Question about windows and processor time (3b1)

[John B. Milton]

In article <356 at flatline.UUCP> erict at flatline.UUCP (j eric townsend) writes:
>
>Here's the test:
>
>Run a lot of stuff on your system at once, say an expire and a big make
>(pcomm or elm work well).
>Set up 4 or 5 windows to page through.
>Using the new wmgr from THE STORE -- the one that lets you hot key through
>the windows -- page through the windows at about one per second.
>
>Does your hard drive *pause* while you go from one window to another?
>Mine does.
>
>I thought Unix was multitasking, etc etc.  I didn't think it would
>have to stop HDU access just to change windows.  Am I missing something
>vital>

Nothing special going on here. Some of the paging that immediately precedes
the pause is the window that is about to be displayed coming in from disk
to the "work screen" insides the window driver. At this time, the window
driver is building a picture of how the screen should look. The pause you see
is the window manager copying the current view to the video ram. Nothing else
happens while this is going on, so it appears to pause hard disk access.






John

-- 
John Bly Milton IV, jbm at uncle.UUCP, n8emr!uncle!jbm at osu-cis.cis.ohio-state.edu
(614) h:294-4823, w:764-2933;  Got any good 74LS503 circuits?