Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ncar!gatech!mephisto.gatech.edu!ashwin
From: ashwin@gatech.edu (Ashwin Ram)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Multitasking =/=> Background printing, copying, etc.?
Message-ID: <1441@mephisto.edu>
Date: 24 May 91 13:56:59 GMT
Sender: news@gatech.edu
Reply-To: ashwin@cc.gatech.edu (Ashwin Ram)
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Computing
Lines: 20

Given that system 7 has "multitasking" and the "new print architecture", I
would expect to be able to print in the background.  After all, printing is
just another task like anything else, right?  Even without a spooler, I would
expect to be able to put the application that is printing into the background
and work on something else, just like I can do with any other task.

Similarly, I would also expect file copying, disk formatting, etc. to be
backgroundable.  Again, these are just tasks like any other tasks.

I'm wrong.  It doesn't work.

Can someone explain why this doesn't happen under system 7?  Have I
configured my upgrade wrong, or is there some reason that printing, copying
and formatting are different from all other types of tasks?  (Seems weird if
that is so... regular multitasking machines (e.g., Unix machines) run these
as standard processes that respond to standard job control operations.)

Thanks,

-- Ashwin (ashwin@cc.gatech.edu)