OS/2 Shareware BBS: 32 Periodic/32-Periodic.zip/gdoug2.zip/GDOUG2.INF

OS/2 Help File | 1996-01-27 | 114KB | 2,849 lines

ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. President's Note ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Welcome to GDOUG!

 This is the second volume of excerpts from the newsletter of the Greater
 Detroit OS/2 User Group (GDOUG).  The articles here are reprinted from issues
 published between September 1995 and February 1996.  The only edits made have
 been to accomodate the features available in the .INF format and to update
 articles with new information since their original text publication.

 I want to point out that although GDOUG is based in the Southeast Michigan
 area, we welcome articles, reviews, editorials and other contributions from
 anyone.  If you would like to contribute to our newsletter, please send a copy
 in ASCII, .INF, DeScribe or IBM Works format to us at the locations listed in
 the GDOUG Membership and Contact info page. Not only will you receive the
 appropriate credit, we'll send you a complimentary copy of the newsletter in
 which your article appears.

 Either way, we'd appreciate any feedback on the newsletter and its articles.
 If you find something useful, entertaining or even infuriating, 'drop us a
 line' and let us know.

 Edward Trumbo

 President, Greater Detroit OS/2 User Group


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2. GDOUG FAQ ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Note:  The following file contains a brief introduction to the purpose, nature
 and activities of the Greater Detroit OS/2 User Group.  The information
 contained in this document is subject to change without notice.  Please
 contact GDOUG at the locations listed within to confirm the current accuracy
 of any material contained here.

 What is GDOUG?

 GDOUG (the Greater Detroit OS/2 User Group) is a nonprofit volunteer
 organization of computer users dedicated to the OS/2 operating system and its
 related products and technologies.

 What is GDOUGs purpose?

 See our Charter.

 Does GDOUG hold regular meetings, and on what schedule?

 At this time, GDOUG meets once a month in the Warren, MI area, on the second
 Friday of each month from 7:30PM to approximately 9:30PM. This schedule is
 subject to change, so please contact a GDOUG member or officer or log in to
 the OS/2 Express BBS for current details.

 Does GDOUG have a newsletter for OS/2 Users?

 Yes, the GDOUG newsletter is published monthly, prior to each meeting.  The
 printed edition is mailed to registered members, and is also available for a
 free trial subscription by request.  An ASCII edition is published online on
 the OS/2 Express.  Enter N for Newsletter to view the current edition on-line
 or check the File listings for a downloadable 'zipped' version.

 Is there an electronic archive of back issues available?

 We have an archive of GDOUG information, including back issues of the
 newsletter, available on our home BBS, the OS/2 Express.

 Does your user group have a User Library of freeware and shareware available
 for members?

 The OS/2 Express BBS mentioned above handles distribution of OS/2shareware,
 files and GDOUG related information.  The BBS also has the latest Hobbes CD
 from Walnut Creek available online.

 Does your user group allow long distance memberships?

 We welcome the participation of anyone who is interested in using, developing
 for and supporting OS/2.  Our newsletter includes articles, independent
 reviews, news and editorials applicable to OS/2 users whatever their location.
 If demand proves sufficient, we may offer discounted 'memberships' to those
 who can't conveniently attend our regular meetings.

 So far, we have had people from all over Michigan and parts of Canada
 attending our meetings.  We are pursuing a permanent or semi-permanent meeting
 location that will be conveniently accessible to everyone in the greater
 Detroit area.

 How much is membership?  Are there other benefits (like discount purchases)
 available for members?

 Membership dues are $25 US per year.  Meeting attendance is free to anyone
 interested.

 We receive promotional offers from software vendors with generously discounted
 prices that apply to User Group orders, we make these available to the members
 at each meeting.  IBM publishes a technical journal which is available only to
 User Group members, we receive regular copies for distribution.

 Besides these immediate benefits of membership, joining an OS/2 User Group
 provides a tremendous opportunity to network with colleagues who have skills
 to offer or needs to be met.

 What is the focus of GDOUG memberships and meeting topics?

