Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!hpda!motcsd!xdos!doug
From: doug@xdos.UUCP (Doug Merritt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Grrrr....BCPL.....
Message-ID: <268@xdos.UUCP>
Date: 7 May 89 18:17:36 GMT
References: <14562@louie.udel.EDU> <6784@cbmvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: doug@xdos.UUCP (Doug Merritt)
Organization: Hunter Systems, Mountain View CA (Silicon Valley)
Lines: 27

In article <6784@cbmvax.UUCP> daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Haynie) writes:
>in article <14562@louie.udel.EDU>, wzg91@ttacs1.ttu.edu (BROWN, KEVIN) says:
>
>> The Amiga is the ONLY machine that I'm aware of that can't handle DOS calls 
>> from anywhere.  C'mon, guys, even MSDOS machines allow THAT!!!
>
>Wrong-a-mundo, buckaroo!  MS-DOS can't make DOS calls from tasks either.  
>Neither can UNIX.

The point here apparently being that neither (standard) DOS nor Unix 
support lightweight tasks in the first place.

I don't know about MACH Unix's lightweight threads, but I will say that
when lightweight tasks are implemented "by hand" in Unix, it *is* possible
to make system calls from them, with a few caveats.

That's no reflection on AmigaDOS, though. It is entirely reasonable to
have limitations on what can be done from within lightweight tasks.
That's why they're lightweight. If you want to do something beyond that,
you use a full fledged process. If you don't want to worry about the
difference, just always use a process. No big deal.
	Doug
-- 
Doug Merritt			Member, Crusaders for a Better Tomorrow
{pyramid,apple}!xdos!doug	Professional Wildeyed Visionary

"Of course, I'm no rocket scientist" -- Randell Jesup, Capt. Boinger Corps