Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ulowell!page
From: page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: simple multitasking examples
Message-ID: <11717@swan.ulowell.edu>
Date: 14 Feb 89 14:53:32 GMT
References: <8662@louie.udel.EDU> <333@gtss.gatech.edu>
Reply-To: page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page)
Organization: University of Lowell, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 28

Forget about foreground vs background; any PC weenie with a hotkey
program and some knowledge of TSR & interrupts can do that.  Saying
"it can be done easier on an Amiga" won't impress anyone.

Many people miss one of the major points of multitasking, and that's
having software modules communicate with each other via message
passing (I'm not talking about AREXX).  It makes for software that's
very flexible (easy to replace one or more modules), expandable, and
small ... you only use what you need, and you can share modules
among different processes.

However, I doubt the single-tasker's will care much about this either.
You have to experience it to like it.  I have a friend with an Atari
ST who uses it for music.  He's got the Dr.T's package, which has a
"Multi-Program Environment" ... lets you load and run different
packages at the same time, like load your compositional tool and a
couple of patch editors while your sequencer is running, and they can
all talk to each other.  He thinks its great, and one day said to me
"even the Amiga doesn't have MPE!".  I told him it really did have it,
just that Commodore/Amiga bundles it in with every Amiga sold, and it
works on more than just the Dr. T's stuff.

..Bob


-- 
Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept.  page@swan.ulowell.edu  ulowell!page
Have five nice days.