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OS/2 Help File
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1995-01-01
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71KB
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1,550 lines
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. PC/2 Help for Help ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
PC/2 - Program Commander/2 Version 1.80
for IBM OS/2 2.x, 3.x Presentation Manager
Copyright (C) by Stangl Roman 01, 1995
Please select one of the following topics for further information:
o About the utility PC/2
o Installing PC/2
o Using PC/2 as a WPS addon
o Concepts of the Popup-Menu
o Starting a Program from PC/2
o Setup the Popup-Menu
- Adding a Submenu
- Adding a Program
- Adding a Popup Menu controls
- Resorting a (Sub)menu
- Run-time parameters
o Setup the Desktop
o PC/2's Desktop Overview Window
o PC/2's Spooler control window
o PC/2's compatibility to other applications
o Error messages
Note: PC/2 contains WPS 2 PC/2 in its package. For further information about
WPS 2 PC/2 select Help from the WPS Object WPS 2 PC/2 itself. WPS 2 PC/2 is
installed on your Desktop during installation of the PC/2 package.
<Backward> <Forward>
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2. Help for About PC/2 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
PC/2 - Program Commander/2 Version 1.80
for IBM OS/2 2.x, 3.x Presentation Manager
Copyright (C) by Stangl Roman 01, 1995
E-Mail:
o InterNet: RSTANGL@VNET.IBM.COM
o IBM VNET: 61821799 at VIEVMA
o FidoNet: Roman Stangl @ 2:310/14 LA BAMBA BBS Tel.: (Int. Code +43 +1
+6083621)
o FidoNet: Roman Stangl @ IBM Austria National Support BBS Tel.: (Int. Code +43
+1 +21145-6600)
The PC/2 package (consisting of the OS/2 PM application PC/2 and the WPS
program Object WPS 2 PC/2) is classified as Freeware. Under the copyright, you
are allowed and encouraged to freely use, distribute or modify this program
under the following conditions:
o The complete source code and all executables are included. This rule also
applies for any modifications you made.
o You may only charge for the costs of duplicating, distribution on InterNet,
FidoNet or similar is preferred therefor. This program must not be sold by
immoral "Public Domain & ShareWare" dealers that charge a price far ahead of
the actual duplication costs.
o Any commercial use is prohibited without contacting me prior, except for
incorporating the idea/code in any future release of OS/2 by IBM, however
this clause doesn't apply for any private use.
o You don't want to port this utility to MS Windows or Windows NT (Nice Try).
You are encouraged to upload this utility to your favourite file-server or BBS.
Please ensure that no file is missing, if you change the archive to a different
compression scheme.
If you find this program useful and want to honor many weeks of work writing
this utility, you are welcome to send me a small fee of about 50 to 150
Austrian Schilling (about 5 to 15 dollar) to my home address. Of course you
don't need to pay again, if a new release of PC/2 comes out. Please send any
donations in cash, because it makes some troubles to exchange money orders or
similar in Austria!
Any suggestions are of course welcome too. Because of the Freeware status of
PC/2 I am not going to send new versions or anything else by mail (which is
likely to become a never ending story), however I try my best to do support via
E-Mail!
Thanks to all those, who sent me proposals and bug reports to improve this
utility! Special thanks to Mario Semo, Carrick von Schoultz and Markus Hof,
Roman Fischer, Alex Stewart, Ingo Pflanz, Rolf Knebel, Michael Wakunda, Stefan
Hora, Monte Copeland who gave me advices and/or source code to modify for use
within PC/2 and/or other support and anyone who makes "undocumented"
information available.
My home address is:
Roman Stangl
Strebersdorferstrasse 46
A-2103 Langenzersdorf, Austria
<Backward> <Forward>
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3. Installing PC/2 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
You have obviously started PC/2 once, because you are reading this help panel.
The installation is just straight forward with the REXX script that installs
PC/2, however there are some points to notice:
o The installation installed an icon on the Desktop and started the help panels
of PC/2. To ensure that OS/2 starts PC/2 automatically the next time you boot
your system, you must start PC/2 again (you then can notice that the
background behind the icon changes). If you have added SET
RESTARTOBJECTS=STARTUPFOLDERSONLY in your CONFIG.SYS then you must also add a
shadow of PC/2 to your startup folder to ensure PC/2 is started the next time
you boot OS/2.
o PC/2 requires the files PC2HOOK.DLL and PC2SPOOL.DLL to be accessible. PC/2
tries to find this file either in the current directory when the LIBPATH
environment variable contains .;), or in a path that is included in the
LIBPATH environment variable. PC/2 will not be able to run, if PC2HOOK.DLL
can't be loaded or will not be able to provide the PC/2 Spooler Control
Window, if PC2SPOOL.DLL can't be loaded. The file PC2.HLP may be either
accessible in the directory, where PC/2 is started from, or in a path that is
included in the environment variable HELP. If you have problems running PC/2,
ensure, that the working directory of PC/2 is accessible by these variables
in your CONFIG.SYS.
o The installation assumes that you are using the default profile Pc2.cfg
containing a standard pre-defined Popup-Menu. If you want to use an other
Popup-Menu, you have to restart PC/2 and add your preferred profile as a
commandline option. Click to the next help panel to get more information
about commandline parameters. You may also use your favourite editor, to
import one profile into another, but you have to ensure, that you don't
violate the syntax rules of the profile.
o PC/2 looks for its initialization file PC2.INI in the directory where PC/2
was started from.
o You can only run one copy of PC/2 concurrently.
o If you select a DOS or WIN-OS2 Program to be started via PC/2, the time-slice
of their sessions is optimized (the DOS-Settings are modified to
IDLE_SECONDS=5 IDLE_SENSITIVITY=100) to get a better performance. This is
useful for most DOS games.
o You may use PC/2 with or without the WPS installed, you may even use PC/2 as
a replacement for the WPS. To do so you must install PC/2 first. Then you
have to ensure that PC2HOOK.DLL and PC2SPOOL.DLL are accessible by PC/2. You
also have to ensure that PC2.HLP is accessible in the PC/2 directory or in a
path pointed to by the HELP environment variable in your CONFIG.SYS file.
Then replace the statement
SET RUNWORKPLACE=C:\OS2\PMSHELL.EXE with
SET RUNWORKPLACE=[path]PC2.EXE or
SET RUNWORKPLACE=[directory]PC2.EXE,
where where [path] is the full pathname of the directory (including the drive
letter, e.g. C:\PMAPPS\PC2\PC2.EXE) and [directory] is the pathname of the
directory (excluding the drive letter, e.g. \PMAPPS\PC2\PC2.EXE) you
installed PC/2.
Warning: If you specify only the directory you installed PC/2 into, then be
sure that this directory is found on your boot drive.
This feature is useful when using PC/2 as the shell process for an OS/2
maintenance setup created by BOOTOS2. See the compatibility section
The next time you boot, PC/2 will be started as a replacement for the WPS. Be
careful, OS/2 seems to dislike any parameters added to the program that is
started as the WPS ! Of course you can start the WPS from a command prompt by
typing START PMSHELL or add a corresponding entry to PC/2.
Caution! PC/2 was not tested on all OS/2 versions or installed software and
hardware (simply because I don't have them), so there may be bugs!.
