Welcome back to the Internet's premier site for news, reviews and opinions on OS/2. In this issue we take a look at OS/2's powerful user interface, the Workplace Shell, and what it can do for you. We also look at financial software--yes, it's that time of the year again. And of course, all the regular stuff!
Departments Opinions:
Editorial the Rants... Chris' | Trevor's
the Beta File the Rave
Heath's Tips Linfield's Line
the REXX Files
the Warped SOHO
Win ColorWorks V2!
Features:
Desktop Topics
Come take a look at OS/2's most valuable feature: the WPS. This month we feature reviews of desktop enhancers, backup utilities, security add-ons and lots of tips and tricks to enhance your desktop experience.
Personal Financial Software:
As tax time rolls around once again, we take a look at native OS/2 tax preparation software and a shareware personal finance package.
Games:
It's never a slow month for OS/2 games. This month we have a look at some classics brought back to life for OS/2 users to enjoy.
Books: _Mastering OS/2 Warp: The Warp Bible_ - John Phillips
Does Sybex's offering in the field of "complete OS/2 references" live up to its title? Is it a book no-one should do without? Have a look and all shall be revealed.
Articles:
David Barnes Rejoins IBM! - Stacy King
As a single person, David Barnes carries a lot of weight in the OS/2 world. His Warp presentations are legendary and news of his departure from Big Blue was widely heralded in the media as a sign of IBM's faltering allegience to OS/2. Well he's back!
The Single Input Queue Fix- Anders Thue Pedersen
Now that IBM has released FixPak 17 with its SIQ fix, users can move up to speed without worrying about that nagging full queue problem. We give you a rundown on the fix and how to take advantage of it.
Scientific Software - Dr. Dirk Terrell
Dr. Terrell reprises his original article on using Warp as a scientific platform by rolling up his sleeves and giving us some specifics. This month, he takes a look at GraphiC, a package of C and C++ graphic routines for plotting and graphing.
Odds & Ends:
Hot Sellers 1 - the top 10 selling OS/2 commercial applications.
Hot Sellers 2 - the top 10 selling OS/2 shareware.
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*Coming up in the next issue*
A bigger, better, and bolder
issue with more reviews,
interviews, columns
and articles--
March 31st!
*
Copyright 1996 - Haligonian Media
ISSN 1203-5696
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Calling Oliver Stone - editorial
Put on your conspiracy hats and get ready to condemn the press. The trade mags are at it again and "OS/2 is dead" rumours are flying fast and furious. In fact two popular print magazines have recently printed disparaging and woeful editorials that, if not declaring it dead, claimed OS/2 was in critical condition. Which ones am I referring to? No, not PC Mag. Not PC/Computing. Not PCWeek, The Computer Shopper or Windows Magazine. This ominous news originates far closer to home. The magazines that seem so convinced of OS/2's problems are OS/2 Magazine and OS/2 Professional.
Users of the Internet have complained about this type of editorial from OS/2 Professional for some time now, but personally, I thought OS/2 Magazine's Editor-in-Chief, Alan Zeichick, held different opinions. I may have been wrong but it's not entirely clear as his editorial, "Road Kill", in the March issue makes both openly pessimistic comments on OS/2's fate as well as optimistic ones. Maybe he can't decide what he believes.
More worrying than his indecision (at least he is not saying that OS/2 is definitely dead) is his inaccurate reporting of the facts. Mr. Zeichick claims that 1995 ended, "like road kill," for OS/2, citing the end of development on the CompuServe Information Manager for OS/2 and the closing of Athena Design Inc. The closing of Athena Design?!? Does Athena know about this? Well, actually they do, thanks to Mr. Zeichick and they have reportedly sent an official complaint to OS/2 Magazine, which will print a retraction in their next issue. The ceasing of development work on CIMOS/2 is accurate though. Mr. Zeichick is batting .500--not bad if he were playing baseball.
In the same paragraph, he refers to the end of 1995 as a, "dismal fourth quarter." Didn't anyone at IBM send OS/2 Magazine the press release regarding the 1,000,000 licenses of Warp sold in December? Further, he states that OS/2 has an, "increasing inability to maintain a healthy base of native third party products." I disagree strongly and feel I'm backed up by the many wonderfully talented small and medium sized ISV's that have jumped on the OS/2 bandwagon in 1995. And they don't look like they're going anywhere so I'm confused about what he means by maintaining, "a healthy base."
Mr. Zeichick also cites the failure of the PowerPC as a negative reflection on OS/2. True, many of us would have loved to see OS/2 for the PPC selling in stores today, but the failure of the PowerPC chip--produced by another division of IBM, not PSP--is not the fault of OS/2 or PSP. You might argue that PSP's inability to port OS/2 successfully helped the PPC's demise but the truth is, at most, it had a small part in it. So now IBM has stated that OS/2 development in 1996 will be for the Intel platform only. So what? This is a good thing. If no-one is going to successfully sell PPC machines in 1996 then I'm glad PSP is not wasting valuable development dollars on that platform and is instead putting them into the product I use (or will use), Merlin (or Warp 4.0 or 3.1 or whatever) for the Intel 486, Pentium and Pentium Pro and various clones.
The only mitigating feature of Mr. Zeichick's editorial is his own admission that, "Maybe 'road kill' is a little strong, since not all the yearend news was bad." No, it certainly wasn't but I realize print magazines have much longer publication cycles than electronic ones so I'll assume his column went to print before Mr. Zeichick was made aware of the 1,000,000 licenses figure. Again, he certainly doesn't mention it.
Despite his negative view of the past year, at least Mr. Zeichick sees hope for OS/2's future. I'm not sure the same can be said for the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of OS/2 Professional, Edwin Black. For far too long now, that publication has been complaining about OS/2's problems and the January issue (Volume IV, Number 1) is no different. If anything it's worse. In his "Publisher's Memo", Mr. Black gives a eulogy to OS/2 and PSP and wonders if PSP will even exist at press time. I won't condemn Mr. Black too much because it seems he genuinely likes OS/2 (just not IBM) but what the heck is he talking about when he writes, "Never did a product have so much going for it and yet fail so miserably," or, "IBM... killed Warp..."?!?!? Has OS/2 somehow died and we didn't notice? Or is Mr. Black just projecting his own publication's now apparent fate onto the product it is supposed to promote?
It doesn't end there either. The "Special Report" in this same issue is on "The Future of OS/2" and immediately after the title that future is revealed for us: "OS/2 is not dead. It is alive--but only barely, and it sure ain't kickin'." This makes me sick. If the staff of OS/2 Professional believe so strongly that OS/2 is going nowhere, one would think they would make like the proverbial rats and abandon ship before their fur got wet.
And that's what it seems they've done. In a press release dated February 21, International Features, Inc., the publishers of OS/2 Professional, announced they had ceased publication. Their subscription lists were sold to Miller Freeman who promised that subscription holders would be serviced with copies of OS/2 Magazine. Officially, IFI says they wish to focus on other publications (presumably profitable ones). One industry insider told me that OS/2 Professional had been distributed free of charge to too many people for too long to make it in today's economy. Apparently he was right.
How could anyone expect to build a successful publication while they are repeatedly attacking the very product they are attempting to promote, a product that is essential to their readers' businesses?
Whether the closing of OS/2 Professional was due to poor financial management, lack of devotion on the staff's part or other reasons, one thing is clear: there is now only one regular OS/2 print publication in the world. That doesn't bode well for OS/2. But I don't think that necessarily means OS/2 is in trouble. It just means that for various reasons some OS/2 magazines are in trouble. Probably the OS/2 market is still rather small to support many traditional mainstream publications (electronic ones are a different story though!). That is changing, but only slowly as the installed base of OS/2 users gradually increases. It may be a year or more before the number of users and advertisers is sufficient for some other adventurous soul to jump into the OS/2 print market. But it will happen. Until then, the press would do well to remember where their loyalties are. And stop printing such tripe.
OS/2 is not dead! The sheer idiocy of believing something that has been announced repeatedly for the last 3 years (or 4 or 5) despite the obvious fact of OS/2's progress boggles the mind. The sheer idiocy to print such garbage defies description.
In fact, we asked the world to change and stunningly, millions did! In fact more than five million in the last year and a bit have said OK and tried something different. That's not failure, that's amazing! It might not be enough to support a spin-off industry (for example, multiple print publications focusing on OS/2) but it is still a raging success. Mr. Black and Mr. Zeichick should note that five million is more copies than both their publications put together sold all year (and I don't mean readers, I mean the number of copies printed).
So I'm here to tell ya, this is one editor who won't be crying, "the sky is falling." I believe in OS/2 and its future and we are going to continue to expand the quantity of OS/2 e-Zine!'s content and hopefully improve its quality. I believe there are significant and sufficient OS/2 users and ISV's that OS/2 will never go away. We are here for the long term. To quote Mr. Zeichick's closing remarks, "As we begin 1996, there's still life in the OS/2 community. And hope." Too bad none of it resides in the "traditional" press.
and telnet communications software. OS/2 Magazine and Inside OS/2 1995
award winner.
Indelible Blue (http://www.indelible-blue.com/ib/)
Indelible Blue, a mail order company, provides OS/2 software and hardware solutions to customers worldwide.
MicroLearn (http://www.microlearn.se/)
Creators of native high-quality OS/2 entertainment software, including the MicroLearn Game Pack, Volumes 1-3 and the upcoming ML Pool.
Mt. Baker Software (http://www.Mount-Baker.com)
Developers of "Money Tree", a full featured personal financial package
for OS/2.
SPG (http://www.spg-net.com/)
Creators of ColorWorks for OS/2 - The Artist's Ultimate Power Program! ColorWorks has earned both the 1995 OS/2 Magazine Editor's Choice & the 1995 OS/2 Professional Magazine Best New Product Awards.
Readers Who Have Sponsored:
The entire staff of OS/2 e-Zine! would like to extend special thanks to the following readers who have made significant contributions.
Dr. Ronald E. Wyllys David Busby Stephen Boileau
Quentin Z. Whiplinger Gregory Mobley Ian W. MacKee
Christopher A. King Michel Slivitzky Dennis J. Tuchler
Robert Griswold Wm. Bradley Read II R. Edgar Scrutton
Welcome back to the Beta File. As always, we've done our best to scour the web for interesting OS/2 applications in beta testing this month. Many of the programs we've mentioned in past columns are now "on the shelves" (or the FTP sites) or about to be. Below, you'll find the next batch of software you'll soon be seeing at a site near you.
And of course, during any given month, we don't come across every company currently in development. What's that you say? You want to help fill out this column? You have a product that you're sure is going to be the next killer app? You want a little free hype? Well get off your keister and drop us a note (editor@haligonian.com)!
Now, to business.
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Jan Hubicka (hubicka@paru.cas.cz) and Thomas A. K. Kjaer (takjaer@daimi.aau.dk) have taken it upon themselves to conjure up a native version of the Unix multiplayer action game, Koules. Since Hubicka is the game's original author the team brings some authority to the project. Trust me, I've played the OS/2 version and it's addictive!
Koules/2 (http://www.daimi.aau.dk/~takjaer/OS2CodeP.html), as its latest incarnation is called, features DIVE/Fullscreen DIVE support, playfield sizes of 320x200, 320x240 & 640x480 and is possibly the first public non-IBM FSDive aware program. Since the software is covered by the GNU GPL it is free of charge and includes the full source code! By the time you read this it should be available in the /os2/games directory of hobbes but you can always grab a copy at the Koules/2 WWW site.
Currently about 10 people have been testing for a short time and the development team is still accepting beta participants. If you want to get involved, grab koules.zip from the mentioned sites and play it. It's that simple!
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The winner of the "most colourful software name of the month" is definitely RED, or as it is more formally known, Rexx Editor. Black Pine Development (http://www.halcyon.com/blkpine/) is in Phase One of their two phase beta test of this new shareware editor. The beta is open to the public and participants for the second phase will be picked from the feedback provided in the first phase. If you want to get in on the fun download the initial beta from the usual OS/2 FTP sites or visit the Black Pine home page after 15 March 1996.
According to David E. Wald (blkpine@halcyon.com), the lead developer, RED is an editor designed to use drag and drop interface for REXX/VXREXX programing. The final release is expected by mid May 1995 and should carry a registration fee under US$40.
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Here's some welcome news for those of you (or rather, those of _us_!) that routinely do minor graphics editing. Paul Czarny (pczarny@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca) has gotten as fed up as the rest of us and taken it upon himself to create a small, simple paint and animation program for OS/2. BluePaint is currently in v0.1 so it's obviously very early in the beta program but Paul has been working on it since December of '95.
As of Feb. 21st, about 500 people have downloaded the program so it's a pretty open beta. If you want to download a copy or take a look at a screen shot jump over to Paul's WWW site (http://www.undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca/~pczarny).
BluePaint features an multiple document interface that lets you work on up to three images or animations simultaneously, full clipboard support, and flexible image size. Again, this is very early in this product's development so new features are as much a function of beta testers' input as anything.
The final version will be freeware. In Czarny's words, "That means, it's available to everyone at no cost, you'll never see any annoying registration reminders, it won't expire after using it for 30 minutes in demo mode, nothing like that." There should be another release in the first week of April '96, and at least 2 new releases by the end of summer '96 (during next 6 months) in any case. No word yet on when this work in progress will eventually be finished. Maybe you can help!
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MainConcept, GbR (http://www.ac-copy.com/maincpt.html) of Germany is currently continuing that country's long-standing support of OS/2 with their new modular animation package, MainActor/2. Originally developed for the Amiga, the OS/2 version can load, edit, create, convert and play any animation format for which it has the proper loader/saver module. The final version will have support for most animation formats, including MPEG and AVI. Quicktime is already integrated. DIVE is used for playback.
MainActor/2 is shareware although a commercial successor is likely. Registration of the shareware version will be US$60. The current betas are free of charge and can be obtained from hobbes or from the MainConcept home page.
Markus Moenig (markusm@mainconcept.de), the main developer of MainActor/2 (no pun intended or achieved), says, "MainActor is the most powerful animation package for the Amiga, we hope to make it as good on OS/2."
So far the public beta has lasted about a month. The general availability version will take around three or four months to complete. MainConcept is still accepting participants so feel free to drop by their site and offer your help.
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And finally, in an update to a previous Beta File, Craig Pommer (cpommer@blue.georgian.net) has released the first public beta version of his replacement for "IBM's Dial Other Provider" application. By the time you read this, iLink/2 should be available on the regular OS/2 FTP sites under the filename Ilnk099a.zip. Grab it and start dialling!
---Our Sponsor: BMT Micro (http://www.wilmington.net/bmtmicro/)---
I'm back! To all of you looking for me last month, my apologies.
This month's topic is tuning your OS/2 system to get the maximum performance. Actually, in order to cover this topic with the detail needed, it will be split into two parts. This month we will cover the basic concept of hardware and how it affects the tuning of your system, and we will look at a few freeware utilities that will help you in this project. Next month we will get a little more gritty and dig into the CONFIG.SYS and other less traveled places.
The first key to tuning any system is knowing what you are dealing with. There is no sense in beefing up your HPFS disk cache if you are using only FAT partitions. Also, if you are using a 1 meg ISA video card, no amount of tuning in the world will speed up redraws if you are using the highest resolution and color depth possible for the card. If you know your system's weaknesses and strengths, you can better adjust to make up for the differences in order to get the desired results.
The Hardware
There are four key hardware elements to any system. They are memory, video, hard disk, and processor. Lets look at these more closely and see how to rank and evaluate them. If you are planning a hardware upgrade you will want to pay close attention. If you are just looking
for a few tips, read on as well. Knowing how OS/2 uses your hardware will give you a great head start on planning your attack for tuning your system.
OS/2 is a 32 bit multithreaded, multitasking operating system. It was designed to run many programs (each with one or more threads) concurrently. To achieve this IBM engineers learned early on that most operations had to take place in memory, and not rely heavily on the processor. This is one of the reasons why Warp on a 133mhz Pentium with 8 meg of RAM is slower than a 486 DX/2 66 with 32 meg of RAM.
No matter what you run or how you run it, an increase in memory is usually the single best way to boost performance of OS/2. Realistically speaking, OS/2 needs at least 8 meg to run. Twelve megs will make your system much more responsive. Sixteen is the first major sweet point for OS/2, the second being 32 meg. Even with 32 you will get some swapping to the hard disk, but by this point most systems are very snappy and powerful enough to handle all but the most demanding graphics and database tasks. Adding RAM is pretty straightforward. Check with your computer manufacturer or any reputable memory retailer
to determine what type you need (30 pin, 72 pin, parity, non-parity, EDO, etc.) and the current prices. If you're not comfortable actually inserting the memory chips, have a professional do it.
Next, video becomes very important because no matter how fast your system is, you won't know it if your screen isn't being updated. The exceptions to this are if you're doing a lot of background tasks such as database maintenance or spreadsheet recalculations, or you don't need
resolutions better than 640x480x16 colors. In this case you may be OK with a slower video card. Just make sure you're taking advantage of your hardware. If you've got a Vesa Local Bus system make sure you're using a VL-Bus video card. If you've got a fancy new Pentium motherboard with a PCI bus, that old ISA video card will shackle it when it wants to fly. And, of course, if you want to use high resolutions, you're going to want lots of video memory.
