Xref: utzoo comp.sys.atari.st:6485 comp.sys.amiga:11830
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!uwmcsd1!marque!gryphon!crash!pnet01!haitex
From: haitex@pnet01.cts.com (Wade Bickel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st,comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Multi-tasking? A nightmare...
Message-ID: <2168@crash.cts.com>
Date: 20 Dec 87 10:56:29 GMT
Sender: news@crash.cts.com
Organization: People-Net [pnet01], El Cajon, CA
Lines: 68


pes@ux63.bath.ac.uk (Smee) writes:
>
>Time for a bit of heresy, I thought.  I'm well aware of what multi-tasking
>does and doesn't do for you.  I use it all the time on the mini's and
>mainframes at work.  Nice.
>
>But, I question its usefulness (and even desireability) on typical 'home
>computers' in a 'home' environment -- and let's face it, that's where most
>of the Amigas and Ataris sold end up.  What I am questioning is TRUE
>multi-tasking.  I've got no argument with 'carousels' of suspended programs,
>and no problem with resident background interrupt handlers, such as print
>spoolers.
>
>So, what's my problem?  Well, I think that the usenet bunch is unrepresentative
>of your 'standard canonical' machine owner.  Most of the machines out there
>are going to be basic one or two floppy systems (including mine -- I'll just
>mention in passing, that with present pricing, the cheapest way for me to
>get a hard disk, by far, would be to buy a clone of an IBM PC -- and, they'd
>throw in the 'computer' free :-).
>
>I have an image of telling my machine 'make fred', and then letting it get on
>with it while I do a bit of word-processing, or whatever.  Only to be hit
>milliseconds later with an alert box:
>
>       BACKGROUND COMPILATION NEEDS LIBRARY DISK
>       PLEASE INSERT LIBRARY DISK INTO DRIVE B
>
>and, a second or two after I do that:
>
>       FOREGROUND PROCESS NEEDS AUTO-SAVE DISK
>       PLEASE INSERT DISK INTO DRIVE B
>
>and so on, ad infinitum.  Doesn't feel profitable somehow, and definitely
>full of space for making nasty mistakes in the disk swapping.
>
>I can't think of *any* two tasks which I do on my home machine which
>take enough time to make m/p profitable, and which could co-exist sensibly
>with only two floppy drives.  I suspect (OPINION, MINE, MY VERY OWN) that
>the same is true of the usage patterns of MOST home machines -- and, again,
>I emphasize that I think this present group is unrepresentative, and very
>much a minority.
>
>(And, maybe I'll feel differently if I ever manage to save enough pennies
>to buy a hard disk -- or, maybe even a couple of Meg of RAMDISK would do.)



                1)      Buy some RAM

                2)      Place your needed libraries and such in your
                          new RAM.

                3)      Multi-task without errors.

                4)      Write programs which use multi-tasking to
                          simplifiy design.

                5)      Remember, what the few want today, the masses
                          can't live without tomarrow!


                                                    - Wade.


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