<Backward> <Forward>
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4. General Help for PC/2 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
PC/2 - Program Commander is an addon or replacement for the WPS (Workplace
Shell). The user can configure a menu that pops up, when mouse button 1 is
clicked anywhere on the Desktop. From this freely configurable Popup-Menu, you
can select an entry, which is launched immediately.
PC/2 lets you define Hotkeys too. Pressing the Hotkey defined for a program,
this program is switched into the foreground or, if it is not already running,
launched immediately.
PC/2 also allows you to expand the Desktop up to a 81-fold Virtual Desktop, you
may define Hotkeys to switch to an application on any Virtual Desktop by a
simple keypress. You may also switch to any Virtual Desktop directly by
doubleclicking with mouse button 1 on PC/2's Overview Window. p.PC/2 also
enables you to define a UNIX-style behaviour of switching the input focus from
one window to another. This allows you to have the input focus in a window,
which is not the topmost window.
PC/2 additionally provides a simple Spooler interface. You can manage the
printer queues and jobs on your local machine - a necessity when using PC/2 as
a WPS replacement (because without the WPS you have no spooler available unless
you use PC/2's spooler interface).
PC/2 allows you to customize the fonts used by the Popup-Menu, the Overview
Window and the Spooler window, just by dragging fonts from the Font Palette to
PC/2. Warning! On some display drivers you may not be able to setup every font
available in the Font Palette exactly, you may just get a similar font.
For example. the Popup-Menu might look like:
You have selected the item Prompts, which is a Submenu containing seven more
items. E.g the item OS/2 Window starts a windowed OS/2 command prompt, when
selected. This Popup-Menu is fully configurable, you may add, change or remove
items. An item can either be a Submenu containing more items, the name of a
program or a Menu Control.
The complete Popup-Menu can be modified but the Menu Control Desktop Menu must
be defined before the Popup-Menu will be displayed after mouse button 1 clicks.
If you have not defined this Menu Control, the Setup dialog appears after mouse
button 1 clicks enabling you to add this control.
Your configuration is read from the default profile Pc2.cfg each time PC/2 is
started and saved every time you made changes. You can of course overwrite the
default configuration filename to a file named Filename.ext by invoking PC/2
with the following commandline option:
PC2 [-Profile Filename.ext] or
PC2 [/Profile Filename.ext]
where Filename.ext conforms to a filename of a PC/2 profile. Both FAT and HPFS
filename naming convention is accepted. A few sample configuration files are
provided in this package.
As the default, the Popup-Menu appears if you double-click once on the Desktop,
if no option or the following option is specified:
PC2 [-DoubleClick] or
PC2 [/DoubleClick]
You may select a single-click instead, by invoking PC/2 with the following
commandline option:
PC2 [-SingleClick] or
PC2 [/SingleClick]
Please be sure not to combine both click behavior options. If you don't specify
this option a user-modifyable default behaviour is taken from PC2.INI. Of
course the options changing the click behavior and the configuration filename
options may be combined.
Because some people use PC/2 as a WPS replacement, PC/2 contains a Menuitem to
ShutDown OS/2. By selecting this entry, it is safe to power off your PS/2 or PC
after all disk activity has been stopped, although no windows are closed. If
you run PC/2 as a WPS replacement and may want to start the WPS either by
starting PMSHELL.EXE from a command prompt or by starting a PMSHELL Menuitem
with PC/2. You then can follow the WPS initialization by heavy disk access and
buildup of your Desktop with objects. PC/2 requires to know the Desktop (in
technical terms the window handle of the Desktop) to be able to catch mouse
button 1 clicks. If you start the WPS the Desktop changes too. Therefor PC/2
checks regularly if the Desktop has changed, so you may have to wait a little
bit, after the WPS was started, that PC/2 recognizes mouse clicks again..
I would strongly recommend to start PC/2 during OS/2 boot. If you don't want to
use the default profile, don't forget to add /Profile Filename.exe to the
Parameters entryfield in the Settings of PC/2.
The reason why I wrote this utility was primarily, that many programs installed
on a system require many folders and icons on the Desktop. But to start a
program, I don't want to open and close folders, so I made shadows on the
Desktop messing it up. The solution I prefer is to click on the Desktop,
getting immediately a menu and selecting the application to be launched from
this menu, or alternatively launch or switch to applications by simply pressing
a Hotkey. So PC/2 may help you to start your programs more quickly, without
needing to open and close folders. When running without the WPS installed, you
even don't have the possibility to launch applications from icons.
<Backward> <Forward>
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5. Concepts of PC/2 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The basic idea behind PC/2 is to have an configurable Popup-Menu available, to
start programs quicky, without having to open and close folders.
The Popup-Menu, popped up when you click with mouse button 1 anywhere on the
Desktop (just like button 2 for the Desktop Menu), consists of so-called items.
An item may be a Submenu, which contains further items, or the title of an
Application or Menu Control items. A Submenu contains a little arrow right
beside the title of the Submenu. Mouse button 1 is on most system the left
mouse button.
To change the font of the Popup-Menu, drag a font from the Font Palette to the
smarticon bar of PC/2's Overview Window. This font will be saved when you exit
PC/2.
You can imagine this Popup-Menu as a tree, with applications as leaves and
Submenus as nodes. PC/2 allows you to freely build your own tree. To do so you
have to click on the Desktop with the left mouse button and to select PC/2
Setup Config Menu. A dialog box appears, where you can add, modify or remove
Submenus and Applications. The listbox displays all Submenus and Applications
of one level (like a cut through the tree). Of course you may change this level
up and down.
You must have defined the Menu Configure Menu before PC/2 display it's
Popup-Menu on mouse button 1 clicks. If you don't have defined it, PC/2
displays it's Setup dialog after each click until you have added this control.
Once you have configured your tree of Submenus and Applications, just press Ok
to take them into effect and save them to the profile or Cancel to take them
into effect without saving.
<Backward> <Forward>
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6. Help for starting a program via PC/2 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
After you have configured the PC/2 Popup-Menu, you click on the Desktop with
mouse button 1, select the Application you want to start and click on it. The
Application will be started as if you were clicking on an icon.
One advantage starting an Application this way is, that you can manipulate many
parameters on how the Application is started, one thing you can't do with many
icons. E.g you can start it invisible (useful for a backup program), making it
only visible by selecting it from the window list. You may also specify the
size of the Application or to start it in the background. You can even set it's
priority or define a Hotkey to switch to it.
You can also start WPS Objects that are not Folder (WPFolder class) or Program
(WPProgram class) type WPS Objects, if they have an ObjectID defined. Most OS/2
WPS Objects get installed with a predefined ObjectID by default during
installation (see OS2_20.RC for a more detailed information), and many
applications (e.g. IBM C Set++, Toolkit, ...) defined an ObjectID for their WPS
Objects too.
Folder or Program WPS Objects and other WPS Objects that have defined an
ObjectID, can be dumped automatically by WPS 2 PC/2 to create corresponding
Popup-Menu entries.
You can also open any WPS Folder by PC/2 after dragging the folder onto PC/2 to
create a corresponding menuentry.
Warning: You can start WPS Objects via their ObjectID and open folders only if
the WPS is running, because only the WPS can process the request made by PC/2
to open them.
To close an Application, select the corresponding option from the Application
or terminate it from the Window List. Alternatively you may use PC/2's Kill
smarticon to close the application's window.
