From: rquazi@csws4.ic.sunysb.edu (Rishad Quazi)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: Need help on TSR's
Date: 16 Apr 92 16:05:41 GMT
Organization: State University of New York at Stony Brook

In article <1992Apr16.081023.3834@uwm.edu> markh@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Mark William Hopkins) writes:
>In article <1992Apr15.033850.16536@uwm.edu> markh@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Mark William Hopkins) writes:
>>If it's being run on a DOS, the problem is likely the DOS.  System calls are
>>usually critical regions in DOS.  If two processes happen to be concurrently
>>accessing the same critical region, they could destroy the integrity of the DOS.
>>
>>That might be the problem.
>
>In article <1992Apr15.235445.9454@sequent.com> furballs@sequent.com writes:
>>1) You can call South Mountain Software (201) 762-6965 and order
>>Hold Everything, which is a TSR library to spawn context switching
>>on the fly under TSR's, or
>>
>>2) You can build into your TSR the ability to save the sate of the
>>machine and DOs itself and handle the context switch, plus all the
>>associated house keeping needed to juggle multiple threads.
>>
>Isn't "don't reinvent the wheel" where you ask last semester's student to take
>your exam for you because "they've already done it before"?
>
>I'd recommend #2.  Doing #1 totally defeats the purpose, which is to get
>experience in this and become an expert.  There's no substitute for learning
>or thinking through a problem and this one provides a substantial learning
>experience which will so significantly expand a programmer's personal
>repertoire as to suddenly make an entire field of programming accessible.
>All competent programmers need to master this (process control, synchronization,
>multitasking) or something equivalent and do something like this at least once.
>There's other items that need to be done at least once: 1 Editor, 1 Compiler or
>Assembler, 1 Database program, 1 Real-time/Control program, and several other
>areas.
>
>Time is cheap.  Knowledge, experience, and expertise is the real currency.
>It's an excellent investment.
>
> [some observations on learning deleted]


	The only problem with the above argument that I see is that it doesn't
clearly say where the 'cutoff' point between being a novice and a professional
is drawn. How many routines do you have to code from scratch before you can
allow yourself the luxury of using the vast libraries available to us? One of
the most perplexing problems in software productivity today is precisely this
problem of 'reinventing the wheel', eventually leading to the necessity of
OOP and reusable coding standards.

	I agree with you on the point that programmer's ought to have as wide a
base as possible when they are in their learning stages, and concur with your
observation that the more diverse your programming skills are, the more
similarities you will be able to discover between diverse problems and the
sharper you overall programming skills will be. 

				- Rishad.

-- 
-:|Rishad J. Quazi             |        -=-=:| He strides through the long  |:-
-:|rquazi@engws10.ic.sunysb.edu|:=-=-=-      | cavern of time,              |:-
-:|rquazi@sbccvm.bitnet        |    - -=-=-=:| Scattering the fool-self     |:-
-:|SUNY at Stony Brook         |             | of his dream. - Dune Messiah |:-