Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!ukma!rutgers!sdcsvax!ucbvax!UMass.BITNET!SARGON
From: SARGON@UMass.BITNET
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: A different view on multitasking.
Message-ID: <8712241627375A7.AJJY@Mars.UCC.UMass.EDU>
Date: 24 Dec 87 22:25:29 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 35

In light of the humorous (if not entirely short sighted) notes on the
usefulness of multitasking to the "average" microcomputer user I thought
Id toss in some historically relevant views..

  1.  A microcomputer user will never need anything more than a few
      cassette tapes to hold his work.

  2.  A microcomputer user will never need anything but a TV set to display
      information from a computer.

  3.  A microcomputer user will never need even as much as 64K of memory.

  4.  A microcomputer user will never need a language other than interpretive
      BASIC to perform any task.

Last time I heard the Atari 1040ST came with an 800K floppy disk drive,
requires a monitor (as Atari didnt put the modulator in there), comes
stock with 1MB of RAM and doesnt come stock with BASIC.  Does this make
the designers at Atari morons for putting in such useless junk?  I think
not.

Finally, your "average" user of a modern microcomputer (this gets rid of
the Apple II and C64 crowds) is more likely to be in a business or higher
education setting than in the kitchen as a $x000 recipie file.  Both of
these areas are demanding the ability to share and distribute information.
This means networks.  Networks need software drivers that requires a
certain degree of multitasking.  Im sure Atari the self proclaimed
"vertically integrated" computer maker will be (or hopefully IS) working
on both multitasking and networking.  The 286/386 and the 030 all have
memory management hardware whether you use it or not.  Why not use it?
-Steve
ccccccccccc
Stephen Halpin               Sargon@UMass.BITNET
PO Box 241
Amherst, MA  01004-0241