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From: jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz (John Bickers)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: TYpeahead implementations (Re: How do we change the scheduler? (Was Re: Multitasking at home...))
Message-ID: <10856.tnews@templar.actrix.gen.nz>
Date: 31 Jan 91 00:04:55 GMT
References: <17210@cbmvax.commodore. <yorkw.663963975@stable.ecn.purdue.edu> <10640.tnews@templar.actrix.gen.nz> <7643@sugar.hackercorp.com>
Organization: TAP, NZAmigaUG.
Lines: 34

Quoted from <7643@sugar.hackercorp.com> by peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva):
> In article <10640.tnews@templar.actrix.gen.nz>, jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz (John Bickers) writes:

> >     that one can type ahead while an application is loading (due to
> >     good olde single-tasking), and have the keystrokes go to that
> >     application.

> Nothing to do with single-tasking. You can do the same thing on any system,
> including the Amiga, when the program doesn't explicitly flush typeahead.

    True, it's more to do with the way input works than whether the
    system multitasks or not, but on the Amiga flushing typeahead has
    nothing to do with this problem. Suppose I start MicroEMACS from
    a WShell, and while it is loading from my slow HD I hit M-G124 to
    go to line 124... under MS-DOS these keystrokes go to MicroEMACS.

    On the Amiga, they go to WShell. On a single-tasking system, the
    input is much more likely to behave in an unshared way like MS-DOS,
    which is the basis of my statement above. Under programs that
    continued to take input from the console they were started from (ie:
    stayed within a single task), you'd be correct. Very few programs
    I use do this.

    This has proven to be useful in Real Life - one of the MS-DOS things
    I maintain has a log on screen, and users rapidly learn to enter
    all the keystrokes necessary to get through this screen before the
    screen even appears. While upgrading one of the libraries the thing
    uses, typeahead started getting thrown away - the users noticed and
    comlained quickly.

> Peter da Silva.   `-_-'
--
*** John Bickers, TAP, NZAmigaUG.        jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz ***
***         "Patterns multiplying, re-direct our view" - Devo.          ***