OS/2 Professional/OS2PRO194.ISO/os2/info/document/usergrps/missouri/issue_10/oct93.txt

Text File | 1993-10-04 | 133.2 KB | 3,791 lines

                        MMOUG October 1993 Newsletter

                              Volume 1 Number 5

The views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily the views held by
the MMOUG or it's members. Don't agree with something you've read here?
Write and tell us about it!



Mid Missouri OS/2 Users Group
=============================
The MMOUG meets on the third Wednesday of each month, meeting at the Columbia
IBM office on even months and at the Jefferson City office on odd months.

October Meeting Announcement
----------------------------
When:       October 20, 1993 at 4 PM
Where:      Columbia IBM Office (See directions)
Activities: Dale Hackemeyer, MMOUG Information Officer, will show how he
            creates the MMOUG Newsletter using the OS/2 Information
            Presentation Facility.

Directions: Columbia IBM Office
            101 Park De Ville Place
            Columbia, MO 65203

            From either I-70 or US 63, take Stadium Drive to Broadway.
            Go West down Broadway and go through the next stop light.
            Park De Ville Place is the first street on the right after the
            light. IBM is about a block down Park De Ville on the left.

Mid Missouri OS/2 Users Group Information
-----------------------------------------

Current Officers:

     Phillip Wilson - President
     Diane Kehl - Vice President
     Robert Shelley - Treasurer
     Shawn Frazier - Membership Secretary
     David Finch - Recording Secretary
     Woody Sturges - BBS Officer
     Dale Hackemeyer - Information Officer

Official MMOUG BBS:

     OS/2 Woodmeister - [phone] (1:289/27)
     Jeff City Point - [phone] (MMOUG Members only)

MMOUG Mailing Address:

     Mid Missouri OS/2 Users Group
     P.O. Box 30645
     Columbia, MO 65205-0645

MMOUG Internet E-mail Address:

     [e-mail]


Presidential Corner
===================

Greetings and Salutations :-)

Well we had another full room this past meeting in Jefferson City, and I believe
everyone found the WordPerfect demonstration informative and helpful.

I would personally like to thank the WordPerfect Corporation for allowing their
representative to come to our meeting and give our users the opportunity to see
WordPerfect 5.2 for OS/2 first hand and get answers to a lot of questions.

Thanks Curtis   (Wordperfect Representative).

I have requested a larger room for the November meeting due to the shortages of
chairs in the  room (definitely a positive predicament to be in. <g>)  So here
we go into fall months that normally herald a lot of new developments and
products being announced to the public and the fall trade shows.  Here's hoping
that the OS/2 ball will keep gaining momentum.  Shortly, we will be a member of
the Association of PC User Groups (voted on last meeting).  Our formation as a
User Group will be complete with the final touches on our incorporation,
including the Bylaws which we also voted on last meeting.  For those of you
lucky enough to be able to attend the fall Comdex show, see if you can stick
your two cents in on behalf of our User Group.  It should be a blast for OS/2
User Groups and Team OS/2'ers.

I would also like to thank our Vice-President Diane Kehl for providing a much
needed sense of order to our meeting.  Diane has volunteered to write up the
agenda for each meeting to keep it running smoothly.  Also, a big thank you to
Rick Wolters for helping identify limitations in the Jefferson City OS/2
Woodmeister BBS, Dayton and Penny Shepherd for volunteering to do a Software
review for the newsletter, and Gary Pool for continuing to remind me we needed
to ratify our bylaws.

Also on a side note, you may want to check out the September issue of the OS/2
Professional magazine.  There is a very good article in there about how IBM is
helping it's OS/2 User Groups.  We have definitely benefited from that and hope
to continue to do so.  Michelle Wilson is working on getting our future meetings
announced in the OS/2 Professional magazine.

Thank you for being a member.  If you are not a member please remember you are
always welcome to stop by and attend the meetings.  Take Care and have a Great
October.

Phillip Wilson
President,
Mid Missouri OS/2 Users Group


OS/2 Shopping
=============

Shopping for native OS/2 applications got you down? Do you find it almost
impossible to find OS/2 software by mail order, let alone locally? Don't
despair! Pick up the phone and you can choose from several OS/2 only mail
order houses, stocked with the latest OS/2 apps, usually at discount
prices. They carry not only IBM OS/2 products, but a wide
range of other commercial apps, registered versions of several popular
shareware products, OS/2 books, and OS/2 paraphenalia, such as buttons and
shirts. Some even offer OS/2 compatible hardware!

Sound like something you're looking for? Call or write:

Indelible Blue Inc.
PO Box 31306
Raleigh, NC 27622-1306
Orders: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Inquries: [phone]

The Corner Store
33 West Street
Litchfield, CT 06759
Phone: [phone]

Below Zero
Box 22009, Bankers Hall
135-315 8th Ave. SW
Calgary, Alberta
Canada
T2P 3J1
[phone]  (461-BRRR)
[phone]
Fax: [phone]

I'll have the October 1993 Indelible Blue Inc. catalog at the October meeting, plus
there are electronic catalogs for The Corner Store and Below Zero on the
OS/2 Woodmeister BBS, in the files
CSTORE.ZIP and
BZ0593OS.ZIP
respectively. Be warned that these electronic catalogs are a bit
dated (pre-OS/2 2.1).

Dale Hackemeyer


OS/2 Hardware Central
=====================
Here are some posts to usenet that summarize the responses to some OS/2
hardware questions.

Miscellaneous
-------------
From: [e-mail] (JT)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: nice os/2 system

This is the summary of the responses I got for the post "nice system for os/2".
With the number of peripherals available in the market
today, the options are mindboggling. Making the right
choice for a new system for any operating system is
tough. Often, the responses conflict and opinions
differ, you wonder who's giving the most accurate
information. Ultimately however, armed with the
knowledge gained, one has to make the choice.

Thanks to the following individuals who responded :

A.A. Olowofoyeku  <[e-mail]>
[e-mail] (C. R. Oldham)
Eliot Wilson <[e-mail]>
[e-mail] (Ewan Ng)
[e-mail] (JeroenHoppenbrouwers)
[e-mail] (James Gow)
[e-mail] (Juha-Matti Liukkonen)
Pat Duffy <[e-mail]>
Rod Smith <[e-mail]>
Timothy F. Sipples <[e-mail]>
uttsbbs!john.navas (John Navas)
[e-mail] (Kurt Schafer)

Please forgive me, if I have left your name out.

Motherboard
-----------
Generally, the 486-33 or 486-66 was preferred over the 486-50
due to the VL-Bus spec of 40Mhz. There was general agreement
that the 486-50 may cause cards to malfunction. To prevent this,
one can either buy a good motherboard or some cards which have
been rated for 50Mhz. C.R. Oldham says: "Running near the edge of
the envelope is sure to bring out any inconsistencies."
Besides the Intel based motherboards, other 486 chips to
consider are the IBM 486SLC/2 chips. These have an internal
16k cache and are relatively cheaper than Intels.
Of greater consideration, perhaps is RAM. It has been suggested
that 16meg is the minimum required to do *ture* multitasking.
James Gow has says that 486-33 with 16meg ram have outperformed
486-66 with 8meg ram.
I had a few mails suggesting EISA/VESA or EISA rather than VL-Bus.
However, EISA is a lot more expensive.

SCSI HDD and Controllers
------------------------
In the FAQ both the Adaptec and the Future Domain are recommended.
However, it has been observed that most users (who responded)
generally preferred the Adaptec.
A buslogic comment taken from an old posting :
---------

From: [e-mail] (Jim Louvau)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: VLB SCSI: Ultrastore 34f ?
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 07:59:18

 SX> I never got mine working with my Gateway 2000 486DX2/66, despite all the
 SX> help I got from IBM, Ultrastor, and Robert King(who has been succesfully
 SX> using Ultrastor 34F).

FWIW, I have a dozen sand boxes at work, and two at home, all running Buslogic
(Bustek) BT-445S VL HA's with *ZERO* problems. Ditto on a couple of NetWare file
servers. A super-easy, absolutely painless, no-brainer installation of their
OS/2 2.x drivers after setting a single (and labled clearly ON THE CARD) bus
speed jumper was all it took. These suckers are SCSI-2F, and will do 32-bit
transfers with the host at 40MBps. They'll also handle (guaranteed) a full 50mHz
bus speed for you DX50 powermongers out there. Tech support at Buslogic fielded
multiple phone calls and questions from me, even BEFORE I owned the product.
Very nice people to deal with, and competent to boot. Needless to say, I was,
and still am, VERY impressed with both the product AND the company. What's more,
the street price of < $300 puts them within $5 - $10 of the Ultrastor's.

Just consider the above a recomendation from a very satisfied customer :-)
----------

There exists some VL-bus type SCSI controllers. However, these
are not standardized. It seems that cacheing, here, is also a problem.
Few respondents know what the FastSCSI2 is all about. However,
just one person said that the SCSI2 is an established standard
whereas the FastSCSI2 is not.
If you are going for EISA, then get an EISA Adaptec 1742 as a
host adapter.
As a point of interest, it is generally agreed that the SCSI
port of the PAS sound cards do not come into conflict with
the SCSI controller. Go with the Logitech Soundman for full
PAS compaitbility without the SCSI port or the PASBasic (pro
Audio Spectrum w/o the SCSI port)
For SCSI hdd, stick with known brands such as Quantum, Conner
and Maxtor. Fujitsu's are paticularly good. One person has gone
so far as to recommend Fujitsu's for hdd over 600meg and Quantum's
for hdd below 550meg. Then again, another mail says : "The best
500 Mb hard disk is the new Maxtor; the best 1 Gb hard disk
is the Seagate Barracuda."

Display Cards and Monitors
--------------------------
Some users are pretty happy with their Catseye/X (recommended
in the FAQ), of which there is no VLBus version yet.
Many people have also claimed that their S3-based cards are
faster than the XGA-2s. Among the well recommended brands are
Orchid, Actix, Farenheit (1280+), Spea Mirage V7, and #9
(see attached mail). Those cards based on the S3 928s are pretty
good choices. Actix and Magma have full os/2 support.

Here is a copy of a message posted to comp.os.os2.misc about the Actix
card:
----------

From: [e-mail] (John Wallace)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Re: Best Video Card for 2.1?
Date: 20 Aug 1993 13:30:16 -0500

No contest.  Get an Actix S3 VLB board.
Actix (unlike Diamond and a few others) does not use a
propreitary video BIOS.  Actix uses straight Quadtel (S3) BIOS.
This makes it as compatible as it can possibly be.  You can
buy one from CSI if you hurry.  Right now they have a special
for OS/2 users for under $225, and it comes with 2MB VRAM.
You can call CSI at: 1-800-733-9798.
----------

From: [e-mail] (Danzig)

Of the S3-928 based cards out there the #9s perform the
fastest and they are the only video cards with the FLASH bios built into
them, LED indicator on the outside of the card to tell you the status of
the card. It's also capable up to 2048x1024 in the Virtual mode and
1280x1024 in the regular display mode up to 16.7 million colors for
1024x768 and 65k colors for 1280x1024. It supports refresh rates up to 76Hz
for all resolutions and the card has a bandwidth of more than 100MHz, and
the clock generator is fully programmable and #9 is very good with
programming information. The OS/2 drivers for it makes this the fastest of
the S3-928 cards out there. And #9 makes the highest quality S3-928 cards.
The Diamond Stealth Pro which is based on the same chip only runs at about
half the speed.
There is the 1meg, 2 meg, 3meg and 4meg versions.
The GXE Level 10/11/12/14. Where their ram configurations are
1v , 2v, 2v+1d, 4v. (v = VRAM, d = dram)
The Level 14 is currently only available for ISA version. All the others
are available for both ISA and VLB. According to my benchmarks, VLB doesn't
seem to affect performance much. For a really accelerated card, the bus
bandwidth it needs is much less than let's say a Cirrus/ET4k/pvga so
localbus doesn't really help much. The prices for VLB and ISA is the same.
----------
(contact Danzig for prices)

It is agreed that monitors should support at least 1024x768 NI.
Highly recommended ones include the Zenith FTM, NEC, ViewSonic,
Mag, Nanao, and IDEK. Higher resolutions require a larger screen
space.

Hope some of you find this information useful.

J


Video
-----
From: [e-mail] (Philip Poe)
Subject: REVISED: SUMMARY: Fast Video! (9/17/93)
Date: 17 Sep 93 19:40:49 GMT

Hello World.

I've posted several requests for information concerning accelerated video
cards recently. My purposes are for use in OS/2 specifically, but there is
useful information here for DOS/Windows and UNIX users as well. Along with
my own research, I've received some helpful information from The Net.
Here's a subjective summary of what I've learned....
BTW, if you have text search capability, search for "*-" to find subject
headers. If you want to skip over all the gory text (it's a _lot_) go
immediately to the bottom or search for "BOTTOM LINE"

I do not discuss refresh rates or overclocking the bus speed (much :). I
think I supplied enough phone numbers point you in the right direction for
questions/answers. Please post followups for errata or flat out mistakes.
Also, any good sources to purchase these cards is appreciated.

Hope it helps,
Phil

I am pulling relative performance reviews from previous reviews in
magazines, generally from old issues of PC Magazine and posts on the net from
user benchmarks, but mainly from PC Magazines Perfect PC issue, and from
Sept 93 Computer Shopper review of VLB boards. Of course, they conflict
with each other....
Amazingly, in the same issue of PC Mag, they review video cards again,
including some discussed in the Perfect PC section, and the results
CONFLICT!!!


*--- ISA vs VLB
VLB has the advantage of a 32bit bus, at 33 (newer boards up to 40) Mhz
compared to ISAs limit of 16bits, at 8MHz (most new motherboards allow you
to up the bus speed to a max of 16MHz). Unfortunately, most high-end
accelerators are poorly optimized in terms of VGA compatibility. The
result is while driver based (Such as Windows or OS/2) performance is
phenomenal, if you do not have a driver for your software, performance is
poor. For example, the Weitek Power9000 chipset is arguably the fastest
chipset for Windows, but in DOS, despite the 32bit bus, performance is
poorer than most ISA based cards.

Using drivers, most accelerators will NOT hit the maximum throughput of a
particular bus, so the speed of ISA accelerators is in the same ballpark
as their VLB counterparts.  On the other hand, the _fastest_ chipsets seem
to be made only for VLB cards. On the first hand, even low-mid range
accelerators are many times faster than frame buffer cards, and may be
"fast enough" (heresy!) for some users.

