Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!columbia!rutgers!topaz!eric
From: eric@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU (Eric Lavitsky)
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: Re: Pay for Performance
Message-ID: <6177@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Sat, 11-Oct-86 17:22:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.6177
Posted: Sat Oct 11 17:22:46 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Oct-86 21:59:35 EDT
References: <1904@well.UUCP> <6165@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> <1913@well.UUCP>
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 44

[why aren't there line eaters anymo

> From: tenney@well.UUCP (Glenn S. Tenney)
> 
> Busy waiting, per se, is not ALWAYS a bad thing.  If you are expecting alot
> of interrupts (say tracking a fast-moving mouse) the overhead of wait's
> etc. might slow things down too much.  In the case of DPaint, when you are
> w/in DPaint's window and it busy waits, WHO CARES!  You aren't usually
> multi-tasking at that point, at least not much.  And when you want to
> do something else, you go up to the menu bar which, as someone said,
> uses wait.

Why wouldn't I be multitasking? - if I've got oodles of memory, I
might start up a file transfer in the background and then fool around
in DPaint. A good terminal program will Wait() for characters on the
serial port - if I just happen to leave the mouse on the DPaint screen
and walk away, DPaint will suck cycles that my file transfer could be
using. If anything, DPaint could at least "time out" if it gets no
input for a while and then do a real Wait() ...

> Just remember, there are many considerations.  There may be the "right"
> way to do something, and then the efficient way.  Preformance of the
> application might take precedence to not busy waiting.  Then, there
> are times when you might want to do your own multi-tasking (internally)
> where you may not be able to use wait.
> 

But AmigaDOS provides a task priority mechanism for that purpose -
there is no excuse for not behaving well in a multi-tasking
environment.

> -- Glenn Tenney 
> UUCP: {hplabs,glacier,lll-crg,ihnp4!ptsfa}!well!tenney
> ARPA: well!tenney@LLL-CRG.ARPA        Delphi and MCI Mail: TENNEY
> As Alphonso Bodoya would say... (tnx boulton)
> Disclaimers? DISCLAIMERS!? I don' gotta show you no stinking DISCLAIMERS!

Eric Lavitsky
-- 
ARPA:	LAVITSKY@RUTGERS or LAVITSKY@RED.RUTGERS.EDU
UUCP:	...{ihnp4,pyrnj}!topaz!eric
	...hplabs!well!lavitsky
	...{decvax,seismo,allegra}!ulysses!eric
SNAIL:	629 Cheryl Drive, Iselin, NJ  08830