Linux Today: Linux News On Internet Time.

More on LinuxToday

SunWorld: Programming events: An event-based programming tutorial

Nov 07, 1999, 16:09 (0 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Kathryn Soraiz, Cameron Laird)

"How do you do three things at once? If you're like a computer (or most people, for that matter) you schedule your jobs -- that is, you set up some system to work on different tasks so they don't stall each other out...."

"A related concept familiar to early users of Mac OS and Microsoft Windows is that of cooperative multitasking, in which an executing job continues to execute until it explicitly surrenders control. While the infrastructure for this system is easier to engineer, the consequence for users is that an improperly written program can freeze the system."

"Deciding which multitasking model is best for you depends on the hardware, operating system, and programming-language support available. And, most importantly, it depends on the programmer. Different models lead to different styles of programming, and a programmer's comfort level with a particular style often is more important than the efficiency of the underlying implementation."

Complete Story

Related Stories: