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OS/2 Help File | 1993-04-18 | 297.2 KB | 4,378 lines

ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. March Issue Topics ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. San Diego OS/2 User Group 2. Letters To The Editor 3. Stolen Taglines 4. Lotus OS/2 Products Reviewed 5. OS/2 Tips, Tricks and Ideas 6. OS/2 User Group News 7. OS/2 User Group Listing 8. OS/2 News & Developments 9. OS/2 Software / Hardware News 10. Views & Opinions 11. REXX Workshop 12. OS/2 Reading 13. OS/2 BBS's ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.1. San Diego OS/2 User Group ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ March Meeting March Winners! April Meeting Directions Parking & Cost Call For Information How To Contact Us ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.1.1. March Meeting ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ San Diego OS/2 User Group Thursday, March 18, 1993 7:pm - 10:pm OS/2 consultant Jeannine Wolf will give an overview of OS/2's config.sys file and what settings a user would be likely to customize. She'll concentrate particularly on performatnce tuning tips like cache and multitasking settings you can adjust to make OS/2 better suit your style of usage. Jeannine will also show some of the useful customizations you can make to your Workplace Shell setup suc as adding your own programs to the desktop and folder menus. Schedule. * User Group Announcements and OS/2 News * * Discussion of OS/2's Config.SYS file * * Workplace Shell Tips * Our ever-popular OS/2 question and answer session where you can get help and advice from many other OS/2 users. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.1.2. March Winners! ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Fifteen Reasons to Attend the Meeting! Yes, folks, you missed something just sitting at home being a couch potato or doing things like your laundry. We had for prizes such things as Faxworks for OS/2, books galore such as OS/2 in the Corporate Environment, OS/2 Templates for ready reference at the keyboard, and well, you ought to attend the next one to see what you might carry home. It's amazing the tactics we'll use to entice you to stay for the whole meeting. Who knows, maybe next month you'll see your name listed as a winner, like the following folks: Dave Sloyer Craig Kunimoto Dean Mevis William Lingle Alann Lopes Dan Kelly Beverly Hudson Terri Woodward William D. Briggs Bryan Talbot Pete Starsman Lou Fink Paul C. Forstrom Stanley V. Granch, Jr. Paul Moore Aw heck, I didn't win anything again..... ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.1.3. April Meeting ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ San Diego OS/2 User Group Thursday, April 15, 1993 7:pm - 10:pm DeScribe 4.0 Demonstration! Manufacturing Process Controllers Using OS/2! Happy 1st Birthday OS/2 2.0! A representative from the DeScribe Corporation will demonstrate DeScribe 4.0, their 32-bit OS/2 graphical word processing program. DeScribe uses multithreading and Workplace Shell integration features to builid the leading word process for the OS/2 platform. DeScribe is not only suitable for word processing, but also for many desktop publishing jobs as it incorporates many file and graphic import filters and extensive page layout and drawing features. Local OS/2 consultant Paul Moore will explain the program he is developing to run on an OS/2 computer that will control tube mill and bending machines. This is an example of where OS/2's multitasking, multithreading, and memory protection make it very suitable for mission-critical applications. We'll have a birthday cake and some books and programs to give away to celebrate OS/2 2.0's one-year birthday. In its first year on the market, OS/2 2.0 has sold well over 2 million copies, surpassing industry expectations and rapidly establishing itself as a leading-edge operating system for IBM compatible 386 and 486 personal computers. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.1.4. Directions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ IBM Building 8845 University Center Lane San Diego, California 92122 Directions If you are coming from south of the UCSD area, take the Interstate 5 north. Get off at the Nobel Drive exit right after the passing the Mormon temple. The IBM building will be immediately in front of you as you are stopped at the exit stop light. If you are coming from north of the UCSD area, take the Interstate 5 south and get off at the La Jolla Village Drive exit. Then head east until you reach Lebon. Then take a right and continue until you reach Nobel. Take a right onto Nobel Drive and then continue until you see the IBM building on your right just before reaching the Interstate 5 again. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.1.5. Parking & Cost ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Parking Free, in the IBM parking lot. Cost As usual, a free meeting open to anyone interested in attending. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.1.6. Call For Information ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ General Meeting Information Our group typically meets every third Thursday of the month. If you'd like to get more information on our meetings, call our voice information line at 619-587-5955 to find out about any changes in meeting times, the topics for future meetings, and a list of some San Diego area bulletin boards you can call formore OS/2 information. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.1.7. How To Contact Us ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ How To Contact The San Diego OS/2 User Group March 1993 marks the release of the fourth issue of our monthly newsletter. We've noticed interest in it from people outside of the San Diego area and would therefore like to provide a newsletter for any and all interested OS/2 users and potential users, including those outside of our area. As we are an informal volunteer user group, we don't have fees or charge subscriptions for the newsletter. So far we've been financing user group activities out of our own pockets. But this could get to be financially burdensome if many people outside of the San Diego area would like to have the newsletter mailed to them, so we've come up with a tentative plan to address this issue in a way we feel will be fair and reasonable to all. Our intent is to try this plan for a few months and then evaluate how well it worked and make adjustments if necessary. If you'd like a sample issue of the San Diego OS/2 Newsletter, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope with enough postage to cover about three or four ounces (it cost $0.75 in the USA to mail the March issue) to our address listed at the bottom of this announcement. If you'd like more than one issue, send as many SASE envelopes as issues you'd like to receive. After some discussion, we've decided that for now the best way for us to recover our costs and to be fair is to ask for a donation to help cover newsletter expenses. We'll leave the amount up to you - you are the best judge of what you feel is appropriate after you've seen an issue of the newsletter. Personal checks are completely OK as these are donations, not subscriptions. You can make out any donation check to "Dave Sichak" who is the editor of the newsletter. We'll use any donations we receive for covering newsletter expenses. If you'd like to contribute an article to the newsletter, we welcome that, too. If we use it, you would be entitled to a complimentary copy of the newsletter in which we used your material. We have an idea list and some hints at what we'd like your articles to include. Let us know if you are are interested in contributing articles and would like a copy of the idea list. You can submit material via US Mail or via electronic mail at the addresses listed below. Here's our mailing address: SanDiegoOS / 2UserGroup P.O. Box 13346 San Diego, CA 92039-3346 If you'd like to get in touch with somebody via electronic mail, you can contact the following people: SAN DIEGO OS/2 USER GROUP ORGANIZER Craig Swanson Fidonet: 1:202/354 Internet: Craig_Swanson@f354.n202.z1.fidonet.org EDITOR Dave Sichak Fidonet: 1:202/354 Internet: Dave_Sichak@f354.n202.z1.fidonet.org ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.2. Letters To The Editor ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Editor's Note Minnesota OS/2 UG San Diego, California Preston, UK Champaign, Illinois ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.2.1. Editor's Note ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Time to reach into the ole mailbag or unpack a few notes from our network mail packets. Remember you can contact us (Craig Swanson or Dave Sichak) by writing us at San Diego OS/2 User Group P.O. Box 13346 San Diego, CA 92039-3346 Or use email on Fidonet or Internet SAN DIEGO OS/2 USER GROUP ORGANIZER Craig Swanson Fidonet: 1:202/354 Internet: Craig_Swanson@f354.n202.z1.fidonet.org EDITOR Dave Sichak Fidonet: 1:202/354 Internet: Dave_Sichak@f354.n202.z1.fidonet.org ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.2.2. Minnesota OS/2 UG ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Dear Editor, My name is Mat Kramer. I am working on pulling together a newsletter for the Minnesota OS/2 User Group. One of the guys from the UG was recently at the Phoenix conference, where he got a copy of your latest online newsletter. I was wondering if it would be possible for us to use any of your material. If so, what kind of statements do we need to print to give credit to the proper person? We would be interested in swapping articles, but at this time we have nothing to offer in return. We're hoping to have our first issue out by March 25. I'm also curious how you go about IPF tagging your newsletter. Do you have any tools or macros to help you do this? Is it a pretty time-consuming task? Thanks for any help you can offer! Mat Kramer MNOS2 (1:202/723) You and other user groups may use our articles if you wish. I would say that normal credit should be given. This would be the author's name (if listed) as well as the source, i.e., San Diego OS/2 User Group Newsletter, Fidonet, etc and possibly the date of the issue you took it from. I believe APCUG has some guidelines on this. And yes, we'd like to exchange articles with other groups. Perhaps we could establish a mailing list for OS/2 user groups to send their newsletters for such purposes or their INF versions. We can discuss this in the Fidonet TEAMOS2 echo. Now, as for the IPF tagging. I'm looking for a decent tool. I've got something called "HELPEDIT" or something to that effect, but I haven't tried it yet. The March issue will be the first try. I've used EPM for the most part, using the "cut and paste" facility quite a bit. It is a bit of a pain. I freely admit I'm a novice at it. For the first issue, I learned IPFC tagging and compiling in one weekend. I'll post an example to show you some of the fun you'll have. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.2.3. San Diego, California ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Dear Craig, What's the procedure for joining the users group and when is the next meeting?? Jalal Husseini San Diego, California There is no formal procedure as we are informal group with no dues or official membership list. This may change in the future. For now, you're a member if you show up at a meeting. Our meetings are held on the third Thursday each month with the next one on March 18 at the IBM building in La Jolla. Look for meeting announcements in this message area or on the log on bulletins on the OS/2 Connection BBS. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.2.4. Preston, UK ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Dear Dave, What's a CPA Dave? (Apart from me - Colin Paul Adams). I just read the San Diego INF newsletter -it was GREAT. Congratulations to you and Craig et al. Grizzly Colin Paul Adams Ursus Fremens Rexx - Preston UK (2:250/121) Gee, wait til we really start doing a newsletter. We're still considering ourselves "beta" testing right now. In other words, we're not satisfied yet. But keep those comments coming, it helps our egos. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.2.5. Champaign, Illinois ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Dear Editor, I picked up the *.inf version of your newsletter, and it's GREAT. I'll be dragging it on diskette to our next meeting this Friday. Since you'll have a pretty large distribution electronically, why not a short blurb on the "care and feeding" (and starting) a local OS/2 users group? My experience is that people seem to be having various levels of "luck" in starting / maintaining users' groups. I called someone at IBM and was essentially brushed off. I netmailed his number to someone else, who mailed me back saying that he had gotten his group on a mailing list and was really helpful! It might be useful to outline the steps in starting a users group, e.g., contacting a local IBM office, how to get company reps to demo software, how to advertise, maybe even how to start a newsletter. Of course, since every area is different, the tips would have to be pretty general, but might be useful to both existing groups and wannabe groups. Another approach might be to solicit tips from successful user groups, so you (or whomever) won't have to spend as much time writing it. :) Keep up the good work! (And dang, I've got to remind myself to send you guys a check when my next payday comes along -- the electronic version alone is worth it!) Melissa Woo Champaign, Illinois (1:233/4.100) A few things have happened since I first originally replied to your note. For OS/2 user groups, check out the TEAMOS2 echo on Fidonet. Yours truly is a co-moderator and we're going to use it to help user groups "network" and share ideas and experiences. Check out our Coast 2 Coast article this issue, seems you were reading my mind this month. Sometimes a story will write itself. And there's another possible surprise down the line, but we'll let you wait for that one. And thanks a bunch! ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.3. Stolen Taglines ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Never ceases to amaze me how clever some folks can get with one line at the end of a message. Anyone know how taglines got started? -- Dave 1. File not Found. Should I fake it? 2. Revenge...is a dish best served cold. 3. Don't ask me, I'm only visiting this planet. 4. Success comes before work only in the dictionary. 5. If this were an actual tagline, it would be funny. 6. ...some go disk way &some go data way... 7. Boycott shampoo...Demand REAL poo. 8. Mental floss prevents moral decay. 9. SENILE.COM found. Out of memory. 10. Press any key to continue or any other key to quit. 11. The future is not what it used to be. 12. Consultant: Someone who takes your watch away to tell you what time it is. 13. (tagline isFunny) ifTrue: [tagline insert]; 14. The Buck stops here; the Doe just visits. 15. Cogito Ergo...I get into a lot of arguments. 16. Physicists have their quarks. 17. World ends today at 3pm. Details at 5pm. 18. Psychic Convention -- you know where &when. 19. Couldn't love have picked a better place to die? 20. I don't normally drink, but I'm not normally normal. 21. If you can't be good, be careful. 22. Love is a hole in the heart. 23. Adventure is hardship aesthetically considered. 24. Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win. 25. I program like a MAN. I use COPY CON PROGRAM.EXE 26. Eagles soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines. Of course, for those who like the OS/2 versus Windows one-line jabs. 1. C:\Windows C:\Windows\Run C:\Program\Crawl 2. Windows: A virus that failed to work. 3. Windows: Point, Click and...Pray. 4. 2,000,000 OS/2 users don't need helmet laws. 5. If a plane was run by Windows, would you fly it? 6. I'm an OS/2 Developer...I don't NEED a life. 7. Thou Shalt Not covet MICROSOFT's operating systems. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.4. Lotus OS/2 Products Reviewed ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Introduction OS/2 Fix to Run 1-2-3 for OS/2 General Impressions Freelance Graphics for OS/2 Lotus 1-2-3 for OS/2 Attach Custom @Functions Via C/C++ Calls Conclusions about 1-2-3 & Freelance Graphics The "Speed" of 1-2-3 vs Excel 4.0 The Last Word ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.4.1. Introduction ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Lotus OS/2 Products Reviewed By Robert Freund February 12, 1993 Fidonet OS2 Origin: OS/2 Shareware BBS (1:109/347) (The following review of the 32-bit Lotus 1-2-3 for OS/2 and Freelance Graphics for OS/2 is a compilation of two reviews posted by Mr. Freund on Fidonet and on the IBM NSCBBS during February 1993.) Standard Disclaimer I am not associated with the Lotus Corporation. The following review reflects my perception of the performance of the new Lotus products and is anything but infallible. 32-Bit Lotus Products for OS/2 2.X I ordered the new 32-bit Lotus 1-2-3 and Freelance Graphics for OS/2 2.x early this month. Due to the miracles of overnight shipping, I received them on Tuesday, February 9. I have spent a good deal of the last three weeks playing with them and wanted to share my impressions. I would like to begin with a bit about myself so that the readers can put my comments into perspective. I am a Ph.D. student in Operations Management / Research at Cornell University. I have spent a fair amount of time using Excel 4.0 and Powerpoint for Windows in mostly TECHNICAL applications. I have had relatively little experience using any spreadsheet product for BUSINESS applications. I don't know if there is any real difference between the two, but, if so, I wanted to point out my areas of relative experience. That being said, I suppose we should start out with the following warning, pertinent to all OS/2 2.1 beta testers. Other Segments of "Lotus OS/2 Products Reviewed": OS/2 Fix to Run 1-2-3 for OS/2 General Impressions Freelance Graphics for OS/2 Lotus 1-2-3 for OS/2 Attach Custom @Functions Via C/C++ Calls Conclusions about 1-2-3 & Freelance Graphics The "Speed" of 1-2-3 vs Excel 4.0 The Last Word ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.4.2. OS/2 Fix to Run 1-2-3 for OS/2 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ WARNING: THE NEW 32-BIT LOTUS 1-2-3 DOES NOT WORK WELL WITH THE OS/2 2.1 BETA WITHOUT INSTALLING A KERNEL FIX AVAILABLE FROM IBM. This fix is available from many BBS's, including the IBM NSCBBS and Peter Norloff's OS/2 Shareware BBS. It is usually called 21krnl.zip 804171 2-15-93 and comes with detailed instructions on how to install the fix. The symptoms of the problem are: 1. Warning message during install that SP is not installed. 