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From: freek@fwi.uva.nl (Freek Wiedijk)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: All about sys 7.0 <long>
Message-ID: <1991Mar28.163655.6496@fwi.uva.nl>
Date: 28 Mar 91 16:36:55 GMT
References: <1991Mar26.174540.8425@xn.ll.mit.edu> <1991Mar27.163059.27061@fwi.uva.nl> <7618@idunno.Princeton.EDU>
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bskendig@set.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig) writes:

>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.

If you're thinking as a computer scientist you're right: the process
scheduler is still active while the cursor is a watch (though I think
that this won't be the case in REAL applications, which probably won't
call Get/WaitNextEvent during lenghty operations).

However, thinking as a USER, you're wrong.  If I see a watch cursor
I can not switch contexts (i.e. multitask); at least I would expect
this not to be possible.

I mean: under UNIX I can always say ^Z.  But on the Mac, no.  Now,
don't get me wrong: I prefer the Mac to UNIX.

>>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.

No.  Did you never see my INIT "Watch It!"?

Freek "the Pistol Major" Wiedijk                      E-mail: freek@fwi.uva.nl
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