The World of Computer Software/World_Of_Computer_Software-02-387-Vol-3of3.iso/p/pc2.zip/PC2.HLP

OS/2 Help File | 1993-03-09 | 24KB | 472 lines

ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. PC/2 Help for Help ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

                     PC/2 - Program Commander/2 Version 1.20
                      for IBM OS/2 2.0 Presentation Manager
                     Copyright (C) by Stangl Roman 03, 1993

Please select one of the following topics for further information:

o About the utility PC/2
o Installing PC/2
o Using PC/2 as a WPS addon
o Concepts of the Popup-Menu
o Starting a Program from PC/2
o Setup the Popup-Menu

   - Adding a Submenu
   - Adding a Program

o Error messages

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ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2. Help for About PC/2 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

                     PC/2 - Program Commander/2 Version 1.20
                      for IBM OS/2 2.0 Presentation Manager
                     Copyright (C) by Stangl Roman 03, 1993

                     University for Business Administration
                         and Management Vienna, Austria
                          (WirtschaftsuniversitДt Wien)

E-Mail:

o [e-mail]
o Roman Stangl @ IBM Austria National Support BBS ((0043) 0222 21145 6600)

This program is classified as Shareware. Under the copyright, you are allowed
and encouraged to freely use, distribute or modify this program under the
following conditions:

o The complete source code and all executables are included. This rule also
  applies for any modifications you made.
o You may only charge for the costs of duplicating.
o Any commercial use is prohibited without contacting me prior, except for
  incorporating the idea/code in any future release of OS/2 by IBM, however
  this clause doesn't apply for any private use.
o You don't want to port this utility to MS Windows or Windows NT (never
  there).

You are encouraged to upload this utility to your favourite file-server or BBS.
Please ensure that no file is missing, if you change the archive to a different
compression scheme.

If you find this program useful and want to honor the four weeks of work
writing this utility, you are welcome to send me a small fee of about 50 to 150
Austrian Schilling (about 5 to 15 dollar) to my home address. Any suggestions
are of course welcome too.

My home address is:

  Roman Stangl
  Strebersdorferstrasse 46
  2103  Langenzersdorf, Austria

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ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3. Installing PC/2 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

You have obviously started PC/2 once, because you are reading this help panel.
The installation is just straight forward with the REXX script that installs
PC/2, however there are some points to notice:

o The installation installed an Icon on the Desktop and started the help panels
  of PC/2. To ensure that OS/2 starts PC/2 automatically the next time you boot
  your system, you must start PC/2 again (you then can notice that the
  background behind the icon changes). If you have added SET
  RESTARTOBJECTS=STARTUPFOLDERSONLY in your CONFIG.SYS then you must also add a
  shadow of PC/2 to your startup folder to ensure PC/2 is started the next time
  you boot OS/2.

o PC/2 requires the files PC2.HLP to be in the path indicated by the HELP and
  PC2HOOK.DLL to be in the path indicated by the LIBPATH environment variables.
  If you have problems running PC/2, ensure that the working directory of PC/2
  is accessible by these variables in your CONFIG.SYS.

o The installation assumes that you are using the default profile Pc2.cfg
  containing a standart pre-defined Popup-Menu. If you want to use an other
  Popup-Menu, you have to open the Settings of PC/2 and add your preferred
  profile in the Parameters entryfield. Please click for the next help panel to
  see the syntax of the command-line parameters of PC/2. This command-line
  parameters then must be added to the Parameters entryfield.

o You can only run one copy of PC/2 concurrently.

o If you select a DOS-Program to be started via PC/2, the time-slice of their
  sessions is optimized (the DOS-Settings are modified to IDLE_SECONDS=5
  IDLE_SENSITIVITY=100) to get a better performance. This is useful for most
  DOS games.

o You may use PC/2 with or without the WPS installed, you may even use PC/2 as
  a replacement for the WPS. To do so you must install PC/2 first. Then you
  have to ensure that PC2HOOK.DLL is in a path pointed to by the LIBPATH
  environment variable in your CONFIG.SYS.You also have to ensure that PC2.HLP
  is in a path pointed to by the HELP environment variable in your CONFIG.SYS
  file. The default access ".;" is not sufficient. Then replace the statement
  SET RUNWORKPLACE=C:\OS2\PMSHELL.EXE with SET RUNWORKPLACE=[path]PC2.EXE where
  [path] is the pathname of the directory you installed PC/2. The next time you
  boot, PC/2 will be started as a replacement for the WPS.