Depending on your requirements, hard disks may or may not be a big issue for you. If you primarily run one or two apps at a time, a fast IDE hard drive will be more than enough for your system. If you do a lot of disk intensive tasks, or you multithread (run multiple apps) heavily, SCSI with a busmastering controller is the only way to go. (E)IDE at its best can handle only two requests (although I hear four is in the works) at a time, while SCSI can handle somewhere around 254 (depending on your controller). This makes a huge difference when you have 4+ programs all trying to read/write to the same disk. With IDE your processor has to wait around for a response from the first couple of requests before it can even think about any others. With SCSI your processor can get the ball rolling and then move on to other important stuff.
If your system is at least a 486 DX33 or above, you have more than enough horsepower for OS/2. In fact, OS/2 isn't very processor intensive as a general rule. If you are a major number cruncher or a CAD user, processor speed becomes important, but if all you do is
surf the 'net and type letters, a 486 DX is more than adequate. If your choice is between upgrading your 486 DX to a Pentium or getting more memory, opt for the memory. If your system takes 72 pin SIMMS just be sure to buy your memory in pairs (two 8 meg SIMMS instead of one 16 meg SIMM) so you can transfer them to a Pentium motherboard down the road.
Getting the right mix of hardware depends entirely on your expected uses of your system and the expected performance. For most home users a 486 DX/2 66 with a fast IDE hard drive and 12 meg of memory is a decent machine. A Pentium 75 with 16 meg is a screamer. Add a fast video card and SCSI and all your Win95 friends will want to buy OS/2.
Watching What You've Got
Assuming you have the hardware you want let's now look at a couple of freeware utilities that help you tune what you already have. My philosophy has always been to start simple and get progressively more in depth. That is why I covered hardware first. For some people $1500 for 16 megs of memory and a new SCSI controller and 1 gig hard drive is easier to swing than the hours it takes to properly tune a system. For others though, time and effort is the most available asset to work with.
For people with little money and little time, you are still in luck thanks to dedicated people like Rick Meigs and his freeware utility CNFGINFO (hobbes.nmsu.edu/os2/editors/cfginfo4.zip). For users who want a quick way to do a basic tune on their CONFIG.SYS without getting their hands dirty, this is the utility to have. Not only does it step through the CONFIG.SYS and suggest improvements, but it also has one of the most in depth databases on OS/2 drivers I have seen anywhere. Novices and power users alike will marvel at the depth of this product.
CNFGINFO does a great job of getting you on the right path, but it still isn't the only answer. Monitoring you system while it is doing its normal work load is still the best way to see its weaknesses. Small utilities such as GO! (hobbes.nmsu.edu/os2/textutil/go_15.zip) help you see exactly what is running under a typical load. DINFO (hobbes.nmsu.edu/os2/wpsutil/dinfo13.zip) lets you monitor the size of your swap file in real time, giving you an accurate picture of just what apps are the real hogs on your system. PULSE (which comes with Warp) gives you a fairly accurate picture of processor utilization (I say fairly because things such as a Win-OS/2 session can confuse it and make it think you are running at 100% utilization).
Next Time
The above should be a good start in getting your OS/2 machine up to Warp speed. Next month we will look at tuning in more depth. We will talk about your CONFIG.SYS, drivers, swap files, and all that good techie type stuff. If anyone has any real world stories or experiences, e-mail
me (heathp@athenet.net) or the editor (editor@haligonian.com) and I will include them in a separate section.
Bye for now and happy Warping!
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Heath Phillippi (http://www.athenet.net/~heathp/) is currently a Customer Engineer for AmeriData, Inc. in Appleton Wisconsin. He is the OS/2 Warp Champion for the OS/2 BESTeam, as well as a proud member of Team OS/2.
Okay, so here we are again, another month, another column. I wasn't sure what I wanted to tackle this month, but after reading my last column I figured it out. We have to discuss what you do when you want REXX to do something that it isn't designed to do. There are many add-ons available for OS/2 REXX that let programers do things that pure REXX wasn't originally designed to do. I plan to concentrate this column on the RexxUtil DLL that comes with OS/2 REXX as standard issue. This little DLL does a host of nice things, including reading and writing .INI files, creating and removing directories, and quite a few other 'nifty' things.
What Are External Functions?
RexxUtil is an external library, or DLL (Dynamic Link Library), that provides additional features to the OS/2 REXX language. This type of library is typically coded in a language other than REXX, normally C++. OS/2's RexxUtil provides these basic functions and more:
Positioning the cursor
Reading .INI files
Drive Information
Create/Remove directories
Getting Directory Listings
Searching for text in Files
Handling Extended Attributes
Modifying WPS objects
Before you can use any of these functions in a REXX program the external function, RexxUtil, must be registered with the REXX program. You have a choice of to how to register REXX functions: REXX provides the built-in function RxFuncAdd with which you can load either one function or all of the additional REXX functions that are contained in RexxUtil at one time. Once you load a RexxUtil function it can be used by any OS/2 session until the function is unloaded or the computer is reset. I find it good practice to load all the functions at once; the amount this will effect the system is immeasurable, so you may as well load them all.
As you may or may not notice, some of the features that RexxUtil implements are already a part of the OS/2 operating system itself, such as add or remove directories. Keep in mind however that the RexxUtil functions are much faster than just calling an OS/2 MD command to make a directory. They also do not output the results of their operations to the screen thus making for a more professional looking program. There are also other examples (such as positioning the cursor on the screen) of functions in RexxUtil that duplicate command line abilities.
GREP This
Okay, now that we now what the RexxUtil functions are, I had to think of a program that I needed that would make use of at least one or two of them. To make use of these features I decided to write my own "GREP" utility using the RexxUtil functions. What the heck is "GREP", you ask--well, you definitely didn't come from UNIX roots. Read on.
With the use of the RexxUtil function SysFileSearch along with SysFileTree, you can easily search for text in any file specifying only a directory and file mask. For Example, if my REXX version of GREP was called SEARCH, you would type:
SEARCH SWAP C:\CONFIG.*
This would return all the files with names starting in CONFIG.* that have the word SWAP in the file. This, more or less, is GREP.
I found a program in _Teach Yourself REXX in 21 Days_ that's close to the "GREP" program I wanted but not quite right. This "GREP" will search all subdirectories of the path given on the command line, whether you want it to or not. So if one wanted to search for the word CDROM in the file C:\config.sys this program would search all the subdirectories of C:\ which means the entire hard drive. I will edit this program for next time to provide a switch that will enable searching all subdirectories or disable this feature, along with the option of outputting all the matches to a file instead of the screen.
Other REXX Add-ons
There are also several external REXX libraries available for OS/2 REXX, aside from the one included with OS/2. Several are shareware or are available in stripped down demo versions. Some permit REXX to access the data found in DB/2 databases, some add additional mathematical functions to REXX such as REXX Lib by Quercus Systems. The sky is the limit as far as external REXX functions are concerned, all that has to be done is for someone to sit down and code additional functions by writing a DLL. This means that REXX can do just about anything that any other language can. This is proven by the existence of such add-on DLLs as VX-REXX, which allow GUI programming in REXX.
Next Time
I'd say that just about sums it up for this column. Next month I hope to show you my new and improved "GREP" along with some additional REXX external libraries built into REXX aware programs. I'll take a look at the REXX functions built into LiveWire and Zap-O-Com (ZOC), that provide immense power over these two communications programs. (Again, these features are added through the use of an external REXX library.) Take it easy and keep on coding in REXX. Feel free to send me any samples of code, raves, or, God forbid, rants about my column at the e-mail address below.
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Paul Monaghan (paulm@ulix.net) is a system operator for ULIX (http://www.ulix.net) specializing in OS/2. He also maintains a web page on How to make a BBS Telnetable (http://www.geopages.com/siliconvalley/1820) and is a member of Team OS/2.
Welcome to The Warped SOHO. This column has been an idea of mine for quite some time, but now thanks to OS/2 e-Zine! it's a reality. My reasons for writing this are simple, OS/2 Warp is great for the SOHO environment and few if any places seem to show it in that light. I have run my business on OS/2 since I started it, which is about 3 years now. In addition I have used OS/2 before that in various environments (as well as just about every other OS that has been in existence for the personal computer, from Commodore 64s to TRS-80s and many other which are even less remembered). I have been using computers since I was in 5th grade and I am not sure I could get by without one. Since I was raised on a computer, like many of you, I have come to believe that it should and can do almost anything I need it to accomplish. That's why I fell in love with OS/2 even in its 2.0 incarnation. I learned that with true 32bit multitasking and multithreading and a powerful yet comparatively easy language, such as REXX, I could be much more productive.
Now that I have given you much more background on myself than you probably ever wanted lets get down to the nitty gritty. This column has some simple objectives. The Warped SOHO is meant to be informative. It is meant to be interactive. And most of all it's meant to help you exploit OS/2 and get more things done with it.
I have lots of things that I am always trying to get done using my PC and OS/2 Warp. I figure others probably want to do the same types of things, so why not share these ideas? This is where interactivity comes into play. I want to know what kinds of things you want to do with OS/2 Warp. I want all kinds of ideas. I already plan on talking about how to use Warp to answer your phones, control lights and other electronics, automate common tasks, run your computer via voice, access your computer remotely, and many other such things. I also want to cover some topics which may seem easy, such as faxing and word processing, and expand on them to use Warp's power to make them easier as well as more useful. I am sure that there are many other things people want to learn how to do and that's why I want to hear from you. So drop me a line (collin@ice.net) with a subject of "Lets Warp It" and let me know the Warped ideas you have.
For every topic that I cover I plan to include as many ways to get it done as possible. For example, if I talk about using Word Processors to create your own business cards, I'll use Describe, AmiPro, IBM Works and any other WP I can get hold of. I will also make any necessary files available for download so that you can start using my suggestions quickly without redoing all of my work and so you can easily expand or improve on what I have done. I hope that you'll send me copies of whatever you come up with so I can share them with others.
One last request I have is that if you know of a product for OS/2 which you think is useful (most are in some way) let me know and I will try to figure out how to take advantage of it. If you develop or market an OS/2 product, let me know as I want to make sure I use as many native apps as I can to do any and all tasks I talk about. Most importantly, I don't want anything to be an open and shut case. I hope to get people talking about what things I missed or how to make what I do even more efficient. If I get enough good ideas or revision to ideas I'll revisit the topic in a later issue.
All in all I hope this column appeals to you as I feel that we can all use some tips to take advantage of OS/2 Warp's power. So let the ideas begin and I hope to have you all on "The Warped SOHO" soon. Oh yeah I am sure that some, maybe many, of these ideas will help anyone using OS/2, not just SOHOs, so feel free to read and comment even if you don't actually have an office--small or other!
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Collin W. Summers (www.ice.net/~collin) is president of CSSolutions Inc., a small computer consulting firm in central Illinois, specializing in OS/2 and related products. Currently he spends much of his time doing technical support/marketing for IBM. He also contributes to OS/2 Warp Monthly.
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* Design a custom animation for the WebExplorer (that little animated icon in the top right hand corner of your browser)
* zip it up
* send it to submissions@haligonian.com
Need more instructions or details on what these animations are and how to create them? Check our "News Folder" for complete contest details and explanation of how to create a WebEx animation.
When Is The Deadline?
The contest closes March 31, 1996.
What Else Should You Know?
All entries must be completely original work! Please do not submit other people's work or animations with screen captures of other people's or corporations graphics. They can not be considered for prizes. By submitting an animation you agree to give OS/2 e-Zine! the right to publish and/or use said animation.
That's about it. If your animation is really rockin' we might even choose it as the official OS/2 e-Zine! animation! So get busy!
After some gentle prodding from friends and associates and an e-mail from someone telling me off for not having a soundcard after I did the Galactic Civilizations review, I bought myself a SoundBlaster/CD-ROM bundle. I've just had a hell of a time making it work.
The trouble is that I foolishly picked up the Plug and Play version of the hardware, and from that point onward, the pain began.
OS/2 currently does not support Plug and Play except for PCMCIA cards, and hey, I don't have a notebook. I didn't know it was a PnP card at the time, the thought wasn't in my mind when I picked up the box. I just knew that a few hours earlier I had dropped in on #OS/2 in
IRC and asked "If I get a SoundBlaster/CD-ROM bundle, will it work okay with Warp?" They said "No prob," one even pointed out he was using such a pack and everything was peachy.
So the soundcard was plugged in, the old 5.25" drive lost and the CD-ROM put in its place, cables plugged in, a 'Y' splitter for the power cable (the last plug was being used by the CPU fan I put in a few months back), closed the case and switched it on. My belief was that after selecting the SoundBlaster 16 and Creative Labs CD-ROM from the Selective Install, everything would be done with.
Not so. (Couldn't you guess?)
Plug and Play cards may embody the latest tech, but they can't act like a regular jumpers-and-IRQ style card with an out of date OS (now don't shout at me, OS/2 is out of date in _this_ respect, and if you're patient enough all that will be cleaned up with Merlin, okay?). So of course the regular SoundBlaster drivers wouldn't work. No sound, no CDs, no Coca-Cola.
After failing to get either component working I had to resort to tech support. Creative Labs has a 1-800 number, but it's an automated system that must be running on Windows and therefore hasn't heard of OS/2 (or it is running on OS/2--being an excellent platform for
mission-critical applications--it's just that the guy with the annoying sales-pitch voice had never heard of it). All questions unanswerable by the automated support are directed to a non-800 long-distance toll call. So I called, and I paid. They put me on hold for about 15-20 minutes before someone got to me. Of course the first question they asked was "What version of Windows are you using?"
Ahem.
I'm polite on the phone unless I'm given good incentive to shout (and a poor tech support guy for Kipplinger's Tax Cut got the brunt of that when he told me in a snotty-nosed voice that IBM wasn't committed to OS/2. Hah, my money went to TaxDollars for that one). Anyway, I told the tech support (by a slip of his tongue he implied that he was just 'hired help' and reading from a screen) that I was using OS/2 and listened as he stumbled and apologized humbly to me. We talked for about 15 minutes and to my partial relief he told me there were OS/2 drivers to make the Plug-and-Play SoundBlaster work. Catch: The CD-ROM doesn't work through the SoundBlaster interface (thanks to OS/2 not being fully PnP compatible.)
The technician told me that there were a few alternatives I could try.
1. Slave the CD-ROM under my hard drive (it's an IDE CD-ROM after all). Unfortunately I have 2 hard drives, so then there's
2. Plug the CD-ROM into the secondary IDE port. Bummer, my controller card doesn't have a secondary IDE port (and neither does my motherboard.) So on to
3. Whenever I start the computer, boot to DOS first, run the DOS utilities that come with the package, then 'warm boot' to OS/2 (I can't run the same utilities under OS/2 because they generate nice little General Protection Faults).
I told him that my hard drives went on a diet and lost their FAT--I'm using a pure HPFS system. Even if I did have a DOS partition handy (or made one with Partition Magic), it would be excruciatingly awkward to do that every time I boot.
Okay, I decided to go for option 2 and buy a new controller card with a secondary IDE port. That cost me $80 (the only store in town that had one also felt free to jack up their prices) and it didn't work with spectacular results.
Being thoroughly British born and bred, with an appreciation for the fine arts and classical music, I swore at it liberally.
I set the drive to Master, I set the drive to Slave, I plugged it into the primary, I plugged it into the secondary, I loaded the IBM drivers, I loaded the manufacturer's drivers, I tried every permutation of software switches, I changed religions 3 times and for a dangerous moment considered the other operating system.
Not a bloody thing would make it go.
I called tech support again.
"What version of Windows are you using?"
I politely told the man I wasn't using Windows and he put me through to the WinNT/OS/2 support guy (different person from the one I'd talked to the night before). We had a long chat and I found out that he has OS/2 as well (possibly a requirement of the job, he probably has NT
too) and knew his way around Selective Install and the CONFIG.SYS. When I told him the controller card was a 'DTC' one he groaned and mentioned that only half an hour ago he was assisting someone else with the same thing and that nothing would work. My heart sank, he sighed, we both got down to seeing what we could do.
We couldn't.
The ruddy piece of plastic and solder was useless and I'm counting myself lucky that the electronics store has a 30-day return policy.
So what did I end up doing? I lost the second hard drive of course, slaved the CD-ROM under the main hard drive, and made-the-stupid-thing-work. I now have 200 megabytes less than I used to have, although that's alright I suppose since I can probably manage without for a while. If the controller card didn't see the CD-ROM on the secondary port it _might_ see the hard drive instead (but I don't know yet).
In retrospect I should have bought the non Plug-and-Play hardware and saved myself a lot of trouble, but where _is_ the non-PnP hardware anymore? Our local OfficeMax has nearly exclusive PnP hardware, I'm just lucky that Creative Labs is very good at OS/2
drivers (they've even ported all those flashy-looking CD, MIDI and WAV player apps) and their tech support _does_ have an OS/2 crew.
But why do they ask "What version of Windows do you have?" It's asked as if you're _supposed_ to have Windows. As soon as I tell them I have OS/2 they shuffle me around and put me on hold for another 15 minutes, while I bet the Windows users are in and out with no problem. ("Hey Frank, it's another one who tried to shove the soundcard through the floppy slot.")
With the same amount of breath they could have said "What operating system are you using?" and it would have been more polite to OS/2 users like _us_.
Alas, I think they fear some users don't know what 'Operating System' means and it'll take a few more breaths to explain it to them.
We shouldn't have to put up with this, we're not babies.
End of rant.
P.S. If the tech-support guy I was talking to last Wednesday is reading this, send me some e-mail, I was the one with the British accent.
