🚀 go-pugleaf

Keywords:

Multitasking not useful?  Oh c'mon guys, be real.  If multi-tasking isn't a
useful feature then why are desk accessories such a big deal?  For that
matter, why is Switcher so popular?  Why do people LOVE the Shell buffers in
the Epislon editor that runs on theat heathen machine from you know who?
The answer is that even this limited and kludged version of multitaksing is
a VERY useful feature.  

I've been programming on Macs and Lisas for a long time now.  What do I
spend my time doing mostly? No, not typing in code, no, not debugging  I
spend most of my time watching the stupid machine compile things.  I could
be doing thousands of better and more interesting things if the damn thing
could compile in the background!  But NO, the Mac's operating system is so
brain damaged, and the hardware is so "un-there", that this is just
impossible.

Beyond that, if the mac could multitask, then one could do much more with
this than just print spooling and compiling in the background.  *Real*
pipes would be possible, not these silly hacks with temp. files.  This is
not only more elegant, but also faster, since no temp files have to be
written and copied and deleted.  But, people will now accuse me of being one
of those "Unix bigots". Well, maybe I am, but that's just because I have
used Unix more than anything else, and I happen to like it not only for
programming, but for everything I do.

What else does multitasking offer?  Well, suppose your editor can talk to
subprocesses.  Then almost any language you have can be used to extend the
capabilities of the editor.  You can write filters that take input from
editor buffers that do everything from fixing long lines to pretty printing
your pascal programs, to telling the time, to playing ELIZA.  You could
write text formatters that run under the editor.  You can read the error
messages of ANY compiler, and automatically find them in the right buffer,
you can read electronic mail from your favoite editor, and on and on and on.
I know all these are possible, people do it all the time in EMACS.  (Now i'm
gonn abe falmed for being an "EMACS bigot"...but oh well)

What could you do with multitasking on the Mac?  Well you tell me the next
time you watch Macwrite or Word sit there and SSSLLLOWWLY change the font on
your entire document.  Gee, you could go and work on the illustrations, or
log into your favorite BBS and read some mail, or go and hack up something
better than Macwrite so you never have to deal with it again.  Or maybe the
next time you have to wait half an hour for that monster spreadsheet to
calculate itself, you could work on the presentation that goes along with
it, or you could go work on that database that needs to be out next week. 

The point is that multitasking affects the performace of the computer in
much more subtle ways than just being able to run your C compiler and
Megaroids at the same time.  It allows one person to do the work of
many,while the computer sits and does all the boring repetitive tasks that
one would rather not have to watch it do.

Oh well, all this flaming aside, I really do like the Mac.  It's a great
little box. But it could be a lot better.

Cheers,
Pete

--
ARPA: hugo@cmu-cs-gandalf.arpa      BELL:412-681-7431
UUCP: ...!{ucbvax,ihnp4,cmucspt}!hugo@cmu-cs-gandalf.arpa
USPS: 5170 Beeler St., Pittsburgh PA 15213
QUOT: "You are in a twistly little maze of passages, all different."
-- 
ARPA: hugo@cmu-cs-gandalf.arpa      BELL:412-681-7431
UUCP: ...!{ucbvax,ihnp4,cmucspt}!hugo@cmu-cs-gandalf.arpa
USPS: 5170 Beeler St., Pittsburgh PA 15213
QUOT: "You are in a twistly little maze of passages, all different."