cooper - CS495)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Washington State University, Pullman
Lines: 34

In article <1991Jan21.055854.14130@rice.edu> jsd@wahoo.rice.edu (Shawn Joel Dube) writes:
>In article <12880@life.ai.mit.edu>, rjc@geech.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell) writes:
>|> 
>|> *=Cycle
>|> 
>|>   Amiga   Time --->
>|> Task A  |********        ********        ********        ********>
>|> Task B  |        ********        ********        ********        >
>|> 
>|>   Mac   
>|> Task A  |*****               **     ****** *************  **  ***>
>|> Task B  |     ***************  *****      *             **  **   >
>|> 
> 
>Nice chart.
>
>|>  In my own opinion cooperative multitasking is not multitasking, simply
>|> because its not very transparent. 
>
>Seriously, I think cooperative is better. Take the following for example:
>Two task are running.  One is waiting on a keypress (via OS subroutine)
>and the other is doing some serious number-crunching.  With the Amiga, valuable
>time is being spent doing nothing (waiting for a keypress).  

    Of course, this is just wrong...  If one task is waiting on a key press,
no CPU time is consumed by it.  If the program is written correctly (without
a polling loop or some such nonsense), it merely waits.  When the key is 
pressed, the task is signalled and it continues.  So, as you can see, no time
is being wasted.  Also, please check your facts before posting trash like this.
It really angers me (and others) when misinformation is spread under the
pretense of truth.

    Have a nice day...
    Phil Cooper