info-mac@uw-beaver (info-mac) (08/07/84)
From PATTERMANN@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA Mon Aug 6 17:32:29 1984
Two issues: 1) the mac could really use multitasking, and,
2) to do this, the mac needs at least 512K and
probably a good fast hard disk too.
In reverse order, the problem with upgrading to 512k is that
it makes the bit about "uniform address space" sound a little
silly- what I heard suggested, and what I hope apple will do,
(any Apple folks listening???) is to offer the memory upgrade
to everyone at a price such that anyone can afford it... or better
still, make the upgrade available free to everyone, so there will
really be a uniform address space among all macs.
Now, the problem of multitasking. How should the process-switching
be handled? Seems to me it would be nice if there was a list of
process handles under the apple menu, with a checkmark alongside
the current task. Select a process handle, and some sort of a
process-handler menu could appear to allow you to modify process
characteristics for the process you selected, or make it the current
process, etc.
Seems like a nice clean way of extending the finder to handle multitasking.
Anyone know what the current thought at apple is about these subjects?
Nick Caruso,
Rael@Cmu-Cs-Spiceinfo-mac@uw-beaver (info-mac) (08/13/84)
From: Nicholas.Caruso@CMU-CS-SPICE
I said multitasking, not multiprocessing. It would be nice to have the
mac allow multiple tasks even if only one could be processed at a time-
it would allow a lot of neat things, like moving from macterm to a
spreadsheet, doing some calculations, cutting them, going back to macterm
and sending them to the remote listener (host, other mac, whatever).
All without exiting the current program. This will necessitate large
memory and a *fast* hard disk...
Perhaps there could be a foreground task and a background task, the
latter not having a menu bar...
I feel there are serious deficiencies in the present mac- including the
rigidity of the user interface, and the total (from my position) lack of
development software running on a single mac, the near-impossibility of
obtaining a copy of the operating system documentation, the problem with
memory expansion, ..., ..., ...
If the mac is to be sold as a "business computer" these may not be flaws
at all; right now the mac is a machine that "could be" a very nice little
powerful personal computer.
-Nick (rael@spice)