Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!hobbes.physics.uiowa.edu!news.iastate.edu!vaxf.iastate.edu!TAAB5 From: taab5@isuvax.iastate.edu (Marc Barrett) Subject: Re: De-macification of the Amiga (Re: The Amiga's Future) Message-ID: <1991Jun25.221925.11815@news.iastate.edu> Sender: news@news.iastate.edu (USENET News System) Reply-To: taab5@isuvax.iastate.edu Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA. References: ,<13420@uwm.edu> Date: Tue, 25 Jun 1991 22:19:25 GMT Lines: 52 In article <13420@uwm.edu>, gblock@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Gregory R Block) writes: >From article , by chuck@brain.UUCP (Chuck Shotton): >> >> In article <43643@cup.portal.com>, morris-ng@cup.portal.com (Yuklung Morris Ng) writes: >>> Oh, Amiga DOES NOT need a lot of desktop space compared to Mac, as we have >>> screens, which a lot of Mac users still not quite understand... >>> >> >> Well, that shows what a wonderfully intuitve box the Amiga is, doesn't it? > >Actually, yes. Either that, or it shows that MultiFinder is >counterintuitive, because it is quite similar... Multifinder is very distantly similar. On an Amiga, you can have as many screens as chip RAM can hold, and switching between them is very rapid any uses essentially zero processor time. On a MAC, it is fun to run a program like StuffIt and then switch to the Finder. It can take the OS as much as half a minute to redraw the desktop, even on a MAC SE/30. The MAC does NOT have multiple screen capability. It has software almost-virtual-multiple-screens-loaded-from-disk. When you switch to a different application's "screen" under multifinder, the current screen is saved to disk and the screen of the application is loaded from disk. The MAC has only one area of memory reserved for the display, and this area is wiped and redrawn when you switch applications under multifinder. On the Amiga, you have truly seperate areas of memory reserved for each screen, allocated in a dynamic fashion. When a new screen is created, a new area of chip RAM is set aside for that screen. A single hardware register determines which screen is the frontmost screen, and other registers determine how the screens are 'layored'. For an everyday description, the Amiga's multiple screens is like having multiple pieces of paper in a pile, and bringing the sheet of paper on the bottom of the pile to the top is easy. The MAC is analogous to having only a single piece of paper, that has to be erased and redrawn. > >Greg >-- >Socrates: "I drank WHAT????" >LMFAP: "Next time you see me, it won't be me." >Wubba: "A dream is nothing more than a wish dipped in chocolate and sprinkled >with a little imagination." (From my poem, "A Dream") -Wubba ------------------------------------------------------------- / Marc Barrett -MB- | BITNET: XGR39@ISUVAX.BITNET / / ISU COM S Student | Internet: XGR39@CCVAX.IASTATE.EDU / ------------------------------------------------------------ \ The great thing about standards is that / \ there are so many of them to choose from. / -------------------------------------------------------