bryce@COGSCI.BERKELEY.EDU (Bryce Nesbitt) (08/11/87)
Last night I had a telephone conversation from a intelligent person, a
programmer no less. A person with commercial products for the Commodore-64
and IBM clown markets. Here's an excerpt:
[Random chit-chat about life, the universe, and computers. He discovers
I'm busy in a Desk Top publishing program on the Amiga at the moment.]
ME>> "Sure, I'll send you that file. Just a sec while I click into my
[already loadd] terminal window"
HIM> "Yeah, multitasking is kina neat. But it gets so slow."
ME>> "Huh?"
HIM> "You know, when you have more than one thing loaded."
ME>> "What do you mean? What two things are you thinking of?"
HIM> "Any two things. Two things, twice as slow, three things, three times
as slow. The old 'no free lunch'."
ME>> "Arghghg! No! Programs that have nothing to do take no processor
time."
HIM> "What? How did they do that..."
No, he was not "yanking my cord". Yes, he understood my explanation of
how real multitasking works. One down, how many billions to go?
-----
|\ /| . Ack! (NAK, EOT, SOH)
{O o} .
( " ) bryce@cogsci.berkeley.EDU -or- ucbvax!cogsci!bryce
U "Success leads to stagnation; stagnation leads to failure."cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (08/12/87)
In article <8708111704.AA12623@cogsci.berkeley.edu> (Bryce Nesbitt) writes: > >Last night I had a telephone conversation from a intelligent person, a >programmer no less. A person with commercial products for the Commodore-64 >and IBM clown markets. Here's an excerpt: > [sorry excerpt deleted...] >No, he was not "yanking my cord". Yes, he understood my explanation of >how real multitasking works. One down, how many billions to go? Many billions. Unfortunately. I have had otherwise reasonable people say "Yeah, I've got multitasking on my PC, I use DesqView." Not to slight DesqView at all but lets get real, any time the 'background' tasks stop working because you are doing something else is not multitasking. There is a lot of satisfaction to be gained when you help someone cross the hurdle in to the multitasking world. You get to watch that little light go on in their eyes when they *really* understand. Unfortunately, I also sometimes feel like the serpent in the Garden of Eden too. Some of these people have to go back and use an IBM clone day in and day out. Certainly OS/2 looks like their land of milk and honey, if they can only afford to upgrade... --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.
richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) (08/13/87)
In article <8708111704.AA12623@cogsci.berkeley.edu> bryce@COGSCI.BERKELEY.EDU (Bryce Nesbitt) writes: > >No, he was not "yanking my cord". Yes, he understood my explanation of >how real multitasking works. One down, how many billions to go? > Well maybe you'd better start with Apple. I just read in infoworld that there will be a multitasking operating system for the Mac. But in the first release you can only have 1 task active at a time... -- Richard Sexton INTERNET: richard@gryphon.CTS.COM UUCP: {akgua, hplabs!hp-sdd, sdcsvax, ihnp4, nosc}!crash!gryphon!richard "It's too dark to put the key in my ignition..."
hrlaser@pnet02.UUCP (08/15/87)
Unfortunately, Amiga multitasking is something that simply doesn't come
across well in print, and is barely hinted at in advertising with
graphics. It really must be experienced first hand for that light bulb
to come on over a potential Amiga buyer's noggin, but it *IS* oh so
effective a selling point, not to mention all of Amiga's other
qualities. Although, once the hook is implanted and you start to reel
them in, you still have to pass the rocky shoals of "Yeah, but my
[office|father|brother|friends] have [PeeCees|Macs|something else]."
Sometimes, when interacting with friends who own other computers, I feel
like I'm a member of some secret cult.. "The High order of the
Mystic Boing will meet at the usual underground caverns..."
Harv
UUCP: {ihnp4!crash, hplabs!hp-sdd!crash}!gryphon!pnet02!hrlaser
INET: hrlaser@pnet02.CTS.COM PeopleLink: CBM*HARV
...I was reading my name on my office door.. "REGNAD KCIN"peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (08/20/87)
> there will be a multitasking operating system for the Mac. > > But in the first release you can only have 1 task active at a time... They know about the limitations, and recognise them. What really gets my goat, however, is their claim that you can't do a real multitasking operating system on a 68000 without an MMU. OS/9? *AmigaDOS*? SOunds like a bid to sell more Mac IIs. -- -- Peter da Silva `-_-' ...!seismo!soma!uhnix1!sugar!peter (I said, NO PHOTOS!)