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Chris Wenham (http://www.spectra.net/~fox) is a Team OS/2er in Binghamton, NY with a catchy-titled company--Wenham's Web Works. He has been writing all sorts of strange things from comedy to sci-fi to this.
Some people have occasionally taken exception to the things I rant about each month. That's not surprising. They're rants. They're incendiary by nature and if they don't stir up some feedback they're not worth much. This month though, I thought I'd rant a bit about something that _I_ do that bothers me.
So here it is. I'm sick and tired of the way I can't help wanting the toys the "other guy" has.
I have a computer with a fair amount of gadgetry. It's certainly not at the bottom of the technology barrel and compared to the circuit board that passed for my first machine, it's the Enterprise's on-board computer (Paramount's, not NASA's). In fact, it does just about everything I want it to--run OS/2, word processing, access the Internet, run Doom and Descent with ease--and does it well. Sure it could always use more RAM, a faster CD-ROM or a better video card, but that's the nature of this business. The point is, overall, I've got more computer than I deserve. I'm a privileged guy.
Still, every time I walk into a store and see some slick new game, fancy piece of hardware or revolutionary killer app, I get a gut-wrenching resentment that I can't have it. Why can't I have it? No, it's not because my wallet is too thin (although it is) or my girlfriend has warned me about spending any more time with my computer (although she has). It's because it has those three (depending on how you count) evil words on the box: For Windows 3.x.
OK, it's not always those evil words, sometimes it's "For Macintosh" and sometimes it's "For Windows 95", but you get my point. Despite the fact that my computer does almost everything I need it to and I have no more free time to spend even if I could afford more games, sometimes when I see Windows software I get "the twinge". You know the twinge. It's the little tug that starts in your gut when your eyes first take in "UltraSoft's Super-App Pro v9.73". It quickly causes your left eye (sometimes both) to start twitching erratically. Then it spreads to your extremities and your fists start clenching. Eventually, unable to control them, your feet take you out of range of the offending software. The disappointment of not being able to run this wondrous new application is too much and you just have to get away.
Why all this fuss over something I (and you) don't need? Why are we doomed to desire the forbidden fruit of other operating systems? Probably for the same reason that children with more than they can eat still say, "Mine!" when you ask them to share. I guess I've just never grown up, because that's what this application-envy is, pure childishness.
Of course, sometimes these feelings are justified, for example, when you consider a category of application that is genuinely useful but doesn't exist for OS/2, like desktop publishing software. I sure would like a good OS/2 counterpart to PageMaker. And there are still some rare examples of native OS/2 software that just doesn't offer a feature that other platforms' software does. This usually isn't the case when I get the twinge though. I usually want the software in question just for the sake of having it. Pure gluttony.
This isn't a new fault of mine either. I bought my first IBM compatible shortly after the release of the Macintosh (I took a long hiatus after an early experience with a TRS-80). My computer was as amazing to me as if Big Blue had shipped me a mainframe, but every time I walked by a store displaying a Mac I felt bitter. Buying version 3.0 of Windows didn't cure my Mac-lust either, that darn grass was still greener over at Apple Computers. And I wouldn't be surprised if Mac users feel the same sort of thing sometimes when they see really neat Windows applications. They certainly don't suffer from lack of native gee-whiz software but I bet they occasionally get the twinge.
The simple fact is that we all occasionally suffer from envy of our peers. That's why the fairy tale that OS/2 is somehow inferior to Windows because it has less native software has persisted for so long. We all know that OS/2 has plenty of native software to get almost any job done, but if you asked a Windows user (especially one who has never used OS/2) I'll bet he would claim OS/2 has "no" native software. It's not just because people are fooled by the lack of software on the shelves, it's because if you don't have 16 of every type of application, then it's not enough for Windows users. Like me, they want to be able to buy every shiny gadget they see--even though they know they can't possibly use them all.
So knowing this, am I going to stop being so silly? Am I going to stop wanting the latest and greatest thing just because it's the latest and greatest thing? Am I going to stop wishing I had as many options as Windows users, even though I only need one of each program? Not likely. And neither are you, so don't look at me that way.
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Trevor Smith (editor@haligonian.com) is the editor of OS/2 e-Zine!. He loves to shop and complain.
For my contribution to this esteemed column, how about a change from the norm?
The following Rave doesn't concern a must-have application or program you've never heard about, or at least it shouldn't. No, this article is intended as a kind of tribute to a set of programs, which I think it's long past time were given the credit they richly deserve. They're the unsung heroes of many an OS/2 computer, and certainly of every OS/2 computer with a modem. What else can I be talking about, but the good old Info-Zip archiving utilities?
Most PC users, of whichever platform (OS/2, DOS, Win, etc.), probably don't think much about zipping and unzipping files. It's a pretty unusual DOS/Win computer which doesn't have a copy of PKZIP/PKUNZIP lurking somewhere on the hard drive; indeed, it seems impossible to do without them these days. (For that matter, it must be equally unusual to find someone who has actually bothered to _register_ the PKWare utilities, but the least said on that front, the better...)
OS/2 aficionados, however, have a bit of a problem as regards PKZIP/UNZIP. Granted, we can use the DOS version via a DOS session, but we want to preserve all our long filenames and such, and PKZip and DOS emulation don't recognise them. Whilst PKWare have ported their utilities to OS/2, the latest version hasn't kept up with those for other platforms. As far as I'm aware, there isn't a PKZIP/PKUNZIP 2.x for OS/2 yet--something of a problem, as most ZIP files at the major archives were produced using version 2.x, and thus require PKUNZIP 2.x to extract them. (I know whereof I speak, having tried the OS/2 PKUNZIP. It's not much fun receiving "what's this?" messages with every ZIP file you feed into the damn thing.)
All is not lost, however, thanks to a kind bunch of programmers going under the name Info-Zip. They've produced a ZIP-compatible suite of archiving utilities, specifically designed to be ported easily to the more "esoteric" platforms as well as common ones, and the OS/2 set is simply a must-have for any self-respecting Warper. If you've got them, bear with me, and if you haven't (say, if you're a recent convert from DOS/Windows and don't know what I'm on about), here's why I think they're worth a Rave column.
They do a great job. I've heard the Info-Zip ZIP program can't quite match the compression ratio of PKZIP, but to be frank I can't tell the difference.
They support OS/2-specific file features. A major drawback of the OS/2 PKZIP/UNZIP I tried was a lack of support for long filenames (at least, with the PMZIP front-end). With the Info-Zip archiver, you retain these and other EA-related information, so files on HPFS drives can be zipped without having to rename them, providing the receiving machine has an HPFS drive too.
They have a wide range of utilities written for them. As the archiving suite of choice for the discerning OS/2 user there are more utilities to complement the Info-Zip set than for any other archiver. Scared by all those command-line options? Yup, me too--thankfully others realise this, hence the large number of GUI "front-end" apps available. (I'd recommend the shareware program RPF Zip Control, especially if you use the Presentation Manager without the WPS, but my personal top award has to go to Object Desktop's archive objects. They add new object classes to the WPS, representing ZIP and other archive formats as desktop folders--all archiving is done in the background, and you're hardly aware it's going on. Why did no-one think of this before?)
They're free. The fact that Info-Zip put all this work into creating their ZIP/UNZIP suite, with all the above features, and then released it into the public domain for all us OS/2 users to pick up _gratis_, must make this one of the great philanthropic acts in the history of our fave OS. Considering that PKWare somehow feel justified in charging over $30 for their (IMHO) rather inferior equivalent, the latter ought to hang their heads in shame, or at the very least bring out PKZIP 2.04 for OS/2.
That's not to say Info-Zip has everything. I'm sure I'm not the only user who wishes the program could create and extract ZIPs spread across multiple floppies, and some kind of utility for creating self-extracting archives (e.g. ZIP2EXE) would prove a most welcome addition. But let's face it: these are minor quibbles. Info-Zip has given us a high-quality set of archivers, designed to take advantage of OS/2's special features, and isn't asking pots of moolah for it. If they're reading this, I'd like to say a huge thanks to the Info-Zip team, and I'm sure I don't speak alone.
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Tim Walker (tim.walker@rapidcom.co.uk) is based near London, and works in electronic media (on-line and CD-ROM) for a major publisher of journals. He uses OS/2 at home, and hopes to have his own home page up before long.
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Linfield's Line: Engineering with OS/2 - by Kevin Linfield
Although you may have a hard time arguing it with someone running some flavour of UNIX on their home machine, OS/2 is an excellent choice for engineers and scientists. Not only do you get the multiple advantages of running OS/2 that it shares with its UNIX counterpart (such as crash protection, pre-emptive multitasking, and 32-bit applications) but you also get the ability to run thousands of DOS, Windows, and native OS/2 programs.
Being an aerospace engineer (yes, I really am a rocket scientist!) and an OS/2 fan, I feel that I have migrated well from the standardized UNIX base which is too often associated with the engineering profession. The work I do is a combination of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and experimental, and I have been doing it all on my OS/2 desktop machine. While my actual applications may differ from other scientists' and engineers', I think that you would be surprised at the amount of native OS/2 software that is available (and useful) for scientists, engineers, and students of both fields.
Programming
An engineering job usually involves some programming. I personally use Watcom FORTRAN 77 version 9.5 (latest release is 10.0) and am quite happy with it. The package includes versions for OS/2, DOS, Windows 3.1, and Windows NT. Although it comes with a debugger and other tools, I find myself using the good old "brute force method" to route out bugs in my code. A friend of mine (hi Rambod!) uses Watcom's C/C++ version 10.0 (latest release 10.5) for his
programming needs. He likes the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and is using the compiler's ability to link his C code with FORTRAN subroutines.
Some users may note that neither of us use the latest version. One thing I find is that when you are happy with something, you don't go and break it. It is not always worth the hassle and expense of upgrading your software when the version you use does the job satisfactorily.
Graphing
Of course, you need something to display the results of your code. Two graphing packages are found on all of my OS/2 machines: gnuplot and LinePlot. Both are available on Hobbes (the first freeware, the latter shareware) and I strongly recommend them to anyone needing a graphing package. Gnuplot is better for "quick and dirty" plots when you need to see trends in your data or to quickly compare two runs, but LinePlot is more professional and is designed for
"presentation" quality graphs.
Presentations
Part of being an engineer is making presentations. With my roots in the UNIX world (and the need for compatibility with other machines around the lab) I use LaTeX for my reports and overhead slides. With its PSFIG module for adding Postscript figures, I find it the most powerful text formatter available (though I freely admit not the easiest to learn and to use). I use PMDraw for my diagrams (also on Hobbes), which is a bit rough around the edges but it gets the job done. (Please, somebody port Xfig over to OS/2. I'll pay you!) Of course, it goes without saying that if you are doing anything in Postscript you need GhostView for OS/2. This PS viewer lets me verify how my output will look before I send it to the laser printer.
Applications
Here is where I lumped together the other native OS/2 software that keeps me sane. All are available on Hobbes.
Kudos to Mr. Grothmann for his Euler program. I use it for matrix manipulation but it does so much more. It can handle real and complex numbers, vectors, matrices, can produce 2D and 3D graphics, and if you are so inclined you can use its built in programming language (although I personally use FORTRAN when necessary).
MathMate 1.1 for OS/2 by Science & Engineering Software Experts Ltd. may also be beneficial to many engineers. It calculates, numerically integrates, sums up mathematical expressions, and solves equations containing numbers, variables, and arithmetical operations. Check it out.
And of course, no one should be without a calculator. There are many available, but I use Pocket Calculator by Tim Baldwin. It contains almost all of the scientific functions that I need (except X^Y) and it is free. I also like PM Line Calc by Andrea Di Paola. It can handle powers and performs all of the functions a good (meaning expensive) calculator provides.
Commercial Stuff I Don't Have
I should mention that there are other commercial applications beneficial to an engineer that I personally don't have. The biggies include Mathematica and Maple for OS/2, both of which are shipping but cost around $1000 each. IBM CAD is a computer aided designing program which could compete with AutoCad if AutoCad weren't so amazing, but as I stated previously, I use PMDraw for my diagrams or (gasp) hand draw my diagrams.
Concluding Remarks
OS/2 or UNIX. In either case, an engineer will be happy, but for me, not having to reboot to play a game or to send a fax is an added plus. With Warp's Internet Access Kit (IAK) I can easily SLIP onto our UNIX machines (running SLIrP no less) and easily transfer files or use the faster machines. UNIX is nice, but overall, OS/2 is better for me.
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Kevin Linfield (ag883@torfree.net) is a Toronto based consultant and a freelance writer.
Visit Indelible Blue (http://www.indelible-blue.com/ib/) - Indelible Blue is a mail order reseller specializing in state-of-the-art OS/2 software and hardware solutions for corporations and individuals. Corporate volume discounts available.
This month we focus on the desktop: what it can do for you, what you should do with it, and how you can make it prettier, easier to use, and more secure. The WPS truly is one of Warp's most advanced and most powerful features, but at the same time, it is sometimes feared and often under-utilized. "No more!" we say. Hopefully in the following pages you'll find out everything you ever wanted to know about the desktop.
We've also reviewed various desktop add-ons. As usual, we've taken a look at both commercial and shareware options in an attempt to bring you the best of both worlds. Read on!
The Workplace Shell: Warp's Killer App - by Larry Bouthillier
OS/2 Warp offers many features and capabilities that set it apart from other PC operating systems. We read and hear much about Warp's multitasking and multithreading ability, its superb support for DOS and Windows 3.1 programs, and its underlying architecture that makes it a stable and robust operating system. Perhaps one of OS/2 Warp's most impressive and most misunderstood features is its powerful and elegant user interface. The power of the object-oriented Workplace Shell or WPS is not immediately apparent to a new user who's not sure of what to look for. Even experienced users often are unaware of the power and capability of Warp's user interface. But in fact, there is no better demo of Warp's advantages over its competition, and no better "killer application" than the WPS.
Fundamental to getting the most out of Warp's user interface is accepting the desktop metaphor as exactly that... an on-screen version of a physical work area. On your real desk, you might have a pile of paperwork for your expense reports, another one for mail you need to respond to, and perhaps a drawer in the desk with folders for each project you're involved with, for tax records and correspondence. Why not set up your Warp desktop the same way? One folder for e-mail messages, others for correspondence and records related to each project, another for your favorite Internet sites. When you're organized this way, you'll find that you won't miss that Windows "File Manager" type interface anymore. You'll have something that works the way you do, and makes adopting Warp's other unique features easier and more intuitive.
Drag and Drop
Let's start with an examination of the possibilities of drag and drop. Of course, the WPS will let you drag files from folder to folder to copy or move them, drag files to the Shredder to delete them, or drop a document icon on a program icon to open the document using that program. Need another copy of that newsletter you publish, or the job application form or
the shopping list you created? You can print a document without having to open the application that created it by simply dropping its icon on the Printer object. That's all there is to it!
But it doesn't stop there. The basic object technology of the WPS, built on IBM's System Object Model (SOM), offers drag and drop capability to any program that derives its objects from the WPS. Applications built upon WPS objects let you drag stuff from nearly anywhere to anywhere. I can drag a document icon into my word processor window and it opens the file. I can drag a graphics file icon into that same word processing window and it imports the graphic into the document. I can open the File->Open dialog in PMView, a popular graphics viewer and editor, and see thumbnails of all my clipart images. Those thumbnails in the File->Open dialog can be dragged into the viewer window to open them, or they can actually be dragged out of PMView and dropped on the Shredder (to delete them) or even into my word processor, which then imports the image. And furthermore, the WPS icon for that graphic becomes a thumbnail itself!
One complaint about IBM's Web Explorer has been the lack of an elaborate hotlist. Many users never notice that the WPS integration of Web Explorer makes a hotlist redundant. I can drag a page from my Web Explorer into a desktop folder and it becomes a URL object. Set up a URLs folder hierarchy beside your Web Explorer window, and you've got your hotlist--and then
some. I can have a folder for work stuff, a folder for fun stuff, etc. All my favorite sites are available at a double-click or a drag into the Web Explorer window. I can also drag the actual HTML document to a folder, or directly to my word processor or HTML editor. I can even drag a graphic off the page and drop it on a folder to save it for future reference. So now the URLs, related HTML documents' text and graphics are all together, arranged by topic; and they are sortable by type, date, size, name, etc. I can even add keywords and comments to them, as I can with any WPS object. More on that later.
The best way to learn about drag and drop is to try it! Some programs take better advantage of SOM and the power of drag and drop than others. Good WPS integration is rapidly becoming a standard for good OS/2 programs as more and more programs are making it an important part of their feature set. Examine your programs and try to drag and drop elements of their user interface. You may be surprised at what you can do with the apps you're already using!
Work Area Folders
Now let's expand on this URLs folder idea. I can make the URLs folder a Work Area folder (on the File page of the Settings notebook), and put my Web Explorer and my newsreader in it too. Now, when I open that folder, my Web Explorer and newsreader load automatically just to where I'd left them when I closed them last--that's right, one double click to launch my Internet tools and open my URLs folder beside my Web Explorer window.
Work areas can be used to group any applications and documents you often use together. Set up a financial Work Area folder to have it launch and arrange on-screen your financial program, your spreadsheet, and your tax program all at once. Close them all at once by closing the folder.
