Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jarthur!wilkins From: wilkins@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Mark Wilkins) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system Subject: Re: All about sys 7.0 Message-ID: <11391@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> Date: 26 Mar 91 09:19:12 GMT References: <1991Mar21.095051.29206@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> <593@genco.bungi.com> Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711 Lines: 79 In article <593@genco.bungi.com> rad@genco.bungi.com (Bob Daniel) writes: >This makes me squirm a bit that Apple says MF is multitasking. At best, MF >is multiapplication. Try bringing up a dialog and watch all background >processes come to a hault. Background processes keep going when a dialog is up, except in some very rare cases where the dialog doesn't check for user input. Otherwise they proceed as usual. > Try pulling down a menu bar (even under Sys7) >and watch everything stop. Very true. This is a difficult problem to fix, I suspect, but we shouldn't give up hope that someone at Apple is working on a solution. >During a download, pull up a dialog from another >application and watch the download come to a hault and eventually cancel out. Again, dialogs usually don't interrupt anything at all. I experimented extensively with this just now to make sure. >While an application has a progress dialog up, try putting it in the >background and pull up something else. This is a problem under System 6 but application developers have the opportunity to deal with it in System 7 and most do. >I like MF alot and I like Sys7 a whole lot but it bothers me that Apple >would consider MF to be multitasking (even if you consider it to be, it >isn't very cooperative). Making a statement like that makes it appear >that they don't need to improve the multitaskiness of the Mac. I think it's really not good to assume that just because Apple calls the Mac multitasking (which it really is -- I've run Mathematica calculations, downloads, and a Go game with my computer all at once, on occasion) that Apple isn't working on improving it. The flaws in the current multitasking environment are well-known, freely admitted, and are almost certainly being worked on. It's just a difficult problem to solve without breaking everything all at once. I believe that the current strategy is to break things little by little so that it doesn't hurt as much. :-) >Maybe it's just that I'm spoiled with UNIX, but that statement does make >me squirm. I hope Sys8 will address the issues I've mentioned. I feel >it should not be up to the developer to be responsible for the >"multitaskiness" and that it should be controlled from the operating >system. Sys8 could compete with OS/2 and UNIX if it was capable of >preemptive multitasking. The Macintosh, just like a UNIX system, requires the developer to code in certain ways in order to make a program run in a friendly way under a multitasking environment. With the Mac, you need to make certain system calls regularly. With UNIX you need to watch your resource usage in certain ways. When you fail to follow either rule, your results will be about the same in either environment. I don't claim it's easy to program a Mac application in a MultiFinder friendly way, although it's not all that hard. However, commercial software authors are motivated to do what it takes to make a Mac program MultiFinder friendly, and so most programs out there are. If you're a programmer, then you may feel far more strongly than the typical advanced Mac owner, but you shouldn't mistake your concerns for those of the whole community, most of which is far more interested in backward compatibility than an immediate jump to a preemptive multitasking system with no regard to how much existing software breaks. >I'd like to hear unflammable comments... I hope I didn't seem harsh. In any case, you're not alone in your views and I'm sure the engineers at Apple know this. >moof moof, >Bob Daniel >rad@genco.uucp -- Mark Wilkins -- ******* "Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitude!" ********** *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------* * Mark R. Wilkins wilkins@jarthur.claremont.edu {uunet}!jarthur!wilkins * ****** MARK.WILKINS on AppleLink ****** MWilkins on America Online ******