LBrenkus@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA (07/04/84)
Is there a "backround phone dialer" in the public domain? While full multi-tasking would be nice, the current 8088-based PC is apparently not up to the task(s); existing DOS systems which implement full multitasking (e.g. Multilink) are slow, according to comments from users. I find that my needs are more modest;the most frequently recurring situation is that I want to dial up to a busy bulletin board, but still use my computer. Many excellent clock programs exist which use the timer tick (1C) BIOS interrupt to display the time in the corner of the screen. These programs only need to update the display every 8 tics or so, and therefore result in no significant performance degradation. It should be possible to use this system to operate a Hayes-compatible modem dialer in "backround". The module would use the timer ticks to cycle through a set list of numbers to dial, with a display in the corner to indicate dialing in progress. Successful connection would produce a tone and flashing message; one could then close any files and then logon with a comm. package. Overhead should be negligible. If anyone knows of such a program, please post.