Extended Attributes
Oh yes, there's more. While other operating systems like DOS and its descendants have attributes like date and time for each file, Warp adds a few other tidbits. Warp notes the date and time "created", "last written" and "last accessed" for every file, which can be very helpful in searching and sorting files. The TYPE attribute allows Warp to keep track of which
documents go with which applications independently of filename extension; and an application can have multiple associations. You can have your .JPG documents automatically associated with PMView, but also have any number of other applications associated with .JPG or file type JPEG. If you want PMView, just double-click. If you want any other app that can use a JPEG, just right-click on the file's object and choose the app you want from the "Open" menu. You'll never have to go hunting around for a program to load any file again, all the apps you need are right there in the object's context-menu. Similarly, double-clicking on a .CMD file runs it as an OS/2 REXX or batch file, but if I want to edit it, I can just right-click and choose my editor from the Open menu.
On the "File" page of every file and folder object's Settings notebook are entries for Comments, Keywords, and History fields. You can search these fields which gives you a very handy method of organizing files and making notes on them. You can set a folder to show you only objects with keywords or comments that contain or do not contain a certain word; or you can even search across directories and drives for the same criteria.
As an easy example, assume you have travel expense spreadsheets set up, one spreadsheet document for each month. As you get reimbursed by your company for a month's expenses, you just make note of it in the COMMENTS field of that month's spreadsheet document (very quickly I might add, since you don't have to open the program that created the document). Now, when you're wondering just how many months behind the accounting department is in paying you, just set your Expenses Folder to show you documents not marked "Paid". You'll get a nice display of only those months for which you're still waiting! Other uses for this feature include marking invoices "Paid", marking e-mail that you need to respond to, or making notes regarding various versions and revisions of documents.
It's easy to see that all this power and flexibility makes Warp's user interface among the most truly useful and accommodating environments in the PC arena. Anyone who tries to use Warp the way he or she used Windows is missing out on a large part of what makes Warp unique--and better. Doing it the "Windows way", you'd be doing Open, Save, Save As, Import, Export; in Warp it's as easy as drag and drop. Some of the techniques described here are not obvious at first, however once you've adapted to the new paradigm that Warp provides, you'll find it utterly logical and intuitive. It's important to explore your system. Try dragging from here to there, from application to application, from desktop to program window. As you explore further, you'll begin to see more and more possibilities provided by Warp's Workplace Shell and object-oriented interface. And you'll be able to wow your non-Warped friends with what you can do on your computer that they can't do on theirs!
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Larry Bouthillier (larryb@argo.net) is an audio engineer and multimedia specialist whose work has quickly evolved from tweaking knobs to driving a mouse and writing code. He's a MacOS and OS/2 enthusiast, and an aspiring programmer for both platforms.
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Exploiting the Power of the Workplace Shell - by Jim Little
OS/2's Workplace Shell, or WPS, is one of the operating system's greatest assets. It is powerful and flexible. In the hands of an experienced user, it is an extremely efficient way of using a computer. And when used to its fullest potential, it is simply a pleasure to use.
Unfortunately, since the WPS is so different from the Program Manager/File Manager approach of Windows, few people realize the shell's power. Instead, they treat the WPS as a fancy Program Manager, and the Drives object as a bizarre and hard to use File Manager. Even many experienced OS/2 users don't take full advantage of the WPS.
Customizing the Workplace Shell
Still, this can't be blamed entirely on the user. In its default configuration, the WPS can be rather clunky. Often-used objects are hidden away in the OS/2 System folder, or deeper. Fortunately, the WPS is nothing if not flexible. This section discusses some of the ways to make using the shell more convenient. Many of these suggestions can be put in place as you read. Just follow the directions for each tip.
One of the most confusing features of the WPS is the Minimized Window Viewer. By default, when applications are minimized, their icons are displayed in this folder, rather than at the bottom of the screen like they are in Windows. Although this default action can be changed (from the "Window" tab of the System object), most people simply use the task list to access their minimized windows. This works, but has the drawback of displaying all the tasks that are currently running, even if they aren't minimized.
A more convenient way of accessing minimized windows is to use the Minimized Window Viewer but in its default location, buried in the OS/2 System folder, it's more trouble than it's worth. To restore a minimized window, you would have to open the OS/2 System folder, open the viewer, scroll through it to find the appropriate window, and double-click. A real pain. Luckily, the Minimized Window Viewer can be configured to be much more convenient.
Start by shadowing the Minimized Window Viewer object to the Startup folder, then open it. Move it (using Alt-F7) so that the title bar is just off the top of the screen--enough so that when you click, you click the background of the folder, not the title bar. The right border should similarly be off the right edge of the screen. Now, size the window so that it takes up about a third the screen vertically, and about an eighth of the screen horizontally. The result should be a fairly inconspicuous window in the upper-right corner of the screen. Since you've shadowed it to the Startup folder, it will always open when you start OS/2.
This window provides convenient access to minimized windows, but it's too small to display more than a few objects at a time. This can easily be resolved by taking advantage of folders' customizability. Open the Minimized Window Viewer's settings notebook and turn to the "View" page. Set the Icon view format to "Non-flowed" and the display to "Small size." Click the "Change font..." button and change the font to something small but readable. (I recommend two or four-point System VIO.) Finally, turn to the "Sort" tab and uncheck the "Always maintain sort order" button. This will result in new minimized windows appearing at the top of the list.
The result is a small, easily accessible list of minimized applications. You can adjust the size and location of the window based on your individual needs, for example, if you only use a few applications at a time, there's no need for the window to be very tall. Also, the default configuration for OS/2 is to hide folders instead of minimizing them. You can change this from the "Window" page of the System settings notebook, which is located in the System Setup folder. Change "Button appearance for windows" from "Hide button" to "Minimize button."
Another problem with the default configuration of the WPS is that the Drives object is buried in the OS/2 System folder. Sure, you can shadow or move that object somewhere more convenient, but it's still a hassle to use. For a better way, start by downloading newpad.zip, located at ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/os2/wpsutil/newpad.zip. This free utility will create new launchpads for you. (It's also possible to simply copy the launchpad, but there's a bug that causes both launchpads to behave oddly when you do this.)
Use NewPad to create a new launchpad named "DrivePad" and open its settings notebook. Check the "small icons" box on the first page of the "Options" tab, and click the "Do not display action buttons" button on the second page. (To access the second page, click the arrow in the lower right corner.) Then open the Drives object and shadow all the drive objects that you use frequently to the DrivePad (by dragging them to it). Finish up by removing the corresponding objects from the normal launchpad, and you've got a nice, compact toolbar that gives you quick access to your disk drives. I put mine at the top of the screen to the left of the Minimized Window Viewer, adjusted so that the drawers are hidden off the top of the screen.
A few last details will make your new DrivePad even more convenient. First, drive objects are a lot easier to view in tree view if they're using small icons. To change the icon size, open the drive's settings notebook and turn to the second page of the "View" tab. Under "icon display," click "small size." Second, those same tree views are more convenient if they're sorted. Turn to the "Sort" page of the settings notebook and click the "Always maintain sort order" checkbox.
If you find yourself frequently using the various command prompts, you can make a CommandPad in the same way that you created the DrivePad. Of course, you could also create a PrinterPad or use any other group of objects that you need frequent access to. One that I find especially useful is a floating shredder. This is a launchpad with nothing but the shredder, configured to float on top with a small icon. I put this "ShredderPad" in the lower-right corner with the majority of it hidden off-screen. Since it floats on top, it's always accessible, but since most of it is off-screen, it doesn't get in the way.
Document-Centric Computing
Although the customization tricks mentioned in the previous section are useful, they don't come close to exposing the real power of the WPS. To take advantage of this power, you must switch from the application-centric paradigm to the document-centric paradigm. A "paradigm," in computing terms, is a way of thinking about a problem. For a user interface, the specific problem is "How will I use my computer?"
The application-centric paradigm, as its name implies, resolves this problem by emphasizing the application. The desktop is organized in terms of applications: this folder for one company's applications, that one for another's, etc. The user works by loading the appropriate application, then selects "New," "Open," "Print," and so on. Documents are secondary, and are typically grouped by application. Since this paradigm focuses on the application, the user tends to think in terms of the current application, rather than the overall project.
The document-centric paradigm, on the other hand, emphasizes the document. Applications are secondary, and are typically not located on the desktop at all. Instead, the desktop is organized by project: each folder contains all the data related to a particular project. When the user wants to work on a project, he opens that project's folder and directly manipulates the documents within it. For example, to edit a document, the user would double-click it. To print a document, he would drag the document to a printer. To create a new document, he would drag a blank document from a template. The WPS makes sure that the appropriate application is started for each action.
The advantage of the document-centric paradigm lies in its focus on the document. Since all the documents for a single project are grouped together, the user can more easily grasp the big picture. It also allows the user to more easily switch between documents and tasks. Suppose you were working on a month-end progress report for your company, when somebody asked you to print out a copy of last week's budget analysis. Under the application-centric paradigm, you would find and open the appropriate application, find and load the document, and select print. After the document finished printing, you would go back to the application and close it. With the document-centric paradigm, you would just open the appropriate project folder, drag the document to the printer, close the folder, and go back to what you were doing.
How To Do It
To move your desktop from application-centric to document-centric, start by taking all your applications and stuffing them in an out-of-the-way folder. This should leave you with a relatively bare desktop. Next, create a folder for each project you are currently working on. Find the documents that are associated with each project and shadow them into the appropriate project folders. You may wish to add shadows of any relevant templates and other objects to the folders as well.
If all OS/2 applications conformed to the document-centric model, simply organizing your data would be enough. You would be able to start using templates, dragging to the printer, and double-clicking documents right away. Unfortunately, not all OS/2 applications come with built-in WPS support. And many people still use DOS and Windows applications to get their work done. Fortunately, the WPS is flexible enough to allow you to integrate those legacy applications yourself (except for drag-and-drop printing).
The first thing to do is to give your legacy applications a "new document" template. Open the application in question and create a new document. Without making any changes, save it to the \DESKTOP directory. When you're done, close the application. The new document that you saved should be displayed on your desktop. Give it a meaningful name, such as "Letter.wpd" or "Document.wpd". Be careful to limit yourself to the 8.3 naming convention even if you're using HPFS if the documents were created by a DOS or Windows application. If the application doesn't create documents with unique extensions, give the documents a type, such as "WordPerfect 5.1 Document." To do this, open the document's settings notebook and turn to the "Type" tab. Create the new type by typing it into the "New type:" field and clicking the "<< New" button. Then give the document that type by selecting it from the list of available types and clicking "Add >>".
After you've created and named your empty documents, turn them into templates. Open their settings notebooks, turn to the "General" tab, and check the "Template" checkbox. Finish the process by moving the new templates into your templates folder. (To move a template, hold down the "Shift" button while you drag.) Now would also be a good time to shadow the new templates into any relevant project folders.
Once you've created these "new document" templates, you can create a new document by simply dragging and dropping. That's only half the battle, however. You still need to tell the WPS to start the associated application when you double-click one of these templates. You can do this by "associating" the application with its data files. Once a document is associated with an application, the application appears on the document's pop-up menu under "Open." The first application in that list is started when you double-click a document. (For an easy way to change which application is listed first, download an associations editor, such as the one at ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/os2/editors/assoed03.zip.)
To associate your applications with their data, find the program object for the application, open its settings notebook and turn to the "Association" page. If you've given your documents a unique type, locate that type (i.e., "WordPerfect 5.1 Document") in the "Available types" box and press the top "Add >> " button. Otherwise, specify a file mask that identifies your documents (such as ".WPD") in the "New name:" field. Add it by pressing the lower "Add >>" button. You can add as many types or names as you want.
As a simple example of how integrating legacy applications into a document-centric desktop can save you time, consider zip files. Although there's not much point in making a "New.zip" template (unless you have an advanced zip/unzip program), you can associate unzip.exe with .zip files. Once you do that, simply double-clicking a zip file will unzip its contents. With only a few mouse clicks, you've converted a time-consuming application-centric problem (open command prompt, change directories, type "unzip filename.zip") into a fast and easy document-centric solution (double-click zip file).
Although document-centric computing will make your life easier and more efficient, it isn't without its flaws. The biggest one is that your data tends to get scattered into separate projects. Occasionally, you want to look at all your URLs together, or all your word processing documents. There are two ways to resolve this problem. The first is to use the WPS' "Find" command. The find command is located on the launchpad and in every folder's pop-up menu.
Although the "Find" command is very powerful, there is one notable omission: you can't search based upon a file's type. In addition, the Find command is slow. An alternative to the Find command is to simply group your data as you create it. For example, you could have a URL folder as well as specific project folders. When you added a URL to a project folder, you would also shadow the URL to the URL folder. This method takes a little more effort on your part, but is only necessary for data that you feel you might want to view as a group.
The Next Level
Once you've gotten used to thinking of your desktop in terms of data, not applications, you'll start finding little ways of using your computer even better and more efficiently. One easy way to expand the power of your project folders is to take advantage of pop-up menus. Every data file and folder allows you to add program objects to its pop-up menu. This is useful for those programs that don't operate on a particular data file, but are simply run directly. For example, you could add the WebExplorer to your URL folder's pop-up menu. To modify pop-up menus, turn to the "Menu" tab in a folder or file's settings notebook, then drag any program object to the box below the "Actions on menu: primary pop-up menu" text. Note that you can only add program objects to pop-up menus.
One aspect of the WPS that few people take advantage of is the work area folder. A work area folder behaves like a normal folder, except that objects within it are closed or minimized if the folder is closed or minimized. When the folder is reopened or restored, the objects are reopened or restored. To see how this works, create a new folder and make it a work area folder: open the folder's settings notebook, turn to the first page of the "File" tab, and check the "Work area" box. Open the folder and drop another new folder inside of it. Open this second folder as well. You should have two open folders on your desktop. Now, close the parent folder--both folders will close. Reopen the parent folder and both folders will open.
There are a number of ways you can use work area folders. One good trick is to give each project folder its own custom toolbar. For this to work, the project folder must be a work area folder. You create a custom toolbar for the project folder by creating a new launchpad and giving it the appropriate objects. Customize it as you wish. After you have your launchpad (or toolbar rather) set up, open it and put it in the project folder. That's all there is to it. Since the project folder is a work area folder, when you close the folder, the toolbar will close as well. When you reopen the project folder, the toolbar will pop up where you left it.
You can use a variation of the above trick to give each project a specific, easily-accessible "temp" folder. Most of us have some sort of folder for temporary data. It's handy, but if you need to work on several projects at once, you can find yourself constantly trying to organize the contents of your temp folder. This problem is resolved by giving each project its own temp folder. To make the folder easily accessible, put it on a toolbar.
Conclusion
The WPS gives you unparalleled control over your desktop. It's flexible and powerful, and offers you the ability to change it to work almost any way you like. Even though it is drab and hard to use by default, don't let this stop you. If you don't like the way something works, change it! With imagination and time, you can make the WPS into something that uniquely reflects your personality... something that is so well tuned to your needs, that every task becomes quick and easy. The WPS gives you that power. Enjoy it.
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Jim Little (jiml@teleport.com) is a longtime WPS junkie. His addiction complete, he now seeks to corrupt as many others as possible.
The Workplace Shell embodies a very cool technology called the System Object Model, or SOM for short. SOM is a way of thinking about the components on your computer--files, directories, physical hardware like hard drives and printers, and more abstract objects like programs. SOM treats everything as an object or an entity that shares certain common features with other objects. SOM gives programmers the ability to take an existing object, create a new one that inherits all the features of the first (copying it) and modify those features needed to make it fit a new task.
A good real-world example would be fixing a plow to the front of pickup truck to make it shovel snow. You don't have to learn a new way of driving or a new set of controls, it's still the same as any other pickup--it's just that it now has a new feature.
Admittedly, not all of the enhancements described here use SOM specifically (and for that reason some can be used with other shells like FileBar or MDesk), but as you'll see when you try them out, many of them do. It is one of OS/2's most powerful features and advantages over other operating systems.
Xit 2.1
This is a _very_ useful gadget that deserves a spot on _everyone's_ desktop. It's not WPS specific, so it may even be used with FileBar or MDesk as a replacement shell. What Xit does is to take of a portion of screen-real estate not normally used for anything much--the title bar--and it give you tremendous power. Xit's first incarnation, version 1.0, simply put an "X" button on the titlebar for one-click-to-close capability. Version 2.0 and higher became almost like a whole new program, exploding with features, quite literally left, right and center. Left: you can now put pre-programmed buttons on the left side of the toolbar. Right: same here too, including some very neat ones like the "roll up" button that rolls up the window until it's just a floating titlebar (very much like the roll-ups in Corel Draw). And Center: it makes remarkable use of the center, or middle mouse button. Clicking it can equal a double-click of the first mouse button (the way I have mine set up), the right button, a "chord" (left and right buttons), or it can do innumerable other programmable tasks.
Get it for the roll-up button though, that thing is cooooool!
DragText
If you've ever found yourself annoyed at creating program objects, wishing there was a way you could just drag the .EXE file from the directory folder onto the program template and be done with it, this utility gives you all that and a bag of chips too. DragText treats any marked area of text in an editor (such as the Enhanced or System Editor) as a right-drag-able object. Plus, you can drag any folder or file object onto an entryfield/editor box and it'll paste the full path and filename into it--ah hah! Adding programs is now as easy as opening the drive object, opening the correct folder, right-dragging a program template onto the desktop, then right-dragging the .EXE file into the "Path and file name:" entrybox on the first page of the program settings notebook.
