Re: Word hangs up

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From: Paul Berkowitz (berkowit_at_spoof_silcom.com)
Date: 04/04/04 

Date: Sat, 03 Apr 2004 19:57:09 -0800

Just one thing to add: dual CPU's, like most recent G5 and G4 desktops, can
indeed let the OS do two things at the same time, but only when the
application software is designed and optimized for such use. Hardly any
software has been designed that way, certainly not Office. But as time goes
on, it will be. Certain tasks can be designated for one of the CPU's only,
leaving the other free for other tasks. Rumor has it that from the next G5
upgrade, all models will be Dual CPU. Appl is already trying to persuade
dvelopers to optimize for the 64-bit G5, and dual CPU will come next. An app
like Excel could really do amazing things with both optimizations. An if and
when Excel Mac gets it, Word wil surely benefit too. Whether it's a task
Office Mac could undertake without departing too far from its Windows
counterpart to be practicable is an interesting question. We;l have to waut
until at least the versionof Office after 2004, if not farther,m to find
out. 

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Paul Berkowitz
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> From: "John McGhie [MVP - Word]" <john@mcghie.name>
> Newsgroups: microsoft.public.mac.office.word
> Date: Fri, 02 Apr 2004 17:20:43 +1000
> Subject: Re: Word hangs up
> 
> Dennis:
> 
> This is a "feature".  It sounds to me as though you have not applied the
> latest updates for Word and OS X.  You will find that the pauses are
> practically unnoticeable in OS 10.3.3., but you will need to be at Office
> 10.1.5 to take advantage of this.
> 
> When I say this is a "feature", it's actually the way "multi-tasking"
> operating systems work.  A computer than can actually do more than one thing
> at a time has not actually appeared on a desktop, and is very unlikely to do
> so.
> 
> What the computer does is do "little pieces" of a large number of different
> tasks, in very closely spaced sequence.  In Apple OS 10.0.0, the pieces were
> too large and the prioritisation of which applications were given how many
> pieces each second were way out of line.  OS X is Unix, and Unix systems
> have to be "tuned" to run well.
> 
> The tuning is far, far better in OS 10.3.3, and Office 10.1.5 includes the
> updates needed to take advantage of the latest tuning scheme.
> 
> So:  The "pauses" are a feature of a pre-emptive multi-tasking Operating
> System.  The Operating System can allow only one application at a time to
> have control of the CPU, and everyone else must wait their turn.  However,
> in OS 10.3.3. Correct system tuning has reduced most of the pauses to a few
> milliseconds.  Human beings (even musicians!) will never notice the pauses
> when they are that short.
> 
> If you are already fully updated and you still have pauses, then I am afraid
> your computer is too slow!  The first thing you can try is quitting (rather
> than minimising) all those applications you are not actively using.  Just
> because they are minimised does not mean they are fully stopped: they are
> still helping themselves to pieces of the CPU's time and large hunks of
> memory.  Quit anything you are not going to use in the next half hour.
> 
> The other thing you can do that pays huge dividends is add real memory to
> the computer.  One gigabyte of real memory makes OS X run beautifully: all
> of the applications then have all the room they need to spread themselves
> around and remain resident in memory.  Those annoying pauses while
> components are loaded from disk become a thing of the past.
> 
> If adding memory doesn't fix it, well then your Significant Other will
> obviously understand why you just *have* to buy a new computer...  Yeah,
> right...  Don't we wish...
> 
> Hope this helps
> 
> 
> This responds to article <116be01c416b4$c6de5380$a001280a@phx.gbl>, from
> "Dennis" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> on 31/3/04 10:11 AM:
> 
>> In using MS Word for OS X I have found that while typing Word hangs up for
>> a few seconds and then catches up.  Any ideas?
> 
> -- 
> 
> Please respond only to the newsgroup to preserve the thread.
> 
> John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer,
> McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
> Sydney, Australia.  GMT + 10 Hrs
> +61 4 1209 1410, mailto:john@mcghie.name
> 
>

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