Re: [gtk-list] X and idles => incredible slowdowns

[Paul Barton-Davis <pbd op net>]

>I have tried the enclosed program over Windows 95 (with the GTK Win32
>port), and Windows behaves very well indeed. No noticeable slow downs
>here.

AFAIK, Windows 95 uses cooperative multitasking, not preemptive
multitasking, and the various components of the system that you use
when you are running a GTK Win32 application are written to allow each
other to take control of the machine at the "right" times.

Linux uses preemptive multitasking, and as Havoc pointed out, 3
applications competing, rather than cooperating, for 100% of the CPU
will not work in such a system.

>However, if this is a X/XFree problem, could anybody tell the XFree team
>about it? (It's a pity that the Xfree team doesn't have a mailing list
>to talk about these things, or am I wrong?)

It has nothing to do with XFree, and everything to do with the fact
that Linux and Windows are completely different kinds of operating
systems. To see why the Windows one can lead to problems (since this
example shows it in a somewhat glowing light), consider what would
happen on Windows if an application refused to cooperatively
multitask ... on Linux, this cannot happen unless you are root and the
program requests real-time scheduling.

--p