DragText isn't limited to this function of course, it works for _any_ highlighted text, folder or file to any entryfield or editor box. It even works on list boxes too--drag a piece of text into a list box and it highlights the first item that matches the text dragged.
Another example of where I use it is in GTIRC. GTIRC is a PM Internet Relay Chat client that has a few nifty features but isn't as embellished as the popular Windows counterpart, mIRC. Particularly, sending a file via DCC (Direct Client to Client) involves typing out the full path and filename. But not any more. I use DragText to just drag and drop the file into the entry box.
Tasker
I do not personally use this tool, but I'm including it here because it's very cool. Tasker gives you a specialized program object that has an extra page in the settings notebook for entering a time for that program to be automatically run. For automated maintenance, this one is hard to beat. For example, you can run NISTIME regularly at midnight to keep your clock synched perfectly over the Internet--and even run your Internet dialer automatically 5 minutes earlier in case you're not already logged in! Defrag your hard drives in the wee hours of the morning when nobody is around, check them for viruses, download new mail, change the desktop wallpaper, turn on the houselights and brew coffee. The power of this software is limited only by the other programs you run with it. (No, it doesn't have features for brewing coffee! But imagine if you had the computer-module for those neat X-10 modules sold in housewares catalogs? Hmm?)
New File New Folder
New File New Folder, or NFNF, is dynamite with Zip files. Right click on a .ZIP file for the pop-up menu, select "unzip", and the file is unpacked into its own subdirectory under the "NFNFUZIP" folder which is conveniently shadowed on your desktop. To me this is much more useful than some of the other glorified .ZIP front ends, since it's all very fast and very transparent. Plus there's an added bonus; if I like the program and decide to permanently install it, I keep the folder view open, drag the folder _icon_ to whichever drive object I want it stored on, then drag a program template onto the desktop and right-drag the .EXE to it as described above for DragText (or just run the install program if there is one). It's the fastest and easiest way to install downloaded shareware I have found.
But NFNF doesn't just do Zips, it also has a few nice touches that earn its keep. It's main claims to fame: in the titlebar of each folder object it displays the number of files, the bytes used, and the number of subdirectories present in the folder; in the pop-up menus of objects are options for examining the sizes of objects or entire trees of objects.
WPClsExt
This is a set of replacement classes for the Workplace Shell which add several extras to both the desktop class and folder class. A folder opened in details view will display how much free space is available and the size of all selected objects. A "style" page is also added to settings notebooks with which you can give objects extra properties like "No Copy", "No Delete" "No Link", etc. A "Change to" option is added to a folder's pop-up menu which lets you quickly flip between details, icon and tree view without having 3 windows open at once. And, most useful if you've been trying to get rid of those bland default icons for folders and unassigned data-files, this software has a feature for changing them to the icons of your choice (it even works for animated folder icons).
The program adds a notebook to your System Setup folder from which you can change many global features like default icons and passwords for protecting folders (the password can be set globally or on a per-folder basis.)
WPFldExt and WPPrgExt
These two are very simple, they supply an extended folder and program class which can close its parent folder when opened. It's similar to the option you can set in the System settings notebook to automatically close a folder when opening objects within, but here you can narrow it down to specific programs and folders rather than system-wide. They both add an extra page to programs' and folders' settings notebooks to let you switch on/off the feature as you please.
When you double-click on a program object it closes the folder it belonged to as it runs. Or for folders, the parent folder is closed as the selected folder is being opened. It's a handy utility for keeping your desktop uncluttered during a busy day.
NPS WPS
This little freeware beauty is the granddaddy of the new breed of multitalented WPS enhancers but it still holds its own. Among it's many talents are the ability to throw 3D shadows behind windows onto the desktop, a one-click exit button in open windows' title bars (this smooth button was hip long before Xit or even Object Desktop came on the scene), removing some options from the desktop's pop-up menu and fancy window opening and closing animations (try having your windows "explode" open!). It is small, adds nothing to your system files and it's free! Definitely worth a look even to use in conjunction with other WPS enhancers.
Security Details
Maple Valley Software's excellent utilization of SOM enables OS/2 users to "lock" any object on the desktop, including the desktop itself (see the review in this issue). By simply opening any object's settings menu and entering a password, users can then select "lock" from that object's pop-up menu. Locked items can be modified in a variety of ways for those who have sensitive files, folders or programs.
Taking out the Trash
Did you ever get stuck with an object on your desktop that you just couldn't get rid of? There are some desktop objects that the shredder chokes on and that can be frustrating. Enter Black Hole. Black Hole doesn't just delete objects, it _destroys_ them. This utility is very useful but not to be taken lightly (no pun intended). Dropping something into a point of infinite density isn't a nice thing to do! If you routinely play with strange new applications or if unexplained things happen to your objects, having Black Hole handy can save you some frustration.
Or for the more Mac-minded there is the Workplace Shell TrashCan v2.3 by Kai Sommerfeld. Like Black Hole, this wonderful utility also handles troublesome objects that don't want to get deleted. It also does double duty as a type of undeletion utility. While files aren't actually deleted from your hard drive when you drag them to the TrashCan as they are when you drop them on the shredder or Black Hole, they're conveniently out of the way and when you decide you definitely no longer need them, you simply select "Empty" from TrashCan's pop-up menu and the files are gone. If you decide you mistakenly put them in the trash, you can just open it up and drag them back to the desktop.
Some Screen Savers
How can anyone consider their desktop "enhanced" if they don't have a good screen saver? Ok, today's colour monitors don't really need to be blanked or have moving pictures on them to avoid the "burn in" that was common on old monochrome monitors, but hey, they're fun! A couple good options are Screen Saver v2.4 by Siegfried Hanisch and Blanker v6.0 by Peter Wansch. Both programs come with a large assortment of screen saver modules and there are many third party add-ons for them.
So many gadgets...
When trying out each of these be sure to keep the install program and files handy in a temporary directory for a while in case you find you don't need them. With utilities that replace or add WPS classes, simply deleting the files and directory is not enough to uninstall them, references in the .INI files must be dealt with too. These utilities will usually come with an uninstall program that safely removes all references, deregisters the classes and deletes the files.
This is not a comprehensive list of enhancement utilities either, but just a coverage of the major ones out there. All the applications mentioned above are free or shareware, and can be downloaded from hobbes or other FTP sites. So what are you waiting for? Is your desktop so good that it doesn't need enhancing?
Chris Wenham (http://www.spectra.net/~fox) is a Team OS/2er in Binghamton, NY with a catchy-titled company--Wenham's Web Works. He has been writing all sorts of strange things from comedy to sci-fi to this.
Everybody likes to look good, everybody wants to be in style, everybody wants to impress their friends, and everybody wants to show off. So why are you using an operating system critically acclaimed for it's ugly industrial appearance?
I'm here to tell you that there's more to your favorite OS than crash resistance and High Performance File Systems. Yes, you can make Warp look pretty. I know, because I have done it. Here is how I turned a clunky WPS into the ultimate desktop--my Drooltop.
The Beauticians Tools
For this makeover I used the following tools. Hairbrush, lipstick, perfume, and...
Drop Zone (hobbes.nmsu.edu/os2/wpsutil/dz100.zip - 650K)
Replacement WPS Folder class (hobbes.nmsu.edu/os2/wpsutil/wpscls137.zip - 160k)
A collection of cool icons
Change the Controls
My first step was to get rid of those ugly default buttons that ship with Warp. To do this, I used CHG_CTLS, a nifty little program that makes alterations to the bitmaps found in the PMMERGE.DLL file in your /os2/dll directory. This changes the appearance of the maximize, minimize, hide, restore, system-menu, scrollbar, check-box, radio-button and drop-down list buttons. Plus it contains an alternate close button bitmap for NPS WPS (which I highly recommend). Users can pick the default set of icons, go with some of the others that I or many other users worldwide have created, or even make their own.
With CHG_CTLS it is possible to make your windows look almost like Windows 95, or Object Desktop, or anything else you please. It's that simple.
Since its release, it has been speculated that CHG_CTLS may cause some problems with applying Fixpacks or future versions of OS/2. This is a technical possibility, but in practice (thanks to the recent release of Fixpack 16) I found this not to be the case. All the Fixpack does is replace the PMMERGE.DLL file, to which you have to reapply the CHG_CTLS program if you want to get your fancy new icons back. You may wish to reserve judgement on that for yourself though, I can't guarantee that the program won't cause any problems.
"Change Controls" is not a memory resident program, it eats up no more RAM than is required for the new bitmaps (remember, they _replace_ the current bitmaps, so you don't have two sets in memory). You won't suffer any performance hit, unless a few extra pixels is really distressing to you!
Buttonize the Heck Out of Those Titlebars
Next on my list was adding some extra buttons to my titlebars. We're talking heavy gratuitous use of buttons here! Xit used to be a utility that just added an "X" button to the titlebar of every window; clicking on it closed the window. Now it's evolved into something a tad more. In addition to the "X" button, there are others for rolling up a window (a-la Corel Draw style), popping up a task list, opening parent folders, sorting icons and more. Plus users can assign their own command to a button, for example I have one that opens an OS/2 windowed session.
From a vain point of view these buttons do look very cool, and if you "roll up" a few windows the effect is just fantastic! There's more than one set of buttons to chose from, and the author is even running a contest to encourage people to design more (sets of alternative buttons have started appearing on hobbes). Xit's other talents include a bucketful of handy shortcuts, but that's not the focus of this article. Suffice to say, it's extraordinarily configurable.
Throw Up a Cool Shadow
NPS WPS makes a very nice contribution to my ultimate desktop by placing a shadow behind every window. This shadow is adjustable in both "depth" and darkness. It gives windows a distinct 3D effect that looks excruciatingly cool. Many have called NPS WPS the "Object Desktop Killer" or more politically correctly, the "Windows 95 killer". Actually, NPS WPS works in harmony with Object Desktop. Windows 95 is another story.
Give Your Icons More Sex Appeal
OS/2's default icons aren't the cool 3D-ified ones you've seen in Windows 95 or the Mac, and that just wasn't good enough for me. The beauty of OS/2 is that you can change your icons around as you please though, so I did. In the icon pack I assembled for this article you'll find examples of what I consider to be the most beautiful in their class. There are icons to replace most of the default OS/2 icons, as well as ones for many popular applications and several different file types. Changing application and Workplace Shell object icons is easy, just click the "General" tab in the settings notebook of the object to be changed and drag a new icon to the page. Changing all a data file's icons is harder though, since you'd normally have to do them all separately. Instead of doing this, I used Drop Zone.
Drop Zone is a collection of utilities for the Workplace Shell, one of which (the one we're most interested in here), is a program for assigning icons to data file types. It's simple enough to use; define the extension you wish to assign an icon to, select the drives you wish it to scan, drop an icon into the drop-box, and click "Assign". The utility will scan the drives for files with the specified extension and assign the new icon to them. The only disadvantage to this is that every now and then you need to run it again for any new files that have been created or downloaded in the meantime.
To partially allay this, I changed the default icon that Warp assigns to unassociated file formats. For this I used the WPS folder extensions, downloadable from hobbes. After installing these you'll find a new settings object in your System Setup folder. Among other useful customization features you can set the default icon used for folders and data files.
Pointers In Question
Next on my list were the mouse pointers. Warp provides a couple of sets, mainly two sizes of black and white and a few alternate hourglass cursors. However, the /multimedia/pointer directory of Hobbes has a good set of alternatives, including Windows 95 cursor look-alikes, gloved hands, and something for Star-Trek fans.
Backgrounds and Schemes
You'd be surprised what you can do with just a few color changes. In many cases you won't even need a bitmapped background, just a soothing dark purple, blue, red or green. I don't like grey backgrounds myself, they're drab and unexciting. With OS/2 you have the power to change the colors of each folder individually or system-wide in one big gulp but I tried to pick a different color for each folder. Color-coding helps identify in a flash which ones I have open. Here's my folder scheme:
Applications: Dark sky blue.
Graphics applications: Dark green.
Utilities: Light sky blue.
Games: Dark red.
Internet Apps: Dark orange.
You'll notice I picked mostly dark colors, I find this easier on the eye. Bright colors, when used for backgrounds, glare too much.
Warp provides a scheme palette for editing all the colors of the WPS in one place, plus it allows you to edit some elements that can't be changed by the regular drag-and-drop methods of the color and font palettes. For example the border width of your windows can be changed. I tried making those a few pixels wider or thinner to see if the appearance was agreeable or not. People inexperienced with the mouse might appreciate a wider border that's easier to "grab". Myself, I found that a border width of 3 pixels looks best.
You might also want to try using a bitmap for your backgrounds. Warp comes with a few good ones, but there's a lot of really _nice_ ones to be found in the /multimedia/bmp directory of hobbes (Try the huge "backgrnd.zip" file). Worrying about my limited memory (12 meg) I left the bitmaps off my desktop.
But Don't Take My Word For It...
While creating my "drooltop" and finishing up this article, I dropped in to #OS/2 on IRC to get some ideas from others. Here's what was suggested:
"mikecd (fenris@bak2.lightspeed.net): I set my background color to black and have all of the desktop titles set as white on black... looks pretty slick."
"stiltner: Yeah, if you have the Pinky and the Brain .BMP on your desktop, you are more productive :)"
Well, maybe they weren't all that helpful after all...
More Reading/Sites with Screenshots
If you aren't content with the look of my "drooltop" here are a few other pages with suggestions on how to build a better one.
Vlady's homepage (http://www.nerc.com/~wwu) has a couple of screenshots plus a pack of icons to use.
Risc's homepage (http://www.vistech.net/users/risc) - This guy promised me a screenshot when I asked him on IRC. :-)
Desktop Tips (http://www.unc.edu/home/jbjjr/desktop/desktip.htm) - Almost makes this article redundant!
Object Desktop Screenshot Content (http://oeonline.com/~stardock/contest.html) - A contest to see who can do the best with Warp and Object Desktop.
What Now?
Of course, I realize that my desktop setup will not appeal to everyone. That's the best thing about Warp though, the WPS is so flexible that _anyone_ can achieve as much or as little customization as they want. So if the tips I've provided above aren't enough to cure your desktop blues, what are you waiting for? Okay boys and girls, get to 'em!
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Chris Wenham (http://www.spectra.net/~fox) is a Team OS/2er in Binghamton, NY with a catchy-titled company--Wenham's Web Works. He has been writing all sorts of strange things from comedy to sci-fi to this.
Visit MicroLearn Nordic (http://www.microlearn.se/) - Creators of native high-quality OS/2 entertainment software, including the MicroLearn Game Pack, Volumes 1-3 and the upcoming ML Pool.
The Workplace shell is pretty clean; it is certainly a whole lot nicer than the OS/2 1.3 Presentation Manager. But still, it does have some major annoyances. Just try to remember how to copy or move files, is it CTRL-right mouse drag, no wait, SHIFT-right mouse drag. Try to make a shadow of an object. Better yet delete a few objects and figure out how to get them back. OS/2 lacks the ability to back up the workplace shell and restore itself with any dignity. Sure you can use the archive option and go through the whole painstaking process of restoring all the key files just to replace a couple icons, but lets face it, there must be an easier way.
One sure bet is Development Technology's DeskMan/2. Deskman/2's usefulness on the desktop is certainly nothing new; it has been around longer than most WPS utilities. And it is actually more than one program. It contains several components and each is independent of the other yet they all work gracefully together. First there is DeskMan/2 itself which is the anchor of the package. Then we have VueMan/2, PMImage, DM/2 Image, and The Workplace Shell Extensions. Together Deskman/2's components allow you to control the WPS and OS/2 very efficiently.
An Explanation of Features
With DeskMan/2 backup and restoration of the WPS is a breeze. DeskMan/2 allows you to save any or all of the objects on your desktop and restore them at will. This sounds easy but really it isn't. Every object has settings and once lost or deleted they are gone forever. But not with DeskMan/2--once you have done a backup you are golden. Restoring objects is a snap, a right mouse click in the DeskMan/2 main window and you are off and running. You can restore individual objects or the whole WPS. Another handy feature is the ability to set additional object settings, for instance NODRAG and NODELETE. These settings do just what you would imagine. Personalized desktops are also a cinch and you can use DeskMan/2 to allow for desktop portability, or CID (configuration, installation, distribution) across standardized desktops.
DM/2 Image and PMImage
PMImage is the graphical front end for DM/2 Image. DM/2 Image is kind of like Warp's archiving facility... kind of, but not really. Warp allows six saved configurations, DM/2 Image is unlimited. This utility saves it all, WPS, Win-OS/2 desktops, your .INI files, CONFIG.SYS AUTOEXEC.BAT and STARTUP.CMD. DM/2 Image can be used as traditional disaster recovery or it can be used in combination with some of the pre-canned REXX files to provide completely customized desktops and environments. The image facility is especially useful if you develop programs at home and other family members use the same machine. A different desktop will keep them out of your stuff and they won't even know what they are missing. The way the desktops are replaced actually is very complex in that not only does the desktop get replaced but also the configuration files. So the developer gets his environment (drivers, dll's, etc.) and the gamers get theirs. It takes a little fiddling with but it is well worth it.
