On Mon, 24 Jan 2005, Nick Rout wrote:
hmm you mean like the "emerge openoffice" that my gentoo box at home has been doing all morning?
Yes, exactly that.
For interactive tasks you want the CPU to juggle them to present the sleight of hand appearance that the CPU is always paying attention to you, the most important being in its universe, obeying instantly _all_ your commands.
For long slow batch tasks like emerge, you want the CPU to context switch as little as possible, since context switches are just wasted cycles, but to obey you the Lord and Master immediately when you call.
John Carter Phone : (64)(3) 358 6639 Tait Electronics Fax : (64)(3) 359 4632 PO Box 1645 Christchurch Email : [EMAIL PROTECTED] New Zealand
"The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes - ah, that is where the art resides!' - Artur Schnabel