2. VERY LONG (2-5 minute) delays in starting the program once the icon has been double-clicked. The hourglass appears during the startup screen, then all disk activity stops and the system is completely inoperative until some sort of timeout occurs, approximately 2-5 minutes later. WEIRD, since after the timeout the program window is running and active. 3. intermittent (complete system) HANGS while actually running the program. This is especially true when attempting to edit/change the SmartIcon menus. 4. slow performance of features that use dlls. IBM responded very quickly to the loading problems on the 2.1 beta. A kernel fix was available within 3 days and it apparently solves the problem. I say "apparently" because there are occasionally conditions under which the load takes significantly longer than normal. For example, the "normal" load time on my 486/33 with 16MB is 15-20 seconds. Before the fix, the load time would be 3-5 minutes. Occasionally, after the fix, the load time can be 45-60 seconds. I have experienced none of these problems when running 1-2-3 under my other partition, which is GASP using generic 640x480x16 VGA. Other Segments of "Lotus OS/2 Products Reviewed": Introduction General Impressions Freelance Graphics for OS/2 Lotus 1-2-3 for OS/2 Attach Custom @Functions Via C/C++ Calls Conclusions about 1-2-3 & Freelance Graphics The "Speed" of 1-2-3 vs Excel 4.0 The Last Word ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.4.3. General Impressions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ GENERAL IMPRESSIONS The default interface to both programs is CRISP, FAST, and GOOD LOOKING in generic 640x480x16 VGA mode. However, I usually run my system at 1024x768x256 and the default modes for 1-2-3 had to be changed a bit before they looked as good. Overall, I find myself very satisfied with both programs, although it has taken a bit longer to grow fond of 1-2-3 than Freelance Graphics. Excel 4.0 is really a very good program and, in the absence of a native OS/2 2.x program, I would have had little desire to switch to a competitive product. In hindsight, I am quite glad that I did - which I explain in greater detail below. As was noted in the Byte review, 1-2-3 and Freelance Graphics (FG) are very well integrated together. The same charting, dictionary,and printing subsystems are used for both 1-2-3 and FG. Hence, when loaded together the total install is approximately 11MB as opposed to the 15+MB when installed separately. You also save the overhead involved in learning yet another piece of software. Another nice feature is that when you start either program, the other program is available through the pull-down menus. This does not start up a whole new PM Window but rather causes the new app to run "seamlessly" inside the already existing desktop. The icons and pull-down menus at the top of the Lotus desktop reflect the actions applicable to whichever window has the focus. This feature is really quite handy since many presentations depend on charts and data in accompanying spreadsheets. Other Segments of "Lotus OS/2 Products Reviewed": Introduction OS/2 Fix to Run 1-2-3 for OS/2 Freelance Graphics for OS/2 Lotus 1-2-3 for OS/2 Attach Custom @Functions Via C/C++ Calls Conclusions about 1-2-3 & Freelance Graphics The "Speed" of 1-2-3 vs Excel 4.0 The Last Word ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.4.4. Freelance Graphics for OS/2 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Freelance Graphics for OS/2 This is really a much easier review to write than the one for 1-2-3. The 32-bit Freelance Graphics (FG) for OS/2 is pretty much SUPERIOR in every way to POWERPOINT FOR WINDOWS. It is faster, better looking,and easier to use. There are many well-designed templates available. Some are optimized for color, others for black &white. Furthermore, FG comes with 12 attractive Adobe fonts geared towards presentations. FG reminds me a whole lot of a faster version of Harvard Graphics for Windows. In each of the templates there are "sub-templates" for the various kinds of overheads you might want to do. For example, suppose you select the "Colored Cityscape" motif as your basic template. You can then create an entire presentation with this as your background. There are sub-templates for the title chart, a single column of bullets, a chart and bullets, two columns of bullets, two charts, four charts, etc. In each sub-template there are "click here to enter text" regions that, when you click on them, start up a little editor complete with tab positions and ruler. Likewise, there are "put graphics here" regions that you just drag a graphics image to and it will be sized and formatted. Lots of attractive drawings come with FG -like a stylized computer system or a train or whatever. You just drag them to the "put graphics here" regions of the presentation and size them to your liking. If you don't want to use the templates, you can create your own and still use the "click here for text" and "put graphics here" macros. FG includes a drawing toolbox that can be used to create custom graphics. I wouldn't call it a full-featured drawing program,but it will do for most jobs. About the only real complaint that I have is the lack of an equation editor. Most, if not all, of my presentations are geared towards a mathematically oriented audience. I can create much of what I need by manually selecting characters from the Symbol and Fences fonts. However, this is far less efficient than a true equation editor. I suspect that the 32-bit Ami Pro for OS/2 will integrate with 1-2-3 and FG and alleviate this problem. However, until Ami Pro for OS/2 is released, the lack of an equation editor could prove to be a burden to some users. ;P. All in all, a very good job. You can't go wrong with Freelance Graphics for OS/2. Other Segments of "Lotus OS/2 Products Reviewed": Introduction OS/2 Fix to Run 1-2-3 for OS/2 General Impressions Lotus 1-2-3 for OS/2 Attach Custom @Functions Via C/C++ Calls Conclusions about 1-2-3 & Freelance Graphics The "Speed" of 1-2-3 vs Excel 4.0 The Last Word ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.4.5. Lotus 1-2-3 for OS/2 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Lotus 1-2-3 for OS/2 To be honest, I really like Excel 4.0 for Windows and consider it to be an excellent program. Hence, it is hardly surprising that it has taken me some time to unlearn Excel and get up to speed on 1-2-3. It is still true that I miss certain "convenience" features of Excel,but I FIND MYSELF GROWING QUITE FOND OF 1-2-3. Don't stop reading the review here and conclude that 1-2-3 is inferior to Excel! IT IS CLEARLY NOT. However, there are trade- offs between the two programs and personal preferences will dictate the "winner" on an individual basis. Some of my comments reflect the fact that I learned spreadsheets on Excel. "Why the heck doesn't 1-2-3 do this like I am used to?" was a not uncommon refrain heard around my computer these past few weeks. Several times I had to remind myself to separate the concepts of "better" and "worse" from the concept of "different." I guess the two biggest complaints levelled at prior OS/2 and Windows versions of 1-2-3 were: 1. a lack of key formatting/printing features 2. a somewhat "clunky" user interface I go into greater detail on (1) later in this review, but the bottom line is that the new 1-2-3 is pretty much FEATURE COMPLETE. As with any "mature" product type, 1-2-3 is better in some areas whereas the competition is better in others. Overall, I feel that 1-2-3 AT LEAST HOLDS ITS OWN IN OVERALL AVAILABILITY OF FEATURES. Lotus has made great strides in (2), but it is still a bit "clunky" in certain areas. I guess a perfect example of this statement is 1-2-3's way of dealing with fonts. Instead of the logical, intuitive method used by Excel wherein you select a cell and then "pull-down" separate lists for "font" and "size", 1-2-3 uses a different approach. You select a cell (or range) and then change the fonts by selecting from a configurable list of font/size combinations. I guess Lotus chose to do it this way so that users could make global changes to fonts - it is kind of like "styles" in WinWord. Unfortunately, the font/size assignment is a combinatorial problem - the list gets HUGE for even moderate numbers of fonts and sizes. The only recourse is to add to the list only when you have a need for a particular font/size combination. Unfortunately,this method still does not avoid the need to search for your choice from among a large list. ... like I said earlier, a bit "clunky" ... I would like to balance this complaint with some positive comments about the user interface. When it comes to selecting large ranges,or creating long columns of linear, power, or geometric series,1-2-3 REALLY SHINES. It beats the "drag-handle" method hands down. Have you ever tried to "drag" 1000 data points? I hate doing this in Excel whereas it is a snap in 1-2-3. Judicious use of cell and range names makes maneuvering in 1-2-3 even easier. I also like the way that 1-2-3 allows for copying cell formats from one cell to any collection of cells. It is easy to use, logical, and a real time-saver for creating nice-looking documents. Some more detailed observations 1. 1-2-3 relies on user-configurable "Smart Icons" in place of Excel's right-mouse-button pop-up menu. I STILL PREFER POP-UP MENU's. They are significantly faster. Lotus should definitely include them in all future releases of 1-2-3. That being said, the context sensitive "Smart Icons" are still OK. After you decide which functions you use the most, it is easy enough to configure the toolbar. You can also write your own macro, create a new .bmp, and add a custom Smart Icon to your menu. Perhaps not quite as handy as pop-up menus, but decidedly better than pulling down several title-bar menus. 2. The loss of the "drag-handle" available in Excel is less of a problem than I anticipated. Yes, it does save some time in small to medium worksheets, but I have found that 1-2-3's "Range-Select" and "List" commands are actually much faster for large spreadsheets. For me, these trade-offs balance out in the long-run. 3. At first glance, the lack of enough built-in Statistics functions really concerned me. Admittedly, my particular profession makes these functions more important to me than normal. However, it turns out that this inconvenience is hugely outweighed by the ability to attach custom @Functions and macros to 1-2-3 through DLLs. Other Segments of "Lotus OS/2 Products Reviewed": Introduction OS/2 Fix to Run 1-2-3 for OS/2 General Impressions Freelance Graphics for OS/2 Attach Custom @Functions Via C/C++ Calls Conclusions about 1-2-3 & Freelance Graphics The "Speed" of 1-2-3 vs Excel 4.0 The Last Word ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.4.6. Attach Custom @Functions Via C/C++ Calls ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Attach Custom @Functions Through C/C++ DLLs - An Absolutely Incredible Feature!!! I can write code that is better than the statistics functions built into Excel, and thus adding dlls to 1-2-3 is ideal. Anyone with IBM's C/C++ beta can create these dlls. I was not familiar with the process of creating dlls when I began, and so was a bit worried. However, after reading the CDROM on-line documentation and the Lotus documentation, I was able to do EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED with custom @Functions. Don't let it scare you off if you have never created dlls - anyone even moderately comfortable with C/C++ can eventually figure it out. It takes a bit of work because the 1-2-3 manual assumes that you are already familiar with writing and compiling dlls. However, Lotus includes sample files (.c,.def,.mak) that basically show you how to create a dll. This is a very nice feature for people who are willing to be "technical users" of 1-2-3. Basically, you can do anything inside 1-2-3 through an @Function that you can/would do in a C/C++ program. I believe that you can do a similar thing with Excel, but only if you purchase the Excel developer's toolkit. Otherwise, you are restricted to Excel macros. I was asked by several people how good the printing features were under 1-2-3. Honestly, I find them a bit confusing at times -definitely less "intuitive" than the equivalent Excel functions. They all seem to be there, like "fitting" to a page and centering horizontally and vertically. You can have headers and footers. Cell shading and border outlining is available, and I even like 1-2-3's method better than Excel's. I just find the actual sequence of commands confusing sometimes. For example, the print dialog box requires you click on "GO" and then "QUIT". Nothing happens after you click on "GO" by itself, and so you think that it didn't work. Well, it did. GO's job is to send a request to the print queue, but the queue doesn't seem to be activated until you "QUIT". I managed to generate a whole bunch of print requests in the queue before I finally realized what was happening. I can only speak for myself,but this seems extremely counter-intuitive. One really NICE feature is that printing is spun off as a separate thread. You get the mouse back IMMEDIATELY, and there is little (if any) noticeable degradation due to the spooling process. One other item worthy of mention is the 3-dimensional worksheet concept built into 1-2-3. Each 1-2-3 "file" is really a collection of 256 sheets stacked one atop another. Normally you only see one of these sheets, and it looks like any other column/row spreadsheet. In a sense, it is like ALWAYS opening an Excel workbook. Suppose you had 10 distinct sales regions, several different graphs, and a FG presentation. They could all be dynamically linked and saved on different sheets in the same file. That is about as far as I have gotten so far on this feature. It *seems* useful. Other Segments of "Lotus OS/2 Products Reviewed": Introduction OS/2 Fix to Run 1-2-3 for OS/2 General Impressions Freelance Graphics for OS/2 Lotus 1-2-3 for OS/2 Conclusions about 1-2-3 & Freelance Graphics The "Speed" of 1-2-3 vs Excel 4.0 The Last Word ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.4.7. Conclusions about 1-2-3 & Freelance Graphics ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Conclusions Overall, I am VERY SATISFIED with both of the two programs, although 1-2-3 has taken a bit longer to grow fond of than Freelance. Now,three weeks later, I am very glad that I made the effort. 1-2-3 is a quick, visually attractive spreadsheet program that does virtually everything I need and is readily extensible through dlls. The ability to attach C/C++ programs to my spreadsheets is exactly what I needed,even though I never realized it before. 1-2-3 for OS/2 2.x may be a bit rougher around the edges than Excel 4.0, but virtually all of the same functionality is available. Many features are arguably better in 1-2-3, such as the cell formatting commands, the graphing commands, and the generation of long columns of linear, power, and geometric series. Furthermore, OS/2 is just so much better at multitasking NATIVE OS/2 programs. When I am running Excel 4.0 under Win-OS/2 3.1, it can be annoying trying to simultaneously run a simulation and the C/C++ compiler. I am not knocking OS/2's well-deserved reputation for great DOS multitasking. However, there is only so much that can be done with code not written specifically for a multitasking environment. On the other hand, there is no similar problem when running 1-2-3 for OS/2. I notice little, if any, performance degradation. Other Segments of "Lotus OS/2 Products Reviewed": Introduction OS/2 Fix to Run 1-2-3 for OS/2 General Impressions Freelance Graphics for OS/2 Lotus 1-2-3 for OS/2 Attach Custom @Functions Via C/C++ Calls The "Speed" of 1-2-3 vs Excel 4.0 The Last Word ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.4.8. The "Speed of 1-2-3 vs Excel 4.0 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ The "Speed" of 1-2-3 vs Excel 4.0 I have read comments on various nets and in PC Week that the 32-bit 1-2-3 is significantly slower than its Windows and DOS counterparts. I FOUND THIS COMPLETELY AT ODDS WITH MY EXPERIENCE, and so I decided to do some benchmarking. This post is already too long, and so I forgo the details of the test. Anyone interested in more details can contact me in the OS2 area of FidoNET or on the IBM NSCBBS. I believe these basic results are repeatable for any large spreadsheet with lots of floating point calculations. A summary of the results are as follows - 1-2-3 and Excel perform their recalculations in different ways. Which way is "better" depends on how you use your spreadsheets. The time for 1-2-3 to recalculate large spreadsheets is essentially constant, regardless of whether it is the first time or the 10th. The time for Excel to recalculate large spreadsheets is EXTREMELY dependent on whether or not it is the first time since the document has been opened last. I created 2 large, identical spreadsheets in both 1-2-3 and Excel 4.0. These spreadsheets contained extensive floating point calculations and required graphing 2,000+ points. Case A involved the generation of several thousand random numbers and then performing trigonometric functions on the results. Case B involved no random number generation. I turned calculations on "manual" and clocked the following results,based on repeating the test six times. ΓöîΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓö¼ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓö¼ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÉ ΓöéSpreadsheet A Γöé1st Time RecalcΓöéSubsequent TimeΓöé Γöé Γöé Γöé(avg) Γöé Γö£ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓö╝ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓö╝ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöñ ΓöéLotus 1-2-3 forΓöé6.5 seconds Γöé6.5 seconds Γöé ΓöéOS/2 Γöé Γöé Γöé Γö£ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓö╝ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓö╝ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöñ ΓöéExcel 4.0 Γöé40 seconds Γöé2.5 seconds Γöé ΓööΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓö┤ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓö┤ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÿ ΓöîΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓö¼ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓö¼ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÉ ΓöéSpreadsheet B Γöé1st Time RecalcΓöéSubsequent TimeΓöé Γöé Γöé Γöé(avg) Γöé Γö£ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓö╝ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓö╝ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöñ ΓöéLotus 1-2-3 forΓöé14 seconds Γöé13.7 seconds Γöé ΓöéOS/2 Γöé Γöé Γöé Γö£ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓö╝ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓö╝ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöñ ΓöéExcel 4.0 Γöé100 seconds Γöé3.5 seconds Γöé ΓööΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓö┤ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓö┤ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÿ Excel appears to load the functions into some kind of cache memory the first time that a spreadsheet is loaded and a recalculation is performed. You pay a tremendous penalty in the beginning and are rewarded with quick subsequent recalculations. Lotus is completely consistent in how long it takes. If you have a small or medium document, the difference is lost in the "noise" of overall system performance (which greatly favors Lotus 1-2-3 for OS/2). If you have a large worksheet where you update some input figures "every so often" and want to see the output, then 1-2-3's method is clearly superior. On the other hand, if you have a large worksheet that requires constantly changing the parameters, then Excel's method is superior. I should note that the "1st time recalc" results for Excel occur every time the spreadsheet is closed and then opened again. The point is, Take Benchmark Claims With A Large Grain of Salt. From the results above, I could claim the "Lotus 1-2-3 is at least 7 times as fast as Excel". I could also claim that "Excel is at least 3 times as fast as Lotus". Both are correct... and both are wrong. It depends on what you are doing. Based on my experience, I will make the following claim: LOTUS 1-2-3 FOR OS/2 2.x "FEELS" FASTER THAN EXCEL 4.0. This includes subsystem performance such as graphing, file saving,file retrieval, and switching between applications. However, I readily acknowledge that this depends on the specifics of what you are using the spreadsheet for. Other Segments of "Lotus OS/2 Products Reviewed": Introduction OS/2 Fix to Run 1-2-3 for OS/2 General Impressions Freelance Graphics for OS/2 Lotus 1-2-3 for OS/2 Attach Custom @Functions Via C/C++ Calls Conclusions about 1-2-3 & Freelance Graphics The "Speed" of 1-2-3 vs Excel ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.4.9. The Last Word ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Some Parting Comments I hope you found this interesting and not just a waste of modem connect-time. Both of these products are available through a competitive upgrade for $129. Based on my response, I think Lotus has done a good job with these products - they should help make OS/2 more successful. I would, once again, caution Excel users that there will be a learning curve associated with 1-2-3. Some of the things you have gotten used to will seem "wrong" or "missing". However, be careful to separate the concepts of "better/worse" from the concept of "different". Clearly, the benefit of a modern 32-bit OS shows itself in the performance of the Lotus apps with respect to similar windows apps. This is noticeable in both speed AND the slower rate of performance degradation when multitasking. Furthermore, IMHO the OS/2 GUI just looks so much cleaner and more attractive than the Windows GUI. Finally, be sure to pass on to other OS/2 users that there is a problem running these products under the 2.1 beta. It would be very unfortunate if someone denigrated two very nice products because they didn't work well on their system, only to find that it was a bug in 2.1b. According to the net (basically unsubstantiated rumors), this may well have been the reason for the negative tone in the recent PC Week review of the 32-bit 1-2-3. Other Segments of "Lotus OS/2 Products Reviewed": Introduction OS/2 Fix to Run 1-2-3 for OS/2 General Impressions Freelance Graphics for OS/2 Lotus 1-2-3 for OS/2 Attach Custom @Functions Via C/C++ Calls Conclusions about 1-2-3 & Freelance Graphics The Last Word ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.5. Tips, Tricks & Ideas ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ DOS Settings: IDLE SECONDS More On: IDLE SENSITIVITY New Way to FORMAT OS/2 & Telecommunications DPMI vs XMS vs EMS Run OS/2 With No WPS? WPS Tip - Add to the Pop-Menu ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.5.1. DOS Settings: IDLE SECONDS ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ DOS Settings: IDLE SECONDS Jim Gilliland Fidonet OS2 February 11, 1993 Origin: Cousin Jimmie's OS/2 Version 2.1 PetitPoint (1:157/200.34) Jim wrote a response to Lane Lester's inquiry about the different notes on this DOS setting you will find when you open the settings notebook and selection "session" then "DOS Settings". JH> 2. Set IDLE Seconds to the maximum JH> setting LL> I'm seeing conflicting advice about LL> this setting when used for DOS comm LL> programs. Maybe a little discussion LL> is in order? The Idle Seconds parameter determines how long OS/2 allows the DOS app to engage in seemingly idle behavior before it gets preempted. If you set it to a very high setting, then OS/2 will allow the DOS app to have the CPU even though it appears idle for a long time. The Idle Sensitivity parameter determines how OS/2 detects that the application is idle in the first place. If you set it to 100, OS/2 will not make any attempt to perform idle detection, and will never preempt the DOS app on that basis. So if the Idle Sensitivity parameter is set to 100, the Idle Seconds parameter becomes completely meaningless -the system will behave identically whether you set it to 0 seconds or 24 hours. OS/2 detects an idle DOS app by watching how often the application polls the keyboard in a given period of time. If the application polls more frequently than a given threshold, then OS/2 decides that it is idle. That threshold is controlled by the Idle Sensitivity setting. OS/2 then waits until the application has been seemingly idle for the length of time specified by the Idle Seconds parameter, and then preempts the application and dispatches the next available thread. My own approach to managing DOS apps is to vary the Idle Sensitivity parameter until I have it set so that the application runs well, but does not prevent other apps from running well. I've never found an instance where tinkering with the Idle Seconds parameter was necessary, but it may be useful under some special circumstances. Keep in mind, though, I don't run many DOS apps <G>. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.5.2. More On: IDLE SENSITIVITY ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ More On: IDLE SENSITIVITY John Steffes Fidonet OS2 February 11, 1993 Origin: PC-OHIO (1:157/200) (John wrote in response to Jim's approach to Idle Sensitivity.) I've found that for some DOS games that are processor intensive (Lemmings, MS FS), it's best to set Idle Sensitivity=100. Also, my mouse action is a little erratic for WinOS2, so I've also set Idle Sensitivity up for that. That's been my experience. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.5.3. New Way To Format ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Ring a Bell: New Way to Format Jim Flannery Fidonet OS2 March 5, 1993 Origin: Interconnect - Littleton, CO (1:104/60) I had made a comment that I wanted a means to have FORMAT ding me when it was done with a disk. JEROME YUZYK suggested making a CMD file which I just call FA.CMD @echo off format a:/once/v:"X" @echo on ^G^G^G^G He suggested running it in the background: DETACH FA Another idea: If you want to simply click on an icon, have a disk formatted, then be notified, WITHOUT having to watch a window, then: MIGRATE it ADJUST the settings, to OPEN MINIMISED CLOSE on exit. You don't have to detach it, and it'll ding you when done. The icon will sit quietly in a corner of your screen whilst it is running, then disappear. (Editor's Note: I've tried this and it works; the only quirk is an error message that comes up saying not a recognized command or something, but the disk gets formatted and the bell goes "ding". ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.5.4. OS/2 & Telecommunications ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ OS/2 & Telecommunications Rollin White NetMail Huntington Beach, CA Origin: (1:202/354) A common use for multitasking is to transfer files with a communication program in the background while performing another task in the foreground. While OS/2 is perfectly capable of running your current DOS communications program, it is not without cost. Because DOS communications require a second device driver (VCOM.SYS), they may generate up to 1,000 additional interrupts per second for a high speed modem. This degrades system performance and increases the likelihood of errors during your file transfers. An alternative is to use an OS/2 based communications program which deals directly with the OS/2 driver (COM.SYS) and can make more efficient use of your systems resources. There are two different types of OS/2 programs, character / text based and Presentation Manager based. Text based programs look exactly like traditional DOS programs. Presentation Manager (PM) programs, make use of OS/2's Graphical User Interface (GUI). GUI based programs are seen to provide an easier to use interface, but as we will see, this is not without cost. TE/2 is a shareware text based communications program written by Brady Flowers and Oberon Software. It's multi-threaded, utilizing one of OS/2's most powerful features, provides support for five different terminal emulations, and six different transfer protocols including Zmodem. The documentation is very thorough and the program's online documentation is complemented by a help menu that can be easily turned on or off. The major shortcoming in TE/2 is its method of maintaining a configuration. Instead of a menu containing the different options, it uses a plain text file and keywords to define its parameters. For example, if your modem is set for your second serial port, your TE2.INI file would contain the line "Device COM2". Pmcomm is a PM based shareware communications program by Multi-Net Communications. Pmcomm features the same terminal emulations and protocols as TE/2 except ZModem is disabled in the shareware version. Pmcomm has no printed documentation, instead it makes use of OS/2's interactive help facilities. On the other hand, many of the references in the manual are to features of previous versions of OS/2, instead of version 2.0. Since Pmcomm is a PM application, it uses the familiar GUI with the menu bar across the top of the window. For many, this will be easier to setup since all of the options and sub-menus are immediately visible. Personally, I found it cumbersome to open a sub-menu, close it and repeat the procedure for the other half dozen sub-menus. Both programs have their scripting language disabled in the shareware versions, and both appear equally powerful. One drawback of a PM application such as Pmcomm is the speed at which text is displayed. A graphical program such as Pmcomm will display text slower than a text based program such as TE/2. If you plan on more interactive communications rather than file transfers, display speed should be a factor in your decision. TE/2 can be found as TE_120.ZIP and PmComm can be found as PMCOM110.ZIP on most BBS's. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.5.5. DPMI vs XMS vs EMS ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ DPMI vs XMS vs EMS Eric Larson Fidonet OS2 February 13 &19, 1993 Origin: Point-device Point Under OS/2 (1:233/4.1) > I would like to see some discussion of this. > I have a pretty good feel > for XMS and EMS, but no knowledge at all > of DPMI. Your recommendation is particularly > puzzling. Is it for all OS/2 sessions, all DOS > sessions, or just WINOS2 sessions? Who can > afford 4 megs, us po' folks with just 8 > total, or just you rich people with 16+? DPMI memory is the native memory for Windows. You can set the DPMI setting for as much as you want -- I have mine set for 64 megabytes. OS/2 allows its DOS sessions to ask for scads of memory, without actually committing physical memory until the session uses it. I believe the same applies for EMS and XMS memory so you can be somewhat free in allocating memory to DOS sessions. However, if a program will go out and use as much memory as available, but will run fine with less, then it's prudent to trim to the actual needs of the session. This rule does not hold for 'boot image' sessions where a user copy of DOS is started from an image file. In this case, memory asked for initially is allocated immediately and becomes unavailable for use by anything else in the system (from what I understand). In this case, a session should be pretty closely scrutinized for memory requirements, else the entire system can be dramatically slowed. EL>> OS/2 allows its DOS sessions to ask for EL>> scads of memory, without actually EL>> committing physical memory until the session EL>> uses it. LL> That's very helpful. I had gotten the impression LL> that OS/2 will set aside whatever you have LL> for those three settings. I seem to recall LL> some people saying that it was important LL> to zero out any that are not used by a DOS LL> program. Maybe not, huh? If you make a Virtual Boot Machine (boot image), then yes, you do need to carefully scope the XMS, EMS, and DPMI settings. Whatever is allocated for a VBM, gets used up front. This probably enhances compatibility, but was necessary since OS/2 couldn't "guess" at expanded memory usage with any version of DOS but its own. I've not gone around limiting my DOS sessions to less than 640K of ram and now that I think about, this was foolish. I suffer slowdowns on my 16 MHz machine that might be helped by limiting the ram in DOS sessions. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.5.6. Run OS/2 With No WPS? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Run OS/2 With No WPS? Jack Gillis Fidonet OS2 February 18, 1993 Origin: Rainbow's End, Williamsburg, VA (1:271/225) Anybody want to try a Workplace Shell-less text based OS/2? I found a file called RXMNU2.ZIP that is interesting. I believe I got my copy from CIS (CompuServe Information Service). It allows you to set up a text menu to launch OS/2 and DOS apps. You can also switch between them using ALT-ESC or the window list via CTRL-ESC. Launching DOS applications is much nicer with STARTD which is used with RXMENU. My menu is named MENU.CMD and is in its own directory. RUNWORKPLACE=MENU.CMD and PROTSHELL rem'ed out. I never see the pesky Desktop unless I select it from the menu. I haven't selected it in so long I probably will remove it from the menu choices. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.5.7. WPS Tip - Add to the Pop-Up Menu ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ WPS Tip - Add to the Pop-Up Menu John Morris Fidonet OS2 February 22, 1993 Origin: Journey To The Abandoned Land ((8:919/1) In response to a message from Howard Brazee, John Morris wrote: HB> I want enhanced abilities to add my HB> items to drop down menus. I haven't HB> been able to figure out how to make HB> my item have a hot key in a menu. For example, if you wish to add an OS/2 command shell to the desktop popup menu: 1. Bring up the pop up menu (click on the right mouse button in an empty area of the WPS). 2. Open settings and go to the menu page of the settings notebook. 3. Go to the 'Actions on menu' and then the create another menu item. 4. Type in the Menu item name: OS/~2 Command Shell (Note: The screen shot does not show the entire line typed.) 5. Enter the Program name: C:\OS2\CMD.EXE 6. Then select OK. 7. Just wanted to note that I couldn't find a way to capture the WPS Pop-Up Menu with my new item added. -- Dave After this, when you popup the desktop menu, you can hit the '2' key to bring up a copy of the command processor (or use your mouse to select the menu item). ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.6. OS/2 User Group News ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ OS/2 Day at Egghead Philippe Kahn in San Diego Coast 2 Coast Interview ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.6.1. OS/2 Day at Egghead ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ OS/2 Day at Egghead Steve Gallagher Fidonet TEAMOS2 March 12, 1993 Origin: Psychotronic BBS - Durham, NC (1:3641/1) On Saturday, March 20 from 12 Noon to 4pm, Egghead at the Crossroads Mall in Cary, North Carolina will celebrate the opening of their OS/2 section. Team OS/2 will be having an OS/2 Day at the store. Visitors will be able to test drive the OS/2 2.1 beta. Drawings will be held for many prizes including a free copy of OS/2. And members of Team OS/2 will be on hand to answer any questions one may have about OS/2. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.6.2. Philippe Kahn in San Diego ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Philippe Kahn in San Diego Andrew McHorney San Diego OS/2 User Group OS/2 Connection BBS - SD_Os2ug March 11, 1993 Origin: OS/2 Connection (1:202/354) Borland's Philippe Kahn made a promo stop for Quattro Pro and Paradox for Windows in San Diego. About ten copies of Paradox for Windows were given away. The crowd size was about 300 people, probably more. It was announced here that Borland C++ for OS/2 was shipping as of March 1st. A promo price of $149 would be available for the first 90 days. Asking about Paradox for OS/2, I was told that Paradox for Windows runs under Win-OS2. Asking again, I was told that they were evaluating the costs and whether to do one. Earliest guess if it happened would be 1994. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.6.3. Coast 2 Coast Interview ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Coast 2 Coast Interview Dave Sichak San Diego OS/2 User Group Fidonet OS2 February 22, 1993 Origin: OS2 Connection BBS (1:202/354) I decided to take Jason Perlow up on his offer to call him for more information about the Westchester OS/2 User Group. It turned into an interesting "interview" that I'd thought belonged in the next issue. The Westchester group meets in a facility that most of us would like to kill for -- an auditorium that could seat upwards of 250 people. Their recent meetings included a CorelDraw for OS/2 2.5 presentation. Their users learned that the next version of CorelDraw for OS/2 will be version 4.0; not even stopping to be "equal" to its version 3.0 for Windows. In another event, Lotus demonstrated Ami Pro for OS/2 for the first time along with Freelance Graphics for OS/2. Dedicated Group in Westchester? Are there dedicated OS/2-ites in Westchester? Listen to this story I got from Jason. One recent meeting there was one of those bad, bad winter storms. You know the type -- blowing wind, drifts, impassable roads. The kind you should stay home and snuggle up in front of the fireplace. Driving conditions were the pits to say the least. Below freezing, too. Now how many people do you think showed up for their meeting? One? Two? Ten? Try 50! Now *that's* dedication. Fidonet Ideas We agreed that Fidonet should have a user group conference to post announcements, exchange ideas about membership, presentations, etc. and other issues related to user groups. I spoke with our exalted leader, Craig Swanson, and he said he'd ask Jim Gilliland about creating one. Guess what -- TEAMOS2 now handles user group activity and discussions! Westchester OS/2 Group Gets Award! Westchester is also the proud recipient of an award from IBM for their work on the Computer Chronicles show on PBS in March. Sometimes good things happen from the grass roots. Let your local PBS station know you appreciate their efforts. And here's an idea for the user groups. Contact your local PBS station and see if you can get a mention at the end of the program or even during it along the line of "If you want more information about OS/2, attend the next OS/2 user group meeting on <date>." Increase Attendance at Meetings? Seems to me that many OS/2 user groups are made up of people who have not been a part of other groups before. They're becoming activist out of their own interest. We exchanged ideas to increase meeting attendance. Jason said that since IBM sponsors "OS/2 Road Shows" in various major markets, it makes sense for your group to attend. Try to make yourself visible as a user group at these seminars. If you have a newsletter, distribute them to the attendees. Or, prepare a one-page flyer to let them when and where you hold your meetings. Get your group announced at the meeting. These people were interested enough to attend this demonstration -- capitalize on that interest and make them aware of your user group. Jason indicated that they got many attendees from this. In San Diego, we put on a one-day OS/2 seminar in May 1992 under the sponsorship of our local San Diego Computer Society. A ten dollar fee was charged. The seminar started at 8 or 9am one Saturday and we didn't leave there til almost after 7pm! About 50 or 60 people showed up. Imagine having that many people give up a Saturday! Or maybe we didn't give up anything. I recall shaking my head at how much I learned and the discussions I had with everyone I met. We had an excellent 40 or 50 page handout that included a detailed explanation of OS/2's CONFIG.SYS. Think about it -- an excellent way to generate interest. In San Diego, we are also finding that our newsletter is having some effect on increasing our attendance. After I published our December issue, I decided to drop off several copies at about 4 software, hardware or technical book stores. In January, we had people standing out in the halls - we ran short of handouts on our REXX presentation! We've even got one of the superstores in town, Computer City, carrying our copies right next to the OS/2 demo machine after we helped them out with a problem (got to save something for the newsletter...). The stores seem to appreciate the newsletter. It gives them a chance to tell the customers that there is a local source to go to for questions. Putting your meeting announcements, local OS/2 BBS phone numbers, etc. could lead to some increased attendance. I even had an employee at the local copy store ask about OS/2 -- wondering if you needed OS/2 software or whether DOS/Windows apps could run. Yes, some folks are still unaware of OS/2's capabilities. I gave him a copy of course -- think we have a new attendee next month? Speaking of newsletters, seems that Westchester has planted some seeds with IBM along this route. Nothing formal yet, but IBM seems to be looking for ways to be more available to the user groups. I think the phenomenon of OS/2 is interesting. It's got people involved, getting together to share information and experiences that otherwise might never have happened. And how can you find fault with something that brings such creativity, ideas and sharing together? It may not be tangible, but I think this is one reason OS/2 2.x and beyond will be a success. The future hinted at in the past -- it's here -- NOW. User Group Challenge I'll close this essay with a challenge. Is it possible for us to dream of an annual OS/2 User Group conference? Shall be try for fall COMDEX in 1993? Think about it..... ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.7. OS/2 User Group Directory ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ User Group Introduction Ontario - Bailieboro Quebec - Montreal California - Fresno California - San Diego California - San Francisco Florida - Boca Raton Illinois - North Chicsgo Indiana - Fort Wayne Massachusetts - Boston Minnesota - Minneapolis New Jersey - Orange New York - Westchester North Carolina - Durham Texas - Dallas-Ft. Worth ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.7.1. User Group Introduction ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 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! ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.7.2. Ontario - Bailieboro ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Kawartha Computer Club Contact: Cedric Silvester RR #1 Bailieboro, Ontario Canada KOL 1B0 Note: OS/2 SIG is part of the KCC Phone: BBS -- (705) 748-0023 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.7.3. Quebec - Montreal ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 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 -- (514) 382-9858 (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. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.7.4. California - Fresno ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Fresno OS/2 SIG (Fresno PC Users Group) Contact: Sandeleh Francis (209) 229-0473 Contact: Rod Jessen (209) 323-9849 Meetings at: 1425 Shirley Circle Clovis, CA 93611 Meets: 7:30pm, last Monday Phone BBS -- Wild Side BBS (209) 226-3476 Phone BBS -- Clovis Connection (209) 229-3476 Sandeleh Francis reports that their very first meeting will be held March 29. 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. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.7.5. California - San Diego ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 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 -- (619) 587-5955 Phone - BBS -- (619) 558-9475 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. In April, the feature presentation is from DeScribe Corporation on their 32-bit Word Processor for OS/2 and local OS/2 consultant Paul Moore will explain the program he is developing to run on an OS/2 computer that will control tube mill and bending machines. And of course, a birthday celebration for OS/2 2.0's first birthday. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.7.6. California - Mountain View ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Bay Area OS/2 User Group Contact - Guy Scharf Software Architects, Inc. 2163 Jardin Drive Mountain View, CA 94040 Meets - 4th Monday @ IBM Mountain View Phone - Voice -- (415) 948-9186 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.7.7. Florida - Boca Raton ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 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 -- (407) 997-2235 Phone: Voice -- (407) 276-2945 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.7.8. Illinois - Chicago ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 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 Tues preceding 3rd Thurs. Phone - Voice -- (708) 317-7485 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.7.9. Indiana - Fort Wayne ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Fort Wayne OS/2 User Group Contact - Stephen Gutknecht Fort Wayne, Indiana Meets - Central Soya on Cook Rd. Meets - 7pm, 2nd Tuesday Phone - Voice -- (219) 484-0062 (Bus. Hrs.) Phone - BBS -- (219) 471-3918 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.7.10. Massachusetts - Boston ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Boston Area OS/2 User's Group (BCS) Contact: Marcia Gulesian (508) 369-3918 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. Upcoming events: April 6 High Performance Word Processing with OS/2 -- WordPerfect and AmiPro for OS/2 will be the subjects of the meeting. The technical profile and end-user features of these two new word processors will be discussed and illustrated through live demonstrations. Compatibility with E-mail and FAX's will also be examined. May 4 NETWARE for OS/2 - Meeting will include live demo and in- depth look at new features such as NetWare Directory Services (NDS), which is a global-naming scheme and distributed directory of users. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.7.11. Minnesota - Minneapolis ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Minnesota OS/2 User Group Contact: Marcus Krumpholz IBM Building 650 Third Avenue South Minneapolis, MN Last Thursday each month 7:00pm - 10:00pm Voice: (612) 869-7956 BBS: (612) 379-8272 ISV's wishing to do a presentation can contact Marcus Krumpholz at (612) 869-7956. Registrations for meetings are requested and can be done by calling (612) 397-6444 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). Topics scheduled: Apr 25 Describe 4.0 / Mary Serock Mar 25 OS/2 System Management (CID, SPM, etc.) / IBM Apr 29 Lan Server 3.0 / IBM (tentative) May 27 Netware for OS/2 / Novell Jun 24 OS/2 Development / IBM (tentative) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.7.12. New Jersey - West Orange ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Northern New Jersey OS/2 Users Group Contact: Jason H. Perlow (201) 224-7605 Meetings at: IBM 300 Executive Drive West Orange, NJ Meets: 7:00pm, second Tuesday INFO: Phone: (201) 325-5600 First meeting will be held March 9. This group is affiliated with the Westchester OS/2 Users Group. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.7.13. New York - Westchester ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Westchester OS/2 Users Group Contact: Craig Smith (914) 686-9828 Meetings at: IBM 2000 Purchase Street Purchase, NY Meets: 7:00pm, second Tuesday INFO: Phone: (914) 697-6000 Westchester was instrumental in getting IBM's OS/2 featured on the PBS Computer Chronicles show in March. They have also designed a series of special OS/2 weekend seminars on OS/2 software development that begins in Mid-March at IBM in Harrison, NY. In January, Stacker for OS/2 was premiered to the public. Corel Systems also demonstrated their full line of products for OS/2 and hints at upcoming projects. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.7.14. North Carolina - Durham ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 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 -- (919) 254-5637 Internet -- sjgalla@vnet.ibm.com ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.7.15. Texas - Dallas - Fort Worth ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 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. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.8. OS/2 News & Developments ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ OS/2 Awards Next OS/2 PDK Available Who's Who Doing OS/2 Phoenix OS/2 Conference ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.8.1. OS/2 Awards ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ OS/2 Awards Mario Semo Fidonet OS/2 February 21, 1993 Origin: DevNet (8:888/44) (From IBM US 051 - 2/17/93) Datamation Magazine Adds to OS/2 Awards! SOMERS, N.Y., Feb. 17, 1993 - OS/2, the advanced operating system for personal computers keeps on gaining international acclaim from the computer industry's leading publications. OS/2 has won three additional industry awards, one praising its technical excellence and two naming it product of the year, bringing the total number of awards for the easy-to-use, powerful, 32-bit operating environment in the last three months to eight. The February 15, 1993 issue of Datamation named IBM OS/2 2.0 "Product of the Year" in the PC software category. In Europe, Italy's PC Magazine**, a monthly data processing publication, gave OS/2 2.0 its PC Technology award for 1992. In addition, Czechia's Software noviny named IBM OS/2 2.0 "Product of the Year" in its February 1993 issue. Since November, 1992, IBM OS/2 2.0 has won awards from the computer industry's leading U.S trade publications: PC Magazine, PC Computing, PC World, Information Week, and Corporate Computing - honoring OS/2 2.0 in categories such as technical excellence, most promising new product and best operating system/environment. "These industry awards prove that IBM OS/2 2.0 has clearly achieved significant market momentum as the preeminent 32-bit operating platform for today's high-performance personal computers," said John Patrick, vice president of sales and marketing, IBM Personal Software Products. "The introduction of OS/2-specific, 32-bit mainstream business applications from Lotus, WordPerfect and Borland will help make OS/2 the obvious choice for desktop, workgroup and enterprise users who want to operate at a higher level." ** Not affiliated with US magazine of the same name. Specific honors and awards presented to IBM OS/2 2.0 to date are: PC Magazine - December 22, 1992 "Technical Excellence" Award Winner, "Operating Systems and Software Standards" Information Week - December 22, 1992 "1992 Top Products -- The 10 Most Likely to Succeed" PC World - December 1992 "PC Industry Achievement" Award for "Most Promising Newcomer, Software" PC/Computing -- December 1992 "Most Valuable Product" (MVP) Award for "Operating System / Environment" Corporate Computing -- January 1993 "Best Buy for 1993" Datamation -- February 15, 1993 "Product of the Year," PC Software category PC Magazine (Italy) -- February 3, 1993 PC Technology Award Software noviny (Czechia) -- February, 1993 "Product of the Year 1992" ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.8.2. Next OS/2 PDK Available ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Next OS/2 PDK Available Albert Shan (1:202/502) February 26, 1993 Fidonet OS2 Origin: (The Idle Task -- Richmond, BC 1:153/905) The next beta release of the Professional Developers Kit will be available in March 1993. The Professional Developers Kit contains beta level tools and beta products that will assist the professional developer in developing OS/2 applications. Orders for this program will be accepted starting immediately. Orders can be placed through 1-800-3IBM-OS2 and will be filled starting in March 1993. This beta program is being made available to customer software developers and independent software vendors to test the Professional Developer Kit and provide development feedback. See section 12,'Developers CDROM' in the OS2DF2 forum on CompuServe. I believe the PDK does not include the next 2.1 beta code. Will have more details in the coming days... ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.8.3. Who's Who Doing OS/2 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Who's Who Doing OS/2 Lane Lester Fidonet OS2 February 10, 1993 Origin: Bloom Beacon-Picayune Those of us who get a feeling of loneliness might enjoy reading about major adoptions of OS/ 2. In "T.H.E. Journal" (Technological Horizons in Education) is a report of the installation of 320 IBM PS/2's running OS/2 and networked at the School of Journalism of the University of Missouri. Associate Professor Phillips Brooks is the force behind this, doing a fair amount of programming to provide special-need programs. They adopted OS/2 over Unix because they wanted their students to be able to run off-the-shelf programs like 1-2-3 and dBase, which weren't available in Unix when they made the decision. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.8.4. Phoenix OS/2 Conference ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Phoenix OS/2 Conference (Note: Along with yours truly, a trio of others also visited the recent OS/2 Conference.) Dave Sichak San Diego OS/2 Users Group Fidonet OS2 March 7, 1993 Origin: OS/2 Connection BBS (1:202/354) Hey y'all...Jerry Fyffe and I got to spend a fast paced day at the Phoenix IBM OS/2 Lan Developer's Conference. I thought I'd pass along some tidbits. First, this conference was sold out to the max for seminars -- oversold was what I heard one person say. And demographically, advertisers on TV would kill for it. We didn't get to attend any of the meetings, primarily went for the exhibits and visiting the user group hospitality suite. The exhibits were in a giant white tent, lots of room to roam around, unlike the jam in Comdex. Lucky us, we timed our visits there in between a couple of seminar sessions, so we had many vendors to ourselves. Lotus and Wordperfect were there. Freelance Graphics for OS/2 was a giveaway to full blown registrees. DeScribe was there. Heard of a product called "Legato"? I've seen it mentioned that this is a hot product in the European community. Well, the guy at the booth (from a Canadian company, if I recall correctly) said his company has the marketing rights to it for North America and they're getting ready to introduce it here. I believe it's a combination package similar to PFS:Works, etc. only better. Saw a product from UCANDU -- a visual REXX command file developer that I drooled over and asked for an evaluation copy. Conspicuously absent from the tent was Borland, which was giving out Brief for OS/2 to all full blown registrees. Symantec was there demonstrating Norton Commander for OS/2... At the retail sales table, many new OS/2 books were being displayed and orders taken. One we heard about at our last meeting - OS/2 2.1 Unleashed. VNR is taking over the OS/2 Notebook - a compilation of the best articles from OS/2 Developer magazine. I like the new T-shirt I got - an "OS/2" baseball on its way into a "windows"...