Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!alberta!ubc-cs!van-bc!resrch
From: lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Apple System 7.0
Message-ID: <2414@van-bc.UUCP>
Date: 14 May 89 16:44:09 GMT
Sender: resrch@van-bc.UUCP
Lines: 39

In <21814@srcsip.UUCP>, mnkonar@gorby.SRC.Honeywell.COM (Murat N. Konar) writes:
>So what?  What advantages does 'true multi-tasking' (by which I assume you mean
>pre-emptive multi-tasking) have over Apple's co-operative multi-tasking?  Co-
>operative multi-tasking has significant user interface advantges over the
>pre-emptive kind.  

Well, for starters, it means that a program need not be especially written to
make use of the feature. Multifinder is nothing more than Finder with the mouse
clicks built into any application program that wants to cooperate. There is a
world of difference from the programmer's point of view between having to allow
multitasking and having to go out of one's way to prevent multitasking. There
is also a world of difference from the user's point of view. I don't have to
ask if a program will multitask. If it doesn't, it's because the programmer saw
a need to inhibit that feature.

>I for one would rather not have my application pre-empted by a background process
>in the middle of say a menu selection.  Any one who has used TOPS while a large
>file transfer is in progress can attest to the fact that having the interface
>slow down is a real drag.  (TOPS for those who may not know, is an AppleTalk
>fileserver system that runs in the 'background')

When I feel that way, I decrease the priority of the program I don't want
preempting another one.

Don't worry, when and if Apple finally figure it all out, you'll be singing
their praises, and we won't have to listen to the voices of ignorance
straining at gnats. You remind me of every other opponent of any advance
throughout history. "We don't do it that way, so let's try to come up with
reasons why we don't."

-larry

--
  - Don't tell me what kind of a day to have! -
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|   //   Larry Phillips                                                |
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