Limiting Access and Configuration
Limiting users from accessing or configuring certain objects may keep them out of trouble, especially in a corporate environment. The Deskman/2 extensions provide this and more. The extensions allow you to remove items from menus. The settings for the DeskMan/2 extensions are located in the System Setup as additional tabs at the end of System Settings Notebook. Four pages of settings allow users to take away the ability to access objects' settings notebooks and arrange, sort and delete items from the popup menus. More seasoned users can also get some functionality enhancements from the Workplace Shell extensions. For example an extended drag and drop menu can be set to pop up during a drag operation. This pop-up asks you if you would like to copy, move, or shadow the object being dragged. Clicking away from this pop-up cancels the operation. Another handy addition to the desktop pop-up menu is "Restart WPS", if the WPS is hung or sluggish sometimes this feature does the trick. Other features of the WPS extensions allow you to include or exclude other pop-up menu items such as folder view handling, object creation and deletion, etc.
Also the DeskMan/2 extensions setup menu allows choices to include or exclude lockup, shutdown and access to the system settings in the desktop popup menu. The corporate edition adds the ability to password protect any object or folder. Objects and folders can be assigned individually unique passwords to restrict unauthorized users from accessing them. Other than passwords, the corporate and standard versions are indistinguishable.
VueMan/2
VueMan/2 is DeskMan/2's virtual desktop facility. Nestled in VueMan/2 is the ability to create and customize up to 81 virtual desktops. The WPS desktop can be the size of a single screen, and cloned onto each virtual desktop, or a single huge desktop up to nine screen high by nine screens wide. By dragging and dropping items from the WPS to the virtual desktops or even between them you can create huge arrays of different desktops that are easily accessed. Expanding the desktop to enormous proportions allows you to "push" some of those extra open windows out of the way and then retrieve them easily. For common things like the clock or the launchpad you can assign them to be "Sticky Windows" and they will follow you around to all of your virtual desktops.
Drawbacks
As an administrator's tool DeskMan/2 is almost a necessity. It simplifies your user support by limiting users to only the essential things on their desktops. As a desktop enhancement, however, it is starting to show its age. Some of the most useful features are not well documented or are even undocumented. This is especially true with most of the object settings, and also the DM/2 Image facility. Although DeskMan/2 has graphical interfaces for most functions, a lot of its power is at the command line level, and this may take away some of the appeal for casual users. Looking at some of the newer WPS enhancers also shows that DeskMan/2 lacks some of the niftier features like exit buttons. Having said that though, there certainly is enough functionality in DeskMan/2 to keep casual users busy. In addition, from what I have heard and seen of the beta, the next version (v2.0) will add a dramatic amount of new features and functionality.
Conclusions
DeskMan/2 is very powerful, so powerful in fact that many users should not consider running OS/2 without it. It is a little complex to use at first, but in no time DeskMan/2 proves its worth. So if this sounds like what you need, I suggest you get it--right now!! DevTech is currently running a limited time special. You get the DeskMan/2 Productivity Pack at a very reasonable price (US$99.95) which includes DeskMan/2 v1.51b, DCF/2 lite, The Graham Utilities, Relish v2.12 and CPU Monitor plus. The best part of buying the bundle is that as soon as Version 2 is released you get the upgrade free!
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DeskMan/2 v1.51
Development Technologies
(803) 790-9230 (voice)
MSRP: US$99.95
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Steven Atchue (satchue@ultranet.com) is Marketing Director for Worksaver Software , Worcester, MA Steve has been doing consulting since the birth of the AT. Currently, he is doing product reviews and freelance writing and for fun he is building his own house. Steve can also be reached on CompuServe as 75250,3726.
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So you've installed OS/2 and all the fanciest desktop enhancements you could get your hands on. You've installed 3D icons for all your objects. You've thrown up a snazzy background bitmap. You've carefully arranged, tweaked and decorated your desktop to create the ultimate artistic expression. Now one system hiccup could jeopardize all your hard work and set you back to the plain green desktop and grade school icons that IBM thinks is appealing. You could be faced with the task of recreating your desktop from scratch--if you can ever get it back the way it was at all.
One way to prevent this is to use New Freedom Data Center's WPS Backup Utility. This incredibly simple utility does exactly what its name implies, it backs up the WPS and related files. In the event of a system glitch which damages your desktop, you can then run the simple restore program and have a functioning OS/2 desktop in no time.
Installation
This shareware program comes with a REXX install program which copies the files to a specified directory and sets up a shadow of this folder on the desktop. During testing the install program displayed strange behaviour (it would not accept the parameter WPSbkup for the name of the directory--the name suggested in the documentation--and it did not complete the process by creating the shadow of the folder on the desktop) but did its main job well enough. The whole process can be done from the command line or by double clicking the INSTALL.CMD icon from your Drives object. Despite the problems installing, the documentation described clearly what was supposed to happen and it was no problem to drag a shadow of the folder to the desktop to see how the finished product would presumably look.
Saving Your Investment
The documentation also very clearly tells users how to protect their investment in their desktop. Once installation is complete, double-clicking the WPSbkup Utility icon starts the backup process. This backs up the desktop right there and then and the whole process is over very quickly. In fact it is so quick (around 20 seconds on the 486DX2 66 with 8 meg of RAM that I used as a test system) that I was worried something had gone wrong. Nothing had though, it's just a quick and simple process. During backup a dialog window opens and displays the status of the operation. When it's finished you will find an extra file in the WPS Backup folder which contains a compressed version of your desktop. This isn't like a compressed graphic file, it's a few system files and other information compressed into one convenient package for later retrieval.
In case of a meltdown the restore process is just as simple, if not just as graphical. If your desktop is unavailable, how can you use your mouse to manipulate objects to restore that desktop? Of course you can't. Restoring your desktop will mean aborting the normal OS/2 boot sequence by using the Alt-F1 key combination during boot and choosing "C" (for command prompt) from the boot options. From this command line you can switch to your WPS Backup directory and run the WPSrest.exe utility. If all goes well, a reboot will take you back to your prize desktop. Although I had no emergency to restore from, running the restore utility went smoothly and all seemed in order upon completion.
The Options
The program is fairly customizable. From the WPSbkup Administration utility you can select a different directory in which backups will be created (backups are stored in the same directory as the program files by default), set the number of backups to keep (only one is kept by default, the older ones being deleted), view the contents of existing desktop backup files, extract user specified files from existing desktop backup files, specify files you wish to backup along with the desktop (CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, etc.) and a few other things. Especially nice is the ability to specify additional files to back up. Often when bad things happen to your system it's not just your desktop that becomes damaged. You may want to back up additional .INI or .SYS files to prevent future headaches.
Conclusion
This program is shareware and will remind you each time you use it of how many trial uses you have left. Amazingly, registration is only US$15 for private use. Corporations however, will pay significantly more--US$150 per site license--although a flat rate is charged for more than 10 licenses. At this price, for an individual, this simple, quick graphical desktop backup is a steal. Even at the higher price for corporations, it may be a good deal in the long run considering the time (and anxiety!) that it may save. It's definitely worth exercising the theory of shareware and checking it out.
Stephen Turk is a salesman at a private computer retailer and part time trouble shooter. He has been using OS/2 for one year and has survived more than one desktop crash.
One great way to prevent mishaps on the desktop and lessen the headache (and heartache) of lost icons, objects or entire folders and their contents is to implement some sort of desktop security. There are various add-ons for OS/2 available to do this, both shareware and commercial. This month I had a look at two of them: Maple Valley Software's Workplace Security v2.0.5, a shareware product, and Pinnacle Technology's Kid Proof/2, a commercial product. Both applications are aimed at single user workstations as opposed to networks or network aware machines.
Workplace Security v2.0.5
Workplace Security is a beautiful example of SOM programming done right. Available in German or English versions, installation is a simple thing, taking advantage of OS/2's graphical installation program. Uninstallation is also simple and the supplied graphical interface will remove all traces of the program from your system. Once the installation is done, the first thing you will notice is that a new folder has been created on your desktop but there are no program objects in it. Don't worry, nothing has gone wrong with the installation procedure; you don't need a program object to start Workplace Security because it is already running.
When you install Workplace Security, it modifies all the objects on your desktop including folders, program objects, data objects and the desktop itself. Each object now has a Password page in its settings notebook. To add password protection to an object, the user simply opens the settings notebook, clicks the Password tab, enters a password and clicks "OK". After closing the settings notebook, the object's pop-up menu will now contain a "lock" option. Selecting it locks the object.
What is Locking?
So what does locking objects do? Locking an object will always prevent it from being deleted, moved or copied and also prevent its settings from being displayed or modified. The other various options are user configurable and are also available on the Password page of the settings notebook. First, users may choose to have the icons of locked objects superimposed with a picture of a lock and/or add the word "locked" to the title of the object. There are also users configurable variations on what is allowed and not allowed with an object. Locked items can be set to open only by entering the correct password or to open (if they are folders) even when locked but still prevent copying, moving or deletion.
Other Features
For further safety, Workplace Security supposedly allows users to remove certain items from objects' pop-up menus such as arrange, open, copy, move, etc. During testing, I was unable to actually accomplish this in any way that resembled what the documentation seems to be indicating. When objects are locked all items are removed from the pop-up menu except "unlock" and "settings" and when objects are unlocked all items that normally appear on the pop-up menus seem to be there. It is unclear if this is a bug or just bad documentation.
A very nice feature however is the "master password". This password will unlock any locked object so if you forget a password for an object you will still be able to get at it. Theoretically you could set a master password (which is done in the Workplace Security Registration utility) and have a system administrator keep the password in case of emergencies. Unregistered versions of Workplace Security have the master password set to "master" and this can not be changed until you register.
Some Things That Are Missing
Some sort of multiple locking feature would be nice for setting many objects with the same password. This way a user could set certain "levels" of security by assigning different passwords to groups of objects so that certain people could have access to them with the same password. Likewise, it would be nice if entering such a password once would unlock all those objects with the same password but not affect others. Such features are not implemented.
Conclusions
Overall, Workplace Security is a small, useful add-on to the WPS and the price is very reasonable--only US$25 to register. For the home user who wants to make sure he doesn't accidentally delete objects or that others don't inadvertently (or intentionally) mess up his system it may be the perfect solution.
Kid Proof/2
Pinnacle Technology's Kid Proof/2, which is a single user version of their network enabled product, Desktop Observatory for OS/2, takes the idea of desktop security a little farther. Instead of using SOM to modify the way objects behave on the desktop like Workplace Security does, Kid Proof/2 creates multiple "snapshots" of desktops with different security settings on each of them. This approach has advantages and drawbacks over the object oriented approach of Workplace Security.
Like Workplace Security, Kid Proof/2 uses IBM's installation program so installation is simple and graphical. More importantly, it is also very easy (if not very well documented) to uninstall the program. The same installation utility recognizes that Kid Proof/2 is installed on your system and gives you the option to delete all traces of it from the hard disk and system files.
Basically, Kid Proof/2 uses virtual desktops and shadows of objects along with a few other tricks to lock certain users out of certain areas. The first thing you will see after installation is a small "Kid Proof/2" icon in the lower left corner of your desktop (this icon can be moved to any corner). Double clicking on it pops up a cryptic System Access dialog which allows you to logon, logoff or perform administration of desktops.
From the Desktop Administration dialog users define various user desktops, a default desktop, the actual users that will need to access the system and some additional security options. This is a relatively simple process although the instructions in the very short printed manual are not overly detailed. Basically, users are presented with a list of every object on the desktop and checkboxes for those objects' properties. Customizing a desktop is a simple matter of checking the "Hide" button for every object you don't want to appear on the desktop, removing any options (such as copy, move, rename, etc.) from the objects' pop-up menus by un-selecting the appropriate check boxes and saving the desktop with a unique name. Then different users can be assigned a unique password and access to certain desktops. The manual gives instructions on how to create a default desktop with nothing visible except the Kid Proof/2 icon, a desktop for a casual user and a desktop for the administrator. The advantage this strategy has over an object-by-object approach is that it is very simple to set a single password that allows a user access to only certain objects.
Advanced Stuff
As an additional level of security, Kid Proof/2 also includes the abilities to: remove most of the options from the desktop's pop-up menu, including delete and lockup; stop users from rebooting the system with ctrl-alt-delete; and stop settings notebooks from staying open. This last feature is a sort of work around that Pinnacle has devised where Kid Proof/2 constantly monitors the desktop and as soon as an object's settings notebook is opened by a user it is closed by Kid Proof/2. While not very elegant this works--most of the time. During testing I found it possible to quickly click some items in a notebook's settings before Kid Proof/2 caught it and closed it.
Kid Proof/2 also comes with a utility called Finder. When things go wrong and you just can't seem to find some objects on your desktop, this utility will come in handy. Finder is a sort of object browser that lists details about all the objects on your desktop and the objects within them. With it, you can set properties for any icons that insist on remaining hidden or other pesky offenders.
Conclusions
Although it may be a bit confusing to a beginner, Kid Proof/2 offers a fair amount of security for a casual user. With a MSRP of US$59 it may be a little pricey for someone who just wants to play but if you have small children who use your OS/2 machine, you want a simple way to switch between multiple desktops on a work computer or you need to lock down a machine for demo purposes (for example, in a retail store or at a trade show) Kid Proof/2 is a winner.
Trevor Smith (editor@haligonian.com) is the editor of OS/2 e-Zine!. While researching this month's issue he finally found the security he was looking for.
Visit Indelible Blue (http://www.indelible-blue.com/ib/) - Indelible Blue is a mail order reseller specializing in state-of-the-art OS/2 software and hardware solutions for corporations and individuals. Corporate volume discounts available.
It's tax time here in North America and to celebrate we thought we'd have a look at some financial packages for OS/2. Of course we had to include Warp's only native tax preparation software, TaxDollars 1995 for OS/2, but we did one better than the print magazines--we reviewed the final version. Ah the beauties of electronic publishing! And for good measure we also took a look at a shareware gem, Electronic Teller. Between the two of them they may provide everything you need to balance your budget and do your taxes. Enjoy!
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Electronic Teller v2.80a - by Christopher B. Wright
Background
Once in a while you find a shareware application that is so stunning, so impressive, you wonder why people even bother buying "mainstream" products. One of these products is called Electronic Teller, or E-Teller, it's currently at version 2.80a, and I'm here to tell you, grab it and register it today.
Installation
Downloading E-Teller from the Internet will take some time (some versions of the program are over 2 meg), but once you do, all you need to do is unzip it and run the auto-install program. You can get a feel for the sophistication of this program simply by looking at the amount of time that was put into the installation routine. You get dialog boxes and a progress indicator to help you through the process, all carefully put together in a way that exudes professionalism. E-Teller will automatically create an application folder and program icons for you when it finishes installing, and will, if you desire, place a "reminder" utility in your startup folder so you can remind yourself of important dates (pay day, tax time, etc.).
Use
There is a lot you can do with this program, much of which works just as well as the more "mainstream" products you'll find at your local software store. It does all the primary personal accounting functions (keeping track of the various funds in your various checking, saving, and credit card accounts, how much you've spent, etc.) with ease. You also get "Quicken-like" extras, such as bar-charts, pie charts, and line graphs of how much money you have, how much you've spent, and how long you have until Guido breaks your kneecaps. Actually, I added that last part myself, but you do get a reminder utility which sits unobtrusively out of sight until you actually need to use it--a nice feature lacking in some PIMs. You can generate detailed and high-level reports of your financial history, and finally, you can attempt to reconcile your electronic statement with your bank statement by factoring in interest, banking fees, deductions and other such information.
The Basics
Any financial program worth its digital salt has to be able to do two very specific things:
It has to be able to keep track of every bank account you have without getting them confused, and
It has to be able to give you an accurate record of any and all financial transactions in those accounts.
E-Teller does both of these things admirably. Not only that, but it also does a good job of letting YOU decide how you want everything organized. The service desk, the "main screen" of E-Teller, allows you to create account folders that will contain whatever accounts you want to hold in them. Only one account folder can be open at a time, which can be awkward at first, but there are no restrictions to what kind of accounts you can put in each account folder. Want to classify everything by bank? You can create individual bank folders, and keep all your accounts for a bank in its folder. Want to classify everything by type of account? You can do that too: create a folder called "Checking Accounts," and put all your checking accounts in that folder, then do the same with "Savings Accounts" and "Credit Card Accounts." It's up to you: everything depends on how you want to organize.
E-Teller allows you some measure of security with these accounts as well. Every account folder can be given a password, and if you wish, that password must be entered before the account folder can be opened. Of course, you don't have to do this, but it's a useful addition to the program.
You do most of your work in E-Teller by opening up a specific account and working in that account's "Book". Account books list all the transactions for that account. You can add, delete, and modify individual transactions however you wish through E-Teller's button bar and transaction notebooks, which is where your new information will be entered. Transaction notebooks also allow you to split up large transactions and itemize them, allowing your financial reports to be more detailed and useful.
Advanced Features
Depending on the type of account, the account book will display information specific to it. For example, a checking account will display your starting and ending balance, but a credit account will display your credit limit, the amount of credit you've used, and how much you have left to use. You can link up information in different account books when one will affect the other: for example, if you write a check to pay off a credit card, you can enter your transaction in your checking account book, and have that transaction also recorded in your credit card book! This saves a lot of time, and makes bookkeeping a lot more efficient.
E-Teller also makes it a bit easier to balance your books with your bank statement. Because there are so many extra factors in your account (monthly interest, banking fees, etc.), E-Teller has a function called "Reconcile" that attempts to match the two. Reconcile opens a dialog where you put in the date of your bank statement, your bank statement's balance, and any interest and/or bank fees accrued during that time. E-Teller will then attempt to "make everything fit."
