clipka <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> Alain <aze### [at] qwertyorg> wrote:
> > Historicaly, the purpose of that setting was so that a computer
> > operating in zero G had less chances of overheating. There is no thermal
> > convection in the shuttle or in the International Space Station.

> For all who think this sounds like pure bullshit babble: POV-Ray has indeed been
> up in space. See the Hall of Fame for what I guess is probably the only artistic
> 3D render ever produced under zero G conditions.

  Yes, that duty cycle option was added precisely for that space flight.

  Anyways, the purpose of the duty cycle option is to keep the CPU idle
for a certain percentage of time in order to avoid overheating. Its purpose
is not really to give time to other processes. Time sharing is a feature
of the operating system, and in most of them you can configure the priority
of processes. If you want POV-Ray to hog less CPU, just tell your OS to give
it a lower priority: Then if some other program needs CPU, the OS will share
more of it for that program.

  All modern desktop operating systems use pre-emptive multitasking. The
days of cooperative multitasking are long over. If you are using the duty
cycle option for emulating cooperative multitasking, you are using the
wrong tool.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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