When I compare DOS performance, the standard I will use is the Tseng labs
ET4000/AX chipset on an ISA based card. This is a well known standard for
DOS based performance. Cards with this chipset are Diamond SpeedStar and
Orchid ProDesigner IIs. Do not confuse the AX with the ET4000/W32, which
is a 32bit frame buffer _and_ accelerator.

*--- IF YOU HAVE AN ISA SYSTEM AND WILL NOT PURCHASE A VLB SYSTEM

It looks like your needs will be best met by one of the following chipsets:
ATI Mach32 (Mach32)
IBM XGA-2 (XGA-2)
Cirrus Logic 5426 (CL5426)
S3 801 or 928 (S3801 or S928)

*------ Mach32
Found on the ATI Graphics Ultra + and Graphics Ultra Pro. Can be found
with 1MB, but as far as I know, all new ones come with 2MB.
DOS performance is adequate. According to PC Mags Perfect PC issue, the ISA
version of the GU+ is roughly 75% as fast as the Tseng ET400/AX.
As far as I'm aware, Mach32 cards use a second chipset, identical to the
one on the VGA Wonder with 512KB. This supplies the VGA compatibility.
Windows performance is very good with the release of the new 2.0 drivers.
Many people complain about the driver reliability under Windows.
Now I believe the latest Windows drivers are v2.1
OS/2 drivers are in Beta stage, and get complaints about reliability.
The Mach32 is also 100% hardware compatible with the IBM 8514/A chipset,
so the 8514/A drivers supplied with Windows and OS/2 will work well.
8514/A compatibility is markedly slower than native mode however.
The best buy on a ISA based seems to be the GU+ with 2MB. Most cards will
also have a mouse port, and include a high resolution bus mouse.
Computer Discount Warehouse has the GU+ w/2MB and mouse for $239 at last
check.

*------ CL5426
Many vendors use this chip. They have accelerated drivers for Windows, and
as far as I know, unaccelerated drivers for OS/2. (please let me know if
otherwise). DOS performance is very good. Slightly faster than a Tseng
ET4000/AX card. Windows performance is on the low end for an accelerator,
but is several times as fast as a frame buffer.
No-name clones go for as little as $80, name brands for $100 or so.
Name brand vendors include : Actix, Genoa, Edge
I hear accelerated OS/2 drivers are released now or are due _very_ soon.
(Can someone please verify this?)

*-------- XGA-2
Technically, this is a specification, not a chipset, but a chipset seems
to describe it well enough for this discussion.
This is apparently _the_ chip with best support under OS/2 2.x. All others
are racing for second place. Acceleration isn't the fastest, but is _slightly_
slower than the S3 801 chipset for most tasks, and faster on others.
Unfortunately, it is (currently) limited to MCA or ISA versions. Memory is
limited to 1MB (?) and maximum 64K colors. DOS speed is adequate, on par
with S3 801 chips (That is, 70% of Tseng ET4000/AX).
Windows performance is good, again, on par with S3 801.
The XGA-2s real claim to fame though, is its OS/2 support.

FutureComm sells the CatsEye XGA-2 card for $249. (Phone number anyone?)

Rumor has it that a VLB version is due out RSN (Real Soon Now).
Rumor 2 has it that an XGA-3 chipset/specification will be out (who knows
when), that will have speed near the P9000 chipsets or faster.

*----------- IIT AGX-014
I couldn't find any reviews of an AGX-014 card, but I'll mention it for
completeness. This is IITs XGA based chipset (not compatible, though).
I hear it's plenty fast, but I wouldn't know.

*-------------- S3801 or S3928
The 928 is really designed for VLB, but exists in ISA form. Unless you really
need some feature found in a 928 based, I strongly suggest that you get an 801
based card. The 928 cards are significantly more expensive due to VRAM. IMHO,
the relatively small speed increase is not worth it. The major factor
of the 928 and VRAM is that it supports higher refresh rates at
high resolutions for those of you with large monitors. Another factor is
that if you do a lot of 15bit, 16bit, or 24bit color work, the 928 earns
it's pay over the 801/805.

S1 801 DOS performance is adequate, roughly 70% of the
ET4000/AX.  Windows performance is very good, and the drivers are stable.
16 bit OS/2 drivers are available from some vendors including Actix, Orchid
and STB. 32 bit OS/2 drivers are available from IBM and work with boards
from Actix, Orchid, and most others.

The best selection on 801 cards seems to be the Actix GE32+ series. They
can be found with up to 2MB DRAM. The only place I've seen with 2MB cards is
WINXPRESS, 800/859-8500. Ask for Vince.

Most people on the net seem to recommend the Orchid Fahrenheit 1280+ or VA.
They are identical except for the sound capabilities of the VA.

The lowest priced name brand card I've seen is the STB XL-24. I've seen them
on the net for $159 shipping _included_. This card seems to be faster in
Windows than the Orchid card and has 16bit OS/2 drivers.
Call SELLCOM 800/735-5266, and ask for Steve Winter.

Diamond and Number 9 make exceedingly fast 928 versions with ample VRAM if
you have the $$ to spend. #9 is earning a good rep for their drivers.

No name cards go for $140 or so.


*--- IF YOU ALREADY HAVE OR ARE CONSIDERING BUYING A NEW VLB SYSTEM

*---------- ATI Mach32
See description in ISA section.
DOS performance is very fast. According to PC Mag Perfect PC issue, >= 2 times
faster than ET4000/AX.
Windows performance is slightly slower than the S3 928 on VLB.
OS/2 2.1 drivers are in beta stage and are met with mixed reviews at best.
Mach32 chipset is 100% hardware compatible with IBM 8514/A. So drivers for
that chipset work with Mach32 cards. This will give slower performance
than if you have native Mach32 drivers.

*----------------- Cirrus Logic 5426
See description in ISA section.
DOS performance is very fast. According to Computer Shopper Sept 93 issue,
performance is roughly 30%-50% faster than the ATI GU Pro.
Windows performance is adequate. According to the same Computer Shopper,
roughly 50%-70% of the ATI GU Pro.
Windows drivers are stable, OS/2 drivers exist, but may not be accelerated.
No-name clones go for as little as $100. Name brands for >= $125.
USA Flex has an OEM card for $110.
Rumor has it that accelerated OS/2 drivers are out or are due _very_ soon.
(can someone please verify if there is acceleration with these drivers?)

*----------- IIT AGX-015
The VLB version of the IIT chipset. Supposedly as fast as Weitek P9000, but
reviews haven't verified this. Computer Shopper didn't like it too much in
it's Hercules Graphite form. PC magazine, however gave it an Editors Choice
(?!?!?! Aren't these guys from the same publisher?)
In any case, DOS performance is _poor_ according to Computer Shopper.
There are no OS/2 drivers that I know of. With such conflicting reports, I
abstain from commenting on it. USA Flex has the 1MB version for $270.
Hmmm... looking at the ad, the Hercules card is listed as having the AGX-014,
a chip _not_ designed for VLB, perhaps this is the source of it's
poor reviews.
Orchid makes the Celsius VLB, which uses AGX-015. USA Flex has it for $250

*-------------- S3 805 and 928
See description of 801 and 928 in ISA section.
Again, unless you _must_ have some feature found on a 928 card, I suggest
you use an 805 based card. 805 cards can have up to 2MB DRAM, 928 cards up
to 4MB VRAM. According to PC Mag Perfect PC issue, 805 VLB is approx 80%
the speed of 928 VLB. To say the least 805 costs a lot less. See the ISA
section for reasons you might want 928 and VRAM.

I've only seen Actix boards have 2MB DRAM on 805 cards. Actix also has a 4MB
VRAM card. See ISA section for WINXPRESS phone number. Actix claims that
their boards can handle 50MHz on VLB.

STB VL-24 is a 1MB card and goes for $165 _delivered_. See ISA section for
SELLCOM phone number. This card gets faster scores under windows compared to
Actix and Orchid.

USA Flex has a Boca OEM card for $150.

DOS performance is good, roughly 10%-15% faster than ET4000/AX
In almost every case, 801/805 is _slightly_ faster than 928 in DOS.
Windows drivers are mature for this chipset.
OS/2 2.1 drivers come in 16bit form from vendors and IBM 32bit drivers support
most cards with this chipset.
No-name 1MB 805 cards go for >= $140.

Again Diamond and Number 9 have earned a rep for exceedingly fast 928 VLB
cards if you have the $$

*---------------- Tseng ET4000/W32
A new accelerator chip from Tseng Labs. Also optimized for VGA performance
on the VLB. This card is the last word in raw VGA performance.
According to PC Mag Perfect PC issue, ET4000/W32 is 60% faster than ATI GU
Pro in terms of VGA performance. Which is >= 3-4 times faster than ET4000/AX.
this is _without_ acceleration.
Windows performance, according to PC mag again, is slightly faster than
the S3 805, slightly slower than ATI Mach32.
Hercules Fahrenheit goes for $160 at Publishing Perfection 800/782-5974
Cardinal also makes a card.
You can contact Kevin at KC COMPUTERS for a no-name (Cardex?) version.
716/388-8621 or [e-mail]

This chipset has OS/2 drivers, but are _currently_ unaccelerated.
Accelerated drivers are supposedly on the way. I believe it relies on
backwards compatibility with ET4000/AX. It's superlative frame-buffer
performance partially makes up for lack of drivers.

The ET4000/W32 can support 2MB DRAM, but I have been unable to find sources
for these cards. I have heard from 1 user in Australia that has a 2MB
card, but software detects 1MB. The Cardex version mentioned above can
support 2MB, but has no socket for it (?).

Tseng Labs has or is coming out with the ET4000/W32i, which supports more
DRAM (2 or 4MB) and some say doubles the speed of the ET4000/W32.

*---------------- Weitek Power9000
Seemingly the last word in Graphics acceleration.
Windows performance is in a class by itself. Way faster than any other card.
Diamond once again seems to make the fastest version. They even have OS/2 2.1
drivers that appear stable (!!!!!). This is nothing short of amazing to
me, since I wouldn't even be looking for a card if My SpeedStar 24X had
Accelerated drivers. If you decide to get it, make sure you get the latest
BIOS (2.02?), since older ones are buggy. Weitek supplies the drivers for
these cards, BTW, so look for other P9000 cards with OS/2 support in the
same timeframe.

Orchid and Cardinal and others also make P9000 boards. Orchid also has beta
drivers for OS/2. Orchid is also notable because they seem to have done
something to notably improve the DOS performance of this card. I hear that
they use the Weitek 5286 as opposed to 5186 to get a 32bit frame buffer card.

The price for these cards with 2MB is in the $400 range.

My previous comment about the P9100 chipset and its improvement in performance
seems to be incorrect. I have been informed that the P9100 is a part reduction
/cost reduction move.

*---------- MATROX MGA
I am deliberately NOT discussing this card here. It is a 64-bit coprocessor
with cards available for ISA, EISA, VLB, and in the future, PCI. The costs
are prohibitively high for this discussion. From initial tests, it is _much_
faster (Up to 50%???) than P9000 cards in windows (where does it all end? :)

*--BOTTOM LINE:
*--ISA:
Get an S3 801 based card, no excuses here...
If you _have_ to, get the 928 versions. (See above for reasons)

If you value DOS performance over GUI performance or if you're on a
_severe_ budget restriction. Get a CL5426 based card. They go for almost
1/2 the price of an 801, and provide roughly 50% better performance
in DOS, and reasonable performance under GUI drivers. (70% of S3 801?)

If you don't mind used equipment, and are primarily a Windows user,
Help an OS/2 user out, and buy their Diamond SpeedStar 24X! They offer
superlative DOS performance (fastest I've seen), can be modified to run
up to 16MHz on the ISA bus under spec (faster DOS performance!), and
Windows performance is good. (faster than CL5426)
Make sure you upgrade to the latest BIOS. They can still be found
new,  but the prices are too high, IMHO.

Actix makes 2MB versions of 801 based cards. Search the above text for
"WINXPRESS"
Orchid is well regarded and has a version with Voice Annotation (ie simple
sound card) capabilities.
STB makes a relatively fast version for a low price. Search the above text
for "SELLCOM"
Diamond consistently makes fast cards, but drives you nuts with proprietary
dot clocks!


*--VLB:
Widest Support : S3 805. Can be found with up to 2MB DRAM. If you _have_
to, get a 928 version. (See above for reasons) Read the ISA 801 text for
specific brand names, word for word.

Best DOS performance : If you need _speed_ in DOS, the Tseng ET4000/W32 is IT!
Windows performance on par with the S3s. Wide accelerated driver support isn't
there yet as far as I saw, but you can use ET4000/AX drivers, which has a
_LOT_ of support.
You can get a no-name clone from the net for $140. Search the above text for
"KC COMPUTERS"

Absolute Fastest : Go for the Diamond Viper, it smokes even other P9000 based
cards. Diamond seems serious about supporting this one....
Some folks like me promised never to buy Diamond again though :(
Orchid seems to have taken steps to speed up DOS performance with a 32bit
frame buffer chip for VGA compatibility.

IMHO, it's NOT worth upgrading to VLB from ISA. 801 cards are plenty fast
compared to anything short of the P9000 based cards. The other exception is
the DOS performance of the ET4000/W32.


Software Showcase
=================

Blanker 1.3
-----------
Review By Harvey Summers

Blanker is a new screen saver that can move a small IBM or OS/2 logo around
the desktop when you walk away from you computer. Blanker
is no-frills. You can set the blanking time and pick what
logo you want to see. There is no provision for passwords,
animation files, hot spots, or other nonsence. Blanker
simply works, and works well. Copying in to the startup
folder will automatically start it up. Adding "-" to the
parameters line of the startup options in the notebooks settings will make it
invisable - no minimized icons, just a brief flash when it
fires up. Blanker has a couple of small problems. When
returning from a DOS session, the WPS screen is blanked.
Appearently it doesn't catch keyboard activity in full-
screen sessions. IT also causes my communications program
to beep erratically when it should give 5 short beeps at
the end of a transfer. Minor problems for a screen blanker
than finally just simply does the job. BLANKER can be found in the file
BLANKER3.ZIP
on the OS/2 Woodmeister.


PMComm 2.1
----------
Review By Scott A. Moore

The manual

The first thing out of the box that hit me was that the manual was decidedly
unprofessional looking. Since I had only played with the demo a limited
amount of time, the impression was immediately formed that the features were
bound to be minimal. I no longer think that that is true. The manual looks
like something run off by Windows "write", and the type chosen looks like a
cheap typewriter (a good reason not to use courier font). The entire document
was done with ragged right edges, a fact that provoked laughs when later
the download dialog was also found to lack such justification!