<G> Got to meet some great folks at the user group hospitality suite -- Bill Wyatt, Vicci Conway, and Esther Schindler. So we put our trial copy of the February INF edition of our newsletter up to the screen and folks got a kick out of that. But we also got some requests I'll pass along to you - we're going to make the user group listing a "cumulative" one and permanent feature in each edition. If you've got a regular meeting date, point of contact, address, phone number, bbs, future meeting topics, etc. - pass them along and we'll include them. This way folks travelling might give you an unexpected boost in attendance. The same goes for our listing of OS/2 -specific BBS's - I was rather shocked that I could not list at least two OS/2 bbs's from each of our 50 states. Hey sysops -- get the hint? And just as we were about to leave, ran into a guy named Joel Siragher. Sound familiar? Why, of course, none other than the publisher of "OS/2 Monthly" - I guess "reporters" flock together. Joel was interested in our INF version - he's had an idea to put his magazine in that format, too. Interesting and outspoken guy. Enjoys what he does and the PC industry in general. Who knows what surprises you might see down the road. And met some other folks from Minnesota's user group and elsewhere too. Now if I had only had my camera when Bill, Vicci and Esther were all there together. Aw heck. Can't think of everything. Anybody thinking the interest isn't there for OS/2 would've been for a teeny weeny in your face shock at this conference. And I didn't even get to talk about the food..... Bill Peckham Fidonet Comp.Os.Os2. Origin: Orphan Board West (1:202/723) In response to an inquiry by Eric Giguere, Bill writes... I attended the OS/2 Technical Interchange in Phoenix. Some of the sessions were very informative and others were just downright boring. Some were all substance and some were all fluff. Almost none of them went deep enough to be of any real help: If you already knew what you were doing, you didn't need to attend the session. If you didn't know what you were doing, the session didn't go deep enough to get you started. All in all, I'd say the time and money would have been better spent on documentation and experimenting. The best sessions were the device driver sessions (I also attended a good session on multithreading). The worst sessions were the product showcases because those were just big commercials. I didn't hear any announcements that I hadn't already heard through the Internet. Orville R. Weyrich Fidonet Comp.Os.Os2. March 6, 1993 Origin: Orphan Board West (1:202/723) Yes, there were about 1900 attendees, with about 300 turned away because Fire Marshals can be such a pain :-). There are at least two more conferences scheduled (Toronto in June and Orlando in Aug/Sept). Due to the impressive demand, IBM is looking for a larger facility than they previously had planned to use, and is extending the number of days. I feel optimistic about the future of OS/2. Internet tech support will be added as soon as the details are worked out. The OS/2 forums on CI$ are said to be the biggest that CI$ has. I was impressed by the plans for SOM and distributed SOM, as well as the DCE facilities that IBM plans to make available and interoperable on OS/2, AIX, other flavors of UNIX, and MS-Windows (and I think Apple Macs -- not sure). The C++ compiler has nice class libraries and execution profiler -- I couldn't get into all the C++ sessions -- the rooms were filled to capacity. IBM has taken the hint -- there will be more sessions probably at future conferences. There are a couple of Visual REXX products in beta testing now, plus CA-Realizer (which I understand is a superset of Visual Basic). Mike Cipriani Fidonet OS2 March 10, 1993 Origin: OS/2 is alive and well in Texafornia (1:106/202) In a message to Art Fellner, Mike wrote: AF> While checking about CDs could you AF> check on the availability of the AF> DB2/2 Beta CD that was distributed AF> in Phoenix? I was too late trying to AF> register and most of my efforts now AF> are in that direction. Sure, will do... FYI, I also found this in case you want to hit the next one. OS/2 TECHNICAL INTERCHANGE CONFERENCE SOLD OUT; IBM SETS OS/2 AND LAN SYSTEMS CONFERENCE FOR AUG. 29-SEPT. 2 IN ORLANDO PHOENIX, Arizona - February 28, 1993 - The OS/2 Technical Interchange, a hands-on conference for software developers sponsored by the IBM Personal Software Products (PSP) division, has sold out. More than 1,800 persons are attending the February 28 through March 3 meeting at the Pointe Hilton at South Mountain in Phoenix. As a result, for its next OS/2 and LAN Systems Conference slated for August 29-September 2 in Orlando, Florida, IBM is giving first priority to software developers who could not be accommodated at the Phoenix meeting. Those wishing to pre-register now for the Orlando conference should call IBM at 1-800-438-6720. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.9. OS/2 Software / Hardware News ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Xtree for OS/2??? Henk Kelder's INI Tools New Release for Kelder's Tools Visual Programming With REXX CD ROMS - Texel & Toshiba ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.9.1. Xtree for OS/2??? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Xtree for OS/2??? Timothy Ma Fidonet OS2 March 13, 1993 Origin: Bear Garden, Langley, BC (Canada) (1:153/920) I saw a bulletin from Xtree about a month ago. They were interested in learning what features OS/2 users desired if they were to write an OS/2 version of Xtree. This is my favorite file manager and I would gladly part with my cash for an OS/2 version. BTW: I use the DOS version - but it doesn't recognize the longer file names allowed in OS/2. Xtree sounds like a vendor who's listening for some input from us. Contact Xtree at 4330 Santa Fe Road; San Luis Obispo, CA 93401; (805) 541-0604. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.9.2. Henk Kelder's INI Tools ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Henk Kelder's INI Tools John Faughnan Fidonet OS2 January 7, 1993 Origin: The * Lighthouse * with a HST Dual Standard (1:139/930.0) Henk Kelder is the guru of the INI files and a prolific author of freeware utilities. He has 'hacked' much on the internal structure on the INI files to produce four widely used utilities. I've had no problems using these utilities - they've saved my hide a few times. Only residual concerns about messing with these vital structures prevents me from giving them a full five star rating. OS/2 Users know that the binary INI files are OS/2's achilles heel. The forced melange of OS/2's character mode, PM mode, WorkPlace Shell object mode, and DOS modes strains the limited capacities of the INI management tools built into OS/2. INI files swell to massive proportions (1-2MB or more) stuffed full of antiquated data, or INI corruption leads to bizarre WPS behavior (undeletable objects, etc). Icon manipulation is somewhat awkward, and it's easy to create an undesirable and forgettable object association. These utilities address each of these issues. COPYINI This utility can be run from the OS/2 command line. It allows one to easily copy the INI files while also eliminating much garbage during the copy process. The new INI files can be copied over the old versions by booting off a boot disk. CHECKINI This can also be run from the OS/2 command line. It works with present INI files. CHECKINI interactively filters out garbage, corrects incorrect object references, fixes WPS corruption. No need to use a boot disk, but it's good advice to use COPYINI first to back up your files. ICON This is a WPS utility that implements drag and drop icon manipulation. It also allows setting changes and deletion of undeletable objects. ASSOEDIT PM utility. Allows one to display and edit all current system associations. Henk Kelder is a formidable programmer. His FREEWARE offerings place the entire OS/2 community in his debt. If you know what you're doing, you should not be without these tools. Product Information: Henk Kelder's Tools: COPYINI, CHECKINI, ASSOEDIT, ICON. Author: Henk Kelder Address: Dutch OS/2 User Group BBS as 'Henk Kelder' at +31-75-314321 or as 'Henk Kelder' at 2:512/47@fidonet.org. May be packaged as: WPSTOOLS.ZIP or ASSOE_01.ZIP ICON_160.ZIP CHECKINI.ZIP COPYINI.ZIP Cost: Freeware! ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.9.3. New Release for Kelder's Tools ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ New Release for Kelder's Tools Henk Kelder Fidonet OS2 February 25, 1993 Origin: The Basement System (2:512/47.339) I've just released and uploaded the latest version of WPTOOL06.ZIP. This version contains all the programs the previous version did. These programs are CHECKINI, COPYINI and WPSBKP &WPSREST. A few notes on these files are in order. REPLINI I have also added a new program called REPLINI (REPLace INI) into the package. This program allows you to replace your OS2.INI and OS2SYS.INI with a copied version without booting from a diskette or any other procedure to unlock these ini's. When you decide to use this program do yourself a favour and - RTFM (Read the (oops) manual - REPLINI.TXT). CHECKINI Some (small) enhancements were made to CHECKINI. The most important one is an effort to solve a problem that some users had with CHECKINI that the program reported to be "incompatible with the current version of the workplace shell". ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.9.4. Visual Programming With REXX ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Visual Programming With REXX Steve Gallagher Triangle OS/2 User Group Durham, North Carolina March 2, 1993 Fidonet OS2REXX Origin: Psychotronic BBS (1:3641/1) At a recent meeting of the Triangle OS/2 User Group, we had a guest demo'er. The company is called UCANDU Software (pronounced U Can Do), and the product is called "Visual Programming With REXX". The sounds of slobbering and moaning in the audience attested to the high level of excitement this app generated. Their brochure has a quote from Robert Cringely's column in the 1/25/93 issue of Infoworld that sums up this app's potential: "OS/2's time may be here, thanks to a tool called Visual Programming With REXX, which brought down the house at a recent OS/2 conference in Colorado...it is to REXX and OS/2 what Visual BASIC is to Windows and DOS." The application is totally object-oriented, drag-drop, and very intuitive. You create objects, drop attributes and controls on the object, establish links between objects, do a couple of mouse clicks to setup a WHEN clause so that a certain action takes place if a certain action is taken on a certain object. Each type of object has a whole slew of canned 'usual' actions you can double click on to attach to the object, or you can drop into an edit window for a minute and add your own REXX code. Our guest created one simple app in 5 minutes. It consisted of a container object that when opened displayed all the files in a directory. Mind you, it displayed them as OBJECTS, not as a list of files. In other words, a data file shows as a little folded piece of paper, etc. Totally CUA compliant and supporting ALL the OS/2 controls (notebooks, sliders,etc). He created another app in about ten minutes that contained a slider and a scrollable text window. With a few clicks, he set the app so that as the user dragged the slider with the mouse, the text in the scrollable window scrolled in tandem with the slider! This is true VISUAL programming....and the beauty is that it generates REXX code, so you can avoid losing all your hair like I did learning the PM 'C' API!! No run-time or weird proprietary files; the final output for the app you create is a single *.EXE file. VERY sweet technology! UCANDU is planning to ship in April. For more information: Sales: 919-387-7391; Fax: 919-380-0757 Price: $299 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.9.5. CD ROMS - Texel & Toshiba ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ CD ROMS - Texel & Toshiba Lynn Nash Fidonet OS2HW February 23, 1993 # Origin: "The 'PC' Spectrum" (tm) RBBS-PC Home of RBBS-Net (8:8/8) * Origin: Gateway System to/from RBBS-NET (RBBS-PC 1:10/8) AM> as the Texel supports SCSI burst mode AM> of up to 1024KBs, while the Toshiba AM> (another good drive) supports only AM> standard 300KBs. Well, at least I AM> know what I should do now, but thanx AM> anyway, CS> Which Toshiba drive? The Toshiba CS> 3401 has a 256KB buffer, but I don't CS> know how fast a SCSI transfer rate CS> it supports. No CD-ROM drive does CS> 1024KByte/sec transfer rates, but the CS> Toshiba is supposed to be 330KByte/sec CS> transfer rates. The Texel is supposed CS> to be 300KByte/sec. Hi Craig, judging from the tail end of all these threads it looks like I have missed quite a lot of interesting things. My feed for this echo and the C echo has been totally erratic for the last week or so, lots of dups and grunged packets. Anyway I picked up a Toshiba 3401b internal this past week end. A company in Brea, Ca. Media Resources is flooding the L.A. area with them. Manufacture dates of Jan 93 and a little pamphlet dated Feb 93. It comes packed with a ROMless Future Domain 850. Although the card is sans ROM, all of FD's doc's for the 850 with rom are included. Go figure. Media resources user's guide lists the following specs for Mode-1. Block size 2048 bytes, sustained block transfer rate 165 blocks/sec, sustained data transfer 330kb/sec, 256kb buffer size, Data Transfer rate BURST 1.5mb/sec (ASYNC) and 4.2mb/sec(SYNC), Random access 200ms Full Stroke 330ms, rotational speed 440 to 1170 RPM. I know virtually nothing about CD-Roms but there is also something called Mode-2 which says DTR of 376kb/sec. If the poster is referring to SCSI burst rate of the Texel it seems the new Toshiba 3401 is king of the hill. I left the FD850 in the box and hooked it to my Adaptec 1542a as ID 4 which also has my Maxtor 1.2gig drive. As a quick test of the hard disk and the CD interacting, I copied the OS2INST directory from the Nov 92 PDK with the following results in a DOS window; total files copied 17, total bytes copied 22,716,199; 64.4 seconds; 352,736 bytes/sec or 344.5kbytes/sec. It installed like a dream as G drive, OS2, DOS, win-OS2. It is a much nicer drive than the Creative Labs Sony/Soundblaster combo in the system across the room. Fully cast aluminum case only the resistors and jumpers show, toaster oven flip down door, CD is pulled in like a VCR and the drive object does a software eject. I'm glad I waited for it. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.10. Views & Opinions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Appreciation for OS/2 OS/2 INI Files Questioned ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.10.1. Appreciation for OS/2 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Appreciation for OS/2 Warren Postma February 13, 1993 Fidonet OS2 Origin: Shadowlands BBS London, Ontario Canada (1:221/105) I had thrown my hands up in despair trying to figure out the problems I had with OS/2 when I tried to give it a real workout. I began to think OS/2 like a pig, and thought wistfully of how they packed a complete GUI, word processor, and paint package into a 64k machine with a 170k disk drive in the days of the Commodore 64. Does anyone remember GEOS? How quickly I forget what working with those first generation operating environments was like. GEOS now looks pathetic since I'm used to 640x480x32k and 1024x768x256 graphics resolutions on my PC. The screens use up sixteen times as much RAM as was in the whole C=64 ( a 1984 vintage c=64 was my first love.). How about the Atari ST and its GEM interface? I have just finished spending 50 hours on an assignment for one of my CompSci courses, programming IO device code on an Atari 1040 ST, and working with its GEM interface and it's single task (plus desktop accessory) capabilities. No command line when you want it. No memory protection. I crashed it about once every ten minutes. I don't have enough fingers and toes to count all the features I now find other environments lacking. All because I'm used to the capabilities of my OS/2 2.0 + SP (Service Pack) equipped 486/33. I have to write code and use applications on DOS, Windows, Unix/X- Station systems, and many other kinds of machines. None provide a fraction of the utility and grace that OS/2 does. Of course, OS/2 isn't perfect, but I know that some of its faults are inherited, not learned. Backward compatibility with DOS apps and dealing with the inferior ISA-Clone architectures aggravate problems like deadlock and user response time degradation. I crashed the system far more often under DOS, pushing it harder than it felt like going. Just mentioning "TSR" is enough to give DOS the shakes. I had forgotten what it is to sit around and wait for your PC to finish some simple CPU or disk intensive task. I had forgotten how much fun it was playing with Windows PIFs and DesqView DVPs trying to get a program that didn't want to share the machine long enough to get anything done. With OS/2 - without even thinking about LDTs, virtual machines, and memory protection - I can switch away from the disk or CPU bound apps and do something else for a while. (Solitaire, anyone?) What an incredible productivity benefit. It takes a lot of work to manage a computer's resources and dole them all out fairly to an arbitrary number of unpredictable applications, but OS/2 does a beautiful job of it. That's why I'm somewhat of a zealot. I'm in the DAP. I'm writing an OS/2 PM GUI-based BBS package, and also working on converting manufacturing process control, public sector and environmental monitoring projects, and heavy power management projects over to OS/2 based systems for my employer. DOS based projects at this level are ludicrous. We have a monitoring station installed at a major manufacturer running on a PS/2 Model 95xp (486dx/50) with 12 megs of RAM and a 300 meg SCSI hard drive. It makes me drool looking at the machine, but it has DOS AND QEMM installed. It has Performance Problems because the DOS BASED package they run is based on a timeslice multitasking executive with EMS-based task swapping, and a suite of hundreds of tiny executables to fit it all these little 64k slots. I'm pretty pro-OS/2 at this point, but I'm not a fanatic. If NT could do everything OS/2 could do, and offered improvements I'd feel a moral duty to jump ship right away. But at this point many things worry me about NT, like the lack of bulletproof DOS compatibility, and surprisingly, reports that DOS-Windows apps run better under OS/2 than under NT. And I'm curious about NeXT/486 and maybe Solaris. I'm an extremely happy OS/2 camper. OS/2 has completely renewed my joy in computing as a hobby -- writing software and running a BBS under OS/2 is a pure joy, but also it has potential to turn the industry I work in (Dedicated and embedded software systems development, specifically SCADA nodes -Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition.). IBM has an exciting vision, one that inspires thoughts of more and more great strides forward for PCs. I believe the next wave will be hardware optimized to run OS/2 3.0, local bus hardware- accelerated video slots, and SCSI/2 device connections on the motherboard, sound input and output capabilities, RAM cheap enough so that 32megs RAM is a starting point, and every system using a 500+ meg hard drive and a CD-ROM drive that holds most of our applications programs. Computers are getting more exciting every year, and I'm very happy with the career I've chosen. PCs were beginning to get into a rather distressing rut. DOS needed a whole host of utilities to prop it up enough to even run many major apps. DOS plus a 386 is still an XT as far as I am concerned. How fast an XT do we really need? The sad lack of market acceptance of new architectures (MCA, PS/2) is going to change once people adopt multitasking apps and multitasking operating systems. One day they are going to realize the techno-babble about "bus saturation", "multiple masters", and "IO bottlenecks" might have meant something after all. I appreciate the billion things that OS/2 does a little more each day, letting me enjoy some serious fun instead of having to work with the crazy quilt patchwork of mismatched and misbehaved DOS utilities. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.10.2. OS/2 INI Files Questioned ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ OS/2 INI Files Questioned John Faughnan for Henk Kelder Fidonet OS2 February 14, 1993 Origin: * Lighthouse * with a HST Dual Standard (1:139/930.0) Henk Kelder is the author of the outstanding utilities: COPYINI and CHECKINI, as well as workplace shell backup tools. Recently he posted a CRITICAL message on FidoNet outlining the very serious problem lying at the heart of OS/2: system instability arising from a very poor design decision. This decision MUST be a top priority for IBM to fix. Here are his comments, with some minimal editorial fixes (Henk's first language is Dutch): I doubt if I am the 'leading expert' on INI-matters. But what I do think based upon my own experience (I now work almost 10 year for the biggest software company in the Netherlands) is that the INI solution is bad news. INI files were apparently developed in the past (pre os/2 2.0) for simple storage and retrieval of information, probably as an alternative to the MS-WINDOWS plain text ini-files. Performance is bad. Efficiency is poor. OS2.INI and OS2SYS.INI were originally intended as a generally available pool for various settings. When OS/2 2.0 was being built somebody at IBM maybe thought they could save some time (and money) if the already existing INI-file mechanism was used. As a result, very specific data is being put inside a general purpose mechanis. This leads to problems, for one, the information is available to all applications, but also a LOT of programs use the same ini-files and ANY program could potentially corrupt them. A better approach (in my opinion) would have been to design a (relative simples) database specific for the WPS. An alternative could be that all abstract objects for each folder folder placed in a holdfile. The WPS could when opening a folder read this file the get the abstract objects. This solution will eliminate the need for various lumps of information in the ini- files as well as several extended attributes in WPS folders. A big advantage of the latter method would be that abstract objects could be shared over a network!! So, if IBM would ask me, I would say: find an alternative to the WPS storing stuff inside of the INI's. (my estimate: round 2 man- months work including a autoconvert mechanism, but then I do not know the inside of SOM/WPS) But if that isn't possible, a rewrite of the Prf-Api calls is a absolute MUST. If this isn't done the INI problems will continue to be a TIME-BOMB ticking within every OS/2 2.0 installation. Only 'experienced users' will be able to develop/understand/use tools like CheckIni effectively. IBM must come up with a solution for INI-growth and stability. Reply from: Doug Azzarito Fidonet OS2 February 17, 1993 Origin: Silicon Beach (1:369/68) You can tell Henk that the .INI handling has been re-engineered for 2.1. I don't know if it will satisfy all of his concerns, but it should fix the big .INI corruption problems. Of course, that also means that many .INI maintenance programs will no longer work! - ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.11. REXX Workshop ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ REXX Symposium - May Using REXX Introduction to REXX ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.11.1. REXX Symposium - May ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ REXX Symposium in San Diego, California May 18-20, 1993 Original From Janet Gobeille (TEAMOS2) Origination - Fidonet OS2REXX Origination - (1;202/502) Here's a preliminary info sheet as received from SLAC: REXX Symposium for Developers and Users Convened by the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center 18 to 20 May 1993 San Diego, California Preliminary Program, 24 February 1993 ΓöîΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÉ ΓöéJose Aguirre TEXX (REXX on Apple Γöé Γöé Macintosh) Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéGary Brodock REXX I/O for VM Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéCharles Daney REXX for NT Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéMike Cowlishaw World REXX Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéEric Giguere, Watcom Visual REXX for Γöé ΓöéWaterloo OS/2 Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéLinda Green REXX Bits Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéDave Hock, Visual Programming with Γöé ΓöéUcandu REXX in OS/2 Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéRichard Visual Builder: use and Γöé ΓöéHoffman, AWD debugging REXX Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéLinda User Input for ANSI Γöé ΓöéLittleton, Γöé ΓöéSHARE Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéBrian Marks Design of the Emerging Γöé Γöé REXX Standard Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéPat Meehan, Defect Removal TechniquesΓöé ΓöéPaul Heaney for REXX Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéNeil Milsted, REXX for NT Γöé ΓöéiX Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéBill Mueller, REXX as an Extension to aΓöé ΓöéSourceLink Language Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéUser Experience OS/2 Source Level Γöé Γöé Debugger Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéDoug VM/CMS REXX with WaterlooΓöé ΓöéMulholland, C Γöé ΓöéWaterloo Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéSimon Nash, IBM's Object Oriented Γöé ΓöéDave Renshaw REXX Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéMicrosoft Visual Basic Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéMichael Sinz, Multimedia Flash Γöé ΓöéAmiga Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéTimothy Sipples REXXSHIP for OS/2 (auto Γöé Γöé install) Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéEd Spire, Uni-REXX Γöé ΓöéWorkstation Γöé ΓöéGroup Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéHobart Spitz MVS REXX Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéPanel Free Unix versions Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéGlenn Stubbs VREXX Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéMelinda Varian, Historical Filmstrip Γöé ΓöéPrinceton Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéLarry Wall PERL Γöé Γöé Γöé ΓöéBebo White, REXX 2000 Γöé ΓöéSLAC Γöé ΓööΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÿ Special hotel rates have been negotiated for the Symposium when reservations are made through Village Travel in Palo Alto, California by 1st April 1993. Fee schedule: Conference -- US$300 includes three meals, socials, proceedings Lodging/Night -- US$85 single or double Registration is required. The registration fee is due in advance, payable in cash or cheque, net US$300 in US funds. To register for the Symposium, reserve a room, and make travel arrangements, please contact: Village Travel REXX Symposium 69 Town and Country Village Palo Alto, CA 94301 USA 1-800-245-3260 1-415-326-0510 fax 1-415-326-0245 Please send questions to any member of the program committee: Cathie Dager, cathie@slacvm.slac.stanford.edu Forrest Garnett, garnett@vnet.ibm.com Jim Weissman, jhw@cup.portal.com Bebo White, bebo@slacvm.slac.stanford.edu ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.11.2. Using REXX ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Using REXX Bill McDonald Fidonet OS2 February 28, 1993 Origin: Dawg*Star System's (1:116/29.1) I copied this from the RIME OS/2 conference. It is a REXX program that purges all files and subdirectories from a given directory. I would name this XDEL.CMD. /* Prune subdirectory [\q] [\n] * * \q = quiet (no output) * \n = noconfirm on initial directory * * REXX procedure to remove a subdirectory tree * by David Kunz */ call RxFuncAdd SysLoadFuncs,RexxUtil,SysLoadFuncs call SysLoadFuncs parse arg PruneDir switches if PruneDir='' then do say 'Must specify the subdirectory' exit end parse upper var switches switches if pos('/Q',switches)\=0 then notquiet=0; else notquiet=1 HomeDir=directory() PruneDir=directory(PruneDir) if pos('/N',switches)=0 then do say 'Hit Y to remove' PruneDir answ=SysGetKey() if answ\='Y' &answ\='y' then exit say ' ' end /* 'del *.* /s' */ rc=SysFileTree('*.*','wh.','FOS') do i=1 to wh.0 if notquiet then say 'deleting' wh.i rc=SysFileDelete(wh.i) if rc\=0 then do say 'Unable to delete' wh.i exit end end if notquiet then say ' ' /* remove directory tree */ next=directory(PruneDir) level=0 do until next=PruneDir call descend end rc=directory('..') if notquiet then say 'removing' PruneDir rc=SysRmDir(PruneDir) if rc\=0 then say 'Unable to remove' PruneDir rc=directory(HomeDir) exit descend: level=level+1 back.level=directory(next) rc=SysFileTree('*.*','wh.',"DO") do while wh.0=0 level=level-1 rc=directory(back.level) if next=PruneDir then return if notquiet then say 'removing' next rc=SysRmDir(next) if rc\=0 then do say 'Unable to remove' next exit end next=back.level rc=SysFileTree('*.*','wh.',"DO") end next=wh.1 return This works great! Just type XDEL <directory name> and it will delete all files, subdirectories, and even remove the <directory name>. Enjoy. Bill J. McDonald, Hermitage, TN, USA, North, America, Earth, Milky Way ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.11.3. Introduction to REXX ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ An Introduction What Is REXX? How Can I Learn About REXX? REXX Similarities to Batch Files REXX Arithmetic & Variables Making Decisions Jumping Around Repetitive Actions Stem Variables Tie It All Together Γûá An Introduction to VREXX Learning More About REXX ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.11.3.1. An Introduction ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ An Introduction to REXX Craig Swanson San Diego OS/2 Users Group March 13, 1993 Origin: OS/2 Connection BBS (1:202/354) Computer users often perform repetitive tasks on their machines. Wouldn't it be nice to have a way to automate these jobs so you'd have fewer commands to give to the computer? As you probably already know, OS/2 batch files (*.CMD files) can save time by providing a convenient way to use a single command to do certain types of work that would normally require typing a long series of commands to perform. Unfortunately, batch files are also extremely limiting as they lack most of the abilities a programmer would expect to find in a useful language. Fortunately for us, in OS/2 2.0 IBM has provided REXX, a much more powerful cousin of batch files. Other Article Topics: What Is REXX? How Can I Learn About REXX? REXX Similarities to Batch Files REXX Arithmetic & Variables Making Decisions Jumping Around Repetitive Actions Stem Variables Tie It All Together Γûá An Introduction to VREXX Learning More About REXX ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.11.3.2. What Is REXX? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ What is REXX? REXX, which stands for Restructed Extended Executor, was developed by Mike Cowlishaw of IBM United Kingdom in 1979 as a scripting language for the IBM VM/CMS mainframe operating system. Since then REXX has been implemented on many operating systems, including OS/2, DOS, Unix, AmigaDOS, and more. IBM has included the language with all versions of OS/2 since version 1.3. REXX provides a much more powerful alternative to regular OS/2 batch files by giving the user a language with the features of a complete yet relatively easy to learn programming language somewhat like BASIC. REXX programs can be used to replace regular batch files, but they can also go far beyond the abilities of even the most sophisticated batch files. This is because REXX is a system-wide scripting language, meaning that it can make multiple REXX-aware programs interact in a controlled fashion. For example, with REXX-aware applications for OS/2, you might be able to write a REXX program that at the double-click of an icon on the Workplace Shell would start your telecommunications program, dial up a remote service like CompuServe or Dow Jones, retrieve stock prices and any news regarding your stock portfolio, and then take that information and send it to a spreadsheet to create new stock trend graphs and update the current value of your personal stocks. Even more interesting is that by using the freeware VREXX add-on, your REXX programs can have a Presentation Manager user interface with windows and dialog boxes without having to learn the intricacies of writing PM programs in C or C++ programming languages. Other Article Topics: An Introduction How Can I Learn About REXX? REXX Similarities to Batch Files REXX Arithmetic & Variables Making Decisions Jumping Around Repetitive Actions Stem Variables Tie It All Together Γûá An Introduction to VREXX Learning More About REXX ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.11.3.3. How Can I Learn About REXX? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ How Can I Learn About REXX? If you've ever written a batch file or program in a more commonly used language, you've got a head start on learning REXX. I've spent only a handful of hours learning REXX and already feel like I can write a useful program. The best way to learn REXX is by experimenting with small programs to understand what each part of the language does. Start with simple REXX programs and get them to work, then add more functionality. Take advantage of the OS/2 REXX Information program in the Information folder on your OS/2 system. It has a great deal of information on REXX and is particularly useful as a reference once you have started writing REXX programs. Since getting started with a new language is always the hardest part, this article will present an overview of the most basic elements of REXX programming using simple examples and then tie them together with a PM calculator utility written using VREXX, the freeware graphical REXX extensions put out by REXX fan and IBM employee Richard Lam. Because of space limitations, we have to cram a lot of information into little space, so if you don't feel comfortable with an explanation, try typing in the REXX program using a text editor (like the E or EPM editors included with OS/2), run it to make sure it works, and then try variations of the program until you are satisfied you understand. Other Article Topics: An Introduction What Is REXX? REXX Similarities to Batch Files REXX Arithmetic & Variables Making Decisions Jumping Around Repetitive Actions Stem Variables Tie It All Together Γûá An Introduction to VREXX Learning More About REXX ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.11.3.4. REXX Similarities to Batch Files ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ REXX Similarities to Batch Files REXX programs on OS/2 are stored in files ending with extension of ".CMD" just like batch files. REXX programs, however, must start with a REXX comment. The OS/2 command line interpreter (CMD.EXE) needs the REXX comment to be the first thing in the file in order to determine that the REXX interpreter should run the program instead of trying to run it like a regular batch file. For example, here is a simple REXX program to print "Hello world!" on your screen: /* A simple REXX program */ SAY "Hello world!" EXIT As you can see, comments are delimited by /* and */ brackets, much like in C and C++. The SAY instruction simply prints a string of characters enclosed in either single or double quotes (' or ") to standard output which in most cases is sent to the screen, but could also be sent to a file or another program. The EXIT instruction ends the REXX program. REXX programs can issue regular OS/2 command lines by enclosing them in single or double quotes. For example, this REXX program will change the current directory to "\os2tools" and then start the program "sysinfo" and finally exit by closing the current session: /* Issue OS/2 command lines */ "CD \OS2TOOLS" "SYSINFO" "EXIT" EXIT The last EXIT in the program isn't strictly needed, but it is good style to be sure to end all REXX programs with an EXIT instruction. Although I've so far used all uppercase for REXX instructions, they are not case sensitive so you can use upper or lower case as you like. Like batch files, REXX programs can also get arguments from the command line. There are several different ways to do this, however. The simplest of these is the ARG instruction which simply gets arguments, converts them to upper case, and places them in REXX