So, indeed, you're talking about a keyboard buffer, only intelligent
and on a much larger scale. Or multiprocessing.
>> Back when I asked about the HP 3000, someone mentioned that it
>> processed data in blocks. What exactly does that mean? How does it
>> work?
>I think the comment you're talking about was directly related to
>HP3000 full screen editors; these generally need a HP terminal
>that's capable of block-mode operations. This means that
>the terminal is capable of simple on-screen editing tasks by itself,
>and transmits a bunch of changes to the computer only when the
>computer needs to ask for the accumulated changes.
>
>This is very different than the mindset in the microcomputer and Unix
>world, where it is expected that the main CPU will want to devote
>attention to each and every keystroke typed by every user, and then
>the main CPU will devote all its effort (for a little while) to
>echoing this single character. This simply isn't the way
>things are done on mainframes and "heavy-duty" mincomputer OS's.
>
>Tim.
>
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Received on Thu May 28 1998 - 18:13:17 BST