  Caution! PC/2 in not tested on all OS/2 version or installed software and
  hardware (simply because I don't have them), so there may be bugs!. Of course
  you can start the WPS from a command prompt by typing START PMSHELL or add a
  corresponding entry to PC/2.

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ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4. General Help for PC/2 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

PC/2 - Program Commander is an addon for the WPS (Workplace Shell). The user
can configure a menu that pops up, when the left mouse button is clicked
anywhere on the Desktop. F.e. the Popup-Menu might look like:

You have selected the item Prompts, which is a Submenu containing four more
items. F.e. the item OS/2 Window starts a windowed OS/2 command prompt, when
selected. This Popup-Menu is fully configurable, you may add, change or remove
items. An item can either be a Submenu containing more items, or the name of a
program.

Only the first Submenu PC/2 Setup cannot be modified. This Submenu is used to
setup PC/2 and to get help.

Your configuration is read from the default file Pc2.cfg each time PC/2 is
started and saved every time you made changes. You can of course overwrite the
default configuration filename to a file named Filename.ext by invoking PC/2
with the following syntax:

PC2 [-Profile Filename.ext] or

PC2 [/Profile Filename.ext]

where Filename.ext conforms to a filename of a PC/2 profile. Both FAT and HPFS
filename naming convention is accepted. A few sample configuration files are
provided in the package.

I would strongly recommend to start PC/2 during OS/2 boot. If you don't want to
use the default profile, don't forget to add /Profile Filename.exe to the
Parameters entryfield in the Settings of PC/2.

The reason why I wrote this utility was primarily, that many programs installed
on a system require many folders and icons on the Desktop. But to start a
program, I don't want to open and close folders, so I made shadows on the
Desktop messing it up. The solution I prefer is to click on the Desktop,
getting immediatly a menu and selecting the application from this menu. So PC/2
may help you to start your programs quickly, without needing to open and close
folders.

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ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5. Concepts of PC/2 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

The basic idea behind PC/2 is to have an configurable Popup-Menu available, to
start programs quicky, without having to open and close folders.

The Popup-Menu, popped up when you click the left mouse button anywhere on the
Desktop (just like the right one for shutdown), consists of so-called items. An
item may be a Submenu, which contains further items, or the title of an
Application. A Submenu contains a little arrow right beside the title of the
Submenu.

You can imagine this Popup-Menu as a tree, with applications as leaves and
Submenus as nodes. PC/2 allows you to freely build your own tree. To do so you
have to click on the Desktop with the left mouse button and to select PC/2
Setup  Configure PC/2. A dialog box appears, where you can add, modify or
remove Submenus and Applications. The listbox displays all Submenus and
Applications of one level (like a cut through the tree). Of course you may
change this level up and down.

Once you have configured your tree of Submenus and Applications, just press Ok
to take them into effect and save them to the profile or Cancel to take them
into effect without saving.

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ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6. Help for starting a program via PC/2 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

After you have configured the PC/2 Popup-Menu, you click on the Desktop with
the left mouse button, select the Application you want to start and click on
it. The Application will be started as if you were clicking on an icon.

One advantage starting an Application this way is, that you can manipulate many
parameters on how the Application is started, one thing you can't do with many
icons. F.e. you can start it invisible (useful for a backup program), making it
only visible by selecting it from the tasklist. You may also specify the size
of the Application or to start it in the background.

To close an Application, select the corresponding option from the Application
or terminate it from the tasklist.

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ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7. Help for PC/2 Setup ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

In the listbox, all Submenus and Applications of one level (imagine as a cut
through the tree) are displayed. A Submenu has an arrow right beside it. F.e.
assume the listbox contains 3 Submenus and 2 Appliations resulting in the
following Popup-Menu:

You may want to get into the Submenu Prompts. Just select the Submenu Prompts
an click on the button Level Down >>. The listbox will now be filled with all
Submenus and Applications of the Submenu Prompts. To get one level up, simply
press << Level Up. If nothing seems to change, you may be at the highest level
(the root of the tree) or at the deapest level (a leaf of the tree) of a
Submenu.

