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From: gardner@prls.UUCP (Robert Gardner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st,comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Multi-tasking? A nightmare...
Message-ID: <8155@prls.UUCP>
Date: 21 Dec 87 23:29:49 GMT
References: <2027@bath63.ux63.bath.ac.uk> <22237@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: gardner@prls.UUCP (Robert Gardner)
Organization: Philips Research Labs, Sunnyvale, California
Lines: 22

>In article <2027@bath63.ux63.bath.ac.uk> pes@ux63.bath.ac.uk (Smee) writes:
>>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.

This whole discussion has generated a lot of heated arguments, mostly
from Amiga users who enjoy being able to multi-task, giving example
after example of how nice multitasking is.

However, practically EVERY argument given FOR multi-tasking can be
satisfied by the 'carousel' approach that the original poster acknowledged
were a good idea.

I'm still waiting to see if someone can come up with a use for TRUE
multitasking that a typical home user would find very handy but that
cannot be satisfied by a simple 'carousel' approach. There probably
are some, especially with message-passing, etc., but none have been
posted yet (except for people waiting for their compilers to finish --
they just need faster integrated compilers, though :)

Robert Gardner