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From:         Info-Atari16 Digest <Info-Atari16@Score.Stanford.EDU>
Subject:      Info-Atari16 Digest V88 #2
To:           Maury Markowitz <85102368@LAUCOSC>

Info-Atari16 Digest   Monday, January  4, 1988   Volume 88 : Issue 2

This weeks Editor: Bill Westfield

Today's Topics:

                  Re: Multi-tasking? A Nightmare...
                              Re: HELP!
                 the real advantage of multi-tasking.
               Failing Disk Drive & Strange TPA pointer
                            drive problems
                       Re: Microsoft Write ...
                  Re: Multi-tasking? A nightmare...
             Re: about ST disk drives (and media change)
                           Cheap Harddiscs

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 23 Dec 87 22:13:59 GMT
From: well!ewhac@hplabs.hp.com  (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab)
Subject: Re: Multi-tasking? A Nightmare...
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu

[ Followups to alt.flame, where it rightfully belongs. ]

Someone writes:
>> I'm still waiting to see if someone can come up with a use for TRUE
>> multitasking that a typical home user would find very handy but that
>> cannot be satisfied by a simple 'carousel' approach. There probably
>> are some, especially with message-passing, etc., but none have been
>> posted yet (except for people waiting for their compilers to finish --
>> they just need faster integrated compilers, though :)
>>
>> Robert Gardner
>>
    Here's a real-world example.  Note that this is from the
programmer's perspective, not the user's.  As you will see later, this is
irrelevant.

    The specifications are as follows:  You are to design a space
invaders-type game.  There is one spaceship at the top of the screen, and a
gun at the bottom.  The spaceship moves across the top of the screen from
left to right; as it does so, it "drops" letters forming words down the
screen.

    As the user types on the keyboard, the program checks to see if the
letter typed matches the one the gun is currently under.  If so, the letter
is shot and the gun moves one position to the right (to the next letter in
the word.  If they don't match, a short error signal is delivered to the
user.

    The screen will look like this:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

             ...<-=O=->

S P A C E   W E L L   C R A

T H A N   T H I S   H A L L   K I L L   T H R I L L   L A K E   G R E A T

A N   P A R T   D R A T   S P A C E   B E A T   H E A R   S E A   D R E A

            A T H E R   M A P   T H A N   F O R   H E A R T


            |
            A
               /#\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The spaceship moves across the top of the screen at a fixed rate.
When it reaches the end of the row, all the rows drop down one, and the
ship returns to the left side.

    To make it more interesting, a range of colors in the spaceship are
to be cycled, to make it look like it's spinning.  The cycle rate is totally
independent of any other regular rate in the program.

    Don't worry about winning or losing at this point; they'll
complicate the issue.

    Now.  Design this program, first on a system with multitasking,
and then on a system without it.  Discuss the design issues that need to be
considered, and how you would address them under each environment.  "Be
specific; give examples."

    Whether or not the machine multitasks should be made invisible to
the user; both versions should run the same as far as the user is
concerened.
--------

    I designed this very program on the Amiga.  I was porting the
program from the Atari ST, working from the ST source code.  Before posting
my approach and ultimate solution to the problem, I want to see how others
would address it.

    That is, if anyone cares.....

[In the article titled "Re: Multi-tasking? A nightmare...", Dec 22, 1987,