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From: leonardr@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: multitasking and IPC (was: System 8
Message-ID: <46100248@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 25 Dec 88 17:51:00 GMT
References: <191309@<1988Dec16>
Lines: 40
Nf-ID: #R:<1988Dec16:191309:uxe.cso.uiuc.edu:46100248:000:2217
Nf-From: uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!leonardr    Dec 25 11:51:00 1988


oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu(David Oster) writes in comp.sys.mac

>In article <877@husc6.harvard.edu> fry@brauer.harvard.edu (David Fry) writes:
>>BUT if you hold the mouse
>>down on a menu or scroll bar, the download will be
>>interrupted.  This is the feature that I think shows the need
>>for pre-emptive MT most clearly.  MultiFinder is super, given
>>what it has to do, but I don't like calling $35/hour telecomm
>>services, and then feeling afraid to scan the menu bar in
>>another application for fear of wasting valuable download
>>money.
>
>o.) A terminal emulator that behaves this way is buggy! Download/Uploads
>can be done quite comfortably at interrupt level, all except file i/o, and
>that can be handled by buffering enough text for a minute or so of mousing
>around.
>
	THIS IS NOT ENTIRELY TRUE!!  I will agree that at normal communication
speeds such as 1200 and 2400 baud, there should be no problem with scanning
the menu bar or scrolling - BUT when using higer speeds such as 9600 and 
19200, you have a MUCH greater chance of timeout or syncing problems during
system actions (MenuSelect, TrackControl, GrowWindow, etc.)!  
	I agree that Pre-emptive MT would solve this problem, but so would rewriting
some/all of these toolbox calls to just call GNE/WNE - since most of them
operate (I assume, never disassembled them) on some type of 'While StillDown()'
loop, putting the GNE/WNE calls in should not disrupt anything but would give
background apps the time they needed.


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