In many places, the writer lost track of his style, underlining some headings
but not others, etc. The cover page was an attempt to create a colorfull cover
sheet, but looked to me exactly like the output of my color dot matix printer.
Having gotten that off my chest, the technical writing was quite passable.
It hit the right points, and was comprehensive. After reading the manual,
it was obvious that there were no gaps in the feature coverage of Pmcomm.
I thought the writing style was somewhat plain, with no real separation
between distinct subjects, and zero diagrams and pictures.

I know the writer if he reads this will think that I am unfairly picking on
the manual, but Pmcomm is a good product, and a professional looking manual
would go a long way to making Pmcomm a retail class product. I felt that
given a day I could have changed the look of the manual entirely with a
good word processor.


The features

Setting up Pmcomm was no sweat. I did what I always do, tour the menus and
check all the proper buttons, then look for a way to save it all. I quickly
got my fonts and colors the way I like them, and found more options and
features than I am likely to use. I thought the terminal emulation was a
bit skimpy, considering that terminal controls are widely documented (my
Procomm manual lists many of them in back).

The general layout of Pmcomm is very standard (now, but not in the demo).
There is the menu bar, followed by the toolbutton bar, then the screen area,
and finally the information line. The buttons are left justified, and
disappear from the right if you make the window too small, as is the
most common now. My only complaint here is that the number of buttons is
pitifully small, only 8 buttons. More common now is to provide many more
buttons than can usually be displayed, so that as you climb up in resolution
you get more and more buttons. If the buttons are arranged in order of
importance with left being most important, this does not cause problems
when using vga or similar mode. There does not seem to be a good
explanation for the small number of buttons. The IMHO essential feature of
screen clear (used after some line trash sets your emulated terminal to a
funny mode) is a menu item but not a button. Having to search around menus
when there is blank grey space in most of the toolbar is mildly annoying.
It is possible to set up any number of macro buttons (see below), but
I was unable to find a way to hook screen clear to a macro.
The information bar at the bottom has connect time, terminal emulation type
and a general information line that normally gives you the time and day.
This line also will tell you what each button does as you cross the pointer
over it, a high class feature that is becoming more widespread. I would have
preferred that the comm parameters have their own space on the information
line. This along with the small button bar seems to indicate that the
program was written exclusively on a VGA monitor, where space was
premimum.

Setting up the dialout was uneventfull. My required 57600 baud is a choice,
which seems to be missing from many PM products (including the package shipped
shipped with os/2). Setting up the dialing directory was no sweat (but why is
it that word processors can read each other's formats, but modem programs
cannot read each other's dialing directories?).

When performing my first dialout, I came across my first major complaint.
The dialout procedure is done by hitting a "phone" icon, then duoble
clicking a bbs.
But get no answer or cancel the dialout, and then hit the phone icon to
select another bbs to dial, and Pmcomm goes right back to dialing again!
The only way around this is to select "dial" from the pulldown menu.
A check of the manual showed this was indeed a feature, but IMHO a
poorly thought out one. I can't really think of a proper use for having the
dial icon resume calling everything selected, but the defacto effect is
to make the operation of the dial button unusable in some cases.

Macros

Macros were mentioned here (on usenet) as a Pmcomm weakness, but I cannot agree. The
internal script language is minimal, but Pmcomm allows you to plug in a
REXX program or even write your own C programs to call Pmcomm functions.
I saw no limits here, and in fact this seems like a considerable improvement
to me. I don't really see the use of the modem program having a huge
set of script functions built in that are sufficent to write an entire
BBS in. If I want to write a BBS, I'm going to do it in a real, portable
language. Pmcomm rightly plugs into the higher powered packages.
Personally, I began to use the internal script language. I created a few
login scripts, all automatically created by hitting a "record" icon,
then plugging the name of the script back into the dialing directory.
I also created a script to access a typical FTP automatically. Executing
that script was a simple button hit and double click the name.
If that is still to much work for ya, the script can be executed from
a key macro (as indeed can any function) such that a single keypress
does it.

Key macros can also be set up as buttons, so that you can really go to town
and create a full custom toolbar. But as mentioned above, the macros cannot
reach all functions on the menu. Each macro created as a button gets a label
of your choosing, so for instance I have a button marked "hobbes" that
connects to the hobbes FTP server.

Scrollback

I have to admit this is a big issue for me, since the feature is essential
on the internet. The standard methodology is to have a button or key that
places the program into scrollback mode, then the arrow or pageup/pagedown
keys roll through that buffer.

Pmcomm totally discards this system, and I have seen complaints about that
here. Instead, you hit a button that opens up an entirely new window with
all of the scrollback information.

I know that people here are going to disagree with me, but I gave the system
a chance, and on the balance, I think it makes more sense than the usual mode.
I always find myself flipping back and forth from the scroll mode to the
online mode to look up that filename that scrolled off the screen. In the
Pmcomm system, you just pop that up as a window next to Pmcomm and leave it
there. You can then continue to talk online, since the original dialup window
is still active.

It also includes many features to read and write the scroll back buffer, etc.
What I didn't like about the scrollback system was that it is not updated
with the screen information. The scrollback window was instead "frozen"
with the information current at the time you pressed the scrollback button.
In fact, refreshing the scrollback buffer meant closing it, then reopening
it. With all of os/2's abilities, there seems to be no good excuse for
not at least giving us a "refesh" button on the scrollback.

I also did not like the fact that the scrollback buffer system was not
terminal emulation aware. All of the terminal control codes appeared as
little symbols in the scrollback buffer. This also seems inexplicible.
Other programs I use place information in the scrollback buffer as it
appears on the terminal screen. Pmcomm obviously has the knowledge how to
do this in the terminal emulation handling, but it was choosen not to.

Download/upload

One of the major reasons I decided to "go native" with an os/2 based modem
handler program is that my windows based Procomm will start and stop during
downloads, often getting "bad CRC" errors (when a program overruns the
buffering built into os/2, it loses data) when I run heavy loads in the
foreground of os/2. Decompress a JPEG using JOEVIEW regular priority mode
and Procomm simply falls to it's knees. A VDM has a lot of buffering and
emulation going on. There is also interrupt handling difficulty (limited
rate of interrupts). I thought that a PM native program would bypass
these problems.

I was not disappointed. Putting together back to back downloads, then
decompressing a large JPEG, AND formatting a floppy brought the PM
virtually to a standstill, and started the disk a' dancin' (a really
HUGE picture will start the system swapping).
Pmcomm kept chugging throughout this nonsense. If it got any data errors
in the process, it was not sharing them with me.
I went back and again performed the exact same activity using Procomm,
and it immediately colapsed under the load. This could be perhaps
a problem with os/2 not giving Procomm and Windows enough time/priority
(yes, this is with a buffered uart), but this a clear win for PM based
Pmcomm.

I have to admit that on my first try with Procomm, the system simply locked
up when overloaded. I have often noted that when running downloads in
procomm/windows, doing to much in the foreground can lock the system
up.

All and all I would rate download/upload as the number one reason to get
an os/2 based modem program.

Terminal emulation

I used Pmcomm exclusively in vt100 mode, and had no problems with it.
My only complaint is perhaps unfair, as I have yet to see a PC program
that does it correctly. This is that the actual printing area of the
emulated terminal is not marked or indicated in any fashion. With
the screen blank, you haven't a clue as to what the terminal area is,
and so cannot set the Pmcomm screen area to match. Instead, Pmcomm
cheerfully allows you to waste wide open screen space on areas that
the terminal emulator cannot possibly use. The only program i've seen
even make an attempt at this was the HP workstation version of the
VT100 emulator, which at least drew a box around the terminal area.
Better still is to have a terminal option that automatically sizes the
screen to the terminal box. In Pmcomm's case, you could also safely get
rid of the scroll bars on the emulator window, since without the need
for scrollback they are essentially useless in this mode.
as it is, the only way to properly adjust the screen is to call up a
VT100 program on the connected computer that fills the emulated screen,
then adjust Pmcomm to fit. Of course, if you must emulate multiple
terminals, you are hosed.

Again, I must say that I have not seen any other program handle this
properly, either, but I am hoping to be suprised someday.

Conclusion

I think that Pmcomm was worth the money. I must admit that having paid the
same amount for 32 bit Describe and comparing how much better the manuals
and features were is somewhat depressing (is a word processor really that
much more general interest than a modem program ?). Pmcomm is, however,
alone in it's field of being a general interest program based on the
PM graphical system. It's only competition, Pmterm shipped with os/2,
is IMHO incomprehensible and lacks the essential features ( I tried several
times to get it to do usefull work for me, to no avail).
While the consensus on OS/2 seems to be that a full feature character based
program seems to be the way to go, I for one much prefer a PM native
program.

Pmcomm hit all the proper bases, and cannot even be accused of making you
learn a lot of new tricks. I deleted my Procomm directory this morning.

Pmcomm is currently at version 2.10, about $90 from multinet communications,
Klamath Falls, OR, [phone].
There is a demo commonly avaiable, but I don't think that it is very
representative of the current state of the product.

Scott A. Moore [SAM]
[e-mail]


DeScribe 4.0
------------
Review By Dale Hackemeyer

DeScribe 4.0 is DeScribe Corporation's premiere 32-bit OS/2 word processor.
DeScribe is probably the best native OS/2 word processor avaiable today, even
with the likes of WordPefect and Lotus breathing down it's neck. DeScribe has
been around since the OS/2 1.x days, so it's no newcomer to OS/2 development.
DeScribe is a fully WYSIWYG PM application that takes extensive use of the
WPS.

Tutorial

DeScribe ships with an excellent tutorial. Included on disk are artwork,
layouts, and even the text for completing the exercises, as well as the
completed exercises. The 200+ page
tutorial manual does a good job of starting from the basics (how to open
a document) to the complex (designing a form letter with graphic letterhead
and mailing list data). The edition I evaluated had minor discrepancies,
mainly between what the book said the included layouts did, and what the
layouts on disk actually did do. There was nothing major enough to render
a tutorial lesson useless, but it was enough to cause a few moments of
confusion.

What's it got?

DeScribe includes nearly all of the functions you expect to find in any good
word processor such as Spell Check, Index and Table of Contents, cut and
paste of graphics in your document, macros, and more. Some of DeScribes
more unique functions include  Frames and the extensive use of Layouts (aka
Style Sheets).

A frame is a rectangular area on the page where you can place
text or graphics. Every document contains at least one frame, and you can add
frames for headers, footers, graphics, and other text. DeScribe is frame
oriented. All of DeScribe's features and functions recognize the active frame
and if you want to place text or grapics where there is no frame, you must
either create a new one or stretch an existing frame to cover it.

Layouts contain predefined page layouts and style sheets. They allow you to
use the same layout out and typographical styles with several files. DeScribe
comes with over 40 predefined layouts. Layouts are easy to apply to a file.
After selecting a layout and typing in your document, all you have to do
is highlight sections of your text that you want to apply a portion of the
layout's style to and click on the appropriate section of the Layout Palette.

Another great feature is the unlimited undo.
When you click on Undo, either from the Edit menu or on the toolbar, a dialog
with a slider control is displayed. Either clicking on the left arrow or
dragging the slider to the left undoes keystrokes and actions, from the last
character you typed all the way back to the first. The only restriction is that you can
only undo actions done since your last save. Sort of a two-edged sword:
if you save often, your undo ability diminishes, but if you don't save often
you run the risk of losing your work inadvertantly.

Customizable!

DeScribe is EXTREMELY customizable. While the default layout is clean and
logical, you have complete control over how things look. The toolbar found
at the top of the window can be put on the bottom, left, right, or made to
"float" around the screen wherever you want it. The menus have two modes:
Novic and Standard. In Novice mode some of the more complex functions aren't
shown on the menus, while in Standard mode all the functions are shown on
the menus.

Don't like all the functions of the toolbar? You can add or delete what you
like using the "Custom Tool Manager..." found under the "Options" menu.
There are 34 functions with icons on the toolbar by default, but DeScribe
comes with over 200 predefined tools (each with it's own icon)!
Plus, you can define your own custom tools using DeScribe's
macro facility. You can even give these custom tools your own icon and even
bubble help. Want to have one toolbar displayed when working on a project,
and a different toolbar displayed when working on another project? All you
have to do is save your different toolbar configurations and load up the
one you need when you need it.

Even individual documents can be customized. You can define
how you want the document to be displayed, what rulers to use, what to check
when running the spell check, even what the status line at the bottom of the
document window should display.

DeScribe has great file import and export capabilities for those of you
that must co-exist with other word processors.

Macro-mize your time.

Now let me talk about the macro facility. DeScribe comes with a seperate
254 page manual on the macro language. Sound like too much? Well there's
also a "record macro" function that simply lets you record any task you
do often. With the recorded macro, all it takes is a couple keystrokes or
mouse click to do everything you recorded. You can open files, edit and
save files, or whatever, and the record function will create a macro to
do it all for you whenever you want.

For the more technically inclined, about 244 pages of the macro manual are
dedicated to how to create a macro using DeScribe's own scripting language.
Besides being able to write your functions, you can call just about any
DeScribe function in your macro. File Open dialogs, File Delete dialogs,
just about anything. While there's a lot to learn if you decide to script
your own macros, the power available to you is impressive.

So what's the catch?

Despite all it's powerful features, DeScribe does lack in certain areas. One
that I noticed first thing was the way it refreshes the screen when you are
using the pull down menus. Say you've pulled down a menu and decide you want
to pull down the one next to it. If you just slide the mouse over without
releasing it, DeScribe will draw the new menu, then redraw the
screen under the previous menu. The result of this is having two menus down
at one time, one partially covering the other, for a split second. It's
only a cosmetic problem (it doesn't impair DeScribe's functionality), but
one that I've never seen on any other PM application.

Footnotes are also a problem: DeScribe has no built in footnote function.
It does have an endnote function, but this isn't quite enough when you want
a definition for a reference in a footer on the page the reference occurs.
It is possible to overcome this with a macro, but that could be a bit time
consuming for the beginner.

The bottom line.

DeScribe seems to be a great word processor to me. It has some shortcomings,
but none are too great to impair it's ability. The amount of customization
possible with it is a great asset to me as well, since I'm not limited to
whatever the original programmer's thought would be nice. The documentation
is great with a main manual that is almost 1000 pages and in nice ringed
binder. It has the ease of use to  create a quick easy paper, but the
functionality to do entire newsletters (look for the Minnesota Users Group
newsletter, "Threads", on the Woodmeister for an excellent example).

