Load control and intelligence in schedulers

[Dick Dunn]

> The problem with being smart about giving higher priority to processes
> that do terminal i/o is that all sorts of interesting programs start
> sprouting unnecessary terminal i/o...
> I'm not saying it can't be done well, just that care is needed.  Terminal
> input should be considered much more significant than output, for purposes
> of scheduling.

OK, but be careful to distinguish actual (requested) input--something from
the keyboard which satisfies an outstanding read from the program.
Otherwise you give the users (rather than programs) a way to kick the
priority--just bang on the return key every now and then.
-- 
Dick Dunn	{hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd		(303)444-5710 x3086
   ...Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it's been.