Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 10:39:44 -0400
Message-Id: <200307161439.h6GEdimq003762@envy.delorie.com>
From: DJ Delorie <dj AT delorie DOT com>
To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
In-reply-to: <bf3kvd$g1v1@imsp212.netvigator.com> (nospam@nospam.com)
Subject: Re: OffTopic
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> Sorry, I can't think of a relevant group so I have to put it here. I'm
> wondering what are the differences of a task and a process? and does heap
> store windows handle, which is different from what are being stored in GDT
> and LDT? Thanks

A task is what the CPU chip uses to distinguish among things it's
doing.  A process is what the operating system uses to distinguish
among the things it's doing.  I.e., the first is hardware, the second
is software.

I don't understand the heap question.  The "heap" is just a region of
your memory (see the lexicon).  DJGPP doesn't have windows handles, so
I don't know about those.

The GDT is a global resource, which holds segment descriptors.  There
is one GDT.  The LDT is a local resource, there can be many LDTs,
usually one per task, but it also holds segment descriptors.

Some of these are described in the lexicon:

     http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/doc/lexicon/

For those that aren't, please feel free to send me updates :-)