Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!ogicse!milton!phaedrus From: phaedrus@milton.u.washington.edu (Mark Phaedrus) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system Subject: Re: All about sys 7.0 Message-ID: <1991Apr13.072332.23634@milton.u.washington.edu> Date: 13 Apr 91 07:23:32 GMT Article-I.D.: milton.1991Apr13.072332.23634 References: <91087.123233EHYOUNK@MTUS5.BITNET> <1991Apr2.024426.28729@isc.rit.edu> <1991Apr13.014000.29394@sbcs.sunysb.edu> Organization: University of Washington, Seattle Lines: 32 In article <1991Apr13.014000.29394@sbcs.sunysb.edu> dtiberio@eeserv1.ic.sunysb.edu (David Tiberio) writes: > If you really want to learn a lot about multitasking, you should try to >find someone who has a true multitasking computer, annd then compare it to >thge multifinder or system 7. Oh, great, here goes the "What is true multitasking?" flamewar again. I'm not even going to touch this one... > For example, open up a terminal program, such as ZTerm. Then start sending >a big file. Next, open a DA. The terminal will stop sending. In fact, even >by selecting a menu or the title bar of a window you will freeze the terminal >sending process. This is not good. Given any computer system anywhere, I'll wager any amount of money that I can point out a lousy program that runs on it. :) Just because one program has trouble coping with MultiFinder does not mean that there's something terminally wrong with MultiFinder. To cite a counterexample to your example, I've been downloading programs from this mainframe to my Mac all night long, and "pipelining" the process of assembling them. That is, having White Knight downloading files from the mainframe using ZMODEM (at 2400 baud, at 95+% efficiency), using the Vantage DA to preserve interesting stuff from the headers and paste the occasional multi-part file together, using StuffIt or Compactor to unbinhex and unpack the files, and then running them to see what they do. Several times, I had White Knight downloading, StuffIt and Compactor each working on a file while I tried out a new stack in HyperCard 2, and I never had a single problem with the downloads. This certainly seems like multitasking to me... -- Internet: phaedrus@u.washington.edu (University of Washington, Seattle) The views expressed here are not those of this station or its management. "If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs,