Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!spool.mu.edu!cs.umn.edu!ux.acs.umn.edu!oleary
From: oleary@ux.acs.umn.edu (Doc O'Leary)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Apple HW & SW questions
Message-ID: <4123@ux.acs.umn.edu>
Date: 13 Jun 91 23:57:28 GMT
Article-I.D.: ux.4123
References: <1991Jun13.221640.11341@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu>
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Minnesota, Academic Computing Services
Lines: 61

Well, I didn't want to respond to this and start a flame war, but I'm in
a responding kind of mood.


In article <superhugelongnumber> soeryant@frith.msu.edu writes:

>I have often heard that the MacOS is not a TRUE MULTITASKING one.
>On the other hand UNIX is. Can someone explain the difference to
>me in layman's terms?

OK, layman's terms.  Let me use an analogy with cars (most laymen know
cars better than they know computers).  You know how some cars have manual
transmission and some have automatic?  With a manual transmission, the
car runs in the gear you want it to, but with automatic the cars runs in
the gear the car wants to.  I had a friend that had a nice pickup truck
with automatic transmission.  The only problem was that, on the highway,
the truck would often shift gears around the 65mph speed limit.  At 64 it
would shift down; at 65 it would shift up.  My friend doesn't like to break
the law, so he tried to keep it around 65, but found it difficult because
the truck was doing all of that shifting.

"True" multitasking is like an automatic transmission, it will shift (allow
programs you're not currently working on to steal CPU time) on you when you
would rather it didn't.  Co-operative multitasking (like the Mac has) is like
manual transmission, letting you use more of the CPU for the task you're
actually doing.

>I've also heard that the MacOS (running on 68030 and 68040) not 
>being TRUE MULTITASKING is not Motorola chip's fault but Mac ROM's.
>After all Suns use 68020/68030...?

The Macintosh is a user-friendly computer, thus the OS was designed in
such a way as to allow the process the user is working on more CPU time,
since the user will often need feedback when doing something (it is not
user-friendly if you move your mouse and the cursor positon doesn't update
quickly because some process in the background decided it need a huge chunk
of CPU time).  This is not in the ROM, but is part of the well-designed OS.

>Is this true, and why isn't Apple improving upon it. Instead of
>putting 68040 in new machines (as rumoured) Apple should instead
>concentrate in making its existing machines a TRUE MULTITASKING one
>to compete with Sun/HP/Apollo folks (and making me very happy).
>Agreed?
>
>Herr Soryantono

Herr, Herr, beautiful Herr :-).  An SE or Classic with an 8MHz 68000 processor
is not a workstation, nor does Apple try to market them as workstations.
They are PERSONal computers.  Note the PERSON.  That is part of the equation,
you know.  Or do you . . .

         ---------   Doc


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