If you don't beleive me, check it out for yourself. Look on Woody's for the
DeScribe 4.0 demo in the file DESCRB40.ZIP.
You can't print and it doesn't include all the file conversion libraries,
tutorial, or layouts, but hey, it's free!


OS/2 Tips & Techniques
======================

Dual boot with MSDOS 6
----------------------
Taken from Joe's OS/2 tips, in the file JMOS2-10.ZIP on Woody's

Question:

Recently I installed OS/2 on my system.  OS/2 configured itself for
dual booting, which I thought was great, but after going back to DOS
to run one of my favorite games I couldn't get the Boot /OS2 command
to work correctly, in that I had to reinstall OS/2 very time I want
to go from DOS to OS/2.  Is this suppose to happen?  I'm running
MS-DOS 6.

Answer:

DOS 6's Smartdrv uses a technology called staged writes, which
enables the computer to continue on processing until either one
large write to the hard drive, or when the computers CPU isn't
busy.  This Stage Writing is a very good idea to increase ones
systems performance, but is also a nightmare for OS/2's BOOTcommand.
Since BOOT must transfer Both DOS's important files to a
directory and OS/2's boot files to the root directory the stage
writes keeps the changes in memory and once BOOT is 'finished'
moving the files it reboots.  Then the system appears to be dead,
because the Smartdrv program failed to flushes it's stage write
buffers before rebooting, hence the changes where never completed.

The solution is an easy one.  Write a batch file.  I've included a
short one for you to use.

     REM BOOTOS2.BAT
     Echo Press Ctrl-Break, if you don't wish to start OS/2.
     Pause
     smartdrv c-
     smartdrv /c
     C:\os2\BOOT /OS2

This batch file assumes the OS/2 system is on drive C, which it
should be for a dual booting system and that smartdrv is your
caching programing (which is also in the DOS path).  I'd also add
all the drives to the smartdrv line so that they are all disabled.
From now on, your system will be quite useable, as long as you
follow the above method.  OS/2 to DOS is ok, as BOOT /DOS causes
OS/2 to perform a cache flush before rebooting, which is what all
good Multi-tasking OSs should do.


New Products!
=============
OS/2 Software recently announced or released:


Mathematica for OS/2
--------------------
From the OS2 comp.os.os2.announce newsgroup

Mathematica for OS/2

"Thanks to a very steady stream of requests for an OS/2 version of
Mathematica from users, WRI is now planning a native port of Mathematica to
OS/2.  As soon as the Mathematica OS/2 version is ready, we will announce
it's availability. Please watch for further news in MathUser, The Wolfram Research, Inc.
newsletter both for Mathematica users and for those interested in Mathematica.
To subscribe to the newsletter, send your name and mailing address
to:[e-mail] or call 217-398-6500. For general and sales
information, please contact [e-mail]."

And our own Phillip Wilson got us on the mailing list to keep up
with developments

     Date:  19-Sep-93 21:08 CDT
     From:  [e-mail]
     Subject: Re: Newletter


     Hello Philip,

     Thanks for your mail.

     I have added your Group to our mailing list.
     We will keep you posted on the OS/2 port.

     Sincerely,

     Amy M. Young


OS/2 Club on Prodigy
--------------------
From: Phillip Wilson
Conf: Os2

OS/2 Club on Prodigy now available!


September 15, 1993

Today IBM is starting an OS/2* Club on the PRODIGY(r) Service!
Available at no additional charge to any PRODIGY subscriber,
the OS/2 Club offers the following services:

o Up-to-date news and information about OS/2.
o Q & A database containing answers to many of the most
  frequently asked questions about OS/2.
o List of available OS/2 applications, company names,
  and phone numbers.
o The "OS/2 Exchange" forum in which you can post notes and
  answer each other's questions on a variety of OS/2 topics.
o IBM OS/2 Support also will be answering questions here.
  (Standard PRODIGY Plus charges apply).
o E-Mail for sending messages, problem reports, or questions
  directly to OS/2 Support representatives at IBM.
o Downloading ability to obtain IBM and non-IBM files that include
  announcements, device drivers, fixes, games, demos, shareware,
  sample applications, and a lot more. (Standard Prodigy download charges apply).

To join the Prodigy Service, call 1-800-PRODIGY.

To join the OS/2 Club on PRODIGY, Jump OS/2 Club after you connect to
PRODIGY.

PRODIGY is a registered servicemark and trademark of Prodigy Services
Company.

IBM and OS/2 are registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation.


The Developer Connection For OS/2
---------------------------------
The Power of the Future Delivered to Your Door

The Developer Connection for OS/2 --continuing proof of
IBM's commitment to OS/2 developers-- can greatly increase
your productivity by providing you with the latest tools,
pre-release software, product demos, and information you
need on today's most convenient medium--a CD.  And, because
we live in changing times, an annual subscription to the
Developer Connection for OS/2 keeps your tools and
information from becoming obsolete.  Each year you'll
receive 4 CDs, each packed with the tools and information
you need for your OS/2 development efforts.  Along with each
CD, you will receive our newsletter, The Developer
Connection News.  Look to The Developer Connection News to
be the complete source of information for all of your OS/2
development efforts.

When accessed from your CD drive, The Developer Connection
for OS/2 becomes a part of your Workplace Shell environment.
Click on The Developer Connection icon, and all the wealth
of the Developer Connection for OS/2 is instantly
attainable.  Use the powerful Developer Connection Browser
to locate any piece of information.  And because the
intuitive graphical user interface is a part of the
Workplace Shell environment, each task is familiar and
simple.  Try the products, install them, or simply retrieve
product information.  There is also an available option for
creating diskettes for many of the products on the CD.

And, because these are the products you need to develop the
best OS/2 applications today, as well as tomorrow, we have
designed The Developer Connection for OS/2 to be your open
door to what IBM is doing now and in the future.  Each CD
will contain product level versions of the Developer's
Toolkit for OS/2 (which includes the Multimedia Presentation
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In addition, we plan to include the latest pre-release
version of the OS/2 operating system on each CD.

Put The Developer Connection for OS/2 to work for you... now!

o Obtain new versions of operating system technologies as
  soon as they are developed.
o Try new OS/2 products before you buy them.  The Developer
  Connection for OS/2 is truly one-stop shopping.
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o Access pre-release versions of IBM's 32-bit tools.  Use these tools to
  prepare for tomorrow's technology--Workplace OS.
o Read The Developer Connection News to gain knowledge of
  IBM's future directions and strategy, new OS/2 products
  (from both IBM and Independent Software Vendors), and
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  Post it on CompuServe and you are assured a timely
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* CompuServe membership is required.

Features               Benefits

Annual Subscription    Subscribe and have the tools and
                       information you need delivered
                       to you for a whole year. What could
                       be easier?
Graphical Catalog      This easy-to-use, front-end presents
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                       mouse.
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                       you need - at your fingertips with
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Developer's Toolkit    Developer's Toolkit for OS/2 2.1 Provides the tools,
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Documentation          Have the complete OS/2 Technical
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                       Also, view the best chapters from
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Product Demos          See demonstrations of products
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The Developer Connection for OS/2 at a Glance
.
System Requirements    System must support OS/2 2.0 or higher
Memory Requirements    6MB minimum; 10MB recommended;
                       actual memory required varies
                       depending on which programs
                       you choose to run. The
                       performance of the catalog and
                       browser can be enhanced with the
                       addition of more memory.
Disk-space             Actual disk space required varies
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                       the programs you choose to install.
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                       of the subscription

Ordering:

Country         Phone            Fax

United States   1-800-6-DEVCON   1-800-494-3045
Canada          1-800-561-5293   1-416-946-5700
England         45-3-252-6588    45-3-252-8203
France          45-3-252-7411    45-3-252-8203
Germany         45-3-252-6711    45-3-252-8203
Italy           45-3-252-7622    45-3-252-8203
Netherlands     45-3-252-7088    45-3-252-8203
Spain           45-3-252-6311    45-3-252-8203
Asia/Pacific    61-2-354-7684    61-2-354-7766


(c)International Business Machines Corporation 1993.

IBM Boca Raton
Department LD4
1000 NW 51st Street
Boca Raton, FL 33431



GammaTech Utilities for OS/2 2.1 Available
------------------------------------------

From: Pete Norloff
Subj: GammaTech releases versio
Conf: Os2

The following release information is from Benny Ormson:
--------

The following is the news release for our next release of the GammaTech
Utilities Version 2.1 which will begin shipping September 1st, 1993. Upgrade
letters should be on their way to existing registered customers.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GAMMATECH UTILITIES FOR OS/2 RELEASE 2.1 AVAILABLE

Oklahoma City, OK August 5, 1993 -- SofTouch Systems, Inc. today announces the
general availability of release 2.1 of their popular OS/2 workstation software,
GammaTech Utilities for OS/2.

Release 2.1 represents a significant development effort, according to
President Richard Jones. "The GammaTech Utilities are the most advanced set
of utilities available for OS/2 users. It contains the types of tools
which MS-DOS and MS-WINDOWS users have become dependent on. Since OS/2 users are
advanced users, they know they need the type of protection and service which
the GammaTech Utilities provides."

The release is free to registered users who purchased release 2.0 since
May 1,1993. Upgrades to version 2.1 for all other registered version 2.0 users
is only $49.00. Upgrades to version 2.1 for registered version 1.3 users is
$79.00. First time purchase for all non-registered users is $149.00. Shipping
and handling costs are additional. For additional information contact SofTouch
Systems, Workstation Division at [phone].

[There are about 5 more pages to this news release so I will just summarize the
major enhancements below.]

Fat Optimization. We have always had HPFS defrag capabilities, nowwe do it for
FAT too! We also allow you to sort your FAT directories.

Bad Sector Marking. We have always had diagnostic tools to locate bad sectors
but there was no way to mark them as bad. Now you can.

Several new backup and recovery utilities have been added. You can back up all
of your boot sectors and restore them later if they should become corrupted. You
can recreate damaged boot sectors in most cases if they become corrupted and you
do not have a backup. You can automatically backup (on intervals you
provide) your ini files and the OS/2 desktop structure.

The Undelete utilities now allow you to recover more than one file in a single
operation. We also reduced the number of keystrokes to perform a recovery
operation. Makes life much easier. We also have a command line version of
Undelete so you can recover files when PM is not available.

The HPFS volume recovery has been greatly enhanced. A fast analysis feature has
been added. You can recover entire directory structures or the entire volume
without prompting. It will, if requested, create the directory structure from
the damaged volume automatically on the target volume. You can override the
starting directory F-Node for the recovery process if you know what it is. You
can do this with some persistance using the Sector Editor.

Delete Files has been enhanced to allow file selection based on file size and
date/time stamps.

The File Find utility allows for additional search criteria and you can now
select from the list of located files to edit or browse the file. This feature
defaults to using the OS/2 E Editor but you can configure it to use any utility
you choose.

We now provide a very nice bound manual which includes basic OS/2 file system
information and a recovery procedures section. Of course it documents the
utilities and there functions too.

We have made several enhancements regarding saving and printing of the various
log files in all of the PM utilities.

Several less significant enhancements have been made to the following utilities:
Sector Editor, List Directory, SysInfo, Sentry, Reboot and Analyze.

These are just the major enhancements. The package includes several utilities
and functions not mentioned here. It probably gives you a good idea of the types
of things the package provides. If you would like more info I urge you to
contact SofTouch at [phone]. They have nice well written marketing
literature that does a better job of explaining things than I.  After reading
this you can see why I'm not in marketing.

Benny Ormson - GammaTech, Inc.


Announcing Screen Reader/2 Ver. 1.1
-----------------------------------

September 2, 1993

IBM Special Needs Systems announces the availability of Screen
Reader/2 Version 1.1 for OS/2 Version 2.1.  Screen Reader/2 enables
blind and visually impaired computer users to access multiple
operating system environments and graphical user interfaces (GUIs).

Screen Reader/2 is the first system to offer access to three
operating environments: OS/2 Version 2.1; Windows Version 3.1; and DOS.

Screen Reader/2 includes the following features:

SWITCH LIST
Use the Screen Reader/2 Switch List as a "fast path" for accessing
your applications.  This feature is comparable to locating an
application visually and then clicking on it to bring it
to the foreground - using the keypad instead of a mouse.

AUTOMATIC READING
Move your focus to an application and Screen Reader/2 will
announce its title automatically.  Move a selector to a menu item
and you'll hear it.  You'll even hear pushbuttons, radio buttons,
spin buttons, and other controls described.  This works in both
OS/2 Presentation Manager and Windows applications.

PROFILES FOR POPULAR APPLICATIONS
Choose from over 35 applications and Screen Reader/2 will
automatically select a profile to optimize your work.

Screen Reader/2 includes profiles for OS/2 (e.g. OS/2 applets,
BookManager Read/2, Communication Manager, DeScribe), Windows
(e.g. Quicken 2, Word, WordPerfect, and WordScan Plus), and
DOS (e.g. Lotus 1-2-3, Quicken, WordPerfect 5.1)

MULTIPLE SERIAL DEVICE SUPPORT
Attach any of the many popular speech synthesizers for voice
output or refreshable braille devices for tactile input and
output - or achieve multi-sensory access by using BOTH.

ICON RECOGNITION
Hear icons announced as you select them - true GUI access.

MOUSE SIMULATION
Simulate the actions of a mouse - single and double-click on
either mouse button - using the Screen Reader/2 keypad.

OS/2 2.1 DISPLAY DRIVER SUPPORT
All graphics adapters supported in the OS/2 2.1 GA release are
also supported by Screen Reader/2.  Plus all the features and
functions of Screen Reader/DOS:

       Reading by line, word, paragraph, screen, etc.
       Echoing keystrokes, words or lines
       Autospeak
       Profile Access Language

To order Screen Reader/2 Version 1.1 call: 1-800-426-3388 (US),
1-800-465-7999 (CANADA).

The following is specific Part Number (P/N) information:

1. Screen Reader/2 Software and Getting Started Cassettes P/N 2261649.
2. Screen Reader Keypad P/N 1393515.
3. Screen Reader Keypad Cable P/N 72X8537.
4. Screen Reader Adapter Card P/N 57F1588.

For more information in the US or Canada, call:

     1-800-426-4832 (VOICE)
     1-800-426-4833 (TDD).
     1-800-465-7999 (CANADA)

For more information outside of the US or Canada, contact your country
NSCPD (National Support Center for Persons with Disabilities).