 We welcome the participation of everyone, whether they're curious about OS/2
 or helped write OS/2 1.0 back in 1987.

 Our activities are based on the participation of those who attend our
 meetings.  If many advanced users and /or developers attend, GDOUG will focus
 on their needs, likewise if OS/2 beginners attend we will focus on serving the
 needs of new users.

 How do I contact the OS/2 Express BBS?

 See our page on the OS/2 Express.

 How would I contact GDOUG members or Officers directly?

 See the above question and answer for instructions on the OS/2 Express.  We
 frequent the "GDOUG Members Corner" message section there. By reading other
 posts there, you may gather all the information you need.

 To otherwise contact us or become a member of GDOUG, see our GDOUG Membership
 and Contact info page.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3. The OS/2 Express BBS ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 "OS/2 Express": The GDOUG BBS!

 The OS/2 Express BBS is GDOUG's primary on-line resource for its members and
 other interested parties.  The OS/2 Express is operated by SysOp and GDOUG
 officer James Held  who has generously offered special access privileges for
 GDOUG members.

 Some highlights of OS/2 Express include:

     o the latest Hobbes OS/2 CD-ROMs online, featuring nearly 650 Megabytes of
       OS/2 programs, drivers and files from the largest Internet archive
       serving OS/2

     o Up to 120 minutes of free access each day

     o Up to 2 Megabyte of downloads per user per day

 Features for GDOUG members only:

     o dedicated message bases

     o extra download privleges totaling 4 Megabytes per day

 In addition to this, the OS/2 Express is the first place to find up to the
 minute information about GDOUG meetings and other activities.

 To call the OS/2 Express BBS, set you modem to N-8-1 and up to 19.2K baud and
 dial [phone]. Please answer the introductory questions and feel free to
 let the SysOp know that GDOUG sent you!


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4. Articles ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.1. Cooking with .INF's ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 written and presented by Ed Trumbo on September 11, 1995

 INTRODUCTION

 The Information Presentation Facility in OS/2 is familiar to all OS/2 users.
 The Information folder containing the on-line reference material, as well as
 the on-line help files included with many OS/2 applications, make use of the
 IPF format.  Such files are identified by their .INF extension, associated
 with the VIEW program included with OS/2, and now with PC DOS 7.

 Creating such documents involves the use of a text markup language, or 'tag'
 language, and compiling this source text using the Information Presentation
 Facility Compiler (IPFC).  IPFC is available separately from OS/2 itself, it
 is commonly included with application development systems like the Developer's
 Toolkit for OS/2, VisualAge C++, VX-REXX and so on.

 EXAMPLES

 Most of the effects available in INF documents are encoded as shorthand
 English-like instructions to the compiler, using tag characters that identify
 INF commands.  For example, text written like this:

 'GDOUG was founded in July 1994.'

 would be tagged like this to highlight 'July 1994' in red:

 'GDOUG was founded in :color fc=red.July 1994:color fc=default..'

 A hypertext link from GDOUG to another page would look like this:

 ':link reftype=hd res=001.GDOUG:elink. was founded in July 1994.'

 while the linked document or page would start with:

 ':h2 res=001.Greater Detroit OS/2 User Group'

 Since the tag language itself makes extensive use of punctuation characters,
 it is necessary to distinguish between tag commands and regularly occurring
 punctuation.  To include a colon in an IPF document, the colon must be
 represented as

 &colon.

 Other common characters are replaced like this: &. for Ampersand, &slr. for
 a right Slash, &slr. for left Slash, etc.

 An interesting characteristic of IPF is that it does not recognize hard
 returns or blank lines.  Each paragraph must be delimited by the :p. paragraph
 tag, to prevent all text from running together as a stream.  This can be the
 most tedious aspect of creating IPF files, since even the programs designed to
 translate text into IPF format don't readily insert paragraph tags where
 needed.

