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> These aren't multitasking machines Why wouldn't a faster machine with more RAM be a multitasking machine? (Obviously without extras you are limited regarding
by detaro 5y ago
> These aren't multitasking machines
Why wouldn't a faster machine with more RAM be a multitasking machine? (Obviously without extras you are limited regarding security etc, but plenty early multitasking machines didn't have that)
- flenserboy 5y agoIndeed. Consider that this was done even for some of the more primitive machines of the day — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP/M https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP/M
- jandrese 5y agoWithout a memory mapper or scheduler it's hard to write a multitasking OS.
- detaro 5y agoNot in the sense we usually mean nowadays, but assigning pages to processes and switching between them, with a small non-paged segment for general data/code lets you build multitasking systems. E.g. I believe early multiuser BBSes ran on systems like that.
- vidarh 5y agoThere were tools that added multitasking to the C64, such as e.g. BASIC Lightning that let you run multiple BASIC "threads" + sprite animations at the same time. It's easy to write a scheduler for a 6502 as there's so little to save, though you'll need to be very careful about stack usage, and you might do better with a specialised scheduler (e.g. for C64 BASIC) as a lot of code you might want to run may store additional state in fixed locations.