<Backward> <Forward>
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7. Help for PC/2 Setup ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
In the listbox, all Submenus and Applications of one level (imagine as a cut
through the tree) are displayed. A Submenu has an arrow right beside it. E.g
assume the listbox contains 6 Submenus and 2 Applications resulting in the
following Popup-Menu:
Select the item Config Menu to configure the items appearing in the Popup-Menu.
The Setup dialog appears allowing you to adjust all items of the current level.
You may want to get into the Submenu Prompts. Just select the Submenu Prompts
an click on the button Level Down >>. The listbox will now be filled with all
Submenus and Applications of the Submenu Prompts. To get one level up, simply
press << Level Up. If nothing seems to change, you may be either at the highest
level (the root of the tree) or at the deepest level (a leaf of the tree) of a
Submenu.
To configure the Popup-Menu just select an item and/or invoke functions by
selecting the following pushbuttons..
Pushbutton: Description:
Level Down After selecting a Submenu click on Level Down. The listbox contents
are replaces with the Menuentries of the Submenu.
You may alternatively doubleclick on a Submenu to change into.
Level Up Selecting Level Up chains up into the next upper Submenu level,
unless the root level is reached.
Add Submenu To add a Submenu press the button Add Submenu. The Menu
Installation dialog is displayed allowing you to add a new Submenu.
After pressing Ok in that dialog, the Submenu will be inserted
after the selected item, or at the end of the list if no item was
selected.
Add Program To add an application press the button Add Program. The Program
Installation. dialog is displayed allowing you to add a new
Application. After pressing Ok in that dialog, the Application will
be inserted after the selected item, or at the end of the list if
no item was selected.
Add Control To add a Control press the button Add Control and a dialog appears
allowing you to add Menu Controls predefined by PC/2.
Change Entry To change a Menuentry that corresponds to an executable
application, select the application and then invoke Change Entry to
display the Program Installation dialog.
Alternatively you may just doubleclick on a Menuentry, to display
the Program Installation dialog.
Remove Entry .To remove an application or an empty Submenu, select the Menuitem
and click on the button Remove Entry.
Resort Menu To resort a Submenu press the button Resort Menu. A new dialog is
displayed allowing you to resort the currently listed Submenu.
Press here to get more information about the Resort dialog.
If the listbox is empty, you can't remove or change anything. You also can't
select any item, but in this case you can add a Submenu or an Application by
just pressing the buttons, without needing to select an item.
(WPS 2 PC/2's icon) By using the listbox on this dialog page together with WPS
2 PC/2, you can easyly convert WPS Objects into menuitems for
PC/2's Popup-Menu. Assuming that you have extracted details about
WPS Objects by dropping them onto WPS 2 PC/2's icon on the Desktop,
just drag them from WPS 2 PC/2's Status bitmap and drop it onto the
Submenu/Program Configuration listbox. PC/2 then generates
Popup-Menu items automatically and adds them to your Popup-Menu.
This lets you copy the settings of WPS Objects easyly, without
entering them manually.
For more information about WPS 2 PC/2 just select help from the WPS
2 PC/2 WPS Object, which you can install by PC/2's installation
program, if it is missing.
Press Ok to write the configuration to the profile, or press Cancel to keep the
changes only in memory. Both buttons will dismiss the dialog.
Example 1 Example 2
<Backward> <Forward>
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.1. Setup example 1 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Assume the listbox contains the following items resulting in the following
Popup-Menu:
You want to remove the Submenu References, rename the Submenu Tools to
Utilities and add a Submenu Demos.
1. Select the item References. You can now press the button Remove Entry to
remove the submenu, but only if this Submenu is empty. If it isn't empty,
get into this Submenu by pressing Level Down >> and remove all items.
2. To rename Tools to Utilities select the item Tools and press the button
Change Entry. A dialog box appears allowing you to rename this item.
3. Select the item, after which you want to insert the new Submenu. Then press
the button Add Submenu to add one. A dialog box appears allowing you to
enter the title of a new Submenu.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.2. Setup example 2 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Assume that you have remove all items, leading to an empty listbox. Now you
want to add the Applications Backup and Terminal.
1. The listbox is empty, so you can't select any item. Just press the button
Add Program and a dialog box appears, allowing you to enter all the data
required for the new Application.
2. Now the listbox contains the item Backup, select it and press the button
Add Program a second time. Again you get a dialog box, where you enter the
data for the Application Terminal.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8. Help for PC/2 Menu Installation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
This dialog is used to get a name for a Submenu, which is then added to the
Popup-Menu. You can enter whatever you like, e.g to make a Submenu that
contains OS/2 utilities you might enter Utilities.
If you have chosen in the previous dialog to change the name of a Submenu, then
overwrite the pre-entered text.
Press Ok to accept, or press Cancel to ignore the data you entered.
Examples
<Backward> <Forward>
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.1. Menu installation examples ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Assume you have entered the following Submenu Titles:
Title: Purpose:
Prompts You want to add a Submenu named Prompts, that contains OS/2 and
DOS, fullscreen and windowed command prompts.
Spreadsheets You want to add a Submenu named Spreadsheets for your spreadsheet
program like Lotus 123/G or Excel.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9. Help for PC/2 Program Installation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
This dialog is a notebook consisting of the following pages:
Page: Tab title:
Application This page is used to define an application's title, path, filename,
working directory, command-line parameters and DOS settings.
Session This page determines the type of session you want to add. Select
between PM, OS/2, DOS and WIN-OS2 sessions.
Style This page can be used to define the appearance of an application.
If the application doesn't overwrite attributes, you may define the
style, size and position.
Hotkey This page is used to define a Hotkey, which will switch to the
application and bring it into the foreground.
Priority This page can be used to overwrite the default priority assigned to
an application.
Caution: Changing the priority may cause serious problems, because
the application may be set to consume nothing to the full CPU
time!.
Press Ok to accept, or press Cancel to ignore the data you entered in all
notebook pages.
For more information click about on one of the above notebook pages select:
o Application Settings
o Session Settings
o Style Settings
o Hotkey Settings
o Priority Settings
Example 1
<Backward> <Forward>
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.1. Application Settings ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
This dialog is used to get the title, the path and filename, the working
directory and parameters of a Menuitem, which is then added to the Popup-Menu.
For a normal user it is the easiest way to use the following guidelines.
According to the type of application you add, some fields may not be editable
or visible:
Fieldname: You would enter:
Program Title: Here you enter the name which should appear on the
applications's titlebar, which may be overwritten by some
applications. For OS/2 and DOS windows, this will also be the title
in the window list. You may also name the Objects here, you want to
add.
For better navigation through the Popup-Menu, you may add a tilde
(~). When a menuentry has a tilde before a letter, the letter is
treated as a mnemonic. After activating the Popup-Menu, you can
type a mnemonic defined for a session to start it, instead of
selecting it with the mouse or keyboard.
When defining a mnemonic ensure that the entryfield Session Name on
page Hotkey Settings is filled correctly.
Path and Filename: Here you enter the fully qualified path and filename. E.g
you might enter c:\os2\cmd.exe to obtain an OS/2 command prompt, or
c:\os2\mdos\qbasic.exe to start the basic interpreter.
