Interactive Background Processes

[aglew at urbsdc.Urbana.Gould.COM]

>Date:     Fri, 1 Jul 88 15:59:05 EDT
>From: Ken Van Camp <kvancamp at ardec.arpa>
>
>	   When running large, computationally-intensive programs (such as
>finite element codes, ray tracers, and other simulations), it is usually
>desirable to run the program in the background so the user is free to
>perform other tasks, logout, etc.  Unfortunately, under Unix, selecting
>background processing precludes interactivity in the software.

I code my backgrounded programs (in my case, performance monitors that
have to run *much* longer than one login session) in two parts: the actual
background part, that does its work and listens to a socket, and an 
interactive part, created on demand, that mediates between the user and
the socket.