VX-REXX Ver. 1.01
-----------------
WATCOM is pleased to announce the availability of VX-REXX version 1.01
for registered users of version 1.0.  Version 1.01 of VX-REXX includes
many new features and improvements:

o SpinButton object.  Another object type to use in your programs.
o Drag-n-drop programming.  Drag an object onto an editor window and
  you are presented with a list of actions available on that object.
  Fill in the appropriate dialog and the code is inserted into the
  editor.  If you want to use an external editor, there are macros
  provided to insert the code into the clipboard instead.  There is
  also a set of macros for use specifically with the EPM editor.
o Macros.  Now you can write macros for the VX-REXX editing environment
  itself, using VX-REXX of course.  Macros are invoked from the popup
  menu.  Sample macros are included to set properties on multiple
  objects at once and for setting the tab order of the objects.
o User interface improvements.  Swipe selection, a hint bar showing
  the name and type of object under the mouse pointer, and better
  keyboard support are just some of the improvements.
o Keyboard support.  VX-REXX now supports mnemonics and menu
  accelerators.  Objects can also trap and change keyboard events.
  You can also send keypresses directly to objects.
o Encryption of .EXE files.  Protects your source!
o Direct manipulation of PM windows.  You can list all the frame
  windows on the desktop, move them, minimize them, send keystrokes, etc.
  Many new events, properties and methods:  Change, KeyPress, KeyString,
  ListChildren, ListWindows, Paste, Cut, etc., etc.

The complete list of changes and fixes is found in the "Read Me First" object
available after you install VX-REXX 1.01.  As you can see, this is more than
just a simple maintenance upgrade!  Many of these features are a result
of direct feedback by our users -- please keep the comments coming in.

VX-REXX 1.01 is available in patch form for current users of VX-REXX 1.0.
You can FTP the file /pub/os2/vxrexx/vxrx101.zip from rexx.uwaterloo.ca.
The file is also available on CompuServe (type GO WATCOM) and from the
WATCOM BBS (see your documentation for access information).  To install the
patch, simply copy the ZIP file into your VX-REXX directory (make a backup
of the directory first, of course) and then use the command

      unzip -x -o vxrx101.zip

to extract the files.  Then run the patch.cmd file to patch the executables
and DLLs to the new version level and rebuild the Workplace Shell folder.
You should then read the "Read Me First" information carefully.  (These
instructions are also in the README.TXT in the ZIP file and in the zipfile
comment.)

If you do not wish to download the patch electronically, contact WATCOM.

Any questions or comments should be phoned in or emailed to
[e-mail].


OS/2 Bookshelf
==============
Books useful to the OS/2 user:


REXX Programming for OS/2
-------------------------
Title:    REXX Programming for OS/2
Author:   Garbiel F. Gargiulo
ISBN:     0-89435-449-3
Price:    $39.95
Pub date: November 1993
Contents: What you can do with REXX. REXX on OS/2. How to create and execute
   a REXX EXEC. REXX syntax. Some simple REXX rules. IF-THEN conditional.
   String manipulation--the PARSE instruction. Debugging. Trapping errors.
   Math. SELECT. Executing OS/2 commands. Built-in functions. User-written
   functions and subroutines. Looping. Using the OS/2 stack. Compound
   variables. Reading and writing files. The INTERPRET instruction. Converting
   from DOS batch files. Problems and solutions. OS/2 commands.


The Insiders' Guide to Developing, Porting, and Testing OS/2
------------------------------------------------------------
Title: The Insiders' Guide to Developing, Porting, and Testing OS/2
       2.1 Applications
Authors:  Ivan Biddles and Kelvin R. Lawrence
ISBN:     0-89435-453-1 (QED Publishing Group)
Price:    $34.95
Pub date: August 1993 (assumes IBM closes 2.1 in 5/93)
Contents: Why port to develop for OS/2? Converting 16-bat applications to
   32-bit. Memory management considerations. Support the Old World. The 32-bit
   C Set/2 compiler. The C Set/2 debugger. NMake. The kernal debugger. Borland
   C++ for OS/2. Other tools. Workframe/2. Effective use of multiple threads.
   Considerations for building DLLs. Assembler functions. Incorporating the
   power of REXX into an application. Making applications Workplace Shell
   enabled. Interprocess communication. Performance tuning. Coding techniques
   to make your life easier. Porting methodologies. Porting DOS or OS/2
   character-based applications. Porting device drivers. Debugging strategies.
   Debugging without a debugger. Using the Kernal debugger. Using the C Set/2
   debugger. Common pitfalls. Unit and functional verification testing.
   Automated testing for effective system and regression testing. Appendix.
   Index.


The Art of OS/2 2.1 C Programming
---------------------------------
Title:    The Art of OS/2 2.1 C Programming
Authors:  Kathleen Panov, Arthur Panov, and Larry Salomon, Jr.
ISBN:     0-89435-446-9 (QED Publishing Group)
Price:    $39.95 with diskette
Pub date: August 1993
Contents: Introduction to OS/2. Toolkit and compilers. File I/O, HPFS, and
   extended attributes. Memory management. Multitasking--threads, priorities,
   and the scheduler. Pipes, queues, and shared memory. Asynch communications.
   Window and messages. Presentation Manager controls. Subclassing and register
   private classes. Drag/drop. Help manager. Printing under PM. Bitmaps.
   Tips and techniques of PM programming. Appendixes. Index.


Other Sources
=============
Other places to locate OS/2 information:

OS/2 User Group Directory
=========================

This OS/2 User Group listing is provided courtesy of David Sichak, Editor
of the San Diego Users Group Newsletter. Thanks David!

User Group Introduction
-----------------------

We try to list known OS/2 User Groups whenever we get the information.
Of course, we can't be responsible if the information proves to be
unreliable -- you, the reader are our best source of this information.

And we're learning of more and more OS/2 user groups across the
country and even around the world every week.  It's been slow, but we
have made some contacts and we may be able to exchange information and
articles in the future.  If you're travelling and have some free
time, stop in on one these meetings.  If you know of another OS/2
user group, drop us a line and we'll mention them.  Remember, we'll
list them all in the INF file each time.  And thanks!

Australia - Glen Waverly
------------------------

Victorian OS/2 Developers SIG
Contact:  Jon Wright
5 Brighton Street
Glen Waverly, Victoria 3150
Australia
CompuServe:  100032,776


Ontario - Bailieboro
--------------------

Kawartha Computer Club
Contact:  Cedric Silvester
RR #1
Bailieboro, Ontario
Canada KOL 1B0
Note:  OS/2 SIG is part of the KCC
Phone: BBS -- [phone]


Quebec - Montreal
-----------------

Montreal OS/2 Users Group
Contact:  Gilbert Lefebvre
IBM Tower
10214 Peloquin Avenue
Montreal, QC
H2C 2J8
Canada
Meets:  7:00pm, 3rd Wednesday
Phone:  Voice -- [phone] (evenings)
Netmail:  Programmer's Quest 1:167/110


The Montreal OS/2 Users Group held their first meeting on February
17.  Gilbert reported that their first meeting had over 70 persons
in attendance.  They're real happy to see the interest in OS/2.
Please note that this group does not expect to meet during June,
July and August.

Saskatchewan - Regina
---------------------

Regina Saskatchewan OS/2 User Group
Contact:  Robert Shiplett
Cooperators
1920 College Avenue 5W
Regina, Saskatchewan  S4P 1C4
Canada


United Kingdom - Gloucestershire
--------------------------------

International OS/2 User Group
Contact:  Mike Gove
Barton House
Cirencester
Gloucestershire  GL7 2EE
UK
Phone: - [phone]
Phone: - [phone] (FAX)
Phone: - (UK) 0285-641175
Note: - Also home to OS/2 Solution Centre


South Africa
------------

OS/2 User Group of South Aftrica
P.O. Box 875
Halfway House
1685  South Africa


Sweden
------

Swedish OS/2 Users Group
The Cruiser BBS, [phone]


California - Fresno
-------------------

Fresno OS/2 SIG
(Fresno PC Users Group)
Contact:  Sandeleh Francis [phone]
Contact:  Rod Jessen [phone]
Meetings at:
1425 Shirley Circle
Clovis, CA  93611
Meets:  7:30pm, last Monday
Phone BBS -- Wild Side BBS [phone]
Phone BBS -- Clovis Connection  [phone]


They are a part of the Fresno PC Users group which meets
the first Monday of the month at the Ramada Inn at Hwy 41 and Shaw
Avenue in Fresno at 7:30pm.

California - Huntington Beach
-----------------------------

Orange Coast IBM PC Users Group
OS/2 SIG
Contact:  Dave Lorenzini
17632 Metzler Lane, Suite 211
Huntington Beach, CA


California - Los Angeles
------------------------

Los Angeles OS/2 Users Group
Contact:  Paul Duncanson
3008 Texas Avenue
Simi Valley, CA  93063
Phone:  [phone]
Meets:  3rd Thursday @ 6:30pm
IBM
21041 Burbank Boulevard
Woodland Hills, CA


California - Sacramento
-----------------------

Sacramento OS/2 Users Group
Contact:  Charlie Kotan
IBM
400 Capitol Mall
Sacramento, CA
Meets:  First Wednesday @ 7:00pm
Phone: - [phone]
CompuServe - 70110,254


California - San Diego
----------------------

San Diego OS/2 User Group
Contact - Craig Swanson
P.O. Box 13346
La Jolla, CA  92039-3346
Meets - 7pm on 3rd Thursday
Meets at -- IBM @ LaJolla
8845 University Center Lane
San Diego, CA  92122
Phone - Voice -- [phone]
Phone - BBS   -- [phone]


The San Diego OS/2 User Group has participated in the San Diego
Computer Fair in which over 18,000 people attended over a three day
weekend last September.  This group has started an OS/2 newsletter
with the goal of providing information to not only OS/2 users but also
to others who are interested in learning more.  Our aim is to also
develop the newsletter so that it becomes a community effort among the
OS/2 user groups and SIGs.

Past meeting topics have included presentations by IBM's Ultimedia for
OS/2; Lotus demonstrating beta versions of 1-2-3 and Freelance
Graphics for OS/2; an introduction to REXX, demo of the
December OS/2 2.1 beta along with Visual REXX; Eddie
Miller, one of the authors of "OS/2 2.1 Unleashed"
sharing insights into the OS/2 mini-applets; and, local OS/2
developer Jeannine Wolf discussing the OS/2 Config.SYS
file and providing tips.

California - San Francisco
--------------------------

Bay Area OS/2 User Group
Contact - Guy Scharf
Software Architects, Inc.
2163 Jardin Drive
Mountain View, CA  94040
Meets -  4th Monday @ at IBM Mountain View
Phone -  Voice -- [phone]


Connecticut - Enfield
---------------------

New England OS/2 User Group
Contact:  Dave Pinard
145 Candlewood Drive
Enfield, CT  06082
Phone: Voice -- [phone]
Phone: BBS -- [phone]


Connecticut - Darien
--------------------

Darien OS/2 Users Group
Contact:  Steven J. Palmer
75 Rings End Road
Darien, CT  06820


Delaware - Wilmington
---------------------

Delaware Valley OS/2 Users Group
Contact:  Chuck Gaglia
1120 Webster Drive
Wilmington, DE  19803


Florida - Boca Raton
--------------------

OS/2 Users Group of Boca Raton
Contact:  Doug Azzarito
Meets at:
PC Systems Store
2855 S. Congress Avenue
Delray Beach, FL
Meets on 2nd Thursday of the month at 7pm
Phone:  BBS -- [phone]
Phone:  Voice -- [phone]


Florida - Tampa Bay
-------------------

Tampa Bay OS/2 User Group
Contact:  Paul Wylie
M. Bryce & Associates, Inc.
777 Alderman Road
Palm Harbor, FL  34683
Phone: Voice - [phone]
Phone: FAX -- [phone]
Meets: - 1st Tuesday @ 3:00pm.
Meets at:
IBM
3109 W. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard
4th Floor
Tampa, FL


Illinois - Chicago
------------------

North Suburban Chicago OS/2 User Group
Contact - James R. Schmidt
Meets - William M. Mercer, Inc.
1417 Lake Cook Rd.
Deerfield, IL  60015
Meets - 5.30pm Last Tuesday of each month.
Voice -- [phone]
BBS -- [phone]

Turned one year old in September. Happy Birthday!


Indiana - Fort Wayne
--------------------

Fort Wayne OS/2 User Group
Contact - Stephen Gutknecht
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Meets -  Central Soya on Cook Rd.
Meets -  7pm, 2nd Tuesday
Phone -  Voice -- [phone] (Bus. Hrs.)
Phone -   BBS  -- [phone]


Indiana - Indianapolis
----------------------

Indy OS/2 Users Group
Contact:  Jay Schultz
350 E. New york Suite 300
Indianapolis, IN  46204
Phone: Voice - [phone]


Louisiana - Baton Rouge
-----------------------

Baton Rouge OS/2 users Group
Contact:  David Arbour
16726 Bristoe Avnue
Baton Rouge, LA  70816
Phone: - [phone]


Massachusetts - Boston
----------------------

Boston Area OS/2 User's Group
(BCS)
Contact:  Marcia Gulesian [phone]
Meetings at:
IBM Boston Computer Center
One Copley Place
Boston, MA
Meets:  7:00pm, first Tuesday


Meeting location is near Back Bay and Copley train stations.  From
the Mass. Turnpike East, exit 22 (Copley Square Lane) - first left
onto Dartmouth St.  Next left onto Huntington Ave.  Enter COPLEY
PLACE PARKING on left.  Parking is free when you spend $5 and have
your parking ticket validated in any restaurant or store at Copley
Place and enter the garage after 5:00pm.

Michigan - Grand Rapids
-----------------------

West Michigan OS/2 User Group
IBM
2900 Charlevoix Dr. SE
Grand Rapids, MI


Minnesota - Minneapolis
-----------------------

Minnesota OS/2 User Group
Contact:  Marcus Krumpholz
IBM Building
650 Third Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN
Meets last Thursday each month
7:00pm - 10:00pm
Voice:  [phone]
BBS: [phone]


ISV's wishing to do a presentation can contact Marcus Krumpholz at
[phone].  Registrations for meetings are requested and can
be done by calling [phone] and then asking for course code
"OS2".  The IBM building is shared with First Bank on Third Avenue
south between South Sixth Street and South Seventh Street.  Parking
is recommended at Northstar Center (1 block west), Pillsbury Center
(1.5 blocks north), Hennepin County Government Center (diagonally
across street) and Court Park (2 blocks north).

