Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!lethe!yunexus!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!usc!apple!claris!outpost.UUCP!peirce From: peirce@outpost.UUCP (Michael Peirce) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system Subject: Re: True Multitasking Message-ID: <0B010004.4ldrhg@outpost.UUCP> Date: 15 Jan 91 19:03:30 GMT Reply-To: peirce@outpost.UUCP Organization: Peirce Software Lines: 45 X-Mailer: uAccess - Mac Release: 1.0.3 In article , kkirksey@eng.auburn.edu (Kenneth B. Kirksey) writes: > > Can somebody please tell me why Apple has yet to implement TRUE multitasking > in the system software? I know that it's really not that hard of a task, > especially since the amiga has had it for quite some time. Is there a valid > reason for not doing it? I'm really curious It's obvious, Apple is trying to keep good technology out of the hands of their customers and make life harder for them (lots of :-)! ) Seriously, this has been beat into the ground before. Apple, for all its faults, tries very hard to protect its customer's software investment. This means that they don't try to break existing software (though they sometimes fail at this of course). This means that major changes in basic architecture are hard to do (you can't just take away GetNextEvent!). Another point is that the current, cooperative multitasking, WORKS VERY WELL FOR MOST USERS. Maybe it falls down if you want to run a ray tracer and compute pi to 10000000 places and still play solarian at the same time. But for the guy who wants to run Word and MacDraw and PageMaker concurrently it works great. Even more demanding users (like me :-) ) find it quite workable. For example, right now, using good old cooperative multitasking I'm running MacWrite II writing a letter. I have a clock blinking up in the right hand corner of the screen. I'm also running uAccess. It dials up another uucp machine every hour, transfers mail & news and signals me when there's something new. I can even be downloading a file using America Online at the same time using another serial line. All while I'm busily working on my letter. Sure seems like MultiTasking to me! Frankly, I rather they got FileSharing and TrueType fontsworking before they further improve their multitasking. -- michael -- Michael Peirce -- outpost!peirce@claris.com -- Peirce Software -- Suite 301, 719 Hibiscus Place -- Macintosh Programming -- San Jose, California 95117 -- & Consulting -- (408) 244-6554, AppleLink: PEIRCE