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From: dtiberio@eeserv1.ic.sunysb.edu (David Tiberio)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Downloading *is* flaky on the Mac
Message-ID: <1991Apr22.005509.6846@sbcs.sunysb.edu>
Date: 22 Apr 91 00:55:09 GMT
References: <1991Apr13.014000.29394@sbcs.sunysb.edu> <3745@ux.acs.umn.edu> <1991Apr16.215821.4081@vax5.cit.cornell.edu>
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Organization: State University of New York at Stony Brook
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In article <1991Apr16.215821.4081@vax5.cit.cornell.edu> umh@vax5.cit.cornell.edu writes:
>In article <3745@ux.acs.umn.edu>,
>oleary@ux.acs.umn.edu (Doc O'Leary) writes: 
>> In article <1991Apr13.014000.29394@sbcs.sunysb.edu> dtiberio@eeserv1.ic.sunysb.edu (David Tiberio) writes:
>> 
>>>  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.
>> 
>> 
>> Something tells me Dave doesn't even own (perhaps never used) a Mac.  Not a

  Of course, I both use and own a Mac Plus and an SE/Superdrive. :)

>> flame, but I wish that kind of misinformation didn't get posted.  While any

  It was not misinformation. I never use Multifinder, because I only have 
2.5 megs of ram and two floppy drives on my Plus (Ithink I tried to use
Multifinder only once on this computer).

  Second, I tested it out again today, while sending some files between two
computers (in the same room via null modem, 19200 baud). I found that opening
a DA temporarily freezes downloading, then severely cripples it. I watched
it drop from 96% to about 56% before I got bored with it.

>> experienced Mac user will know it to be false, there are some new-comers or
>> potential new-comers that will believe it, wasting their time waiting for
>> a download to complete and having, perhaps spreading, a misconception of
>> what a Macintosh can and can't do.
>> 
>
>While the first poster's contention is not quite true, the second poster is
>glossing over the problem. It is simply NOT TRUE that I can set up a background
>download then do what I want on my Mac. There's no way I could then format a
>floppy, or rearrange my harddrive with Sum Utilties, or run any program that
>prevents context switching for long periods- eg load in a 1Meg MS Word file
>then save as text. I susect I would get a timeout even if I simplt tried to
>copy enough files to floppy at once using Finder. Now many of these problems
>are hardware related because Apple would rather leave out autonomous chips on
>the motherboard than break into their 50% profit margin, and they could not be
>cured no matter how wonderful the OS, but they are real problems. On a Sun I
>don't have to watch each thing I do while using a modem to ensure that transfer
>is not aborted- on my Mac I do.
>
>Also rather than screaming at this poor guy, remember that we all have
>different Macs. When I was using an SE and that SLOW hard drive Apple provide
>with it I could do practically nothing while downloading- timeout was too easy.
>Moving to a much faster hard drive made things better, as did moving to an
>SE/30. Additionally some protocols are more robust than others. Xterm seems
>very quick to die on one, while Kermit is very robust. I imagine timeout
>periods are also settable by each individual BBS etc. Maybe Dave has been
>having experience with BBSs which have their X or Zmodem timeouts set much
>lower tha the BBSs Doc uses.
>
>Maynard Handley


-- 
    David Tiberio  SUNY Stony Brook 2-3481  AMIGA  DDD-MEN  Tomas Arce 
           Any students from SUNY Oswego? Please let me know! :)

                   Un ragazzo di Casalbordino, Italia.