Nebraska - Omaha
----------------

Omaha OS/2 Users Group
Contact:  Joe Peterson
7724 Fort St.
Omaha, NE  68134


New Jersey - West Orange
------------------------

Northern New Jersey OS/2 Users Group
Contact:  Jason H. Perlow [phone]
Meetings at:  IBM
300 Executive Drive
West Orange, NJ
Meets:  7:00pm, second Tuesday
INFO:  Phone:  [phone]


This group is affiliated with the Westchester OS/2 Users Group.

New York - Westchester
----------------------

Westchester OS/2 Users Group
Contact:  Craig Smith [phone]
Meetings at:
IBM
2000 Purchase Street
Purchase, NY
Meets:  7:00pm, second Tuesday
INFO:  Phone:  [phone]


Westchester was instrumental in getting IBM's OS/2 featured on the
PBS Computer Chronicles show in March.

North Carolina - Durham
-----------------------

Triangle OS/2 User Group
Contact -- Steve Gallagher
IBM Building
4800 Falls of The Neuse Road
Room 5074
Durham, North Carolina
Meets --  7.30pm, 3rd Tuesday
Phone --  Voice -- [phone]
Internet --  [e-mail]


Ohio - Akron
------------

Northeast Ohio OS/2 User Group
IBM
3 Cascade Plaza
Akron, Ohio
Contact:  Gary Smiley
Phone:  [phone]
CompuServe:  75600,1737


Ohio - Cleveland
----------------

Cleveland OS/2 User Group
IBM
Bond Ct. Building
2nd Fl
E. 9th St.
Cleveland, Ohio


Pennsylvania - Erie
-------------------

Computer Users of Erie
OS/2 SIG
Contact:  Tom Kuklinski
3928 Sassafras Street
Erie, PA  16508
Phone:  [phone]
Phone:  [phone]


Tennessee - Knoxville
---------------------

East Tennessee PC User Group
OS/2 SIG
Contact:  Arnold Sprague
808 Fairfield Drive
Knoxville, TN  37919-4109


Texas - Dallas - Fort Worth
---------------------------

Dallas-Forth Worth OS/2 User Group
Contact -  Toby Pennycuff
CompuServe ID -  70007,6267
1211 Wilshire Blvd.
Arlington, TX  76012-4623

Meets at:
American Airlines HQ
4255 Amon Carter Blvd.
Arlington, TX
Meetings - Time and dates not listed.


Wisconsin - Madison
-------------------

Madison OS/2 Users Group
Contact&olon.  Tom Ender or Donn Tolley
2703 Rolling View Rd.
Stoughton, WI  53589-3386



OS/2 BBS's
==========

This BBS listing is provided courtesy of David Sichak, Editor of the
San Diego Users Group Newsletter. Thanks David!

BBS Introduction
----------------
Well, I am trying to update this file in an expedient way so it doesn't
become too stale when I include it in the INF version.  But I'm trying
to catch up on a backlog.  I've got the list in an Rbase for OS/2 database
file right now, so all I need to do is figure out a way to create a report
that does much of my INF coding for me.

Next month, I'd look for a few more additions. And by all means keep Dave
Fisher posted on your BBS's if he's still keeping his list up and current.
Without him, we wouldn't be able to include as much as we do.

This listing is for the BBS junkie in you who needs to have a
phone bill treat once in a while <G>.  Or bored to death while
you're travelling.

Our listing is based on a rather extensive listing put together by
Dave Fisher of OS/2 type Bulletin Boards.  Space limits this month
prevent us from listing all the details he has for each BBS, but we've
tried to include a couple from every state in the US (Notice and hint
to you sysops...not all states are represented.) and a few foreign
countries, too.

Dave Fisher's list is a compilation of OS/2 BBS's across the
world.  If you wish to make an addition or correction to his list,
he's asked that you please netmail your BBS information to Dave
Fisher at LiveNet, 1:170/[e-mail].

For the newsletter, I've sorted the in alphabetical order by Country
for the international ones and by state for those in the USA to
make it easier to find one close to you.   His file has other details
related to these BBS's but we didn't have room, okay?  The file
we're using showed that the last update was September 7, 1992.

Does anyone know if this list of his is being kept up to date?  I hope
to expand it more next month; ran out of time.  But I've got his list
in a database right now and I'll be able to code that list a lot
easier next month.

Hope you find this inclusion useful.  Large phone bills are not my fault...!!!


Australia
---------

Graham Stair
3M Australia
[phone]
Australia

Alan Salmon
PC User's Group
[phone]
Australia

Norbert Fuerst
The Styrian OS/2 Jumbo
[phone]
Australia

Bill Bolton
Software Tools Mail Exc
[phone]
Australia

Bill Bolton
Software Tools Mail Exc
[phone]
Australia

Felix Tsang
Programmer's BBS
[phone]
Australia

Alan Salmon
PC User's Group
[phone]
Australia

Ian Watson
OZ-Share OS/2 BBS
[phone]
Australia


Belgium
-------

Bas Heijermans
Moving Sound OS/2 BBS
[phone]
Belgium

Benoit HUON
Os/2 MANiA BELGIUM
[phone]
Belgium

Danny Bruggeman
Hellfire
[phone]
Belgium

Bas Heijermans
Moving Sound OS/2 BBS
[phone]
Belgium


Canada
------

Kevin Lowey
Univ. of Saskatchewan
[phone]
Canada

Evan Smith
ECS Net
[phone]
Canada

Ian Evans
Baudeville BBS
[phone]
Canada

Herbert Tsui
BBS Council
[phone]
Canada

Jerry Stevens
The Locutory
[phone]
Canada


Denmark
-------

Rene Carlsen
OS/2 Task and FrontDoor H
[phone]
Denmark

Jorgen Ollgaard
Josti-BBS
[phone]
Denmark

Jorgen Ollgaard
Josti-BBS
[phone]
Denmark


France
------

Emmanuel Sandorfi
Os/2 MANiA (Help Maximu
[phone]
France


Germany
-------

Ulrich Roeding
BOX/2
[phone]
Germany

Peter Kaszanics
APOLONIA
[phone]
Germany

Peter Kaszanics
APOLONIA
[phone]
Germany

Peter Plischka
IBM Mailbox
[phone]
Germany

Peter Kaszanics
APOLONIA
[phone]
Germany

Peter Plischka
IBM Mailbox
[phone]
Germany

Chris Leuder
Zaphod BBS
[phone]
Germany

Chris Leuder
Zaphod BBS
[phone]
Germany

 Kalle Braun
Terrania City
[phone]
Germany

Oliver Lass
LRZ-System
[phone]
Germany

Oliver Lass
LRZ-System
[phone]
Germany

Harald Kipp
OS/2 Point
[phone]
Germany

Karlheinz Kissel
The_File_Store
[phone]
Germany

Juergen Berger
JERRY'S OS/2-BBS
[phone]
Germany

Oliver Schwabedissen
MoonFlower
[phone]
Germany

Richard Clement
OS/2 Express
[phone]
Germany

Michael Breukel
PC Softbox OS/2
[phone]
Germany

Romeo Bernreuther
CCWN-BOX
[phone]
Germany

Markus Noller
Second Source
[phone]
Germany

Juergen Fritz
CheckPoint OS/2
[phone]
Germany

Thomas Tegel
The CAT
[phone]
Germany


Italy
-----

Luigi Ravina
Italy Network
[phone]
Italy

Roberto Sonzogni
Runnin' with The Devil
[phone]
Italy

Pasquale Cantiello
FastForward BBS
[phone]
Italy


Netherlands
-----------

Peter Smink
BBS The Experiment
[phone]
Netherlands

Dave Jones
The TJD Support BBS
[phone]
Netherlands

Joop Mellaart
INFOBOARD
[phone]
Netherlands

Marcel Stikkelman
PC-Square
[phone]
Netherlands


Norway
------

Terje Slydahl
PerlePorten
[phone]
Norway


Singapore
---------

Ivan Leong
Miqas/2 Singapore
[phone]
Singapore


Switzerland
-----------

Alex Wyss
Gepard's Oracle Zuerich
[phone]
Switzerland

Michael Buenter
MICS OS/2 Paradise
[phone]
Switzerland

Ernesto Hagmann
PC-Info
[phone]
Switzerland


United Kingdom
--------------

Mike Gove
MonuSci BBS
[phone]
United Kingdom

Phil Tuck
The TJD Support BBS
[phone]
United Kingdom


Arizona
-------

Mike Mahoney
Emerald Isle, The
[phone]
Arizona

Frank Ward
Encounter, The
[phone]
Arizona


California
----------

Patrick O'Riva
AsmLang and OS/2
[phone]
California

Michael Cummings
Zzyzx Road OS/2 BBS
[phone]
El Cajon, California

Craig Swanson
OS/2 Connection
[phone]
San Diego, California

Chuck Gilmore
Magnum BBS
[phone]
California

Michael Nelson
SeaHunt BBS
[phone]
California

Michael Nelson
SeaHunt BBS
[phone]
California


Colorado
--------

William Herrera
Cuerna Verde
[phone]
Colorado

Randy Edwards
Socialism OnLine!
[phone]
Colorado

OS/2 BBS
Denver
[phone]
Colorado

OS/2 Source
Denver
[phone]
Colorado


Connecticut
-----------

Chris Regan
Storm Front - OS/2, The
[phone]
Connecticut

Felix Tang
Excelsior, The
[phone]
Connecticut

Emmitt Dove
Fernwood
[phone]
Connecticut

Steve Lesner
Bullet BBS
[phone]
Connecticut

Steve Lesner
Bullet BBS
[phone]
Connecticut

Rob Schmaling
Caladan
[phone]
Connecticut

Don Dawson
Treasure Island
[phone]
Connecticut

Bob Morris
Ascii Neighborhood
[phone]
Connecticut

Bob Morris
Ascii Neighborhood
[phone]
Connecticut


Deleware
--------

John Tarbox
Singer Bear BBS
[phone]
Deleware

Scott Street
Space Station Alpha
[phone]
Deleware


Florida
-------

Mark Wheeler
SandDollar, The
[phone]
Florida

Rusty Plant
The 19th Hole
[phone]
Pensacola, Florida

Don Bauer
OS2 Exchange
[phone]
Florida

Chris Wolcott
The Outer Limits
[phone]
Gulf Breeze, Florida

Kathy Todd
The Apothecary's Archives
[phone]
Gulf Breeze, Florida

Richard Todd
The Disintegrated Circuit OS/2
[phone]
Gulf Breeze, Florida


Georgia
-------

IBM
IBM National Support Ce
[phone]
Georgia

IBM
IBM National Support Ce
[phone]
Georgia

Ed June
Information Overload
[phone]
Georgia


Hawaii
------

Craig Oshiro
Ghostcomm Image Gallery
[phone]
Hawaii


Illinois
--------

Bill Cook
GREATER CHICAGO Online!
[phone]
Illinois

Bogie Bugsalewicz
I CAN! BBS
[phone]
Illinois


Indiana
-------

Mike Phillips
Catacombs, The
[phone]
Indiana

Jay Tipton
Play Board, The
[phone]
Indiana


Kansas
------

Troy Majors
Byte Bus, The
[phone]
Kansas


Louisiana
---------

Stan Brohn
HelpNet of Baton Rouge
[phone]
Louisiana

Jim Sterrett
Padded Cell BBS, The
[phone]
Louisiana


Maryland
--------

James Chance
Last Relay, The
[phone]
Maryland


Michigan
--------

Dave Shoff
Cornerstone BBS, The
[phone]
Michigan


Minnesota
---------

Brady Flowers
Oberon Software
[phone]
Minnesota


Missouri
--------

Woody Sturges
OS/2 Woodmeister, The
[phone]
Missouri


New Jersey
----------

Bob Germer
Capital City BBS
[phone]
New Jersey

Mike Fuchs
Dog's Breakfast, The
[phone]
New Jersey


Nevada
------

Kerry Flint
Caddis OS/2 BBS
[phone]
Nevada

Dennis Conley
Communitel OS/2 BBS
[phone]
Nevada


New York
--------

Mikel Beck
Kind Diamond's Realm
[phone]
New York


North Carolina
--------------

Thomas Bradford
Backdoor BBS
[phone]
North Carolina

Richard Lee
Psychotronic BBS
[phone]
North Carolina


Ohio
----

Mark Lehrer
Akron Anomoly, The
[phone]
Ohio


Oklahoma
--------

Bill Schnell
Asylum BBS, The
[phone]
Oklahoma

Scott Dickason
BBS/2
[phone]
Oklahoma


Oregon
------

Bill Taylor
Integrated Media Servic
[phone]
Oregon
------

Paul Breedlove
Multi-Net
[phone]
Oregon


Pennsylvania
------------

Louis F. Ursini
Quantum Leap
[phone]
Pennsylvania

Ed Barboni
System-2 RBBS
[phone]
Pennsylvania


South Carolina
--------------

Paul Beverly
PMSC OnLine Resource
[phone]
South Carolina


Tennessee
---------

Operand BBS
Lonnie Wall
[phone]
Tennessee

Edward Owens
Looking Glass, The
[phone]
Tennessee


Texas
-----

Robert McA
Live-Wire
[phone]
Texas

Doug Palmer
Rock BBS, The
[phone]
Texas

David Dozier
Roach Coach, The
[phone]
Texas

Ken Rucker
RucK's Place/2
[phone]
Texas


Virginia
--------

Pete Norloff
OS/2 Shareware
[phone]
Virginia

Pete Norloff
OS/2 Shareware
[phone]
Virginia

Bill Andrus
Systems Exchange, The
[phone]
Virginia

Joe Salemi
Max's Doghouse
[phone]
Virginia


Washington
----------

Adolph Weidanz
The Gold Pegasus BBS
Running Maximus/Binkley using OS/2 Versions
[phone]
Fidonet: 1:350/35
Eznet: 255:1206/101 and 0
Bremerton, Washington

LeRoy DeVries
Sno-Valley Software Exc
[phone]
Washington

Rodney Lorimor
Gecko Control
[phone]
Washington

Todd Riches
Alternate Reality
[phone]
Washington



Information on Internet resources supporting OS/2.
==================================================

This list is maintained by Dale Hackemeyer. Please e-mail any additions or
corrections you might have to him at  [e-mail].


