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From: jsd@boreal.rice.edu (Shawn Joel Dube)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: How do we change the scheduler? (Was Re: Multitasking at home...)
Message-ID: <1991Jan21.170557.25934@rice.edu>
Date: 21 Jan 91 17:05:57 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> <1991Jan21.101849.13078@eecs.wsu.edu>
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Reply-To: jsd@boreal.rice.edu (Shawn Joel Dube)
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In article <1991Jan21.101849.13078@eecs.wsu.edu>, pcooper@eecs.wsu.edu (Phil Cooper - CS495) 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.

Assuming the chart above is correct, time is allocated to each process equally.
Any idiot can see that Task A gets just as much time as Task B, even if Task A
is simply waiting for a keypress.  

I didn't make the chart, so if it's wrong, don't blame me for spreading false
information.  Blame the person who made the chart.


|> 
|>     Have a nice day...
|>     Phil Cooper

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