Here you also enter the name of WPS Objects. WPS Objects are
referred either by their defined Object ID (Identity) e.g
<WP_DRIVES> or <WP_INST> for preinstalled Objects, of e.g
<WP_USER_CALC> or <WP_WIN_PBRUSH> which can be extracted by the WPS
2 PC/2 WPS Object, unless they represent Folder or Program objects
(then their settings are taken instead of their ObjectID which may
be available too). Preinstalled WPS Objects have usually a defined
name, you may need to take a look into the file OS2_20.RC to get
further information.
PC/2 can only launch WPS Objects named by their defined ID, so be
careful to get either the correct ID from OS2_20.RC or by
extracting the WPS Object in question by WPS 2 PC/2 You can't use
the Program Template to create Objects if you want them to add to
PC/2, because PC/2 can't define the Object ID of such Objects, try
to use any installation routine that probably creates a Program
object with an ObjectID.
Here you would also enter the path and filename of a seamless
WIN-OS2 application. WIN-OS2 applications prefixed by a !
immediately before the filename get started minimized, applications
prefixed by a ^ get started maximized. To start more than one
application, separate applications by a ,. (By the way, this is a
feature of OS/2 and should be therefor also available for your
WIN-OS2 WPS Objects!)
Working Directory: Here you enter the directory where the EXE, HLP and DLL
files of your application are located. Before the application is
started, a change drive and change directory call is made, to make
this directory the working directory.
Parameters: Here you enter the parameters passed to the application. PC/2
allows you to be asked for commandline parameters before the
application is invoked. Press on Commandline Parameters to find out
more about this feature. Assume that you want to use VIEW.EXE to
view the command reference, you would enter c:\os2\book\cmdref.inf.
If you have selected the WIN-OS2 Program Manager PROGMAN.EXE to be
started as a seamless WIN-OS2 application, you may enter 1 and only
1 additional WIN-OS2 application, that will be started by the
Program Manager in the same WIN-OS2 session. The Program Manager
itself will be started minimized. You may also change the
application's style by using !, ^ and , characters as described in
Path and Filename.
DOS Settings: Selecting this pushbutton opens the standard OS/2 DOS settings
dialog (OS/2 DOS support must be installed of course). You can then
customize the DOS settings exactly as you whould do with a WPS
program Object. The settings are then set into the multiline
entryfield. You can of course write them by hand, but this is
discouraged, because of spelling mistakes easily made. DOS settings
are valid for DOS applications, and WIN-OS2 is just a special DOS
application too. By default for a new DOS application the DOS
Settings IDLE_SECONDS=5 and IDLE_SENSITIVITY=100 are defined.
As seamless WIN-OS2 sessions are also DOS type sessions, you may
strongly want to adjust the Settings of WIN-OS2 sessions for better
WIN-OS2 performance than the default settings, e.g you may want to
increase the memory by adding DPMI_MEMORY_LIMIT=8.
File Find: If you click on this button, the standard file dialog of OS/2 is
displayed where you can select the application you want to install.
The application parameters (e.g path) will then be inserted
automatically in the corresponding entryfields.
Drag & Drop: You can alternatively use the Drag & Drop operation to create a
Program Popup-Menu entry. There are 3 basic kind of objects you may
want to drop onto this notebook page:
1. Program objects, which are *.EXE or *.COM files of PM, OS/2
windowed, DOS or WIN-OS2 applications. Just select one application
from e.g a Drives object or from a filemanager, drag it into the
dialog over any area that accepts it and drop it.
2. Batch file objects, which are *.CMD or *.BAT type batch files
for OS/2 and DOS command processors (CMD.EXE and COMMAND.COM).
These batch files are automatically installed to be run through a
copy of their command processors (see the online OS/2 command
reference for more information about CMD.EXE and COMMAND.COM).
3. WPS Folder Objects, which are opened by the WPS on request of
PC/2, when selected from the Popup-Menu. If the WPS is not running,
PC/2 can't open menuentries of this type.
You can't create a menuentry for any object of a different type by
dropping them onto this dialog, you have to use WPS 2 PC/2 in this
case. Data extracted from the WPS by WPS 2 PC/2 can then be dropped
onte PC/2's Setup dialog.
The notebook settings will be adjusted according to the application
you dragged into.
For a power user, the data entered may be less. Because the OS/2 API
DosStartSession() is used to start the application, all rules for this API
apply as described in the toolkit. Hence you may leave the entryfield Path and
Filename blank and then select from the Session Settings group an OS/2 or DOS
fullscreen or window, to get a command prompt.
You may also start an application indirectly through a secondary command
processor by specifying c:\os2\cmd.exe as the Path and Filename and use then
the /C or /K option of CMD.EXE in the Parameters entryfield.
Press Ok to accept, or press Cancel to ignore the data you entered in all
notebook pages.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.2. Session Settings ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Here you can select the type of application you want to add. By default, PC/2
tries to determine the type of an application you installed via the standard
file dialog or via Drag & Drop.
Option: Description:
Determined by WPS This default selection lets the WPS choose the type of
application when started.
OS/2 Full-Screen The seesion is a command session, started in full-screen.
OS/2 Window The session is a command session, started in a window on PM.
Presentation Manager The session is graphical PM application.
DOS Full-Screen The session is a DOS command session, started in full-screen.
DOS Window The session is a DOS command session, started in a window on PM.
WPS Object The Object-ID of the WPS Object to be started is contained in the
entryfield Path and Filename:. The session can only be started when
the Object-ID is assigned.
Seamless WIN-OS2 The session is a seamless WIN-OS2 session. Be sure that your
graphics adapter supports such sessions. Currently all seamless
WIN-OS2 sessions are seperate sessions.
Real Mode The seamless WIN-OS2 session is started in Real Mode. Real Mode
compatibility is only provided by OS/2 2.0.
Standard Mode The seamless WIN-OS2 session is started in Standard Mode.
386 Enhanced Mode The seamless WIN-OS2 session is started in 386 Enhanced Mode.
386 Enhanced mode compatibility is only provided by OS/2 2.1.
Separate Session When checked, the seamless WIN-OS2 session in Standard Mode or
386 Enhanced Mode is started in a separate session (loading another
copy of the WIN-OS2 environment) otherwise the session is started
into a common WIN-OS2 session (loading the WIN-OS2 environment only
once).
You generally have to verify, that the Program Type setting corresponds to the
application you installed, for most programs you can use Determined by WPS if
you aren't sure.
According to the Program Type that is selected, some settings may not be
editable or visible.
OS/2 and DOS Fullscreen or Windows are only used, if you want to start a
command prompt as the application. In this case, you usually enter in the the
entryfield Path and Filename of the group Program Data the path of the
corresponding command processor. A advanced technique to select the type of
command processor only with these radiobuttons is described under the group
Program Type.
To add a seamless WIN-OS2 session without a corresponding WPS Object defined,
select the Seamless WIN-OS2 radiobutton. Another group of buttons will be
enabled, allowing you the select the Settings of the WIN-OS2 session. Although
there is a Separate Session checkbox, seamless WIN-OS2 sessions will currently
always be started as separate sessions.
Warning: Under OS/2 2.0 GA, seamless WIN-OS2 sessions may only be started with
the WPS running, otherwise the system hangs. There seems also to be a problem
with a real mode session, because such a WIN-OS2 session starts to load, but
doesn't finish successfully. Under OS/2 2.1 GA you may start seamless WIN-OS2
session with or without the WPS installed.
