Re: TIB: Multitasking

To: ti-basic@lists.ticalc.org
Subject: Re: TIB: Multitasking
From: josh gioja <gioja@students.uiuc.edu>
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 16:34:47 -0600 (CST)
In-Reply-To: <19980218.172106.8998.0.tapeworm7337@juno.com>
Reply-To: ti-basic@lists.ticalc.org


Reply two of two on my Windows-like shell and programs.

JMG

On Mon, 16 Feb 1998, Chris Roddy wrote:

> First of all... I just want to say that this OS crap about Windows vs Mac
> OS vs ChooseYourFlavorOfUnix is ridiculous.  Take it somewhere else. 
> Everyone knows CPM/80 is best.  A TI-83 might even run it . . . ;-)
> 
> As far as multitasking, I think that all of the previous attempts at
> multitasking have been good but have been looking at it from the wrong
> direction.  On a PC people do many things: word processing, games,
> spreadsheets, internet, etc.  On a caclulator, what do you do?  Very
> specialized mathematical programs or games, basically. I was thinking
> (that can be bad ;-) . . . wouldn't it be easiest to do a kind of
> half-multitasking?  (kind of like the PTSR solution) 

That is exactly what I did!

> 
> Consider this scenario:  You're sitting in math, playing Penguins.  You
> want to pause your game and run your quadratic formula program.  You hit
> [MODE][ENTER] and Penguins passes whatever it needs to to variables and
> lists.Mr. Shell stores all of the variables to a list and backs up L1
> through L6, etc. etc.  You run your quadratic formula program.  Then you
> quit that and run Penguins, your variables are stored and Penguins picks
> up where it left off.
> 
> Is this good, or am I loony?
It is exactly what I did, but I did it on a TI-92, so I can have as many
variables as necessary without saving any of them to lists. While a
program is running, it doesn't change any of its permanent variables to an
unusable value, so the next time they're run they resume with the same
values.

Two small differences:
  Before the second program is run the first one terminates. This reduces
  the memory usage and allows many programs to be 'running' at any time.

  Each program should be using variable names that are not common, keeping
  them from being overwritten. When the program resumes, its variables
  have not been changed, so it can basically resume where it left off.

> 
> ﾚﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾂﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄﾄｿ
> ｳ Chris Roddy           ｳ "A tournament, a tournament, a tournament ｳ
> ｳ tapeworm7337@juno.com ｳ of lies. . . offer me solutions, offer me ｳ
> ｳ TapeWorm7 on EFNet    ｳ alternatives, and I decline!"       - REM ｳ
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> 
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References:

TIB: Multitasking

From: tapeworm7337@juno.com (Chris Roddy)