E-Teller also has the fancy bar, line, and pie-graph features found in the latest versions of Quicken. You can define what months and days of your account you want the graph to display. If you choose the pie graph, you can get a graphical breakdown of all your spending habits. Most of my expenses, for example, have to do with bills and computer hardware and software, with much smaller slices for the less important stuff (food, clothing, gas). In a similar vein, you can also display and print out text reports of your net worth, spending history, etc. Currently, you can only print out Express (very brief) and Transaction (detailed) reports, but the on-line help (which is very thorough) says that future versions will include more types of reports.
Also, E-Teller can design and print checks, matching yet another offering of Quicken's. Selecting the "Print/design cheques" button on the button bar takes you to a window where you can design and print your own checks. I've little use for this feature, since my financial needs are very simple, but it would be useful for some.
One of the features many Quicken users will find invaluable is E-Teller's ability to convert to and from .qif files. Those of you who use Quicken for your basic financial records should be able to transfer your records to and from E-Teller with little or no difficulty.
Nice Extras
Along with the basic and more advanced features of E-Teller are some useful but not critical features that deserve recognition. The first of these is the on-line help, which is extremely thorough and comes with a tutorial complete with screen shots of the service desk, account books, and dialog boxes. I classify this as a "nice extra", and not as an "essential feature" because E-Teller is intuitive enough for the average user to play around with for an hour or two and become fairly comfortable with using it, but if you want to learn to reconcile your books, this will definitely make it easier.
E-Teller also comes with a calculator and a calendar utility that allows you to "schedule" reminders. As I mentioned earlier, part of this utility can be placed in your startup folder, to remind you of recurring events. What I didn't mention is that you can schedule anything you want--anniversaries, birthdays--anything. The calendar is limited to showing three months at a time, but right and left arrows allow you to travel forward and backward in time, and by double clicking any date on the calendar, you get a dialog box for that day. You can then type in your reminder, and choose what kind of reminder it is: whether it's a one-day only thing, whether it recurs on that date, or on that day (for example, every Thursday).
Unregistered vs. Registered
The unregistered version of E-Teller has all the functions of the registered version, but there are a few catches: first, you can have no more than two account folders. Second, you can have no more than around 200 entries in an individual account book. Third, you have a "nag" screen that pops up every time you activate the application. These go away as soon as you get a registration number from Paul Caron, the author of E-Teller. Registration information is clearly detailed in the help index of E-Teller, and it's worth doing.
Conclusion
This is a very, very impressive program.
E-Teller runs neck-and-neck with shrinkwrapped, store-bought programs in most respects. Some of the really high-level features, such as electronic, on-line banking and the like are not included in E-Teller, but this is not something that I am particularly bothered by, and I don't feel most other people will be either. E-Teller is a well-written, well thought out application that is an excellent example of how useful and powerful shareware can be. I use it everyday, and find it to be intuitive, pleasant, and powerful. If you're looking for an OS/2 financial application, you don't need to look any further than your favourite shareware FTP site. This one works, and works well, and is well worth your time.
Christopher B. Wright (brennanw@richmond.infi.net) is a technical writer in the Northern Virginia/D.C. area, and has been using OS/2 Warp since January 95. He is a recent member of Team OS/2.
Visit Indelible Blue (http://www.indelible-blue.com/ib/) - Indelible Blue is a mail order reseller specializing in state-of-the-art OS/2 software and hardware solutions for corporations and individuals. Corporate volume discounts available.
TaxDollars 1995 for OS/2 (Final Version) - by Chris Wenham
TaxDollars holds the honor of being, so far, the only native OS/2 tax preparation software on the market and it is only available in a US version. Considering the line of glossy, 'chiseled and carved' tax software available for the Windows platform this year, TaxDollars is facing a lot of stiff competition. It even has a few strikes against it that some might consider unfair or just plain hard luck. For example the program could not support the 1040PC form for this year, BT&T blames this on the, "Snow storm on the East coast that delayed 1040PC testing and lacking OS/2 systems and expertise at the testing center." They apologize and say that the 1040PC will be available next year, and until then to use the regular IRS forms.
TaxDollars is very inexpensive though, and since this is the season for watching what you spend, bargains are very much welcome.
Installation
BT&T made use of the familiar IBM Installation program and jazzed it up a little with some presentation graphics that slide across the screen. That's pretty much where the glitz ends though and we see the software roll up its sleeves and get its hands dirty with serious work. Installation takes about 5 minutes and goes through only two floppy disks. It sets up a folder on your desktop with all the program objects and doesn't need to change your CONFIG.SYS, so you do not have to reboot.
Filing your taxes
TaxDollars supports most of the popular tax forms used by the average household, but not as many as its more embellished Windows counterparts. In the Final Version the following forms are supported: Forms 1040, 1040-V, 1099 (INT and DIV), 2160, 2441, 4562, 8829, and
Schedules A, B, C, D, E, W-2, EIC, R, and SE. Related forms are linked together by blue entry fields, pressing the 'L' key on these fields will automatically bring up that form. After completing, users SAVE the form then select 'Return to 1040' from the File menu and the calculated value is inserted in the appropriate blue space.
This approach makes filling out your tax forms a line-by-line affair, linear and simple, the way most people do it.
We had little trouble actually filling out the on-screen forms, they're all planned out logically in the appropriate sections, with green fields being calculated, yellow fields editable and the blue ones linked. There's very little printed documentation that ships with the software, just a quick-reference card to get you started, but on-line help is available.
What If...
After completing your 1040 you may wish to play 'What if' with the figures, to see how much you'd have to pay if circumstances were different. Say if you weren't single but married, or if your total income or adjustment was different. The figures you play around with do not get carried over to your real 1040 though. An interesting feature.
Also after completing the 1040, you can select 'Final Review' and TaxDollars will analyse and generate a review of your form, pointing out any warnings and reminders you should take note of.
Printing
TaxDollars uses a seperate program for printing your tax returns. The printed output from this program is excellent; the forms look exactly like the IRS originals with pixel-accurate placement. The printing utility also allows you to select what forms get printed individually, page-by-page, or in batches of any arrangement as you please. Form 1040 is split into front and back pages, so you can print the front, turn the page over and print the back to save paper and make it look even more authentic. If your printer can duplex automatically you can print the two in one go and be done with it.
Even more interesting are the software's graphing features for making bar and pie charts to view on-screen or send to the printer. All reports can be previewed in WYSIWYG mode before printing.
At home we have both an HP Deskjet and an Epson dot-matrix printer, two of the most common types of printer used, so I tried printing on both of them. Again the output was _perfect_ on both printers, no problems or alignment irregularities whatsoever--making up for the lack of 1040PC support this year (unless you only have a daisywheel, but even then you can print to a file and run it on someone else's computer.)
Note: Even though the 1040PC form was not supported for this year, Tax Dollars will still generate and print such a form for reference purposes only.
State Tax
TaxDollars claims State Tax support for only the following states: California, Illinois, New York and North Carolina. We are in New York State but were unable to test the State Tax calculations in time for this review as BT&T claimed they would not be ready until Feb. 29th. BT&T hopes to have more states supported by then.
Problems...
This software, maybe in the rush to get it out the door for an obvious deadline, was shipped with a number of bugs. For example after I made a screen capture of one of the forms it somehow disappeared. I had it captured just fine, but when I tried to locate the window again it was nowhere to be found. All the menu options were greyed out and I had to restart the program.
In other places the data entered into a form mysteriously disappeared. On the Schedule C form, a value entered in the 'Other' field of the Accounting Method was deleted when any of the check boxes below were selected. The problem seemed to be cured by entering that data last on the form.
Intentional interface features may also bug you, for example if you accidentally enter any punctuation in the Social Security Number fields, a dialog box will immediately pop up and tell you off. I'd prefer if the program waited until I'd finished typing and pressed 'Tab' or 'Enter' before it tries to correct. I'm sure it's quite flashy from the programmer's point of view to have it alert errors on the fly, but it's annoying to _us_.
Some potentially alarming math errors are present too. For example in the form 8829 the 'Total hours available for use during the year' lists the calculation as being '366 days x 24 hours' but gives the answer in the green field as 8,760--the answer for 365 days x
24 hours. This is correct for 1995 though (1996, being a leap year, has 366 days, not 1995) and therefore nothing to sweat about, the information presented on the screen is just contradictory.
Summary...
TaxDollars is a product that's trying hard to match features with the big boys rolled out by Parsons and Intuit. It doesn't have the flash that the others do and it doesn't have all the power and features that the others do either. TaxDollars is a growing product that's at about the same level those others were a few years ago. _But_ it's the only native OS/2 tax preparation software.
It wouldn't be fair to say you should use TaxDollars just because it is the only native OS/2 tax-prep software since you'll only use the program once a year. But TaxDollars is very attractively priced, only $17.95, and chances are you qualify for one of the many discounts that bring it down to only $9.95 or $7.95--barely above the cost of shipping. At this price the features and power of TaxDollars turn it into a very nice bargain indeed. BT&T is offering discounts for Team OS/2 and OS/2 User Group members, a nice reward for dedication to OS/2. Apparently they think that loyalty works both ways.
Chris Wenham (http://www.spectra.net/~fox) is a Team OS/2er in Binghamton, NY with a catchy-titled company--Wenham's Web Works. He has been writing all sorts of strange things from comedy to sci-fi to this.
Visit MicroLearn Nordic (http://www.microlearn.se/) - Creators of native high-quality OS/2 entertainment software, including the MicroLearn Game Pack, Volumes 1-3 and the upcoming ML Pool.
It's never a slow month in the world of OS/2 game software. But instead of looking at the large vendors this month, we had a look at a couple of hardworking shareware authors' products. We looked at Masterroids and Entertainment Pack for OS/2 (which contains _many_ classic games) to see what these packages do to bring these classic games to the OS/2 desktop.
Entertainment Pack for OS/2 v1.7 - by Trevor Smith
Entertainment Pack for OS/2 is a simple but valuable shareware package of 17 (yes, 17) classic games including Battleship, Backgammon, Checkers, Connect Four, Master Mind, Memory, a couple variations on Mine Sweeper, Othello, Pac Man, Pegged, a Soko-ban type game, Tetris, a sort of super-Tic Tac Toe, Worm, and a few puzzle games. To be honest, the reason I call the package valuable is that with this many games included you're almost certain to find something that will end up wasting your time (and I mean that in a good way). The games in Entertainment Pack are very basic and won't win any game of the year awards.
The package has been around in some form since at least 1994 and the author, Peter Wansch, has been steadily adding games and features to it ever since. New in this latest incarnation are Checkers, Puzzle and Worm and multimedia support for all the games. The games also come with a simple installation program that will unpack the compressed files, place them in a selectable directory and create a folder and program objects on your desktop.
The Games
As I mentioned, none of these games will amaze you. Some of them may be very addictive though if you are the kind of person that is given to mindless diversions. I know because I've been playing the version of Backgammon that comes in this package pretty much nonstop for the last year. The nice thing about it and the other games is that it is small and fast to load. They are perfect examples of games you would open to kill a few minutes while your Internet dialer is trying connect.
What this package reminds me of most is the MicroLearn GamePack Volume I. It's not nearly as well done as the MLGP was and not all the games are duplicated but there are enough similarities to justify the comparison. For example, both packages include many quick and simple games with plain graphics and both contain versions of mine sweeper and a soko-ban game. As I said, the games in the Entertainment Pack for OS/2, although there are more of them, aren't quite as professionally done as the ones in the MLGP, but for this type of game, it almost doesn't matter. My one real complaint about the games in Entertainment Pack for OS/2 is that the ones with computer opponents often aren't very challenging. Most have settings from beginner to advanced but some (for example Backgammon) don't.
Many sound effects have been included in v1.7 but due to problems with MMPM, in the words of the author, "sound dropouts can occur or the sound can even be muted in a game." As many OS/2 users already know, MMPM can cause a lot more problems than just dropped sounds. Some users may experience program crashes or even Trap errors when using these games with sound turned on. Fortunately, each game has a settings dialog that allows sounds to be assigned to individual events or to be turned off completely. And if you really want to make sure they don't make a peep, you can always just delete the .WAV files from the directory you have installed them in.
The Details
There are too many games in the pack to go into much detail here but fortunately most of them will be so familiar to you that they probably don't need much explanation. Briefly, this is what is included:
Battleship: The classic board game is done justice in this computerized version. The interface is simple enough that you probably won't need to read the instructions to learn how to position your ships and start bombing your opponent's. A nice touch is the small sinking ship animation when a ship is destroyed. It's simple enough that you'll get bored of it in about half an hour though.
Backgammon: My curse, this game is the perfect time waster. It's not too challenging but there is some skill involved. The computer in this version is not the world's best player though and there is no expert level of play. Sometimes (OK, most of the time) it's just too easy to beat. The graphics are plain but nice. One complaint I have is that older versions had slow, medium and fast animation (of the pieces) speeds while the newest has only fast, slow and none. These are either too fast to follow your opponent's actions or too slow to endure. Still, a good combination of luck and skill.
Checkers: What can I say? It's checkers. This version uses the forced jump rule and the user can define how many levels ahead the computer calculates at the different levels of play. Unless you're a real fanatic checkers fan, you'll get tired of this one quickly.
Connect Four: Again, a simple version of the classic game. The user can set the level of play and whether he or the computer starts. The interface is as simple as possible. I'll admit that even on the easiest level I'm not able to beat this one!
Galaxy: This game is a variation on the mine sweeper theme. The playfield is a simple grid of horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines and somewhere on the intersections of those lines are four hidden satellites. You have to find the four hidden satellites from clues about the number of satellites that are in a straight line from each position you uncover. This one will make you think.
Master Mind: The classic game with a four colour code chosen from six possible colours. The user must guess the colours in the correct order within twelve tries. Entertaining but repetitive.
Memory: A memory puzzle where the player must uncover the matching tiles. The game has default bitmaps or the user can specify a directory with bitmaps in it for the game to use. The user can also specify the number of tiles. Great for killing time.
Mine Sweeper: Yet another version of this popular game. It's not as well done as some (for example the copy included in the MicroLearn Game Pack) but it has the basic features. If you're an addict it might get you through the day but I've seen better.
Othello: Again, a plain computerization of the familiar board game. The user plays against the computer to capture as many playing squares as he can. I've never been fond of this game (a little too taxing for my brain) but if you are, it will be adequate for you.
Pac: A simple port of the arcade classic, Pac Man. You're the little yellow guy who eats dots, fruit, and sometimes, ghosts. The sounds aren't as good as the original and the animation is a little, well, off. Overall though the game is a faithful port and worth killing some time.
Pegged: A peg-in-hole game that has been around since humans learned to walk upright. The object is to jump adjacent pegs, removing them as you do, until there is only one left. For variation, the original positions of the pegs can be switched between seven different patterns but no ability is included to create your own starting patterns. Once you've solved the puzzles the game loses it's appeal.
Puzzle: Slide the tiles of a jumbled up bitmap within a large square to try to arrange them so they complete a picture. Reminiscent of the handheld units of my childhood this one excites me about as much as they did.
Store: A Soko-ban game where the player pushes crates with a tiny tractor to get them in specified positions. Simple but fun.
Tetravex: Another puzzle game where pieces with numbers or letters on all four sides must be aligned on a square grid with their edges matching. This one is fun but it requires attention.
Tetris: Not the best port I've ever seen but it's got the basic features. If you really want to play tetris for a long time I'd definitely recommend Stris or one of the other standalones.
Tic Tac Toe: On first glance this is just the basic 3x3 tic tac toe playfield where you place your markers and the computer counters with the same old predictable moves. However this version has the option of a 3x3x3 or 4x4x4 playfield where 3 in a row (or 4 in a row if you're using the 4x4x4 version) can be achieved in 3 dimensions. Definitely the best variation on a traditional game to be found in the package.
Worm: The player must guide a worm around obstacles to eat cherries on the screen. As the worm travels it loses strength and will die if it doesn't get to the cherries in time. If it hits a wall it's also lights out. And as it eats, its tail gets longer leaving yet another obstacle for its head to avoid. Simple but fun.
Should You Bother?
As you can see, these games aren't on the cutting edge. In fact, they weren't on the cutting edge 2 years ago. Still, some of them are fun and for the price (US$35 through BMT Micro) you get a lot of diversions. These games are simple enough to load and play quickly even on the most challenged of OS/2 systems. With 17 games everyone will find something that interests them. If you can accept limited graphics, flaky or no sound and simple games this package is definitely for you.
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Entertainment Pack for OS/2 v1.7 (ftp.wilmington.net/bmtmicro/entrtn17.zip)
Peter Wansch (p.wansch@ieee.org)
Registration: US$35
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Trevor Smith (editor@haligonian.com) is the editor of OS/2 e-Zine! and a serious backgammon addict. Now if someone would just write a good OS/2 cribbage game...
---Our Sponsor: BMT Micro (http://www.wilmington.net/bmtmicro/)---
Are you a classic arcade game addict? Do you crave the simple shoot 'em ups of days gone by? If you want that simple minded violence with a touch of slick modern graphics and sound effects then Masterroids is for you. This shareware game takes Asteroids to new heights by spicing up the "asteroids", bad guys and little extras with sharp 256 colour graphics, great animations and first class sound effects.
Installing Masterroids is as simple as most shareware. You can simply unzip the program and run (it uses the EMX.DLL runtime library but this file is included in the .ZIP file) or, if you like, use the included install utility to create a desktop object. No changes are made to system files and uninstallation is a simple matter of deleting all the files in the directory. The documentation that comes with the game (in ascii text format) is thorough and clearly explains how to set up and play the game.