Press Ok to accept, or press Cancel to ignore the data you entered in all
notebook pages.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.3. Style Settings ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
You can select one of the radiobuttons and any of the checkboxes to define the
style the application should be started with.
Some applications overwrite the default style settings, i. e. by reading them
from a profile. PC/2 can't force such applications to accept the styles you
selected.
Option: Description:
Application defined The default style defined by the session itself is used.
Maximized The session's default style is modified to maximized.
Minimized The session's default style is modified to minimized.
Invisible The window created by the application is invisible.
No Autoclose The window created by the application is not terminated when the
application shuts down.
Background The window is created in the background.
Autostart A session marked with this setting will by started automatically by
PC/2 during PC/2's invokation. This feature works similar as the
startup folder of the WPS.
User defined Size & Position The session's default size and position is
modified to the values entered. PC/2 forces the window to the
entered position, even when the application overwrites these
values. You may specify a position relative to the origin of the
Virtual Desktops (the "middle" Desktop of the 9 Virtual Desktops),
useful when the. Virtual Desktop feature is enabled.
g if you selected Minimized, Invisible and Background buttons, the application
will be started minimized, in the background and invisible (this may make sense
for a backup program).
Press Ok to accept, or press Cancel to ignore the data you entered in all
notebook pages.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.4. Hotkey Settings ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
PC/2 supports the definition of Hotkey, to switch from the current application
to a certain application just by pressing a Hotkey. If the Hotkeyed session is
on another Virtual Desktop, PC/2 switches to this Desktop and switches the
application into the foreground. PC/2 supports 0 ... 9 in combination with
either the Ctrl-Key or the Alt-Key as Hotkeys giving you 20 different Hotkeys
at maximum.
If PC/2 can't detect the application running, the pressed Hotkey is defined
for, it starts the application as if it was invoked by PC/2's Popup-Menu.
Starting applications by pressing a Hotkey is another alternative invoking
programs delivered by PC/2.
PC/2 allows you to mark the application as non-movable around the Virtual
Desktop. By defining this style the application always keeps on the active
Desktop, regardless to which Virtual Desktop you are switching to.
Control: Description:
Session name If you either have marked the application as non-movable, defined
a Hotkey or a mnemonic, you must fill this entryfield with a string
that equals or is part of, of either the applications name on it's
titlebar or the applications name in the Window List. If you use
one of the two features and you leave the entryfield empty, PC/2
copies the string from Program Title entryfield when you press Ok.
after removing the tilde defined for the mnemonic.
Be sure that the string you entered matches only with the current
application, because the first match of this string with any
applications's titlebar or it's entry in the window list will be
taken. You may want to start your application without these options
first, to get it's titlebar name or it's entry in the window list.
I strongly recommend to fill in this entryfield if you experience
unexpected results. PC/2 uses the session name to identify the
current sessions from all running sessions.
Keep on active Desktop Checking this flags keeps the application always on the
current Desktop regardless to which Virtual Desktop you move.
Enable Hotkey This flag defines you want to define a Hotkey for this
application. The controls necessary to define the Hotkey will be
enabled.
Default Once you pressed the Hotkey the Desktop is switched to the Virtual
Desktop the application is located on and activates it.
Maximized The same as for Default is done, but the applications window is
maximized too.
Restore The same as for Default is done, but the applications window is
restored too.
Ctrl-Key You define a Hotkey which ranges from 0 ... 9 and A ... Z in
conjunction with the Ctrl-Key.
Alt-Key You define a Hotkey which ranges from 0 ... 9 and A ... Z in
conjunction with the Alt-Key.
You must select a key in the range between 0 and 9 or A ... Y from
the drop down box which in conjunction with the Ctrl-key or Alt-key
is used to switch to the application. You can define this way 72
different keys as the maximum.
OS/2 and DOS windows modify the keys pressed in such a way, that
PC/2 is not able to detect them. If you wand to switch from such a
window, change the focus to another window, for example to the
Window List by pressing CTRL+ESC.
Even if a Hotkey is defined, you may
Caution! All keys defined as Hotkeys in PC/2 are no longer
available for other applications, because once a key is defined as
Hotkey no other application except PC/2 gets this key. This is a
limitation of the Hotkey feature, because only this way PC/2 can
ensure that if a Hotkey is defined, the Desktop switches to this
application. The Hotkey launches the application, if the
application, the Hotkey is defined for, is not running. If you need
a certain key, which is defined as a Hotkey in PC/2, change the
Hotkey to an unused key.
Even if a Hotkey is defined, you may pass this key to a
application, when the SHIFT-key is pressed and hold before the
Hotkey. When PC/2 detects SHIFT is pressed together with the
Hotkey, it ignores the Hotkey by passing it the the application
that currently has the focus.
Current Window List To define the style non-movable or the Hotkey you may start
the application first without these options and gets its titlebar
name from it's window or it's window list name from the Current
Window List.
Press Ok to accept, or press Cancel to ignore the data you entered in all
notebook pages.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.5. Priority Settings ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
PC/2 allows you to specify the priority of the applications you start via the
Popup-Menu. OS/2 has the following priority classes and deltas defined to
select from:
Priority Class: Description:
Idle time Idle-time is the lowest priority class a session or thread can run
under OS/2. You may use this option for task that should only be
performed if enough CPU-resource is available, i.e. for a
background NFS (Network File System) Server or BBS.
Regular If not specified otherwise the priority class Regular is the
default class of all sessions and threads. For these default class
the priority delta of 0 is default.
No Change This option just doesn't change the priority. The application is
started with the priority class Regular and priority delta 0.
Time Critical Time-critical priority class is used for time-critical sessions.
Examples may be real-time data acquisition.
Foreground Server Foreground Server is the highest priority class available
that should be only used for small assembly language applications
because they really eat up the CPU time.
Priority Delta The priority delta selectable between 0 and 31 is defined for
each priority class. I.e. a session with Regular priority class and
priority delta 25 has a lower priority than a session with
Time-critial priority class and priority delta 3.
Extreme caution! Changing the priority from the default selection may cause
serious performance impacts on your system. Be very carefully when selecting
higher priorities, because the higher the priority the higher the CPU
time-slice a session consumes deteriorating overall system performance. You
can't change the priority of DOS session (and WIN-OS2 sessions are DOS
sessions) because allowing this would lock PM for unknown reasons.
For example if you set an OS/2 command prompt to a Time-critical priority, you
may not be able to switch to other sessions until the command prompt is waiting
for input.
Press Ok to accept, or press Cancel to ignore the data you entered in all
notebook pages.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.6. Program installation example 1 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Assume you want to add Lotus 123/G:
Fieldname: You would enter:
Program Title: Lotus 123/G
Path and Filename: c:\123g\123g.exe
Working Directory: c:\123g
Parameters: (none)
Lotus 123/G is a Presentation Manager application so you would select
Presentation Manager as program type. The program style may be Maximized,
because more information is visible. The priority may be left at the default
selection No Change.
Assume you want to add the WPS Object System Clock (located in the folder OS/2
System System Setup):
Fieldname: You would enter:
Program Title: System Clock
Path and Filename: <WP_CLOCK>
Working Directory: (n/a)
Parameters: (n/a)
The System Clock is a WPS Object, so WPS Object is selected as the program
type. You may have to look into the file OS2_20.RC to get the defined name of
preinstalled WPS Objects. Most settings are not available for WPS Objects.
