UNIX Futures

[a.reed]

Sarima (Stanley Friesen) writes:
> 	Actually, a properly implemented windowing system should
> SIGSTP all processes not in active windows.

I don't think that anyone who has used the asynchronous layering
capability of AT&T windowing (5620,7300 etc) will agree with you.
I want the process in the "deselected" layer - for example, a make
which is running in one window while I am editing other code in another
layer - to keep on writing so I can monitor it. This is the main reason
why windowing increases productivity: so you don't have to stop your
work just because you have to monitor the slow progress of some other
process in real time. The cleanest conceptual model is that layers are
just like separate terminals (in fact, I used to work with two
terminals and a T-switched keyboard before I got a Blit). Are you going
to claim that a process should behave differently depending on whether
the user's keyboard is connected to its terminal?
					Adam Reed (ihnp4!npois!adam)