Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!oliveb!sun!pepper!cmcmanis From: cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: Atari-bashing (was Re: Looking for an Evangelist) Message-ID: <84396@sun.uucp> Date: 8 Jan 89 08:32:08 GMT References: <474@ur-cc.UUCP> <6847@spool.cs.wisc.edu> <12835@cup.portal.com> <428@ho7cad.ATT.COM> <3216@sugar.uu.net> <538@stag.math.lsa.umich.edu> Sender: news@sun.uucp Reply-To: cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View Lines: 72 Peter's comments prefaced by } Howard's by > In article <538@stag.math.lsa.umich.edu> (Howard Chu) writes: } }Operating Amiga EXEC none none none }system }(kernel) > You're being somewhat of a bigot here. An operating system manages system > resources on behalf of a user, as a most basic definition. Since all of these > machines have, at the very least, code to allocate memory, control access to > physical devices, etc., then by definition they do have operating systems, > however limited or primitive. My advice is not to get going on this subject, you lose. Under an operating system you ask for something then you use it, one PC's, Mac's and ST's you just use it. For instance, if you want to write write track 0, sector 10 on "non-OS" machine you call the BIOS entry point with some parameters like "Disk in Drive A, Track 0, Sector 10, Data." For the Amiga you have to call OpenDevice() first which will arbitrate your access to the device among other tasks, and then you send your request to the task that is managing the disks. There is a big difference in philosophy. Like memory allocation for instance, you don't have to bother after you know how much is available because no one else is using it. It isn't "bad" that you don't have an OS it just is. It is more like running one big program, parts of it are in ROM and parts of it are in RAM, that is the Mac/ST/PC model. }Multitasking Inherent Third party, Multifinder Windows } partial. Switcher Third party, } partial. >This would follow, given your assertion that the Amiga has an operating system >and none of the other machines do, since multi-tasking is a feature of an >operating system. However, your entries here would tend to conflict with the >previous entry. Too bad. They don't conflict, you just aren't familiar with the terms. Devices and Handlers are separate tasks, each piece of hardware has a device driver associated with it handlers provide the access method. A filesystem is a handler, trackdisk is the floppy disk driver. So in your parlance GemDOS is like the handler and BIOS is like the device driver. The difference being that these are just tasks on the Amiga, currently there are two Handlers for filesystems, the original one and a newer one that hasn't been moved to ROM yet. > Sure, it irks me that I can't pop up Uniterm while I'm compiling > something. Big deal, it doesn't take very long to compile stuff anyway. > Fast filesystems are nice that way. That's also an interesting point > you fail to summarize in your table - the ST and PC disk I/O are > probably the fastest around. And this is where is all breaks down. That second sentence is called a rationalization. When I program I often start up a paint program to design icons, start other compiles, and pass data back and forth between my compiler envrionment and editing environment. Multitasking is a lever that is quite powerful, if it weren't Bill Gates and John Scully wouldn't be trying so damned hard to get it on their systems no? Finally, if you get a chance try the Amiga Fastfilesystem on a Quantum 80S. Try on a freshly formatted one and one that is 80% full. We'll even let you use 16Meg partitions and the Amiga will smoke your eyes. We're talking 800 - 900K bytes/sec transfer rates bud. >Sorry for the length... me too, software wise the Amiga is ways out front. You can also buy a 68020 Amiga today at a dealer near you. Faster than a Mac II and cheaper too. Ask for the 2500. --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.