[comp.music] SOFTLINK really multitasks !

ramsiri@blake.u.washington.edu (Enartloc Nhoj) (01/15/91)

I thought this was pretty cool.

TOS 1.4 auto boots NEODESK, which autoboots
SOFTLINK which sets up three virtual
desktops and subsequently starts NOTATOR
in partition one.  I start a sequence of
music playing in NOTATOR, and then, with
a key click, i enter partition 2, load
TEMPUS, and begin printing a file WHILE
i am hearing NOTATOR playing midi music,
then with another key click, i enter partition
3, load STalker from MULTIDESK and
put it in miniBBS mode... my friend calls
and logs on and runs GULAM remotely..
I was even able to run another NOTATOR
session launched from the TEMPUS editor.

I thought all this was pretty slick.
The environment is a bit fragile... FOr instance,
if you want to REMOVE a multidesk accessory, the
partiton bombs.. also, we haven't been able
to figure out how to get the command line shell
(gulam in this case) to work for the remote
user on his end .. doesn't seem to echo
to the remote user, but definitely runs gulam
and is displayed on the host.

-kevin

ramsiri@blake.u.washington.edu (Enartloc Nhoj) (01/15/91)

In article <STEVELA.91Jan14132025@beach.csulb.edu> stevela@beach.csulb.edu (Steve La) writes:
>Just curious, what is SOFTLINK?
>-- 
>+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+
>| Steve La                             California State University Long Beach |
>| Internet: SteveLa@CSULB.EDU                              Telecommunications |
>|    Voice: (213) 985-4750          1250 Bellflower Blvd, Long Beach CA 90840 |

SOFTLINK is a program that came with the update (2.2) to NOTATOR
(currently at 3.0).. it is basically a RAM partitioning software
that allows a certain amount of multi-tasking.  For example,
i can have NOTATOR playing music in the background while
i am in another partition printing out a TEMPUS file.. or
in another partition running STalker BBS etc..  as it is now,
i cannot print NOTATOR files in the background.. when i swtich
to another partition, the printing stops.. will resume when
returning to the NOTATOR partition.  Partitions switch immediately..
and so far, NEODESK and MULTIDESK work, though i have had some
problems with figuring out the optimum memory allocation
per partition.  You can run SOFTLINK from your auto folder...
and the desktops are set up at bootup time.. you can even have
several softlink setups with whatever name you want.. load them
via SUPERBOOT etc..  it would be nice if SOFTLINK stored your
customized desktops per partition along with any accessories and
autoload programs specific to each desktop (can have up to 9
partitions).

I am happy with this setup so far.. at least i can have a text
editor in one partition sending text to a printer.. bounce
over to NOTATOR and print out a score onto the same page..
go back to editor etc..  would be nice to have a score format
that can be loaded into something like CALAMUS...  maybe 
soon.. 

-kevin
.

rosenqui@crc.skl.dnd.ca (Eric Rosenquist) (01/16/91)

In article <14366@milton.u.washington.edu> ramsiri@blake.u.washington.edu (Enartloc Nhoj) writes:
>I thought this was pretty cool.
>
>TOS 1.4 auto boots NEODESK, which autoboots
>SOFTLINK which sets up three virtual
>desktops and subsequently starts NOTATOR
>in partition one.
>
> [stuff deleted]
>
>.. also, we haven't been able
>to figure out how to get the command line shell
>(gulam in this case) to work for the remote
>user on his end .. doesn't seem to echo
>to the remote user, but definitely runs gulam
>and is displayed on the host.

You most likely have TurboST or QuickST loaded.  They sit in the BIOS
trap chain and prevent STalker from being able to redirect the console
output to the serial port (i.e., they grab the characters before
STalker even sees them and stick them on the ST screen).  I believe
this is mentioned in one of the CHANGES.20x files on the disk by the
way :-)

Eric