Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!shadooby!eecae!netnews.upenn.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: multitasking, softswitch, etc.
Message-ID: <9949@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 30 Mar 89 02:50:12 GMT
References: <8903181259.aa27052@SMOKE.BRL.MIL> <10183@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 12

In article <10183@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> dcw@athena.mit.edu (David C. Whitney) writes:
>multitasking environment on my //GS, I *know* that it can't be done within
>any reasonable degree of efficiency.
[followed by stuff about the Mac II PMMU]

The only serious problem with multitasking the IIGS (in 16-bit mode)
is that a context switch involves saving quite a bit of state, for
example the direct page.  The lack of memory protection is a nuisance
only if tasks run amok; so long as they are well-behaved the ToolBox
memory management should suffice.  Remember, executables are relocated
as they are loaded, into memory assigned by the centralized memory
manager.  That automatically takes care of the hardest part.