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From: awessels@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Allen Wessels)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: How do we change the scheduler? (Was Re: Multitasking at home...)
Message-ID: <43011@ut-emx.uucp>
Date: 23 Jan 91 16:37:48 GMT
References: <1991Jan21.221744.5966@rice.edu> <1991Jan22.183746.27565@rice.edu> <1991Jan22.200035.29996@rice.edu> <1991Jan23.044023.4829@NCoast.ORG>
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Reply-To: awessels@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Allen Wessels)
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin
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In article <1991Jan23.044023.4829@NCoast.ORG> davewt@NCoast.ORG (David Wright) writes:
>ASK to do so, whereas on the Mac you must specifically ALLOW a task switch
>(outside of system calls).

Some people out there may get the impression that Mac programmers somehow 
constantly have to remind themselves of this requirement.  It is second nature
for most of them.  You take as much CPU as you need and you pass it on.

>	Hogwash. The older the Mac program is, the more likely it is to use
>busy loops for timing (many games for the Mac won't run correctly on

Well, the other day I accidentally launched MacWrite 1.0 (1984) on this Mac IIsi
and it ran just fine (I'm using multifinder.)

>faster machines. I know. Running them under AMax II on my 25Mhz 030 many
>are unplayable because the programmer was to [lazy|stupid|ignorant] to
>do timing via a hardware clock.) And under MultiFinder (which I use

It is a bad habit, but one I've seen in programs for many machines.  If, for 
some reason, you WANT to play those games, check out either Sludge or 
SpeedChopper.  They'll waste CPU time until things are slow enough for you.

>	As another example of the brain-deadness of MultiFinder, consider
>that you have to stop MultiFinder to make a system file change, then restart
>all the applications you have running. This is rediculous. On the Amiga you
>can change any system preference, and not only do things continue to operate,
>but any program that wants to know about the changes can be automatically
>notified, and start taking advantage of them right away.

Exactly what changes are you thinking of?  I can add and remove DAs with Font/
DA Mover, and fonts with another utility.  Some applications don't check to see
if the system config has changed (and, as far as I know there isn't a way to 
notify them of this change), but they CAN do it.

Just as an example, while running this term session I ran ResEdit, opened the 
System file, added an FKEY and saved the change.  The FKEY was immediately
available.  At the very least, I didn't "have" to stop MultiFinder or restart
the term session.

What kinds of System preferences are you talking about on the Amiga?  I don't
know what the analagous (if they exist) examples would be on the Mac.  Most 
preferences I normally change are in the Control Panel.