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Yeah DESQview was interesting but you couldn't do everything in it because most serious programs would need all the resources of the computer, or they'd interfe

Yeah DESQview was interesting but you couldn't do everything in it because most serious programs would need all the resources of the computer, or they'd interfere with the IRQ assignments, leading to many crashes. We're talking a time before even as much as cooperative multitasking of course. DESQview was multitasking programs that were not even meant for it. Most people I knew didn't use it for that reason. If I really wanted to multitask while BBS'ing I'd just grab my Amiga I had beside the PC (which in itself actually had a real pre-emptive multitasking OS in ROM!). There were a few programs that could do something else while a download was happening, like Telemate. It gave you at least a text editor and a file manager IIRC.

jboy55 5y ago
I did all my BBSing with my Amiga 500. I don't think I ever dared do too much multitasking while I was downloading. First, had to download to RAM:, because if you did something that involved disk, you could get a timeout. If you messed up the transfer, and you got disconnected, then you'd have to try and redial to get back on, which could take hours.
- GekkePrutser 5y ago
  This is true... Disk access on Amiga was pretty crap, indeed. Often causing errors. And a HDD was super expensive so I didn't have one (just like a floppy drive was in the 8-bit age) To be honest I didn't do much downloading at all in those days.. Just didn't have the patience for it. If I did do it I would do so over packet radio that I could just leave running all night. I had a third old PC just for that :) Another reason that I didn't BBS much on my Amiga was that my modem was inside my PC on an ISA card for most of the time I used BBS'es. So I had to run a program on the PC to forward the modem data over a null-modem to the Amiga so either way I couldn't use the PC. So usually my PC was for modem use and the Amiga for other stuff.
  - jboy55 5y ago
    Something else just flashed into my mind from my Amiga days, I believe right clicking paused the serial port. Depending on the protocol, it could resume, but I usually ran Ymodem-G, with little issues with data corruption, but could eek out an extra 5-10% data speed. It also didn't resume all that reliably, another mark against using Multi-tasking while downloading on the Amiga.
    - GekkePrutser 5y ago
      Huh I never experienced that at all.. Maybe with certain specific software? I did blow up my serial ports several times with incorrectly wired cables. Luckily the first time I put the controller IC in a socket so the second time around it was easy :P But it was pretty sensitive to stuff like that. I've never managed to blow up a PC serial port and IIRC the controller IC was the same so I guess they used extra buffering or something.
thanatos519 5y ago
I had an original IBM PC and I wrote most of my high school essays in Telemate's text editor. :)

jboy55 5y ago

I did all my BBSing with my Amiga 500. I don't think I ever dared do too much multitasking while I was downloading. First, had to download to RAM:, because if you did something that involved disk, you could get a timeout. If you messed up the transfer, and you got disconnected, then you'd have to try and redial to get back on, which could take hours.

GekkePrutser 5y ago
This is true... Disk access on Amiga was pretty crap, indeed. Often causing errors. And a HDD was super expensive so I didn't have one (just like a floppy drive was in the 8-bit age) To be honest I didn't do much downloading at all in those days.. Just didn't have the patience for it. If I did do it I would do so over packet radio that I could just leave running all night. I had a third old PC just for that :) Another reason that I didn't BBS much on my Amiga was that my modem was inside my PC on an ISA card for most of the time I used BBS'es. So I had to run a program on the PC to forward the modem data over a null-modem to the Amiga so either way I couldn't use the PC. So usually my PC was for modem use and the Amiga for other stuff.
- jboy55 5y ago
  Something else just flashed into my mind from my Amiga days, I believe right clicking paused the serial port. Depending on the protocol, it could resume, but I usually ran Ymodem-G, with little issues with data corruption, but could eek out an extra 5-10% data speed. It also didn't resume all that reliably, another mark against using Multi-tasking while downloading on the Amiga.
  - GekkePrutser 5y ago
    Huh I never experienced that at all.. Maybe with certain specific software? I did blow up my serial ports several times with incorrectly wired cables. Luckily the first time I put the controller IC in a socket so the second time around it was easy :P But it was pretty sensitive to stuff like that. I've never managed to blow up a PC serial port and IIRC the controller IC was the same so I guess they used extra buffering or something.

thanatos519 5y ago

I had an original IBM PC and I wrote most of my high school essays in Telemate's text editor. :)