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				TaskX 3.0

			     by Steve Tibbett

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INTRODUCTION

TaskX is a program for manipulating task priorities.  At least,
that's how it started.  TaskX 3.0 still shows you a list of tasks
running in your system, and lets you change the priority of any of
them, but it will also let you easily send signals to them (some
tasks will exit when a Ctrl-C signal is sent to them for example),
and lets you see much more information than just the priority.

INSTALLATION

TaskX isn't something that you would normally run all the time.  To
start TaskX, double-click it's icon, or run it like any other program
from the CLI.  TaskX takes no options and has no tooltypes.

OPERATION

TaskX's main display is a list of tasks, with 5 buttons at the bottom
and a string gadget where you can type in a number.  The buttons
marked "^c", "^d", "^e" and "^f" will send those signals (Ctrl-C
signal, Ctrl-D signal etc) to the task.  The string gadget will take
the number you type in and if you have a selected task, will change
that task's priority to the value you entered.

When you select a task, if it's name changes, the task will move in
the list but will remain selected.  If the hilited task suddenly
moves, you know what happened.

The gadget on the bottom right, which says "Priority" when you run
TaskX, will cycle through other labels when you click on it.  This
controls what information about a task you are looking at - this
information can be useful, but most people can simply ignore it.
No matter what set of information you are looking at, the string
gadget will still change the task priority - you cannot change
anything about a task except it's priority (and send it signals).
Task priorities range from 127 to -128.

When you are looking at the task list, TaskX is using some of your
CPU time to keep the task list up to date.  Holding down the right
mouse button when looking at the task list will make TaskX
continually update the task list, instead of doing it approximately
twice a second.  This takes much more CPU time, but is useful in some
rare situations.

If you click in the window Zoom gadget (the gadget next to the sizing
gadget), TaskX will turn into just a title bar.  It uses no CPU time
this way.  The best way to keep TaskX available is to add it to your
Tools menu using "ToolsX", another one of my programs.

ABOUT TASK PRIORITIES (or, What's this program good for anyway?)

Every task on the Amiga has a priority.  It's priority determines
whether or not it will run when it has a chance to.  However, if a
task decides to give up the CPU, a lower priority task will run even
though it isn't the highest priority.  If you have two tasks, one at
priority 1 and one at priority 2, and neither of them gives up the
CPU, then the task at priority 1 will never run.  (On some systems,
it would just get less CPU than the one at 2, but not so on the
Amiga).  

So you should be careful about how you assign your task priorities.
The most common use for TaskX is to take a CPU hog and move it's
priority down, or to move up the priority of some interactive
process, like a text editor.  Moving a raytrace down to -1 will mean
that anything you do in the foreground (ie, running a terminal
program or typing into a text editor) will be more responsive, while
the ray tracer will still run at full speed when you aren't doing
anything in the terminal or in the editor.

The task 'input.device' is normally at priority 20.  This is the task
that moves the mouse around and deals with all sorts of input.  Be
_very_ sure you know what you are doing if you ever move it down, or
ever move another task above it.  Even CPU-intensive tasks will
occasionally allow a lower-priority task to run when they do disk IO.
An example of this is a ray tracer that writes the results of it's
tracing to disk after every scanline - so if you do make a mistake
and put the ray tracer higher than it should have been, you can move
it back down (in time) and things will get back to normal.

NOTE ABOUT SIGNALS

Many programs ignore the signals.  The Ctrl-C signal is normally used
to mean Break, and most of my programs and many others will shut down
when a Ctrl-C signal shows up.  If you are writing a program, please
consider quitting when you see this signal.

DISTRIBUTION

TaskX is Copyright 1992 Steve Tibbett.  Noncommercial distribution is
permitted, commercial distribution is allowed only if permission is
obtained from the author.

THE AUTHOR

TaskX is writen by Steve Tibbett.  You can reach me electronically by
sending mail to:

	SteveX				(Portal)
	SteveX@cup.portal.com		(UseNet)
	s.tibbett			(Bix)
	72627,1325			(Compuserve)

or you can call my BBS at (613) 731-3419, or call me voice at 
(613) 731-5316 (evenings only, please).  If you want to write to me,
you can, but I rarely have time to answer mail (though I do read it
all).  I live at:

	Steve Tibbett
	2710 Saratoga Pl. #1108
	Gloucester, ON
	K1T 1Z2 Canada

Thanks for using TaskX.