Assume you want to add the WPS clock object with the ObjectID <WP_CLOCK>. First
you must extract the ObjectID by using WPS 2 PC/2. Then drag the extracted
object from the WPS 2 PC/2 window onto PC/2's Setup dialog, to create a
menuentry within the Popup-Menu. After you have created the clock menuentry,
you can view its settings by editing the menuentry:
Fieldname: You would enter:
Program Title: System Clock
Path and Filename: <WP_CLOCK>
Working Directory: (n/a)
Parameters: (n/a)
The System Clock is a WPS Object, so WPS Object is used as the program type.
Assuming that you extracted the ObjectID as outlined before, then the Object ID
is <WP_CLOCK>.
Sorry, this may be a little complicated, but it is the only way to get a known
Object ID.
Assume you want to add the WIN-OS2 Program Manager. Open the Program
Installation dialog, and either enter the path information (e.g
c:\os2\mdos\winos2\progman.exe) or drag PROGMAN.EXE into. If you have entered
the data manually, you also must check the seamless WIN-OS2 session. Further
assume that you want in the same WIN-OS2 session also start the WIN-OS2 File
Manager WINFILE.EXE, then you add it to the Parameters entryfield:
Fieldname: You would enter:
Program Title: Prog & File Manager
Path and Filename: c:\os2\mdos\winos2\progman.exe
Working Directory: c:\os2\mdos\winos2
Parameters: winfile.exe
You can only add a Parameter to the WIN-OS2 Program Manager, and only one.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 10. Help for PC/2 Control Addition ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
This dialog allows you to add Menu Control items to PC/2's Popup-Menu. Except
for Break Separator and Menu Separator you may only add 1 instance of the Menu
Control to the Popup-Menu. The Menu Control Configure Popup-Menu Settings must
be added to the Popup-Menu in order that PC/2 displays the Popup-Menu after
mouse button 1 clicks, otherwise the Setup dialog will be invoked after each
mouse click until you have added this Menu Control. PC/2 supports the following
Menu Controls:
Control: Description:
Menu Settings This button is used to add the Menu Control to be able to
configure the Popup-Menu via the Setup dialog.
Desktop Settings This button is used to add the Menu Control to configure the
Virtual Desktop feature.
About PC/2 This button adds the About PC/2 Menu Control.
ShutDown OS/2 This button adds a Menu Control, which when selected displays a
message box allowing you to shutdown OS/2 just be clicking on Ok or
pressing the Enter key.
Help This button add the online help Menu Control item.
Exit This button is used to add the Menu Control to be able to exit PC/2
via a message box by just clicking on Ok or pressing the Enter key.
Break Separator This button is used to add one break separator Menu Control.
You may add this Menu Control to convert a large single-column menu
to a smaller multi-column menu. This Control is a Menu Control that
you may add as often you prefer. I suggest to use this Control only
to break Menuitems not being a Submenu.
Menu Separator This button is used to add one separator Menu Control. You may
add this Menu Control to enhance the readability of the Popup-Menu.
This Control is a Menu Control that you may add as often you
prefer.
Press Ok to accept or press Cancel to ignore the your modifications.
<Backward> <Forward>
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 11. Help for PC/2 Resort ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
This dialog box contains two listboxes, the left one that displays the
currently available Menuentries and the right one that displays the currently
resorted Menuentries. Select the first Menuentry from the left listbox and
press the Reorder button, to resort it to the right listbox. For the next
Menuentry(ies) repeat this procedure, until the left listbox is empty. Instead
of selecting a Menuentry and then clicking on the Reorder button, you may
doubleclick on a Menuentry.
You can cancel the resort before you have done any sort, but you have to resort
the complete Submenu once you made one resort operation.
All sorted Menuentries in the right listbox can't be started with PC/2 until
you complete the resort by pressing OK. Warning! - You have to press OK in the
Setup Dialog to write the resorted Menuentries structure to the configuration
file.
<Backward> <Forward>
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 12. Help for PC/2 Startup Parameters ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
PC/2 allows you to replace the commandline parameters of your application
completly or partly.
E.g assume you have a TCP/IP communications package installed on your system.
You also have added an Menuitem that start a file transfer program named FTP.
FTP requires as a parameter the name of the host you want to connect to. To
prompt you for this parameter immediately before FTP is started, you would
modify the parameters entryfield of the PC/2 Program Installation dialog like
[Please enter host address]
Further assume that you selected the Menuitem FTP from the Popup-Menu. Just
before FTP is started, a dialog box is displayed, requesting the host address
from you. E.g you will type ftp.cdrom.com, then the file transfer program will
be invoked as if you typed FTP ftp.cdrom.com from a commandline.
Generally the syntax for the commandline parameters is:
Parameter(s) 1 [Text] Parameter(s) 2
Assume you typed FirstFile.doc as the first and ThirdFile.doc as the second
parameter. You will be asked by a dialog box, what to replace [Text] with.
Assume you entered MyFile.doc then the program will be invoked with the
commandline parameters FirstFile.doc MyFile.doc ThirdFile.doc. The string
[Text] would have been replaced by MyFile.doc. Of course both parameters may be
omitted, both may contain more than one parameter or only one of them may
present. Omitting [Text] would start the application without asking you for a
commandline parameter prior.
You may also use this dialog, to add a second WIN-OS2 application to a WIN-OS2
session, if the first application is the WIN-OS2 Program Manager.
PC/2 allows you to edit commandline parameters similar to the WPS (open the
Settings notebook of any application, position the cursor into the Parameters
entryfield and press F1 or Help to get further information).
Press Ok to accept the parameters you entered, or press Cancel to replace the
commandline parameters by an empty string.
<Backward> <Forward>
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 13. Help for PC/2 Desktop Setup ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
For more information click about on one of the above notebook pages select:
o Application Settings
o Session Settings
PC/2 supports what is called Sliding Focus and Virtual Desktop.
A sliding Focus ensures, that the window under the mouse pointer is always the
active window (the one that has a highlighted frame). If you move the pointer
over another window, PC/2 recognizes the pointer movements, and tries to
activate the window currently under the mouse pointer. The windows will behave
similar to X-Windows, but the active window is always fully displayed.
A Virtual Desktop is a Desktop enhancement that expands your display. For
example assume that you are running OS/2 on an XGA-2 at a resolution of 1024 *
768 pixels. Your display has then 1024 columns and 768 rows of pixels, giving
you a Desktop where application windows can be seen. We will call this the
physical Desktop. Of course you can start windows outside this Desktop, but you
won't be able to see them unless you switch to this Desktop..
PC/2 allows you to expand this Desktop, so that you can move the physical
Desktop around to see the windows you couldn't see before. We will call this
enhancement the Virtual Desktop. Simply speaking, imagine the Virtual Desktop
as an up to 9 * 9 array of Desktops, with the physical Desktop you now can see
in the middle. Now imagine, that you can move your physical Desktop around
within the larger Virtual Desktop. For example assume that you move the
physical Desktop left, all windows you have started will move right, so some
disappear in the right side and some appear on the left side of your display.
That's just that what PC/2 does for you. If you move your mouse pointer on the
leftmost column of your display (column 0), all windows move rightward, as the
physical Desktop moves leftward within the Virtual Desktop. The same principle
is used on the rightmost columns and the top and bottom rows. If you move your
mouse pointer into a corner of your display, the Desktop even will move in two
directions, leading to a horizontal and a vertical movement.