 Some other tags offer the ability to automatically format your text, such as:

     Tables

     Lists, including multilevel indenting and outlining, "bullets" and line
     spacing

     Font selections

     Margins

 and more.  A complete description of the tag language is included with the
 compiler in - you guessed it - an INF document.  While I won't repeat every
 possible tag available, the previous examples should give an idea of what is
 involved in creating INF documents.

 WRITING FOR .INF

 Having hypertext capabilities implies a different style of writing. In editing
 our old newsletters together for GDOUG Volume 1, I found several areas that
 could be removed entirely in favor of hypertext links to other included areas
 of the final document.  Several references to the OS/2 Express and its logon
 parameters were easily replaced by a link to one page with all information on
 our BBS. References to Officer contact information were consolidated onto one
 page, with links available throughout the entire file.

 This wouldn't have been practical in a lengthy text document.  How many
 readers would interrupt the normal flow of reading if it meant searching
 through pages and returning to where they left off afterward, if they had to
 do so several times in each page?  Hypertext in general, and IPF in
 particular, makes this a painless process.

 By using IPF footnotes within the document, I was able to include more
 information about the various vendors and companies mentioned throughout the
 document, without disrupting the flow of the topic at hand.

 CONCLUSION

 Although IPF isn't very easy to learn or easy to use for the author, the
 rewards in creating documents in this format make the effort worthwhile.  A
 well designed .INF file frees both the author and the reader from the
 traditional limitations of the printed page.

 In this presentation, I haven't explored some of the most impressive
 capabilities of IPF, such as graphics linking and application launching, but I
 hope that this serves as a brief introduction to this often overlooked
 capability of OS/2 and PC DOS 7.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.2. IBM LAN Distance Remote ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Copyright (C) 1995 Daniel R. Rubis, all rights reserved

 IBM LAN Distance Remote

 Installation

 There is a recommended installation sequence for installing some of the
 products for OS/2 Warp Connect.  Some of the products like LAN Distance Remote
 will not install correctly unless other products have been installed prior to
 LAN Distance Remote.

 I have found that the sequence below works:

  1. Install OS/2 Warp 3.0.

  2. Install OS/2 Peer.

  3. Install TCP/IP for OS/2 Version 3.0

  4. Install LAN Distance Remote 1.11

 Note:  After each of the step of the above Shut Down and reboot the computer.
        This is an important step because the CONFIG.SYS is changed for each of
        the above products and new program objects are registered to the system
        during the reboot.  Notice that LAN Distance Remote is the last to be
        installed.  This is important because LAN Distance Remote needs some of
        the functions that get installed during the previous product
        installation.  If it does not find them, the LAN Distance installation
        fails.  Also notice that you DO NOT install IBM LAN Requester 4.0 when
        installing LAN Distance Remote.  DO NOT install Internet Connection
        from the Bonus Pack.  If you have Internet Connection from the Bonus
        Pack already installed, say from OS/2 Warp 3.0., you should remove it.

 Using LAN Distance Remote

 You need another copy of OS/2 Warp Connect to install on another computer.
 Each computer that you plan to use LAN Distance Remote needs its own license.
 IBM has come out with very economical pricing of a "5-Pack" Connect.

 There are three ways install OS/2 Warp Connect.  If you have Warp Connect on a
 LAN connected computer you can install Warp Connect on other computers on the
 LAN.  You can install Warp Connect as you did above (i.e. from the CD-ROM).
 You can also create diskettes by using PRODINST on the CD-ROM and then install
 Warp Connect using the diskettes.  If you have a laptop that does not have a
 CD-ROM  drive and is not connected to a LAN through a docking station you have
 to install Warp Connect using diskettes.  You will need a minimum of 14
 diskettes for IBM Peer,  MPTS, and LAN Distance Remote and that is not
 including the Warp diskettes.

 Assuming you now have Warp Connect installed on two computers you can now use
 LAN Distance Remote.  The communication drivers for LAN Distance Remote only
 support a limited amount of modems.  Compression features of some modems are
 not supported.  It is recommended that you use a generic "Asynchronous
 Switched Connection Modem" selection. You change your modem selection by
 starting LAN Distance, pull down the Selected menu, Open As submenu, and
 Settings.  In the Modems tab, you can Delete the modem selection and Assign
 the Asynch. selection.  Once you get something running you can try other modem
 selections to increase the speed, for Asynch. runs at only 9600 BPS.

