Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1993 - 49

MACINTOSH
SYSTEM 7.1

3.0X

ATAKI MULTITOS
4.0

Macintosh

Amiga

Alari STm, Falcon

No'
Mac'
PC, Apple II

Potentially
Amiga'
PC, Unix, Mac, C64.
Alari ST, CP/M

No
Atari STITT'
PC, Mac, CP/M,
8-bit A1ari

lime-slice

preemptive

preemptive'

Yes
Yes

No
Yes
One only
No
No'
Subsequenl
requests fail

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes'

Yes
No (030 only),
68000 requires reboot
No'
No'
Yes
Yes
Yes
Not tested

Finder
unlimited

Intuition
as chip RAM allo\'ls

NewDesk (GEM)
4or 7 (standard GEM);
Unlimited (MulliTOS)

128 suitcases'
Yes (6)

unlimiled
no'

unlimited
no'

Depends on cable
Drag-down

Yes
Drop-down

Depends on sYStem
Fall-down'

No'
Mosl
Yes
Yes
keyboard,
pointing devices,
joystic
avariety of printers,
serial & display devices

Keyboard Commands
All
No'
No'
Keyboard,
pointing devices,
MIDI
Epson, tBM printers,
Atari & VGA displays.

Yes

Yes,
Option on Desktop

Desktop only'
QuickDraw

Yes
Amiga Graphics
Library

Yes
GEMVDI

HFS

Amiga 880K (1.8MB
on ne '/ models)
long
Proprietary 880K,
(& HD on MOOO) DOS
via ARexx

FAT
8(J
SS, DS,
(HD on n & Falcon)
Clipboard

No'

via Arexx

Function Keys'

Yes
No'
On startup'
TrueType
(free ATM offered)
Yes
ISO, High Sierra, HFS,
audio, Photo CD
Balloon Help

No'
No
Yes
Compugraphic

No
No
On startup
SpeedoGDOS

no
CDTV,
ISO High Sierra'
CLI only

no'
ISO, High Sierra
Limited

None

ARexx

Atari BASIC

Some'
Yes optional
Yes exceot menus
ADB , pointing
devices, sound
PoslScript, Apple
printers, SCSI.
Apple & VGA displays.
Yes, does not update
invisible "desktop' file

32
MFS, DOS
SD DD HD
Publish & Subscribe,
AppleEvenls

AMIGADOS

No'
Yes
No'
Volumes ontv'
In-depth Tutorial, Text
Editor, Notepad, Calculator,
Alarm Clock, Puzzle,
Scra book H rCard
None'

Some'
Yes
Shell available via
optional AI Ease.

0'
0'

Keylock on MOOO

No'
No'
No'

NOTES:

Hhere are numerous In el-eo pa ible
processors, including c ips Irom A D,
C rix, Chips &Technologies, EC and
at ers.
2 Earlier non- ultitas ing Atari odels can
be upgradeo 10 MultiTOS, but not all
features are available on 68000-based
models.
3 Dele ing an icon rom Windows' File
anager or OS/2's Drives window will
re ave associateo flies or directones.
4 Option(s) available rough hird- any
add-ons.
6 Falcon also includes AtariWorks and
SpeedoGDOS, Direct-la-dis Recorder.
7 Optional PC compatibili .
811 openeo in s are m e, it will open ~vo
or more de ice reques s. In exclusi e
e, subseq en reques swill re urn
error.
9 PC co patibility is standard on
NeXTs ep for Intel processors only. NeXT
machines require Insignia's So PC.
10 Unix is currently available for 030based igas, bu is not acurrentl
s pporteo pr uc in Ca ada.
MS-OOS and Windows 3.1 info cou les
of Tony Bau an at Ana Automation
(604-874-0888).
NT info courtesy of Geof Wheelwright
(604-689-8628).
OS/2 In 0 cou esyof Ai e gerbo 01
Doppler Co pu er Centre (604-875-0261),
Colin cClelia dand Ron Sebas ian of
IB Canada.
Macintosh info courtesy of Stefan Oetler
of Simply Compu ing (604-594-5422).
NeXT info courtesy of Paolo Bertola of
Advantage Co piers (604·231-5700).
Amiga info courtes 0: eil Wilson a;
Izard Co pu er S stems (604-321-7144)
and Conrah C u gof FX Video (604451-0137).
Atari info courtesy of Graham orton 01
Falcon S ems (604-522-2915).
Unix info courtesy 0 Ken Clar of
Co sau s879-7 66.
Operating System Comparison Chart
reprinted by penmission from the
May 1993 issue 01 "The Computer
Paper" (B,C, Edition),
© 1993 The Computer Paper

multiple tasks may not be needed,
3, A more powerful multitasking OS uses
more complex rules, Programs are harder [Q write as the OS becomes more
complex,
4, Most application programs are developed for simpler OS's first because they:
A. are easier to wri te
B, are faster to write
C. can be marketed sooner and (potentially) cheaper
D, can be made reliable more easily
E, do not require more complex OS's,
5, The average computer user sees no need
[Q consider any but a simple OS
because:
A, almost all applications are available
B, most applications appear there first
C. applications should be reliable and
cheap
D, it's the most popular and best supported
E, rerurn to (4) above and repeat until
you can spell Microsoft in your
sleep.

Multitasking Benefits
Perhaps the most popular application for a
multitasking OS is the action video game.
Most games, however, use multitasking
sparingly since they usually accept only limited user input via the mouse or joystick.
This input is controlled by the game to a
limited range of predictable moves at any
time. In fact, action games often do not
support a mouse because its input range is
so much larger than the joystick. Since the
mouse can point to a quarter million or
more pixels, the game must have an appropriate response for each. With such possibilities, the true multitasking OS provides
the most efficient way to handle these
choices quickly-in "real time" you might
say.
Live computerized show control is similar to the live action video game-except
the visual and aural result is experienced on
stage rather than the monitors. But show
control is much more complex and requires
multitasking for (he following reasons:
It must accommodate virtually any
script-not just a specific game with
fLxed playing variables. To do this properly, powerful computerized show control has a dual hierarchy:
A. The show control program; providing (he environment for:
B. The specific show and all its cues,
programmed by the user.
2. It must accommodate unpredictable
external input and feedback, such as:
A. Keyboard, mouse and direct control devices
I.

TD&T

1993 SUMMER

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1993