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> VMS had asynchronous programming to its core. Most system calls could be performed synchronously or async.

This continued, of course, in its spiritual successor Windows NT.



Yes, same architect (Dave Cutler), and WNT is (V+1)(M+1)(S+1) though they probably didn't do that on purpose.


> though they probably didn't do that on purpose.

Of course they didn’t (wink wink)


> This continued, of course, in its spiritual successor Windows NT.

I think NT still had problems with interactivity when the parralel port was used (interrupts)


I can't say I did much w/ NT and parallel ports beyond attaching printers. I'd imagine it could be pretty awful in the "SPP" days, especially with people trying to connect ZIP drives, "Backpack" CD-ROM drives, tape drives, etc. I suspect floppy drives, which I also didn't use under NT very much, could also play hell w/ interactivity.


For those curious, look up IO completion ports. Back when all I knew was select(2), it blew my mind.




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