At 6:30 PM -0700 5/7/98, Paul Mullen wrote:
>>is there some sort of myth in the PC world that the Mac OS is still a
>>single-tasking operating system? for the record, it's not.. we've had
>>cooperative multitasking since System 6.0.8 back around, oh, '90.
>
>There are two (that I know of) types of multitasking: cooperative and
>preemptive. Cooperative is what the MacOS uses (AFAIK, Apple coined the
>term). In this case, once an app gains control of system resources, it
>can keep them as long it pleases. It is the developer's responsibility to
>design a 'polite' app that will occasionally check with the system to see
>if anyone else would like to get a crack at the processor. As such, it is
>not a true multitasking OS. Preemptive multitasking leaves control to the
>OS, which doles out processor time equally to all processes requesting
>it. Individual apps are not allowed to commandier the system resources.
>Of course, this is all theory; the real world seldom follows. Ask anyone
>who has significant time in front of both a PeeSea and a Mac if they find
>the Mac to be at a serious disadvantage.
it was my understanding the OS8 introduced "true" multitasking -- which I
can assure you my Wintel machine doesn't have. I be batch copying files
from three different directories, for example, at the same time.
I can have eudora checking mail in the background while I'm using Netscape
or BBEdit or PhotoShop .... Isn't that multitasking?
Finally, I don't find my Mac to be in any way at a disadvantage from the
wintel machine. Wait - one thing - in explorer I can highlight a file and
hit the delete key to kill it -- on the mac, from the finder, i have to
drag the file/folder to the trash. of course, emptying the trash is easier
on the mac -- mine is programmed to work with the shift-control-delete keys
Kathy
===============================
Kathy E. Gill, Guide - http://agriculture.miningco.com/
Publisher, eNetDigest - http://www.enetdigest.com/
WWW design � writing � training - http://www.dotparagon.com/
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. - Gandhi
____________________________________________________________________
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Join The Web Consultants Association : Register on our web site Now
Web Consultants Web Site : http://just4u.com/webconsultants
If you lose the instructions All subscription/unsubscribing can be done
directly from our website for all our lists.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