variables. Here's an example of this: /* Print command line arguments */ ARG one two three . SAY "Argument #1 is " one SAY "Argument #2 is " two SAY "Argument #3 is " three EXIT This program will get only the first three arguments from the command line and tell us what they were. If we left off the final period from the ARG instruction, instead of getting only the first three arguments,variable three would have the third argument and all following arguments. The ARG instruction is actually short for PARSE UPPERARG which, as you can probably guess, parses out the arguments using spaces to be the break between arguments and converts them to uppercase letters. If we didn't want to have the uppercase conversion done, we could simply replace ARG in the above program with PARSE ARG and then no case conversion would occur. Other Article Topics: An Introduction What Is REXX? How Can I Learn About REXX? REXX Arithmetic & Variables Making Decisions Jumping Around Repetitive Actions Stem Variables Tie It All Together Γûá An Introduction to VREXX Learning More About REXX ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.11.3.5. REXX Arithmetic and Variables ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ REXX Arithmetic and Variables So far it probably seems like REXX is about as useful as batch files but takes more typing. What you've seen of REXX just illustrates that you can do the regular batch files operations in a REXX program. REXX goes far beyond batch files, however, as the rest of this introduction will show. For starters, REXX has a full complement of arithmetic operators and can freely use variables. This means you can do math, something that is not possible in batch files without having additional utility programs. Here's an example program that will do some math and show us the results: /* Simple math program */ a = 1.5 b = 10 c = 3.5 SAY a "+" b "=" a+b SAY "c - a = " c-a SAY "a + b * c = " a + b * c EXIT When I run this program, the computer prints out the following results illustrating that REXX handles integers and floating point numbers and also, as the last result indicates, uses the regular rules of precedence such that multiplication and division are done before addition and subtraction: 1.5 + 10 = 11.5 c - a = 2.0 a + b * c = 36.5 REXX has the most common arithmetic operators built in to it. Here's a quick list: + addition - subtraction * multiplication / division % divide and return whole number ** exponentiation Now it would be a pain in the neck if you had to write a new REXX program every time you wanted to do a simple calculation, wouldn't it? Here's a program that uses one of the most unique features of REXX, the INTERPRET instruction that evaluates the contents of a variable as if it was REXX instructions written into the program: /* Command line calculator */ PARSE ARG math INTERPRET "SAY "|| math EXIT If you type in the above program and give it a name such as CALC.CMD, here's a sample of what you'll be able to do: [E:\rexx]calc 34 - 54 -20 [E:\rexx]calc 3.1415926 * 45 ** 2 6361.72502 As you can see, in four lines this program implements a simple command line calculator utility. The way the programs works is that it places all the command line arguments into the variable math and then constructs a new instruction made up of the SAY instruction followed by a space followed by the contents of math. The "||" operator acts to join the "SAY " string constant and the math string variable. Then the INTERPRET instruction executes the combined string as if it was REXX instructions in your program. The INTERPRET instruction can do far more than evaluate math expressions typed on the command line, but I'll leave it up to you to try to find other uses for it in your own REXX programs. Other Article Topics: An Introduction What Is REXX? How Can I Learn About REXX? REXX Similarities to Batch Files Making Decisions Jumping Around Repetitive Actions Stem Variables Tie It All Together Γûá An Introduction to VREXX Learning More About REXX ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.11.3.6. Making Decisions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Making Decisions Often times a program will need to be able to make a decision based on some calculation or the input given by the user. REXX provides the ability to make decisions using the IF-THEN-ELSE set of instructions. Here's an example of this: /* If-then-else */ SAY "What operating system do you use?" PARSE UPPER PULL os IF os = "OS/2" THEN SAY "That's great!" ELSE IF os = "DOS" THEN SAY "DOS! Yuck! Stay away from me!" ELSE SAY "Oh, I use OS/2. Does your operating system include REXX?" EXIT The above REXX program will ask the user what operating system he or she uses and then respond differently depending on what the user typed. The PARSE PULL instruction is used to pull input from the keyboard into variables much like PARSE ARG is used to put command line arguments into variables. As you can see, IF-THEN-ELSE instructions can be layered several layers deep if this is required to make some particularly complicated decision as illustrated when the program decides what to say about the choice of operating systems. Alternately, if you don't want the REXX program to do anything if a test like os = "DOS" fails to be true, you can simply omit the ELSE clause. Other Article Topics: An Introduction What Is REXX? How Can I Learn About REXX? REXX Similarities to Batch Files REXX Arithmetic & Variables Jumping Around Repetitive Actions Stem Variables Tie It All Together Γûá An Introduction to VREXX Learning More About REXX ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.11.3.7. Jumping Around ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Jumping Around If you've written batch files or programs in BASIC in the past, you've probably run into the GOTO instruction. REXX has its own instruction called SIGNAL which is somewhat like GOTO with added features. Here's a program that uses the SIGNAL instruction to continue to ask for input and respond to it until the user types "EXIT": (Editor's Note: I've numbered the lines and the comments as the original format would not allow me to place them both on the same line without severe eyestrain. Even in the INF version, the lines still wrapped, so I kept the numbering of the lines in.] /* Simple file display program */ 1>GetInput: 2> SAY "What file would you like to see? (Type QUIT to quit)" 3> PARSE UPPER PULL file . 4> IF file \= "QUIT" THEN DO 5> "MORE < " file 6> SIGNAL GetInput 7> END 8> EXIT Craig's Comments: 1>/* Label used by SIGNAL instruction */ 2>/* Tell user to type a file name */ 3>/* Get the user input */ 4>/* If not, display the file */ 5>/* and go back to ask the user for another */ 6>/* Otherwise terminate the program */ The first line of the program is the required REXX comment and the next is called a label. A label lets the programmer name a location in the program so that the program can later jump to that location using the SIGNAL instruction or other instructions that use labels. Next the program asks the user to type in a file name or QUIT, then it gets the input from the keyboard and converts it to upper case. The IF statement is used to test the input that was stored into the variable named "file". The \= operator in the IF statement stands for "not equal" so if the filename the user typed does not equal "QUIT" then the program does whatever is listed in the THEN clause. By using a DO instruction, we can list several instruction where normally only one would be allowed. We then terminate the sequence of instructions started with DO by using the END statement. Inside the block of instructions enclosed by DO and END is a MORE command (just like the one you can use on the command line or in a batch file) to type out the file pausing as each screen is filled and the SIGNAL instruction which will make the program jump to the program location named with label GetInput and thereby allow the user to type another file name. If the user typed QUIT, the THEN clause would not execute and instead the program would run the EXIT instruction which ends the program. Other Article Topics: An Introduction What Is REXX? How Can I Learn About REXX? REXX Similarities to Batch Files REXX Arithmetic & Variables Making Decisions Repetitive Actions Stem Variables Tie It All Together Γûá An Introduction to VREXX Learning More About REXX ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.11.3.8. Repetitive Actions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Repetitive Actions Many programs need to do a certain operation a repeated number of times. One way to do this would be to copy the instruction several times in your program. But if you have to do some action hundreds of times, this would result in a very large program. Worse, if you have to do the action a variable number of times depending on the input from the user, it would become difficult or impossible to do this by simply copying the instructions. In REXX, the DO instruction not only provides a way to group together related instructions as seen the previous example, it also provides a way to repeatedly perform an action. Usually this is referred to as a "DO loop" because the process of repeatedly performing an action is somewhat like an airplane circling in a loop until it can land at the airport. The DO instruction allows you specify a starting value, and ending value, and increment (the number by which to count) and a variable to hold the current counter value. Here is a simple program to illustrate the use of a DO loop to print the squares of the numbers from 0 to 100 in steps of five: /* DO loop */ DO n = 0 to 100 by 5 SAY n "squared is" n ** 2 END EXIT Other Article Topics: An Introduction What Is REXX? How Can I Learn About REXX? REXX Similarities to Batch Files REXX Arithmetic & Variables Making Decisions Jumping Around Stem Variables Tie It All Together Γûá An Introduction to VREXX Learning More About REXX ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.11.3.9. Stem Variables ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Stem Variables REXX has a feature called "stem variables" that is roughly similar to the concept of arrays in other languages. If you are not familiar with arrays, envision a stem variable as a bag containing many pieces of data and each piece of data (usually called an element) can be referred to by a number. Typically stem variables are used by placing the number of elements in the stem variable in the 0th element and using the remaining elements to store the actual data. When using stem variables, it is often helpful to use DO loops to repetitively process the data in each element of a stem variable. This is especially true if you will have a variable or large number of elements. Here's an example of a program that will parse all of the arguments on a command line into a stem variable and set the 0th element to indicate the number of arguments on the command line: /* Parse command line */ PARSE ARG rest i = 1 DO UNTIL rest = "" PARSE VAR rest word rest param.i = word SAY "param #" i " = " param.i i = i + 1 END param.0 = i - 1 SAY param.0 " parameters found." EXIT Other Article Topics: An Introduction What Is REXX? How Can I Learn About REXX? REXX Similarities to Batch Files REXX Arithmetic & Variables Making Decisions Jumping Around Repetitive Actions Tie It All Together Γûá An Introduction to VREXX Learning More About REXX ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.11.3.10. Tie It All Together Γûá An Introduction to VREXX ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Tie It All Together Γûá An Introduction to VREXX VREXX (short for Visual REXX) is a freeware add-on package that can be found on the OS/2 Connection bulletin board (619-558-9436) and many other bulletin boards as VREXX2.ZIP. An IBM employee wrote this package and arranged for it to be distributed under the Employee Written Software program that permits programs to be released free but without any guarantee of product support from IBM. VREXX allows REXX programs to display Presentation Manager dialog boxes, windows, text (even in different fonts and colors), and draw graphics. Here we'll examine a short VREXX program to show you the essentials of how to use the package along with using some of the basics of REXX introduced earlier in this article. Take a look at the program listing labelled VCALC.CMD. We've numbered the lines of the program to make it easier to point out the interesting parts. When you type in this program, don't type in the line numbers as they are not a part of the program. The first six lines of the program are comments. Recall that every REXX program must start with a comment. We added a few others to note what the program is supposed to do and when it was written. Line 7 is the first that does any real work. The CALL instruction transfers control of the program to a subroutine provided by REXX for OS/2. This subroutine is named RxFundAdd and will add a new function to the REXX environment called VInit. The VInit function is found in the VREXX.DLL file and inside that file has the name VINIT. Then on line 8, the VInit function is called to add all the other VREXX functions to the REXX environment. If it fails, the value "ERROR" is stored in the variable "initcode" and the SIGNAL VREXXCleanup instruction is run, thus transferring control of the program to code that will shut down VREXX and terminate the program. Normally the VInit call should not fail, so in this case lines 10 and 11 tell the program to jump to the VREXXCleanup label if the programs fails for some reason or if the program is asked to end for some reason. Through experimentation, I found that line 15 is required to handle cases where the user types in a bad expression like "5 / 0" which causes a divide by zero error. REXX considers this a syntax error, so when something like this happens this program assumes it is because the user made a mistake and then jumps to a block of code that will tell the user a bad expression was entered. So far the program has set up the REXX environment to permit the use of VREXX. Lines 21 to 23 specify the title for the input window, its width in characters, and the type of buttons it should have. For some reason numbers must be used for button types and the numbers are not very well documented (possibly because VREXX is freeware?), so I figured out which number to use by examining sample programs that came with VREXX2.ZIP. Lines 28 and 29 set up the set of strings that will be used to prompt the user for input. Stem variables are used for this and the variable ending in ".0" tells VREXX how many prompt strings to expect starting with the one ending in ".1". The variable ending in ".vstring" is used to specify the initial string displayed in the input box entry field. For our program, we don't want there to be any text in the entry field at first, so we've used two adjacent double quote marks to indicate an empty string. Line 33 finally displays the input dialog box and waits for the user to press OK or CANCEL. The name of the button that was pressed is stored in a variable named "button" and the user's input is stored back into "prompt.vstring" which then on line 35 is saved into the variable expr. Line 37 checks to see if the OK button was pressed. If it was, then lines 38 to 47 evaluate the expression using the INTERPRET instruction, store the answer in the variable named "result", and finally display the answer on the screen in a message box that will be displayed until the user clicks on the OK button. Then the program jumps back to the InputLoop label to get the next expression from the user. If line 37 decided that the OK button had not been pressed, the THEN clause would not have been run and instead the next instruction run would have been on line 53. The "CALL VExit" instruction tells the VREXX code to shut itself down. Finally, line 54 terminates the REXX program. If you do not do a "CALL VExit" before ending a VREXX program, there is a program file named VREXX.EXE that is left running and until that program is terminated, other VREXX programs will not be runnable. Since sometimes things go wrong when writing a VREXX program (after all, programmers do make mistakes!), I'd recommend that you download a pair of files from OS/2 Connection called PROCS21.ZIP and KILLEM21.ZIP. These programs will let you list running processes to find the process ID number of VREXX (using the "procs" program) and then let you kill the VREXX program using "killem" followed by the process ID number of VREXX. You are probably wondering that if line 54 terminated the REXX program, why are there lines after it? I decided to put the block of code to handle errors after the EXIT instruction. Since this block of code is jumped to because of the SIGNAL ON instruction on line 15, it is OK for it to be after the EXIT instruction. Lines 57 to 69 merely display a message box telling the user that the expression typed was bad. After the uses clicks on the OK button in the message box, then the SIGNAL InputLoop instruction causes the program to loop back to get more input. Now you've finished your introduction to VREXX. It has a lot of other abilities that we haven't covered here, but this program illustrates the basics of calling VREXX functions that you'll need to do anything more complicated. Just how useful VCALC.CMD may be to you, I don't know, but it was useful to me as it helped to learn the basics of VREXX by writing a program to use its features. Type in the program and try it out, or if you hate typing, find the electronic version of the March 1993 newsletter named SDIN9303.ZIP that will be available about two weeks after the printed version is released. VCALC.CMD will be included inside the ZIP archive file so you don't have to retype it. Other Article Topics: An Introduction What Is REXX? How Can I Learn About REXX? REXX Similarities to Batch Files REXX Arithmetic & Variables Making Decisions Jumping Around Repetitive Actions Stem Variables Learning More About REXX ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.11.3.11. Learning More About REXX ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Learning More About REXX As you have seen in this introduction, REXX goes far beyond the capabilities of a regular OS/2 batch file and in fact is a full- fledged language. In this short article we have been able to just brush the surface of REXX and hopefully show you that it is an area worth more investigation if you are at all interested in programming or better automating your OS/2 system. Other sources of information on REXX are numerous books and the OS2REXX forum on Fidonet where you can ask questions and exchange information with other REXX programmers. In San Diego, we're lucky enough to have the annual REXX Symposium in La Jolla during May. If you're interested in attending this, please see the announcement elsewhere in this issue. Besides the VREXX extensions to REXX for OS/2, there are other extensions available for free. For example, check out RXMATH.ZIP if you want to have trigonometric functions to use in your REXX programs. If you are using APPC or NetBIOS on networks, take a look at RXAPPC.ZIP and RXNETB that will let you access network functions from REXX programs. Or take a look at the many other utilities available on OS/2 bulletins boards that were written in REXX to get ideas of what you can do. REXX will become more important as OS/2 becomes more popular. Already several OS/2 programs are REXX-aware which means they let you write scripts for them in REXX. Among them are the EPM text editor, PMComm and TE/2 communications programs, and Borland ObjectVision. The VREXX extensions for OS/2 already allow REXX programs to interact with the user via the Presentation Manager graphical user interface. Coming soon from Ucandu Software is a program called Visual Programming with REXX that will provide a drag-and-drop programming environment for REXX and OS/2 roughly like what Visual BASIC provides for BASIC and Microsoft Windows. IBM also has object-oriented REXX versions in the works, so REXX for OS/2 appears to have a bright future. Give it a try with the example programs presented in this article and you'll be on your way to making REXX a part of your future. Other Article Topics: An Introduction What Is REXX? How Can I Learn About REXX? REXX Similarities to Batch Files REXX Arithmetic & Variables Making Decisions Jumping Around Repetitive Actions Stem Variables Tie It All Together Γûá An Introduction to VREXX ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.12. OS/2 Reading ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ OS/2 2.1 Unleashed OS/2 2.0 Presentation Manager Graphics Programming Guide OS/2 2.0 Applications Design Guide OS/2 2.0 Presentation Manager Programming Guide OS/2 2.0 Control Program Programming Guide Object Oriented Interface Design OS/2 Database Manager (A Developer's Guide) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.12.1. OS/2 2.1 Unleashed ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ OS/2 2.1 Unleashed By Ed Miller, David Moskowitz, David Kerr, John Campbell, Chris Corry, Terrance Crow, Stephen Gutknecht, Bob Kerser, Chris Parson, Mike Perks, Stan Spots, Bill Wolff. ISBN: 0-672-30240-1. Sams Publishing. 