Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!emory!gatech!udel!princeton!set!bskendig From: bskendig@set.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system Subject: Re: All about sys 7.0 Message-ID: <7618@idunno.Princeton.EDU> Date: 28 Mar 91 08:09:26 GMT References: <1991Mar26.174540.8425@xn.ll.mit.edu> <1991Mar27.163059.27061@fwi.uva.nl> Sender: news@idunno.Princeton.EDU Organization: Starfleet Academy: Princeton University Lines: 48 In article <1991Mar27.163059.27061@fwi.uva.nl> freek@fwi.uva.nl (Freek Wiedijk) writes: >The mac is not multitasking iff it is showing a watch cursor. >Question: Did you ever see a watch cursor on the mac. >If so: that mac was not multitasking at that moment. Oh, puh-LEAZE. You can have a loop in your program that does some tight calculations. You can set the cursor to be a stopwatch. Then when you call either "GetNextEvent(); SystemTask();" or "WaitNextEvent();" in your loop, the Mac operating system will be given a slice of time to do things like update windows (such as the alarm clock), do some work in other programs (such as unstuffing with Stuffit in the background), process AppleTalk messages, and so on. This argument over multitasking is getting really ludicrous, now. Do you want to open up MacWrite II, SuperPaint, HyperCard, and a few other applications, then have your work in Microsoft Excel be slowed to a crawl as your Macintosh takes time out every few milliseconds to make sure MacWrite II hasn't suddenly developed a need to do something? Preemptive multitasking means that the more applications you have open, the slower your machine will go; the benefit, of course, is that you can have things go on in the background. The way the Macintosh is designed, you can only really work in one application at a time (which isn't a problem, because very few people if any can type a report and enter figures into a spreadsheet simultaneously). Wouldn't you rather have the system devote all its time to the program you're working in right now? Okay, so there are a few times when it woud be nice to have processes run in the background: when you're downloading files, for instance, or unstuffing lots of archives, or so on. It's not impossible -- it's already been done! And System 7.0 will bring it even further by letting you work in other applications while the Finder performs long tasks such as copying files, by introducing semimodal dialogs. >BTW: did you know that the watch cursor contains a HUGE bug: >either it indicates nine o'clock (which it isn't), or it spins like crazy. >Why can't it show the proper time? I figure you forgot to put a smiley in there. << Brian >> | Brian S. Kendig \ Macintosh | Engineering, | bskendig | | Computer Engineering |\ Thought | USS Enterprise | @phoenix.Princeton.EDU | Princeton University |_\ Police | -= NCC-1701-D =- | @PUCC.BITNET | "It's not that I don't HAVE the work to *do* -- I don't DO the work I *have*."