Of course you can only move your physical Desktop in one direction, as long as
this movement keeps the physical Desktop within the Virtual Desktop. Using this
feature, you expand your physical Desktop up to a 81-fold Virtual Desktop.
All setting are saved and will be used when PC/2 is loaded unless you have
specified a different behaviour with the Commandline Parameters.
Caution: You may want to disable the Sliding Focus on a machine used for
development. When using a debugger (e.g. IPMD) your machine is likely to lock
with the Sliding Focus enabled.
You can use the Virtual Desktop on a development machine, just avoid switching
between Desktops when a debugger is active.
Trap popup screens also make changes in the focus order so I would suggest to
use the keyboard to dismiss these dialogs.
Commandline Parameters.
<Backward> <Forward>
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 13.1. Virtual Desktop Settings ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
This dialog is used to control the Virtual Desktop feature of PC/2.
Fieldname: Description:
Virtual Desktop Select this checkbox to enable the Virtual Desktop feature of
PC/2.
Move OS/2's Desktop This checkbox allows you to move the Desktop within the
Virtual Desktop like any other window. The Desktop is another name
for the WPS (WorkPlace-Shell). You may check this option if you
don't need the services provided by the WPS on all Virtual
Desktops.
Click to Move If you prefer to click to a surrounding row or column, before the
physical Desktop is moved, select this option, otherwise you can
change to another Virtual Desktop by just moving the mouse pointer
on a surrounding row or column of your Display.
Overview Window You may also want an Overview Window, that contains the current
layout of the Virtual Desktop. Select this checkbox to enable this
feature. You may doubleclick with mouse button 1 on any of the up
to 81 Virtual Desktops to immediately switch to this Desktop.
commandline option, to move the physical Desktop.
Expand WPS to Virtual Desktop When selecting this feature, the WPS is expanded
to the size of the Virtual Desktop. You may then distribute WPS
Objects to any of the Virtual Desktops. If you have a scroll bar on
your WPS, this feature removes the scrollbar when your WPS
completely fits into the Virtual Desktop.
Desktop Scrolling The scrollbar Desktop Scrolling enables you to define the
scrolling factor that is applied to your Virtual Desktop, when
switching to the next Virtual Desktop, by clicking on a surrounding
row or column. You can select between 0 and 100 % with 5%
increments, with 100 % being the default one.
Virtual Desktop count These two spinbutton enable you to define the number of
Virtual Desktops in horizontal direction and vertical direction,
both in the range of 1 to 9. The first spinbutton determines the
number of Virtual Desktops in horizontal direction, the second
spinbutton the number of Virtual Desktops in vertical direction.
Single Click Select this option if you want to activate the Popup-Menu or
switch to another Virtual Desktop with a single click with mouse
button 1.
Double Click Select this option if you want to activate the Popup-Menu or
switch to another Virtual Desktop with a double click with mouse
button 1.
Preselect first Menuitem Check this item if you want PC/2 automatically to
select the first entry of your Popup-Menu for you. If the first
item is a submenu, it will be opened automatically.
Sliding Focus Select this checkbox to enable the Sliding Focus feature of PC/2.
Note! Even if this setting is enabled, you can temporarily prevent
the focus from moving by holding down the SHIFT-key when moving the
mouse.
Preserve Z-Order To preserve the Z-Order of the windows, that is the order in
which a window in the foreground overlaps a window behind, also
check the Preserve Z-Order checkbox.
Note! Even if this setting is enabled, you can temporarily prevent
changes of the Z-Order by holding down the SHIFT-key when moving
the mouse.
Hide Titlebar To hide the titlebar of PC/2's Overview Window select this
option. This increases the space available to paint a reduced image
of the Virtual Desktops.
Hide Smarticons To hide the smarticon bar of PC/2's Overview Window select this
option. This increases the space available to paint a reduced image
of the Virtual Desktops too, at the cost of not being able to
manipulate PM windows on the Overview Window.
Press Ok to accept the configuration and save it into an INI file, or press
Cancel to ignore any changes you made. If your INI file is corrupted, PC/2
assumes default values, which you then can edit and save to a new INI file.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 13.2. Physical Desktop Settings ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
This dialog is used to control the physical Virtual Desktop feature of PC/2.
Control: Description:
OS/2's Desktop Name PC/2 has to know the name of this Desktop, so you have to
ensure that you type its name in the entryfield. Under OS/2 2.0 its
usually named OS/2 2.0 Desktop, but it changes under OS/2 2.1 to
Desktop, if you haven't installed it over an existing OS/2 2.0
system. You may rename the Desktop by clicking with mouse button 2
on the Desktop selecting DesktopSettings and selecting the General
notebook page. Changing the title can be used to replace OS/2 2.0
Desktop by Desktop. Also ensure that you translate is into your
national language, if you don't use an English OS/2 version.
Window List Name PC/2 also requires to know the name of the Window List. The
Window List is usually named Window List but you have to ensure
that it is translated into your national language, if you don't use
an English OS/2 version.
Button 2 titlebar click lowers Z-order Select this checkbox if you want to
click down mouse button 2 on any window's titlebar to set this
window to the bottom of all windows. This moves the window you
clicked on behind all other windows, lowering its Z-Order to the
minimum. The window under the mouse pointer is moved to the
foreground and activated, if it is not the same you clicked on.
By holding the Ctrl-key while clicking with mouse button 2 on a
window's titlebar, the window under the mouse pointer gets not
moved to the foreground and activated. This allows you to kick a
window into the background without affecting the Z-order of other
windows.
By holding the Alt-key while clicking with mouse button 2 on a
window's titlebar, the titlebar acts as if you haven't checked
PC/2's option Button 2 titlebar click lowers Z-order. This allows
you to move the window or activate any special features the window
supports.
Keep on top Select this option if you want the Overview Window to stay always
on the top of the Desktop, even if another window has the focus.
Use Spooler Control Window PC/2 provides a Spooler Control Window, which allows
you to manage the printer queues and jobs of your local
workstation. This feature is primarliy to provide a printer
management, when PC/2 is running as a WPS replacement, because the
standard OS/2 Spooler management is a SOM application and requires
that the WPS is running.
By default PC/2 starts the Spooler Control Window only, when PC/2
is running as a WPS replacement. When selecting this checkbox, the
PC/2 Spooler Control Window is also available when you run PC/2 on
top of the WPS (which increases PC/2's memory requirements
slightly). Changes of this setting aren't available immediately,
but the next time you start PC/2.
Background Bitmap Check this option to add the background Bitmap support of
PC/2. PC/2 then allows you to define a bitmap, which is displayed
on PM background. PM background means all the background of OS/2
that is not covered by the WPS. For example if you have 3 Virtual
Desktops, having the WPS as the centered one, then the 2 Virtual
Desktops beside the WPS will display the background bitmap.
Normal This option displays the bitmap unsized. The bitmap is centered.
Scaled This option scales the bitmap so that is covers the complete
screen.
Tiled The bitmap is tiled covering the complete screen with the tile
count selected in the Tile count spinbutton. You can select a tile
count of 1 to 99 although OS/2 seems to limit this to about 20.
Caution! Under OS/2 3.00 Warp this seems to hang OS/2 completely,
requiring a soft reset.