1,134 pages. Rated Intermediate to Advanced. Includes 3.5" diskette. List prices: US $34.95; CAN $43.95. Recognize an author's name? Check out page 633 for a famous local OS/2 BBS name and page 638 for it's phone number. Over 60 years of combined OS/2 experience, the contributing authors use their expertise to explore the potential of OS/2 2.1 and show you how to become a power user. The companion disk includes: TE/2 - communications program; 4OS2 - Alternate OS/2 command interpreter; INIMaint - OS2.INI file maintenance program; GALLERIA - a graphics viewing and conversion utility; Disk Stat - a graphical display of system information; PM Scrapbook - 32bit PM app for organizing files and information; DeskMan/2 - a utility that backs up folders and objects in the WPS; and, LH2 - an archive and compression utility. You learn how to make Windows, DOS and the WPS and the OS/2 command line work together efficiently. The detailed discussion of the OS/2 video sub-system shows you how to expertly install display drivers, use the 32-bit graphics engine and select color and fonts that get your message across. Plus, with the help of senior developers and architects from IBM's REXX Development organization, you can customize your operating system using the REXX programming language. Discover undocumented short cuts and features. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.12.2. OS/2 2.0 Presentation Manager Graphics Programming Guide ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ OS/2 2.0 Presentation Manager Graphics Programming Guide IBM OS/2 Technical Library. Que ISBN: 1-56529-156-5. Priced at US $29.95; CAN $37.95; UK ╨¼27.45. (1992) Specific topics covered include: Presentation spaces and device contexts; Drawing primitives: lines and areas, markers, areas and polygons, character strings; Color and mix; Bitmaps and metafiles; Paths and regions, paths and regions; Retained graphics, graphic segments, and correlation; Coordinate spaces and transformation; and, print job submission and manipulation. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.12.3. OS/2 2.0 Application Design Guide ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ OS/2 2.0 Application Design Guide IBM OS/2 Technical Library. Que ISBN: 1-56520-157-3. Priced at US $29.95; CAN $37.95; UK ╨¼27.45. 1992 Topics covered include: Intel 80386 architecture and memory addressing; programming models for pure and mixed 16-bit and 32-bit applications; dynamic linking; enhanced DOS sessions; overriding methods for inheritance and Polymorphism in the IBM System Object Model (SOM); the Workplace Programming Interface; cross reference for sample programs in the Developer's Toolkit for OS/2 2.0. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.12.4. OS/2 2.0 Presentation Manager Programming Guide ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ OS/2 2.0 Presentation Manager Programming Guide IBM OS/2 Technical Library Que ISBN: 1-56529-155-7. Priced at US $29.95; CAN $37.95; UK ╨¼27.45. 1992 Subjects in this reference include: window classes and window procedures; messages and message queues; control windows: Menus, buttons, scroll bars, list boxes, container, notebook, value set, slider, dialogs; window input and output: keyboard accelerators, mouse pointer, cursion, painting and drawing; hook; the system clipboard; dynamic data exchange (DDE); direct manipulation; initialization files; atoms. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.12.5. OS/2 2.0 Control Program Programming Guide ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ OS/2 2.0 Control Program Programming Guide IBM OS/2 Technical Library Que ISBN: 1-56529-154-9. Priced at US $29.95; CAN $37.95; UK ╨¼27.45. 1992 Specifics covered include: The OS/2 file system including FAT & HPFS; extended attribute conventions for data types; file naming and meta characters. Standard methods for program execution and control-thread, processes and sessions; Event, Mutex, and Muxwait semaphores; Device I/O support and solutions; and, National language support and debugging. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.12.6. Object Oriented Interface Design ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Object Oriented Interface Design IBM Technical Library Que ISBN: 1-56529-170-0 708 pages. List price: US $29.95; CAN $37.95; UK ╨¼27.45. 1992 Learn about: 1) User interface and object oriented environments; 2) Goals and design principles of the CUA interface; 3) Designing a product with a CUA user interface; 4) The CUA advanced interface; 5) Components of the CUA interface. Discover the critical aspects of interface design. This official guide describes the fundamental concepts of the CUA so that you can develop and produce consistent, polished programs. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.12.7. OS/2 Database Manager (A Developer's Guide) ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ OS/2 Database Manager (A Developer's Guide) By Howard Fosdick John Wiley &Sons ISBN:0-471-50803-9; 378pages Priced at US $24.95. 1989 Among the techniques and functions the author describes are: 1) complete coverage of programming in the Database Manager, from establishing the environment to testing the databases; 2) in depth coverage of SQL; 3) Detailed explanations of utilities, application development alternatives, locking and concurrency issues; and, database performance. There is also helpful information on the design of the Database Manager, configuring the Database Manager to meet your needs and future trends in the OS/2 environment. ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13. OS/2 BBS's ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ BBS Introduction Australia Belgium Canada Denmark Germany Italy Netherlands Norway Singapore Switzerland United Kingdom Arizona California Colorado Connecticut Deleware Florida Georgia Hawaii Illinois Indiana Kansas Louisiana Maryland Michigan Minnesota Missouri New Jersey Nevada New York North Carolina Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania South Carolina Tennessee Texas Virginia Washington ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.1. BBS Introduction ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ Okay, I ran out of time this month, so most of the BBS's listed were also listed in February. But I've added a few if you can spot them. 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, 1:170/110@fidonet.org. 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. And I'm still waiting to hear from folks who consider their BBS a decent local source for OS/2, whether it be files, message areas or actually run under OS/2. Hope you find this inclusion useful. Large phone bills are not my fault...!!! ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.2. Australia ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Graham Stair 3M Australia +61-2-498-9184 Australia 2. Alan Salmon PC User's Group +61-6-259-1244 Australia ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.3. Belgium ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Bas Heijermans Moving Sound OS/2 BBS +32-3-3850748 Belgium ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.4. Canada ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Kevin Lowey Univ. of Saskatchewan (306) 966-4857 Canada 2. Evan Smith ECS Net (403) 253-5996 Canada 3. Ian Evans Baudeville BBS (416) 283-0114 Canada 4. Herbert Tsui BBS Council (604) 275-6883 Canada 5. Jerry Stevens The Locutory (613) 722-0489 Canada ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.5. Denmark ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Rene Carlsen OS/2 Task and FrontDoor H +45-98451070 Denmark ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.6. Germany ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Ulrich Roeding BOX/2 +49-89-6019677 Germany ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.7. Italy ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Luigi Ravina Italy Network +39-11-8180069 Italy ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.8. Netherlands ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Peter Smink BBS The Experiment +31-1150-15245 Netherlands ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.9. Norway ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Terje Slydahl PerlePorten +47-83-33003 Norway ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.10. Singapore ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Ivan Leong Miqas/2 Singapore +65-755-6463 Singapore ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.11. Switzerland ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Alex Wyss Gepard's Oracle Zuerich +41-1-3637037 Switzerland ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.12. United Kingdom ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Mike Gove MonuSci BBS +44-0-454-633197 United Kingdom ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.13. Arizona ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Mike Mahoney Emerald Isle, The (602) 749-8638 Arizona 2. Frank Ward Encounter, The (602) 892-1853 Arizona ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.14. California ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Patrick O'Riva AsmLang and OS/2 (408) 259-2223 California 2. Michael Nelson SeaHunt BBS (415) 431-0473 California 3. Michael Cummings Zzyzx Road OS/2 BBS (619) 579-0135 El Cajon, California 4. Craig Swanson OS/2 Connection (619) 558-9475 San Diego, California 5. Chuck Gilmore Magnum BBS (805) 582-9306 California ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.15. Colorado ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. William Herrera Cuerna Verde (719) 545-8572 Colorado 2. Randy Edwards Socialism OnLine! (719) 392-7781 Colorado ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.16. Connecticut ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Chris Regan Storm Front - OS/2, The (203) 234-0824 Connecticut 2. Felix Tang Excelsior, The (203) 466-1826 Connecticut 3. Emmitt Dove Fernwood (203) 483-0348 Connecticut ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.17. Deleware ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. John Tarbox Singer Bear BBS (302) 984-2238 Deleware 2. Scott Street Space Station Alpha (302) 653-1458 Deleware ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.18. Florida ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Mark Wheeler SandDollar, The (407) 784-4507 Florida 2. Rusty Plant The 19th Hole (904) 479-8538 Pensacola, Florida 3. Don Bauer OS2 Exchange (904) 739-2445 Florida 4. Chris Wolcott The Outer Limits (904) 934-1141 Gulf Breeze, Florida 5. Kathy Todd The Apothecary's Archives (904) 934-3146 Gulf Breeze, Florida 6. Richard Todd The Disintegrated Circuit OS/2 (904) 934-9796 Gulf Breeze, Florida ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.19. Georgia ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. IBM IBM National Support Ce (404) 835-6600 Georgia 2. IBM IBM National Support Ce (404) 835-5300 Georgia 3. Ed June Information Overload (404) 471-1549 Georgia ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.20. Hawaii ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Craig Oshiro Ghostcomm Image Gallery (808) 456-8510 Hawaii ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.21. Illinois ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Bill Cook GREATER CHICAGO Online! (708) 895-4042 Illinois 2. Bogie Bugsalewicz I CAN! BBS (312) 736-7434 Illinois ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.22. Indiana ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Mike Phillips Catacombs, The (317) 525-7164 Indiana 2. Jay Tipton Play Board, The (219) 744-4908 Indiana ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.23. Kansas ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Troy Majors Byte Bus, The (316) 683-1433 Kansas ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.24. Louisiana ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Stan Brohn HelpNet of Baton Rouge (504) 273-3116 Louisiana 2. Jim Sterrett Padded Cell BBS, The (504) 340-7027 Louisiana ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.25. Maryland ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. James Chance Last Relay, The (410) 793-3829 Maryland ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.26. Michigan ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Dave Shoff Cornerstone BBS, The (616) 465-4611 Michigan ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.27. Minnesota ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Brady Flowers Oberon Software (507) 388-1154 Minnesota ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.28. Missouri ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Woody Sturges OS/2 Woodmeister, The (314) 446-0016 Missouri ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.29. New Jersey ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Bob Germer Capital City BBS (609) 386-1989 New Jersey 2. Mike Fuchs Dog's Breakfast, The (908) 506-0472 New Jersey ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.30. Nevada ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Kerry Flint Caddis OS/2 BBS (702) 453-6687 Nevada 2. Dennis Conley Communitel OS/2 BBS (702) 399-0486 Nevada ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.31. New York ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Mikel Beck Kind Diamond's Realm (516) 736-3403 New York ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.32. North Carolina ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Thomas Bradford Backdoor BBS (919) 799-0923 North Carolina 2. Richard Lee Psychotronic BBS (919) 286-7738 North Carolina ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.33. Ohio ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Mark Lehrer Akron Anomoly, The (216) 688-6383 Ohio ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.34. Oklahoma ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Bill Schnell Asylum BBS, The (918) 832-1462 Oklahoma 2. Scott Dickason BBS/2 (918) 743-1562 Oklahoma ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.35. Oregon ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Bill Taylor Integrated Media Servic (503) 667-2649 Oregon 2. Paul Breedlove Multi-Net (503) 883-8197 Oregon ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.36. Pennsylvania ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Louis F. Ursini Quantum Leap (215) 967-9018 Pennsylvania 2. Ed Barboni System-2 RBBS (215) 631-0685 Pennsylvania ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.37. South Carolina ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Paul Beverly PMSC OnLine Resource (803) 735-6101 South Carolina ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.38. Tennessee ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Operand BBS Lonnie Wall (901) 753-3738 Tennessee 2. Edward Owens Looking Glass, The (901) 872-4386 Tennessee ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.39. Texas ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Robert McA Live-Wire (214) 307-8119 Texas 2. Doug Palmer Rock BBS, The (512) 654-9792 Texas 3. David Dozier Roach Coach, The (713) 343-0942 Texas 4. Ken Rucker RucK's Place/2 (817) 485-8042 Texas ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.40. Virginia ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Pete Norloff OS/2 Shareware (703) 385-4325 Virginia 2. Joe Salemi Max's Doghouse (703) 548-7849 Virginia ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1.13.41. Washington ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. LeRoy DeVries Sno-Valley Software Exc (206) 880-6575 Washington 2. Rodney Lorimor Gecko Control (509) 244-0944 Washington