To configure the Popup-Menu just select an item.

o To change or to remove this item use the buttons Change Entry or Remove
  Entry. Either a new dialog appears allowing you to change the item, or the
  item will be removed.
o To add a Submenu or an Application press the buttons Add Submenu or Add
  Program. A new dialog is displayed allowing you to add a new Submenu or
  Application, after pressing Ok in this dialog, the Submenu or Application
  will be inserted after the selected item.

If the listbox is empty, you can't remove or change anything. You also can't
select any item, but in this case you can add a Submenu or an Application by
just pressing the buttons, without needing to select an item.

Press Ok to write the configuration to the profile, or press Cancel to keep the
changes only in memory. Both buttons will dismiss the dialog.

Example 1    Example 2

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ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.1. Setup example 1 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Assume the listbox contains the following items resulting in the following
Popup-Menu:

You want to remove the Submenu Editors, rename the Submenu Tools to Utilities
and add a Submenu Demos.

 1. Select the item Editors. You can now press the button Remove Entry to
    remove the submenu, but only if this Submenu is empty. If it isn't empty,
    get into this Submenu by pression Level Down >> and remove all items.
 2. To rename Tools to Utilities select the item Tools and press the button
    Change Entry. A dialog box appears allowing you to rename this item.
 3. Select the item, after which you want to insert the new Submenu. Then press
    the button Add Submenu to add one. A dialog box appears allowing you to
    enter the title of a new Submenu.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.2. Setup example 2 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Assume that you have remove all items, leading to an empty listbox. Now you
want to add the Applications Backup and Terminal.

 1. The listbox is empty, so you can't select any item. Just press the button
    Add Program and a dialog box appears, allowing you to enter all the data
    required for the new Application.
 2. Now the listbox contains the item Backup, select it and press the button
    Add Program a second time. Again you get a dialog box, where you enter the
    data for the Application Terminal.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8. Help for PC/2 Menu Installation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This dialog is used to get a name for a Submenu, which is then added to the
Popup-Menu. You can enter whatever you like, f.e. to make a Submenu that
contains OS/2 utilities you might enter Utilities.

If you have choosen in the previous dialog to change the name of a Submenu,
then overwrite the preentered text.

Press Ok to accept, or press Cancel to ignore the data you entered.

Examples

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ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.1. Menu installation examples ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Assume you have entered the following Submenu Titles:

Title                 Purpose

Prompts               You want to add a Submenu named Prompts, that contains
                      OS/2 and DOS, fullscreen and windowed command prompts.

Spreadsheets          You want to add a Submenu named Spreadsheets for your
                      spreadsheet program like Lotus 123/G or Excel.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9. Help for PC/2 Program Installation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

This dialog is used to get the title, the path and filename, the working
directory and parameters of a Menuitem, which is then added to the Popup-Menu.
Additionally you can fine-tune the appearance of the program you want to add to
the Popup-Menu. However the standard selections should provide a basis that is
sufficient for most applications.

If you have choosen in the previous dialog to change the data of a Program,
then overwrite or change the options you want.

Press Ok to accept, or press Cancel to ignore the data you entered.

For more information click on one of the following items:

o Program Data
o Program Type
o Program Style
o Program Size & Position
o Program Priority

Examples

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ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.1. Program installation examples ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Assume you want to add Lotus 123/G:

Fieldname             You would enter

Program Title:        Lotus 123/G

Path and Filename:    c:\123g\123g.exe

Working Directory:    c:\123g

Parameters:           (none)

Lotus 123/G is a Presentation Manager application so you would select
Presentation Manager as program type. The program style may be Maximized,
because more information is visible. The priority may be left at the default
selection No Change.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.2. Program Data ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

For a normal user it is the easiest way to use the following guidelines:

Fieldname             You would enter

Program Title:        Here you enter the name, under which the program should
                      appear in the tasklist. For OS/2 and DOS windows, this
                      will be the title of the window.