Find Bitmap... Select this pushbutton to use the standard OS/2 file dialog to
locate the bitmap file you want to display.
Path to Bitmap Either fill this entryfield by selecting a bitmap with the file
dialog by clicking on Find Bitmap... or enter the fully qualified
path to the bitmap manually.
Press Ok to accept the configuration and save it into an INI file, or press
Cancel to ignore any changes you made. If your INI file is corrupted, PC/2
assumes default values, which you then can edit and save to a new INI file.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 14. Help for PC/2 Overview Window ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
PC/2's Desktop Overview Window displays a sized image of all windows available
on all Virtual Desktops and allows direct manipulation. Of course PC/2's
Overview Window must be enabled before it is displayed.
To change the font of the Overview Window just drag a font from the Font
Palette to the Overview Window. This font will be saved the next time you exit
PC/2.
The Overview Window is controlled by smarticons, located at the top of the
window. The currently active smarticon is framed and pressed. If mouse button 2
is pressed on a window the action corresponding to the active smarticon is
performed.
To perform actions on the windows displayed in PC/2's Desktop Overview Window,
the following smarticons may be used:
Icon: Description:
Exit PC/2 Click on this smarticon to exit PC/2.
Move window Selecting this icon changes the pointer to a window pointer cursor,
allowing you to select and move a window by clicking and holding
mouse button 2.
Hide window Selecting this icon changes the pointer to a window pointer cursor,
allowing you to select and hide a window by clicking mouse button 2
onto it. The window can be set visible again by selecting it from
the Window List.
Set to top Selecting this icon changes the pointer to a cross wires cursor,
allowing you to move a window on the top of the Desktop by clicking
mouse button 2 onto it.
Set to bottom Selecting this icon changes the pointer to a cross wires cursor,
allowing you to move a window to the bottom of the Desktop by
clicking mouse button 2 onto it.
Kill a session Selecting this icon changes the pointer to a cross wires cursor,
allowing you to terminate a window by clicking mouse button 2 onto
it.
Maximize window Selecting this icon changes the pointer to a cross wires
cursor, allowing you to maximize a window by clicking mouse button
2 onto it.
Minimize window Selecting this icon changes the pointer to a cross wires
cursor, allowing you to minimize a window by clicking mouse button
2 onto it.
Restore window Selecting this icon changes the pointer to a cross wires cursor,
allowing you to restore a window by clicking mouse button 2 onto
it.
ShutDown OS/2 Selecting this icon changes the pointer to a window pointer
cursor and displays a message box asking to continue ShutDown of
OS/2.
PC/2 Help Selecting this icon changes the pointer to a window pointer cursor
and displays PC/2's online help you are reading now.
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ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 15. PC/2's Spooler Control Window ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
PC/2 supports a Spooler Control Window, which is simply a container filled with
the available printer queue and job information available on the local machine
PC/2 is running.
To change the font of the Spooler Control Window just drag a font from the Font
Palette to the Spooler Control Window container. This font will be saved the
next time you exit PC/2. The PC/2 Spooler was primarily added to be able to
manage print jobs on systems PC/2 is running as a WPS replacement. Any WPS
replacement has to start the OS/2 spooler and provide a mechanism to manage
print jobs.
To be able to display PC/2's Spooler Control Window, you must select the
menuitem PC/2 Spooler from PC/2's Popup Menu (of course you have to add this
menuitem via the Control Addition dialog.
If the container is empty, PC/2 can't find any printer queue on your loca
workstation.
Menuentry: Description:
Refresh Select this item to refresh the Spooler window container
immediately from the real-time printer queue status of the local
workstation. When you don't select this item, the Spooler window
container gets refreshed regularly.
Hold job Select this item to set the currently selected job(s) to a hold
status.
Release job Select this item to set the currently selected job(s) to the normal
status (this request will be ignored for jobs being in the normal
status).
Delete job Select this item to delete the currently selected job(s). The jobs
will be removed from the printer queue by the OS/2 spooler in a few
seconds.
Hold queue Select this item to suspend the currently selected queue(s). All
jobs running in these queues will suspended from printing, too.
Release queue Select this item to set the currently selected queue(s) to the
normal status (this request will be ignored for queues being in the
normal status).
Help Selecting this item just displays the online help panel you are
currently reading.
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ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 16. PC/2's Compatibility with other applications ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
This section provides information of compatibility with some (but certainly not
all) useful packages.
Program: Compatibility information.
BOOTOS2 This package, available as EWS (or from OS2TOOLS), allows you to
create a bootable system to either diskette or harddisc from a
single command prompt, over a PM to a complete WPS setup. This is
useful for creating a bootable maintenance partition on a logical
FAT (because HPFS required a CHKDSK when not shut down correctly)
drive (requiring under 10 MB disc space), allowing you to recover a
unbootable production partition (e.g. changes in CONFIG.SYS which
made it unbootable) or to remove files, which would have been
locked when booting from your production partition.
After creating a PM setup, the standard OS/2 command processor
CMD.EXE is your Workplace Shell process.
By replacing the line SET RUNWORKPLACE=\OS2\CMD.EXE, which BOOTOS2
creates in your CONFIG.SYS, by SET RUNWORKPLACE=\PC2\PC2.EXE,
assuming you have installed PC/2 into the directory \PC2 on the
boot drive, PC/2 will be a more comfortable Workplace Shell
process. You can of course copy your existing PC2.CFG file to this
directory, to continue fast access to your favourite programs.
IPFCPREP This package, available as EWS (or from OS2TOOLS) is a great help
for writing online help panels (that is compiling *.IPF files into
*.HLP files). This package contains a preprocessor, that adds
conditional compiling, macros and some more things, which the IPFC
(Information Presentation Facility Compiler) is definitely missing.
OS/2 2.x PC/2 was successfully tested with OS/2 2.10 and 2.11 US. It may
also be compatible with OS/2 2.00, but this was not tested.
OS/2 WARP PC/2 is fully compatible with OS/2 WARP. Using previous versions of
PC/2 (1.70 and before) may cause problems when using the Virtual
Desktop. Of course you can continue to use the Launchpad together
with PC/2.
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ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 17. Help for PC/2 Errors ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
PC/2 can't verify all user input for validity, so some user input may cause
some PC/2 functions to fail. In this case, a message box is displayed
containing the module and the sourcecode linenumber that failed. Also a error
message is displayed containing which error occured and what should be done to
resolve the problem.
E.g. you might have configured to start the program VIEW.EXE by writing
c:\os3\view.exe in the entryfield Path and Filename in the Program Installation
dialog. This of course leads to an error, because when OS/2 tries to start this
item, it can't find the directory \os3\ simply because it should read \os2\. A
message box is displayed saying an error occured and that the user input should
be corrected.
Some messages aren't even errors, just warnings (e.g. the message that informs
you that the file PC2.INI does not exist or must be updated from a previous
version of PC/2). I have to admit that most messages primarily were debugging
messages and are not so user-friendly and clear as they should be.
The messagebox has three buttons that may be pressed:
Button: Result:
Abort PC/2 will be terminated and all unsaved data will be lost. You have
to restart PC/2 again. This button should be the last one you
select.
Retry The error is ignored, you may need to correct your data entered in
the entryfields.
Ignore The error is ignored, you may need to correct your data entered in
the entryfields.
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