OS/2 Related mailing lists
--------------------------
 ┌─────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────┐
 │BITNET Address:  │Internet Address:                │About the list...                │
 ├─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │JPSOFT@IRISHVMA  │[e-mail]             │Discussion of JP Software        │
 │                 │                                 │products (4OS2, 4DOS). Subscribe │
 │                 │                                 │by sending a message to          │
 │                 │                                 │LISTSERV@xxx (where xxx is the   │
 │                 │                                 │part of the list address after   │
 │                 │                                 │the @) with SUB JPSOFT name      │
 │                 │                                 │(where name is your first and    │
 │                 │                                 │last name).                      │
 ├─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │OS2@BLEKUL11     │[e-mail]           │Moderated OS/2 discussion.       │
 │                 │                                 │Subscribe by sending a message to│
 │                 │                                 │LISTSERV@xxx (where xxx is the   │
 │                 │                                 │part of the list address after   │
 │                 │                                 │the @) with SUB OS2 name (where  │
 │                 │                                 │name is your first and last      │
 │                 │                                 │name).                           │
 ├─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │OS2-L@HEARN      │[e-mail]             │OS/2 discussion. Subscribe by    │
 │                 │                                 │sending a message to LISTSERV@xxx│
 │                 │                                 │(where xxx is the part of the    │
 │                 │                                 │list address after the @) with   │
 │                 │                                 │SUB OS2-L name (where name is    │
 │                 │                                 │your first and last name).       │
 ├─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │OS2USERS@MCGILL1 │[e-mail]           │OS/2 users discussion. Subscribe │
 │                 │                                 │by sending a message to          │
 │                 │                                 │LISTSERV@xxx (where xxx is the   │
 │                 │                                 │part of the list address after   │
 │                 │                                 │the @) with SUB OS2USERS name    │
 │                 │                                 │(where name is your first and    │
 │                 │                                 │last name).                      │
 ├─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │SASOS2-L@UNCVM1  │[e-mail]      │RTPNC SAS/OS2 user group list.   │
 │                 │                                 │This list doesn't allow automatic│
 │                 │                                 │subscriptions. You may send a    │
 │                 │                                 │message requesting to be added to│
 │                 │                                 │LISTSERV@xxx (where xxx is the   │
 │                 │                                 │part of the list address after   │
 │                 │                                 │the @) with SUB UTOS2-L name     │
 │                 │                                 │(where name is your first and    │
 │                 │                                 │last name). This message will be │
 │                 │                                 │forwarded to the maintainers of  │
 │                 │                                 │the group who can grant          │
 │                 │                                 │subscriptions.                   │
 ├─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │UTOS2-L@UTKVM1   │[e-mail]           │Discussion of OS/2 at UTK.       │
 │                 │                                 │Subscribe by sending a message to│
 │                 │                                 │LISTSERV@xxx (where xxx is the   │
 │                 │                                 │part of the list address after   │
 │                 │                                 │the @) with SUB UTOS2-L name     │
 │                 │                                 │(where name is your first and    │
 │                 │                                 │last name).                      │
 ├─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │N/A              │[e-mail]          │Discussion group dealing with    │
 │                 │                                 │multimedia aspects of OS/2. To   │
 │                 │                                 │subscribe to the digest version, │
 │                 │                                 │send email to                    │
 │                 │                                 │[e-mail]    │
 │                 │                                 │with SUBSCRIBE Mmos2-L firstname │
 │                 │                                 │lastname in the BODY of the mail.│
 │                 │                                 │To subscribe to the bounce       │
 │                 │                                 │version, send email to           │
 │                 │                                 │[e-mail]    │
 │                 │                                 │with SUBSCRIBE Mmos2-Digest      │
 │                 │                                 │firstname lastname in the BODY of│
 │                 │                                 │the mail.                        │
 └─────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────┘

 About electronic mailing lists.
 Electronic "mailing lists" are large group discussions held via electronic mail (e-mail). These lists require that you have
 either BITNET or Internet e-mail access (which one depends on the particular list). Generally the list works by receiving
 mail from a list participant, and then sending a copy of that message to all the people subscribed to the list. On very
 active mailing lists this can result in a deluge of e-mail. Some lists avoid this problem by having "digests", where each
 day all the messages sent to the list are saved and then sent out in a single large piece of e-mail at night. Generally
 a mailing list has two e-mail addresses: the mailing list proper, and an administrative address to handle subscriptions
 and cancellations. Never send requests to subscribe or unsubscribe to the main address unless you can find no other
 way to bring your problem to attention.

 For more information, please ask you site administrator or sysop.


OS/2 related FTP sites:
----------------------

 ┌──────────────────────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────┐
 │NAME:                     │IP ADDRESS:      │Directory & Notes:               │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │ftp-os2.nmsu.edu          │128.123.35.151   │/os2 (mirror of cdrom.com)       │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │ftp-os2.cdrom.com         │192.153.46.69    │/os2 (mirror of ftp-os2.nmsu.edu)│
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │software.watson.ibm.com   │129.34.139.5     │/pub/os2                         │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │mtsg.ubc.ca               │137.82.27.1      │/os2                             │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │luga.latrobe.edu.au       │131.172.2.2      │/pub/os2 (mirror of cdrom.com)   │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │msdos.archive.umich.edu   │141.211.32.2     │/msdos/os2                       │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │funic.funet.fi            │128.214.6.100    │/pub/os2                         │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │ftp.ieee.org              │140.98.1.1       │/pub/fidonet/os2                 │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │boombox.micro.umn.edu     │134.84.132.2     │/pub/gopher/os2                  │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │ftp.3com.com              │129.213.128.5    │/adaptors/drivers                │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │ftp.germany.eu.net        │192.76.144.75    │/pub/comp/os2                    │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │ftp.luth.se               │130.240.18.2     │/pub/pc/os2                      │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │ftp.uni-kl.de             │131.246.9.95     │/pub/pc/os2                      │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │ftp.uni-stuttgart.de      │129.69.1.12      │/pub/soft/os2                    │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │ftp.usask.ca              │128.233.3.1      │/pub/archives/os2                │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │ifcss.org                 │129.107.1.155    │/software/os2                    │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │luga.latrobe.edu.au       │131.172.2.2      │/pub/os2                         │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │ma2s2.mathematik.uni-karls│129.13.115.2     │/pub/lisp/clisp/os2              │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │mcafee.com                │192.187.128.1    │/pub/antivirus                   │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │mtsg.ubc.ca               │137.82.27.1      │/os2                             │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │nic.switch.ch             │130.59.1.40      │/mirrors/os2                     │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │novell.com                │137.65.4.1       │/netwire/novfiles/client.kit/os2 │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │plaza.aarnet.edu.au       │139.130.4.6      │/micros/os2                      │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │rhino.microsoft.com       │131.107.1.121    │/LANMan/OS2xBeta                 │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │rs3.hrz.th-darmstadt.de   │130.83.55.75     │/pub/machines/os2                │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │software.watson.ibm.com   │129.34.139.5     │/pub/os2                         │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │sprite.cica.indiana.edu   │129.79.26.102    │/pub/pc/borland/c/os2            │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │src.doc.ic.ac.uk          │146.169.2.1      │/computing/systems/os2           │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │sun0.urz.uni-heidelberg.de│129.206.100.126  │/pub/os2                         │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │tethys.rz.uni-osnabrueck.d│131.173.17.10    │/pub/os2                         │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │world.std.com             │192.74.137.5     │/src/os2                         │
 └──────────────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────┘

 Other FTP sites of interest

 ┌──────────────────────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────┐
 │NAME:                     │IP ADDRESS:      │NOTES:                           │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │rtfm.mit.edu              │18.70.0.226      │FAQ lists                        │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │cs.uwp.edu                │131.210.1.4      │Music related stuff              │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │wuarchive.wustl.edu       │128.252.135.4    │Lots of other stuff              │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │saffron.inset.com         │192.94.75.2      │Sounds (various formats)         │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │sounds.sdsu.edu           │130.191.224.2    │Sounds (.au format)              │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │watsun.cc.columbia.edu    │128.59.39.2      │/kermit/b                        │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │prep.ai.mit.edu           │18.71.0.38       │/pub/gnu                         │
 ├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │ftp.uu.net                │192.48.96.2      │/usenet  (e.g.)                  │
 └──────────────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────┘

 About FTP.
 FTP stands for "File Transfer Protocol" and is the standard protocol on the Internet for transfering files. With a fast,
 direct internet connection, download speeds can approach 32Kbs under light network load. The sites listed allow
 "anonymous" logons. When prompted for a User name when logging in, enter ANONYMOUS and then enter your e-mail
 address as your password. This assists the administators at the remote site in tracking usage of the site.

 Don't forget that you're downloading from someone else's computer, someone who has to pay for and use that
 computer. Given the global reach of the internet, even though you may be downloading at 4am, it could be noon at the
 site you're downloading from. To avoid putting more of a load on a machine someone may depend on for work during
 the day, try to only download sometime other than 9-5, remote time.

 The last couple of letters in the remote sites address can help you determine where your downloading from. The last 2
 to 3 letters indicate the location of the site:

      .de  Germany
      .au  Australia
      .ca  Canada
      .fi  Finland
      .uk  United Kingdom



NNTP usenet servers:
-------------------
 ┌────────────────────────┬─────────────────┬────────────────────────────────┐
 │NAME:                   │IP ADDRESS:      │NOTES:                          │
 ├────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
 │mont.cs.missouri.edu    │128.206.100.208  │Local to University of Missouri │
 ├────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
 │sol.ctr.columbia.edu    │128.59.64.40     │Huge place. Takes a long time   │
 ├────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
 │umd5.umd.edu            │128.8.10.5       │No posting allowed as guest     │
 ├────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
 │raven.alaska.edu        │137.229.10.39    │No posting allowed as guest     │
 └────────────────────────┴─────────────────┴────────────────────────────────┘

 These OS/2 newsgroups are available:

 comp.os.os2.multimedia
 For information on OS/2 multimedia features, including MMPM/2 and Ultimotion.

 comp.os.os2.setup
 For all questions relating to setup, installation, and driver support under OS/2.

 comp.os.os2.bugs
 For the discussion and reporting of OS/2 bugs (flaws).

 comp.os.os2.advocacy
 For the discussion of OS/2 compared with other products, marketing, and "politics."

 comp.os.os2.networking
 For any OS/2 questions dealing with networking.

 comp.os.os2.ver1x
 For any OS/2 questions dealing with OS/2 versions prior to OS/2 2.0.

 comp.os.os2.programmer.porting
 For talk about porting software from other environments to OS/2.

 comp.os.os2.programmer.misc
 For discussion of any other OS/2 programming issues.

 comp.os.os2.apps
 Discusses DOS, Windows, and OS/2 applications running under OS/2.

 comp.os.os2.announce
 Carries important OS/2 announcements.  This newsgroup is moderated -- you cannot ask a question here.

 comp.binaries.os2
 If you do not have ftp access you can obtain OS/2 software using this newsgroup.  This newsgroup is also
 moderated.

 comp.os.os2.beta
 For discussion of beta releases of OS/2 (versions of OS/2 that are released for testing purposes by IBM and that
 you cannot buy in stores).

 comp.os.os2.misc
 For general OS/2 discussion. Post here only if none of the above categories fits.




From the Wire
=============
A selection of messages about OS/2 seen fleeting across the wires on
Fidonet and Internet.

Borland C++ and TCP/IP
----------------------
From the comp.os.os2.programmer.porting newsgroup

Some time ago, in tcpip 1.2.1 I tryed to make a program using
sockets with borland c++ for os2. Never succeed.

I'm pleased to said that I succesfully compiled and run some
socket programs using BC++ and the new tcpip 2.0 32 bits programmer
kit.  ( first one was nistime.c )

At this time, the only needed changes are:


modify tcpip\include\nerrno.h ENAMETOOLONG to ENAMETOOLONG_
or modify the bc\include\error.h file accordingly.
include the following file (see below) before any tcpip include
Order the #include(s) to include tcpip headers last
because they redefine min() max() and random() differently
from the borland way. (in tcpip\utils.h)

Hopefully, there is #ifdef that bypass definition if
the macros are allready defined (usually from stdlib.h)

perror() for socket errors must be replaced by the
equivalent for sockets error (i dont remember the name, see doc)
(Probably same for CSet++)

change read() and write() to send() and recv() calls.
Beware of ioctl() and fcntl()
(same for CSet++).


That's all I know after 1 days trying.

I did not test it at this time, but probably you will need a sort
of the following #ifdef if you are using the C++ compiler option.


#ifdef __cplusplus   // ps: not sure of the name
  extern "C"
    {
      #include all_tcp_includes_here
    }
#endif

I will know... as soon as I start my AF_INET Stream Multithread
Socket class .

--------------- suggested name: tcpip\include\bctcp.h --------------
--------------- or                 bc\include\bctcp.h --------------
/*
 *  Some adjustments needed under BC++ for os2 to compile a socket pgm.
 *
 *  Others adjustments:
 *
 *    ENAMETOOLONG conflict between
 *                 bc\include\errno.h    and
 *                 tcpip\include\nerrno.h
 *                 yous must edit and rename one or the other name.
 *
 *    Append ;tcpip\include to your include path in your project
 *    Add tcpip\lib\so32dll.lib and
 *        tcpip\lib\tcp32dll.lib to your project
 *
 *    in os2, sockets are not files, so beware of
 *    write()  ->  send()
 *    read()   ->  recv()
 *    fcntl() and ioctl() have their os2 tcpip counterparts
 *    close()  -> soclose()
 */

#define _System   __syscall      // CSet++ to BC++ convention
#define tcperrno  sock_errno     // in os2 different names
#define BSD_SELECT               // optional: for bsd type select()

/* end of bctcp.h */

Christian Robert $$$[e-mail]


VisPro/REXX or VREXX
--------------------
From the Fidonet OS2 Conference.

From: Steve Gallagher
Subj: October Byte
Conf: Os2


HB>Looking at the October BYTE magazine:
HB>Page 205 - an article comparing VisPro/REXX and VX-REXX

One and all, be advised: the author of this comparison MAJORLY dropped
the ball! He was looking at the freeware package VREXX, not Vispro/REXX!!
I can't imagine how he screwed up so royally, but there you have it. Hockware
( producers of Vispro/REXX ) are NOT amused.

Also from the Fidonet OS2 Conference.

From: Scot Gould
Subj: October byte
Conf: Os2


HB> Looking at the October BYTE magazine:
HB> Page 205 - an article comparing VisPro/REXX and VX-REXX

A representative of Hockware (makers of VisPro/REXX) has said that the
Byte reviewer seemed to review VREXX (and IBM freeware) vs. VX-REXX not
VisPro/REXX. Frankly I have had it with Byte and will be letting my
subscription expire.

Scot Gould
Inland Empire OS/2 Users group


Diamond Viper Drivers
---------------------
Area: OS2HW
From: Gary Rambo (1:289/27)
Subj: Viper drivers here!!!

Word from DIAMOND COMPUTER SYSTEMS, August 30, 1993.