Path and Filename:    Here you enter the fully qualified path and filename.
                      F.e. you might enter c:\os2\cmd.exe to obtain an OS/2
                      command prompt, or c:\os2\mdos\qbasic.exe to start the
                      basic interpreter.

Working Directory:    Here you enter the directory where the EXE, HLP and DLL
                      files of your application are located. Before the
                      application is started, a change drive and change
                      directory call is made, to make this directory the
                      working directory.

Parameters:           Here you enter the parameters passed to the application.
                      Assume that you want to use VIEW.EXE to view the command
                      reference, you would enter c:\os2\book\cmdref.inf.

DOS Settings:         If you select as program type a DOS Full-Screen or DOS
                      Window, a multiline entryfield is displayed where you can
                      enter the DOS Settings you need. Default, the DOS
                      Settings IDLE_SECONDS=5 and IDLE_SENSITIVITY are added if
                      you create a DOS application for the first time. (You
                      have to spell the DOS Settings exactly as they are
                      displayed in the standard DOS Settings dialog - even then
                      some can't be set for whatever reasons there are.)

File Find:            If you click on this button, the standard file dialog of
                      OS/2 is displayed where you can select the application
                      you want to install. The application parameters (f.e.
                      path) will then be inserted automatically in the
                      corresponding entryfields.

For a power user, the data entered may be less. Because the OS/2 API
DosStartSession() is used to start the application, all rules for this API
apply as described in the toolkit. Hence you may leave the entryfield Path and
Filename blank and then select from the Program Type group an OS/2 or DOS
fullscreen or window, to get a command prompt.

You may also start an appliciation indirectly through a secondary command
processor by specifying c:\os2\cmd.exe as the Path and Filename and use then
the /C or /K option of CMD.EXE in the Parameters entryfield.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.3. Program Type ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Here you can select the type of application you want to add. By default type is
determined by the WPS, which is correct for most applications. You may change
to Presentation Manager for a PM application.

OS/2 and DOS Fullscreen or Windows are only used, if you want to start a
command prompt as the application. In this case, you usually enter in the the
entryfield Path and Filename of the group Program Data the path of the
corresponding command processor. A advanced technique to select the type of
command processor only with these radiobuttons is described under the group
Program Data.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.4. Program Style ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

These selections should be self-explanatory, you can only change one of the
radiobuttons, but apply as many checkboxes as you want as the Program Style.
F.e. if you selected Minimized, Invisible and Background, the application will
be started minimized, in the background and invisible (if this makes sense?).


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.5. Program Size & Position ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Here you can use the checkbox to start an application with a preselected size
and position. If you select the checkbox Size, Position you will be able to
modify the size the started application should appear.

If you deselect the checkbox, the data will be saved, but the application is
started ignoring the size and position you entered.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.6. Program Priority ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

At this level of development, I don't know how to change the priority of a
program started as an independent session, so these radiobuttons are
unavailable. I know how to change the priority started as a child of PC/2, but
if the parent application PC/2 fails (by a bug or a close from the tasklist)
all the childs are also terminated, which is surely unacceptable.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 10. Help for PC/2 Errors ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

PC/2 can't verify all user input for validity, so some user input may cause
some PC/2 functions to fail. In this case, a message box is displayed
containing the module and the sourcecode linenumber that failed. Also a error
message is displayed containing which error occured and what should be done to
resolve the problem.

F.e. you might have configured to start the program VIEW.EXE by writing
c:\os3\view.exe in the entryfield Path and Filename in the Program Installation
dialog. This of course leads to an error, because when OS/2 tries to start this
item, it can't find the directory \os3\ simply because it should read \os2\. A
message box is displayed saying an error occured and that the user input should
be corrected.

The messagebox has three buttons that may be pressed:

Button                Result

Abort                 PC/2 will be terminated and all unsaved data will be
                      lost. You have to restart PC\2 again. This button should
                      be the last one you select.

Retry                 The error is ignored, you may need to correct your data
                      entered in the entryfields.

Ignore                The error is ignored, you may need to correct your data
                      entered in the entryfields.

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