There's More
And it's not just a one player game anymore. Masterroids allows up to 4 players simultaneously so you can really gang up on those poor defenseless asteroids, and not so defenseless aliens. For all you deathmatch freaks, shooting other players' ships won't destroy them, so you won't find satisfaction here. You _can_ bounce other players' ships by shooting them though and carefully placed fire could result in a collision between your target and an asteroid so there is some hope for the sadistically inclined.
The entire game is extremely configurable, even if some options are a little on the technical side. The keys used to control the ships are user selectable, as are ship colours, special abilities (hyperspace, shield, extra speed), difficulty and various settings like shooting range, thrust, and speed. If you have problems or want to tweak your system's performance you can also get dirty with sound, multimedia and priority settings.
As I said, the graphics are outstanding. The "asteroids" are actually different globe shaped objects on each level and new bad guys and surprise "extras" appear as well. The sounds are very good but you could probably argue that they're not quite as good as the ones in Roids by Leonard Guy. The explosion animations alone make this game slick looking though. Very nice!
The Downside
The game isn't all good though. Some users will notice a significant loading time when sounds are turned on. Likewise, when the game ends it can take a long time to release control completely and purge itself from memory. In the author's own words, "MASTERROIDS loads up to 3 MB data, so your computer should have a minimum of 8 MB RAM," and he recommends that, "you have no other programs running in the background." Obviously this isn't the kind of game you would want to run on a 4 meg machine. Although the game is being distributed as shareware and registrations are being accepted the official version number is still 0.9 so it's safe to assume the author intends to address some of these problems.
Not necessarily a drawback but worth mentioning is the author's interesting way of annoying shareware defrauders. The unregistered version has the usual nag screen and limitations of game play (it only goes to level 5 and you can't pick up all "extras" or save your changes to the configuration) but there is an extra twist. The opening and closing nag screens have seven check boxes and an OK button in the shape of a clock face that must all be clicked before the dialogs will disappear. This means everyone will be reminded that this is shareware every time he or she opens and closes the program.
So How Is It?
This game is fun but how can any version of Asteroids not be fun? The animation is smooth even on a 486 and there's enough challenge available to keep most people interested. The superb graphics and sound effects add the touches of professionalism that make this game a keeper. Despite its ancient origin, for the low registration price of US$20 Masterroids is a winner.
Visit MicroLearn Nordic (http://www.microlearn.se/) - Creators of native high-quality OS/2 entertainment software, including the MicroLearn Game Pack, Volumes 1-3 and the upcoming ML Pool.
Review: Mastering OS/2 Warp, The OS/2 Warp Bible - by John Phillips
I have just finished reading _Mastering OS/2 Warp, The OS/2 Warp Bible_ by Peter Dyson. No, I didn't read it word by word but I did cover a very large number of the 1245 pages. I skipped a few sections that were devoted to topics I either wasn't interested in (IBM Works) or didn't have time for just now (OS/2 REXX programming). While I did skim these sections quickly to make sure the book's general consistency was maintained along with the overall quality, I can't honestly say that I read every word.
Let me start with the easy part and say that this is a very good book. If you use OS/2 Warp or are considering moving there (either from DOS/Windows/Win95 or from earlier versions of OS/2), I would wholeheartedly recommend getting a copy of _The Warp Bible_. I found it to be well written and very comprehensive in it's coverage of Warp. Twelve hundred pages may sound daunting but this book is well laid out and information can be located easily and quickly even if you don't read it cover to cover. I especially liked the way the author highlights certain sections as "Notes", "Tips", "Warnings" or "Instant Expert" information. Notes give definitions or explanations of topics that might not be immediately obvious. Tips are used to show how things could be done in different ways and perhaps make things easier. Warnings are fairly self-explanatory. The Instant Expert sections contain some of the more interesting information. These tidbits provide advanced or undocumented information that is very useful even to a long time OS/2 user.
The information in the book is provided factually and stays as far away as possible from the "My OS is better than your OS" rhetoric. Each section is well laid out and the overall flow of the book is very good. There is an excellent section on the CONFIG.SYS file which explains how OS/2 processes the file and which lines and drivers are processed in what order. There is another very good section on WinOS2 and the various DOS/Windows settings. The definitions here are clear and easily understood.
I did find two small items that were incorrect but these are obviously a result of changes made after the book went to press. Specifically, Dyson reports that you cannot access the "Retrieve Software Updates" feature unless you connect to Advantis (this was originally the case in late betas but IBM changed their mind and opened access to everyone when Warp went GA). He also states that you cannot have a LAN and SLIP (dial up) TCP/IP connection at the same time (this was also true with IBM TCP/IP v2.0 but changed with the release of TCP/IP v3.0 which is available and ships as part of OS/2 Warp Connect). These are both very minor and cannot be blamed on the author (I mention them here only for clarification/informational purposes).
The Internet section focuses mainly on connecting via the IBM Advantis service but does give good coverage to the major TCP/IP applets that are included in OS/2 Warp (UltiMail, NewsReader/2, Gopher, WebExplorer, Telnet, TN3270, and FTP-PM as well as command line utilities like Finger, FTP and Ping). There are other sections on FaxWorks, HyperAccess (terminal program), CIM (CompuServe access program), IBM Works, Person to Person and MMPM/2 (Warp Multimedia support).
If you are a beginning to mid level OS/2 user or are considering installing OS/2 Warp on your computer, you would do well to acquire a copy of this book. In addition to being an excellent source of OS/2 Warp information, it also includes the Hobbes CD-ROM which John Dvorak (well known computer industry personality) described as "the best of the best... [there are]". The CD itself is chock full of OS/2 software (shareware, freeware, IBM EWS) direct from the hobbes.nmsu.edu FTP site. And if that's not enough, there is also a full OS/2 Command Reference section and Appendices on OS/2 Resources, Advanced OS/2 installation techniques (CID) and OS/2 hardware compatibility.
The price tag on the copy I have says $55.00. The binding on the book itself says $39.99 (US). Either way, this is a great book and well worth the investment.
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Mastering OS/2 Warp, the Warp Bible
Peter Dyson
Publisher: Sybex
ISBN: 0-7821-1663-9
MSRP: US$39
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John Phillips (http://www.islandnet.com/~teamos2) is the local Team OS/2 Coordinator and leader of the local OS/2 User Group in Victoria, BC. He has been using OS/2 since his introduction to it (v1.2) while installing/supporting Knowledgeware's CASE tools. He works for a local government body as part of a group supporting approximately 700 DOS/Windows and OS/2 workstations in a mixed NT and Lan Server environment.
This all started a couple of months ago, when I had the pleasure of experiencing David Barnes in person, as he performed for our user's group. I do not use the terms 'experience' and 'perform' lightly. His style and energy levels are definitely something to envy. His magnetic personality and charm take an audience from the auditorium into the world of OS/2 and show them the wonders that we, as dedicated OS/2 users (hey, can I use the word fanatics here... some of us are!) are used to in our everyday lives. He can take some of the most stoic persons and have them wrapped up in the performance to where even they laugh 'til tears come out their eyes.
A few months ago, we received the bad news that David was leaving IBM, but would still be 'doing his thing' for OS/2. The trade mags picked up on it, and another OS/2 is dead thread ran on the net, because of one man.
Well, I have news: David Barnes is back at IBM!!! He has a statement on his web page at the OS2BBS (www.os2bbs.com) explaining why he came back. I know I personally ran around to everyone I know and told them just that. Have a look!
For me, this is a real treat. I get to write my very first article for e-Zine! on an interview with David! This is what I hope will be the first of a series of occasional interviews with him. Let's hope David will oblige us. I thought with so much press surrounding OS/2's number one evangelist a little background might be helpful. So I asked David a few questions...
How he got involved with OS/2:
It kind of chose him... he had been all the field positions in IBM: CE, PSR, SE for water cooled mainframes. He was asked to do a presentation for John Acres on a PS/2 model 60 (that's a 286) for OS/2 1.1. This machine was a PS/2 60 that actually had two RISC CPUs with on board memory (using Berkeley 4.2) running under OS/2 1.1 and also running an OS/2 Presentation Manager application. Shortly thereafter he was in Boca doing pitches and two weeks later was on the road and has been there ever since. All this started back in 1988, and the magic has been flourishing ever since.
BTW, the first version that David ran at home was OS/2 1.0.
His family:
David and his wife, Judy, have been married 17 years. He affectionately calls her the original mall rat. They moved in the day they met, and have been together ever since. They have two children: Marshall, 8, (who had surgery the day of our interview) and Madeline, 5. From the way he tells it, both of his children are growing up on OS/2.
On IBM:
David was a self described hippie, long hair, etc. The day before going for his interview with IBM, he spent his last 35 dollars on haircut and bad suit coat... he didn't even know what IBM meant at the time! When asked what brought him back to IBM, he simply replied: "They are the best!" He truly feels that they are the best employers... just about the best thing going all around.
The 1996 Olympics:
Did you know that:
He is the spokesperson for the Olympics?
That IBM will have over 6000 machines there?
Let's go one better, that the Olympics are being 100% operated by IBM hardware and software?
His bitmaps:
Yes, he does create all those bitmaps on his web page himself. At the time we spoke 3 out of his 14 machines were rendering. He uses Caligari (likes the right mouse button feature) but will eventually move to Neon which is OS/2 based, not Windows based.
End Note:
David is very personable, warm and easy-going. His style and ability to make one laugh go a long way in helping people understand the power and usefulness of OS/2. I look forward to our next discussion. I'll keep you posted!
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Stacy King is a Level 2 analyst for CTG at IBM. She is married to wonderful husband, Larry, has a 3 year old son, Brandon (future computer geek), is a member of the Central Texas PC User's Group, the OS/2 Co-SIG Leader for CTPCUG and a member of Team OS/2.
---Our Sponsor: Indelible Blue (http://www.indelible-blue.com/ib/)---
What is the Single Input Queue (SIQ), and how does FixPak 17 fix it?
Now that IBM has released its SIQ fix, here is a technical description of what the SIQ is, what was the problem, and how IBM has fixed it.
Due to the architecture of OS/2 all processes (programs) uses the same message queue to get messages from the system. This means that whenever you resize, move, etc. a Presentation Manager (PM) program it gets a lot of messages which tell the program to redraw the screen. If a program (like the infamous VIEW.EXE) does't handle the messages, the message queue will be filled in a few tenths of a second and the PM hangs.
This doesn't mean that OS/2 hangs; usually you'll only have to wait a few minutes and the program starts to remove messages from the queue and the PM will work normally again. The other way to get around this problem is to press Ctrl-Esc, and the "This program is not responding to system requests" dialog will appear. Here you can close the program or cancel the dialog but it isn't always the offending program that is closed, and often it doesn't help at all.
But all this is history now...
After installing FixPak 17 you'll have to put the following line in your CONFIG.SYS:
SET PM_ASYNC_FOCUS_CHANGE=ON
This tells the PM that it should enable the SIQ-Fix.
How does the queue work now? First of all the PM hasn't got multiple queues, so programs are still able to fill the message queue, but now it is possible to get the system to remove messages that a program doesn't.
Sadly, the PM doesn't do this for you, you'll still have to press CTRL-ESC to get the "This program is not responding to system requests" dialog, but now if you select "cancel" the program that isn't responding to the system will be disabled until it begins removing its messages from the queue. Of course, if you chose "close" the program will be closed.
Best of all, the dialog and the close function is much, much faster than it was previously. Compared to NT, this is OS/2's only weakness (because NT has multiple queues). With the SIQ fix OS/2 takes one step closer to complete superiority. Thanks IBM!
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Anders Thue Pedersen (anderst@vnet.ibm.com) is a 24 year old student at Denmark's Technical University, working at IBM in the Dealer Support Center. He's been using OS/2 for 2 years.
GraphiC is a very powerful multi-platform scientific and technical graphics library by Scientific Endeavors Corporation. Unlike scientific graphics programs such as SigmaPlot and Xact, GraphiC is a library of routines written in C that can be customized to fit your needs because the source code is included. This flexibility comes at the expense of having to write C/C++ code to produce plots, but the included sample files make it very easy to pick up on the library's functions even if you have only modest experience with these languages. If you want total control over the way your data are presented, GraphiC is a tool you should consider. The multi-platform nature of GraphiC may also appeal to some users. Versions of the library also exist for DOS, Windows 3.1, and Windows NT.
The installation program is well-done, enabling the user to specify the locations of all files as well as the C compiler to be used. I tested GraphiC with the IBM VisualAge C++ compiler, but the Borland and Watcom compilers are also supported, as is the older IBM CSet++. The on-line help for the installation program explains all of the options clearly. Once the installation is completed, you can choose to have the installation program compile the library or you can do it manually, but makefiles are supplied, making this a relatively effortless task. The library can be compiled into a DLL or the routines can be statically linked to an executable.
But Why?
You might wonder why someone would want to use a library of graphics routines when there are scientific graphics programs. It certainly takes more work to use something like GraphiC, but there are definite advantages in certain situations. In the graphic programs I have used, there are always annoying limitations that prevent me from doing something I need to do. Another advantage to GraphiC is that plotting can be done in the midst of very time consuming calculations. In my own work, for example, I do simulations of gas flow in binary star systems and these simulations can run for several hours or even days. With GraphiC I can call a quick plotting routine at each iteration to see how the simulation is doing.
Capabilities
The library comes with a wide variety of plot types. Of course, the basic types such as 2-D and 3-D scatter plots, surface plots, bar charts, pie charts, vector plots and contour plots are included. There are also some less common plot types for 4-D functions, Smith charts, patch plots, triangle plots, and many others. Multiple plots can easily be placed on a graph. All of the attributes of a plot such as labels, fonts, colors, tick marks, error bars, etc. are easily modified.
If you have ever looked at the C code necessary to simply display a Presentation Manager window, you might wonder just how involved a GraphiC program might be. Rest easy though, because the library handles all the gory details for you. All you need to worry about is writing the code to compute and display your data. All GraphiC programs begin with the bgnplt() routine. This routine sets up a second thread that handles the plotting window's message queue. This is an important point because OS/2 programs are supposed to process their system messages promptly (within 1/10 of a second). By having the queue processing done on a separate thread, lengthy calculations won't cause annoying slowdowns. The bgnplt() routine also creates a basic user interface that allows the user to zoom and pan, export the plot to one of several graphics formats, and copy the plot to the clipboard. All of these features are provided without your having to make a single Presentation Manager API call. If you want to dig deeper, however, GraphiC allows you to do that. Routines are available for text input and output, as well as memory allocation/deallocation. All of these routines are available on the various platforms, so that the same source code can be compiled for any of them.
The graphics output capabilities of GraphiC are very powerful. Graphs are stored in a high resolution vector format and can be quickly redisplayed using an included executable play.exe. The available output formats are PIC, GEM, HPGL/HPGL-2, Postscript (levels 1 and 2), CGM, SCODL, TIFF, and formats specific to the OS, such as the OS/2 bitmap format. It is obvious that the GraphiC programmers spent a great deal of effort designing and implementing the graphics output routines. Color plots look nice on the screen, but most publications still want black and white, and GraphiC does a very good job converting color plots for output to a black and white printer. However, at the time of submitting this article I was having problems with some of the conversion routines. The HPGL converter would cause SYS3175 error (protection fault) when I tried to run it. In some situations the Postscript converter would lock the system input queue on my machine, and Ctrl-Esc would not rescue it, necessitating a reboot. However, the technical support at Scientific Endeavors is very responsive and I have no doubt that these problems will be resolved in short order. Technical support can be contacted by phone, FAX, e-mail or on CompuServe (GO SCIEND), and they are in the process of setting up a WWW homepage.
The Price Tag
The GraphiC license allows you to use the library for personal applications. If you wish to distribute an application developed with the library, you must negotiate an additional license. The terms of additional licenses seem very reasonable, though. For programs to be sold to others, a royalty of around 5% is usually charged, but Scientific Endeavors will negotiate a license that is mutually beneficial. Two examples of commercial plotting packages that use the GraphiC library are Axum and Gauss.
In short, if you are proficient in C and are looking for maximum control over the appearance of your plots or need a multiplatform solution, GraphiC may be ideal for you. However, since many scientists, including myself, are more comfortable working in Fortran, Scientific Endeavors is working on a package which will simplify using the library from Fortran. Of course, you can use the library as it is from Fortran, but if you do not have any experience doing mixed-language programming, plan to spend some time coming up to speed on the issues that must be addressed such as subroutine calls and variable addressing. I am very impressed by the depth of features in this library which has a list price of US$495 but can be found at mail order companies for about $395.
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GraphiC/OS2
Scientific Endeavours Corp.
MSRP: US$495
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Dr. Dirk Terrell (terrell@fdt.net) is an astronomer at the University of Florida specializing in interacting binary stars. His hobbies include cave diving, martial arts, painting and writing OS/2 software such as HTML Wizard.
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It's been a year since the first real third party alternative to OS/2's Ultimail Light came on the scene. Now the market has three contenders and it's about to get a fourth. We compare them for you.
Utility Suites
We review some of the suite-est utilities on the market for OS/2 and give you the scoop on which does what and how well. From Graham to GammaTech, we've got 'em all.
Graphics Software
ColorWorks V2 is now out and we'll bring you first looks at this much anticipated product as well as the low down on some other industry heavyweights.