I had a very long chat with a Diamond tech today about
drivers for OS/2 for the VIPER VLB.  We also discussed
several issues that have been brought up here on the
conference.  This is what I heard. . .

Drivers to be out by end of August.  I read already on Compuserve that the
drivers are there.  IBM says the drivers with the VIPER
card and OS/2 is without any doubt the fastest thing
they've ever seen.  Completely seamless.

New (Weitek?) chip that makes DOS as fast as Windows and OS/2.

I asked him about slow support told him that Diamond was
being hit very hard on the national nets.  They're aware of
their short comings but said that they've added more
techies and that the company has grown so fast that they
did not forsee the problems they now face.

When asked why they would not at least release beta VIPER drivers they said
that releasing betas would solve very little as the bugs
would generate as many calls as not releasing them.
Diamond wanted to wait until EVERYTHING was fixed and then
release the OS/2 drivers.

So, by the time you all read this, the VIPER OS/2 drivers
should be out there at various sites and spreading quickly.
I pity the over zealous fools who, in an effort to get any
drivers bought an ATI, or something less than VIPER.  Now
they're out, they work, they work seamlessly, they're the
FASTEST.


NT Backs Out
------------
From: John Mitchell
Subj: SHOOTOUT SHOT DOWN
Conf: Teamos2


I found this on page 102 of the August 30, 1993 COMPUTERWORLD:

Microsoft last week backed out of a Windows NT vs. OS/2 shootout that
would have compared performance on single-tasking, 16Mbyte 486-based
desktops. Microsoft agreed to that configuration but also wanted to
demonstrate the two operating systems running on Intel- and RISC-based
mulitprocessor servers. The organizer of the event, Barnett Bank in
Jacksonville, Fla., proposed that Microsoft give its server
demonstrations as part of a 20-minute rebuttal to IBM. Microsoft also
turned that down because it said there would not be enough time to
properly demonstrate what it believes are the superior strengths of NT.

Thought you all might be interested...


OS/2 at One BBSCON
------------------
From: Kurt Westerfeld
Subj: IBM At One BBSCON!!!
Conf: Os2


I found this post from Vicci Conway on the OS2USER forum on
Compuserve today:


Sb: OS/2 at One BBSCON
Fm: Vicci Conway [IBM/PSP] 76711,1123
To: ALL

One BBSCON

The IBM Booth at One BBSCON was a smash HIT!  Working in the booth
were Doug Azzarito, co-author of RBBS and OS/2 demo'er
extraordinaire; Rob Rose, ex-Galacticom (The Major BBS) employee,
and Scott Dudley, author of Maximus for OS/2.  Their expertise was
what made the booth a success.

One of the most exciting aspects of the conference was the fact that
everyone there couldn't believe that IBM had a booth there. These
folks did not expect to ever see IBM at a conference to do with
sysops.  We impressed everyone there.  Some just stood there with
mouths hanging open and once they heard our offer, the jaws really
fell to the floor.

Friday morning Dave Whittle did a presentation on running BBS's
under OS/2. It was a great presentation and the Q&A lasted for over
an hour.  That shows us just how much interest there is in our
product.

We went to the show with the intention of showing the sysops that
OS/2 can run their current BBS sosftware and show off a bit about
OS/2 as well.  We were prepared to give away copies to sysops who
signed an agreement that they would try OS/2, put the fact that
their BBS is running under OS/2 on their logon screen, and setup a
file and message area for OS/2.  We had over 500 sysops take us up on
the offer!

Not only did we do major goodwill at this conference, but many
people now have a lot more faith that IBM and OS/2 will do well. It
meant a lot that we have a Grass Roots Marketing effort and people
out supporting users and not just corporate customers.

Many vendors came over to us and wanted to do a product swap, due to
so many people asking them if their BBS software ran under OS/2.
The vendors were very excited about the fact that we were there and
how much interest there was about OS/2.  Sytronics is about ready to
beta an OS/2 version of their BBS software, and they were getting
quite a few interested parties who were about to setup BBS's.

We put a copy of most of the BBS packages on our demo machines to
show that they do run, and run well.  Many folks were excitied about
how well these programs run and the fact that they can do other
tasks on their machines, while the BBS is still running.

Everywhere you went there were people with OS/2 stickers on their
badges and people talking about OS/2.  Everywhere we went, we were
recognized as the 'folks making that great offer', asked questions
about OS/2 and chatted up again and again about how they couldn't
believe we were really there.  It made us feel really good to be
there and let us know (again) just how many people really want us to
do well.

In closing, I have to thank John Soyring for putting up he expense
money for this conference; Wally Casey for putting up the copies of
OS/2; Dave Whittle for coming up with the idea; and Doug, Rob and
Scott for helping out in the booth.  Also thanks to Dave for pushing
me to make this happen, as without his encouragement, I wouldn't
have pushed to make this a reality.

Vicci

Interesting!  I highly applaud this action.  IBM is to be commended!

Kurt Westerfeld


Bargain Alert
-------------
From: Jd Brown
Subj: Bargain Alert!
Conf: Os2


BARGAIN ALERT!

Lotus SmartSuite For OS/2
OS/2 2.1
Norton Commander For OS/2

Yes, I know, most of use already have OS/2 2.1, but for the price you
are about to see, it is worth having another copy.

This ENTIRE package deal is available from
Corporate Software at 1-800-677-4003 for
ONLY!!!!!!!!!!

$ 319.00 plus shipping.

The only drawback is, if you are not a business you must pay by
Visa, MC, America Express, or Discover Card. No COD.

They are taking orders now and expect shipping sometime in the second
week of October.

Folks, this is a GOOD way to get some sales numbers in all the top 10
lists.

Buy it, and sell OS/2 2.1 to a friend for $ 50.00 and you have still come
out WAY ahead. Unless of course you don't have 2.1 yet.



MMOUG mailbag
=============
Mail sent to us about the User Group and what we're doing.

The Newsletter and IPF
----------------------

Date: 25 Sep 93 13:21:16 EDT
From: Johnny Sewell <[e-mail]>
To: Dale Hackemeyer <[e-mail]>
Subject: Your Newsletter

Dale,

I had downloaded your newsletter from CompuServe a few weeks ago, but just
got around to looking at them.  Very nice and impressive!!!  I sent a note to
Phillip too, so if he forwards it on to you, act surprised.  <g>  I think the
way you are working this thing in the .inf file is great.  Do other
newsletters do that too, or did you think of that?

Is there a way to mark text in an inf file to paste somewhere else?  For
instance, I just wanted to paste your internet address over to my userid.cis
file in epm, but I couldn't figure a way just to mark that line and copy it
over.

Johnny  25-Sep-93 13:14


Date:         Sat, 25 Sep 93 12:24:52 CDT
From:         Dale Hackemeyer <UC545502@MIZZOU1>
Organization: University of Missouri at Columbia
Subject:      Re: Your Newsletter
To:           Johnny Sewell <[e-mail]>
In-Reply-To:  Your message of 25 Sep 93 13:21:16 EDT

On 25 Sep 93 13:21:16 EDT you said:
>I had downloaded your newsletter from CompuServe a few weeks ago, but just
>got around to looking at them.  Very nice and impressive!!!  I sent a note to
>Phillip too, so if he forwards it on to you, act surprised.  <g>  I think the
>way you are working this thing in the .inf file is great.  Do other
>newsletters do that too, or did you think of that?

Thanks! Glad to hear you like it. I'll have to get Phillip to upload them
every month. I originally got the idea from the San Diego OS/2 Users Group,
who started doing an INF version of their newsletter in January. They were
kind enough to provide the IPF source to their OS/2 BBS and User Groups
listings for use in our newsletter.

>Is there a way to mark text in an inf file to paste somewhere else?  For
>instance, I just wanted to paste your internet address over to my userid.cis
>file in epm, but I couldn't figure a way just to mark that line and copy it
>over.

Unfortunately there's no direct way to do so, however there is a bit of a
kludge that'll work. If you press CTRL-F when viewing an INF file, the IPF
system will create an ASCII text fle of the current window, minus any bitmap
graphics, of course. The file it creates is TEMP.TXT or TEXT.TMP, I can't
remember which right now. It should show up in the current directory that
you issued the VIEW command with. From there you can edit the text and cut
and paste it with an editor. It's not very practical for a line or two, but
if there's a paragraph or more involved, it could be handy.

Thanks for the note, and let me know if you've got any good ideas for
articles in the newsletter.

Dale


Date: 25 Sep 93 14:42:34 EDT
From: Johnny Sewell <[e-mail]>
To: Dale Hackemeyer <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Your Newsletter

Dale,

I met Phillip at the 2.1 kickoff at
IBM here in KC.  And the internet connection from CompuServe hasn't cost me
anything yet, but that may have to do with having a sysop account.  I'm an
Assistant SysOp on the Aviation Forum on CompuSeve, GO AVSIG.

 > They were kind enough to provide the IPF source to their OS/2 BBS
 > and User Groups listings for use in our newsletter.


I'm not all that familiar with IPF.  Can you take your text file with their
source code and pretty much make the inf file?  I'm sure there has to be some
things you have to add, like name highlighting and the hyperlinks.

Johnny  25-Sep-93 14:26


Date:         Sat, 25 Sep 93 13:45:31 CDT
From:         Dale Hackemeyer <UC545502@MIZZOU1>
Organization: University of Missouri at Columbia
Subject:      Re: Your Newsletter
To:           Johnny Sewell <[e-mail]>
In-Reply-To:  Your message of 25 Sep 93 14:42:34 EDT

On 25 Sep 93 14:42:34 EDT you said:
>I met Phillip at the 2.1 kickoff at
>IBM here in KC.  And the internet connection from CompuServe hasn't cost me
>anything yet, but that may have to do with having a sysop account.  I'm an
>Assistant SysOp on the Aviation Forum on CompuSeve, GO AVSIG.

Now THAT'S the way to get CompuServe! :)

What part of KC do you live in? I'm from Lee's Summit myself, over here
in Columbia trying to get through college.

>I'm not all that familiar with IPF.  Can you take your text file with their
>source code and pretty much make the inf file?  I'm sure there has to be some
>things you have to add, like name highlighting and the hyperlinks.

The IPF souce code for an INF file is just ASCII text that I edit like you
said, by adding the links and special formatting. All I add are strings
that start with a : or & and end with a .

For example, to change the font to Courier, I have to add the following line:

:font facename='Courier' size=14x14.

And to change it back to the default font, I put in the following:

:font facename=default.

The listings that the folks in San Diego provided already has all the IPF
tags like those above in there, so all I have to do to put it in my
newsletter is add the following line in my source file:

.im sdug0593.ipf

This simply copies the specified file into my source file where the .im
tag appears. I do have to change a few reference numbers for it the
get along with the rest of my stuff, but that's pretty simple to do.

I do the Internet section, and do it the same way to make changing it
easier. I also let other groups have it for their newsletters. If you'd
like a copy to look at, I'm sure I could mail you a copy.

The IPF stuff is pretty dry and boring at the source level, but it's
interesting what you can do with it. Keep an eye out when the Novemeber
newsletter comes out, as there's a good possibility I'll have an article
on how I create the newsletter. I was "volunteered" to do a presentation
on how I do the newsletter at the upcoming October meeting, so I hope to
do a follow up article on it.

Dale


Date: 25 Sep 93 16:07:16 EDT
From: Johnny Sewell <[e-mail]>
To: Dale Hackemeyer <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Your Newsletter

I saw an article in OS2 Professional about how to do IPF stuff, but I think it
said that another software package was required.  Something other than what
comes with OS/2 2.1.  But I forget what that package was.

Johnny  25-Sep-93 15:42


Date:         Sat, 25 Sep 93 16:14:55 CDT
From:         Dale Hackemeyer <UC545502@MIZZOU1>
Organization: University of Missouri at Columbia
Subject:      Re: Your Newsletter
To:           Johnny Sewell <[e-mail]>
In-Reply-To:  Your message of 25 Sep 93 16:07:16 EDT


On 25 Sep 93 16:07:16 EDT you said:
>I saw an article in OS2 Professional about how to do IPF stuff, but I think it
>said that another software package was required.  Something other than what
>comes with OS/2 2.1.  But I forget what that package was.


You need the IPF compiler, IPFC.EXE. It's not a very big program, and it comes
with the OS/2 Developer's kit, IBM C-Set and C-Set++, and Borland C++ (where
I got my copy). I don't know how much IBM might charge for it alone.

Dale


NSCOUG Correction
-----------------

From: [e-mail] (James Schmidt)
Subject: News Letter
To: [e-mail]
Date: Sat, 25 Sep 1993 16:17:15 -40962758 (CDT)

Hello,
   I just downloaded the Sept issue of the Mid-Missouri OS/2 User's group.
I have a few minor corrections to my user group listing. I think it's
great that we are listed but your information is a bit dated.

North Suburban Chicago OS/2 User Group
Telephone: [phone]
BBS: 708-895-4042

Meetings: Unless otherwise scheduled we meet on the Last Tuesday of each
month.

All other information is correct. The BBS number is an addition the other
items are corrections to existing items.

Thanks again for listing our group. We're 1 year old this month.

James Schmidt
NSCOUG


Date:         Sun, 26 Sep 93 12:07:55 CDT
From:         Dale Hackemeyer <UC545502@MIZZOU1>
Organization: University of Missouri at Columbia
Subject:      Re: correction to newsletter
To:           James Schmidt <[e-mail]>
In-Reply-To:  Your message of Sat, 25 Sep 1993 20:38:09 -0500 (CDT)

James,

Thanks for the correction. I'll be sure to fix it in the October issue,
and I'll forward this to David Sichak at the San Diego OS/2 UG which
provided me with the list. Thanks again!

Dale


From the Editor
---------------
Another newsletter, another hectic deadline. With school and work, it's
getting tougher and tougher to meet the first of the month deadline, but
it looks like I missed this one by only 4 days.
Close enough for non-profit work, right?

You might expect to see the newsletter become a bit leaner in the next few
months as I get really busy, but be assured it will be here every month.

Enough of my complaining! <g> This month's meeting should be interesting,
especially for me since I'm the presenter. Ever wonder how I create this
newsletter? Now's your chance to see how I do it. If you can't make the
meeting and are interested, don't worry&colon. there should be an article on how to
do it either in the November or December issue of the newsletter. Not sure
when just yet. Like I said, things are a bit hectic! <g>

Hope to see you all at the meeting!

Dale Hackemeyer
Editor, MMOUG Newsletter
OS/2 Woodmeister BBS (1:289/27)
Internet: [e-mail]