This is the first in a series of three construction articles which build a portable multitasking environment for programming. The purpose of the series is two-fold:

/bf To Explain the programming concepts and constructs which come into play when building and programming within a multitasking environment. /bf To Construct a general-purpose multitasking environment for programming which is portable to most mini, micro, and mainframe computers (so multitasking programs will be portable).

The task is divided up into three construction articles, each of which builds upon the code and concepts of the previous one, but is complete in itself (it does not depend on the sucessive articles). The three steps are:

Article #1

Switching Contexts

Article #2

Organizing a Task Force

Article #3

Managing Resources

This article is the first in the series, and explains the concept of context switching and constructs a general-purpose and portable context switch...