 Below are the steps to connect a laptop to a desktop computer using LAN
 Distance Remote:

 Desktop

  1. Open Icon IBM LAN Distance.

  2. From LAN Distance Workstation menu bar, click on
     Selected/Open-As/Settings.

  3. From the Setting Notebook tabs select the Answer tab. Select the
     PSTN_ALL_CALLS to highlight it, click on Start Mode.

  4. Close settings notebook

  5. Click on yes to save settings.

  6. Click on Ok.

 At this point you will want to Share Resources.  There is several ways to
 share resources (i.e. disks, CD-ROMs, specific directories on disks, COMM.
 ports, printers).  The popup menus of shareable resources now have another
 item to select, Share.  Or, in the OS/2 Peer folder you can use the Sharing
 and Connecting object.

 Laptop  For the laptop make sure the modem is turned on if it is an external
 modem before starting LAN Distance Remote.  Follow the steps below:

  1. Open Icon IBM LAN Distance.

  2. Click on Ok to 9600 BPS message if you have not installed the modem as
     generic Asynch.

  3. Click on the Icon that looks like a computer.  This is your phone book.

  4. Select/Add telephone number from/to the list.

  5. Click on Dial - the LAN Distance will dial and report back that it is
     connected and at what speed in the status box.  At the Desktop computer at
     the other end, a message box will popup saying that a "Connection has been
     established".  You can click Ok and it will get rid of the message box,
     but it is not required.

  6. Minimize the Phone Book (optional), DO NOT close it.

  7. Minimize the LAN Distance folder (optional), DO NOT close it.

  8. Open the Drives folder (optional).

  9. Open the OS/2 Peers folder.

 10. Start Sharing and Connecting object.  There are resources that are
     availableto the laptop from the Desktop that you previously allowed to be
     shared.  You must connect to those resources.

 11. Select a resource.

 12. Click on Yes to Log on to OS/2 Peer.

 13. Enter Userid _______ and Password________ in the dialog box.  The default
     userid is USERID and default password is PASSWORD until you change them.

 If you select a disk resource, it will show up in your drives folder as a
 workstation-drive icon to distinguish it from the local drives.  You can treat
 the remote Desktop disk resource as if it were a local disk drive.  You will
 notice that it is much slower than a local drive because all of the
 information must be sent over the 9600 BPS modem.  When accessing disk
 resources it is faster to use a OS/2 prompt session that using the GUI drives
 folder for copying files etc.

 Shutting down a LAN Distance computer has a specific sequence.  First log off
 OS/2 Peer.  There are several ways to do that.  The easiest is to use the
 Logoff icon in the OS/2 Peer folder.  Then close the LAN Distance object that
 you may have minimized earlier.

 A shuttle message box will appear that will offer Remote workstation or LAN
 workstation.  Select either and click on Ok.

 Note:  If you get errors about modems, check the WCLNET.INI file to see that
        the correct modem is specified.

 Assigning users can be tricky.  See the Rules in Adding & Managing Users &
 Groups in the "Book" folder in OS/2 Peer folder. Especially, do not use
 'computer names' as userids or for anything else.  All names must be unique,
 is a good policy.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3. WARP CONNECT ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 In place of a full-fledged review of OS/2 Warp Connect, I'd like to provide
 some tips, observations and perhaps some warnings appropriate to this release.

 First, a quick summary of what Warp Connect is, what it contains and how it
 differs from other releases of Warp.  Warp Connect is essentially the same
 Warp that's been available for nearly a year now, but with several significant
 additions. The same BonusPak is there, the only notable update is the
 inclusion of the 1.01 WebExplorer in the Internet Access Kit (The first
 release of Warp shipped without WebExplorer, it was available on-line within
 the month).  The new features of Warp Connect are, by category:

 NETWORK CONNECTION

     o OS/2 Peer - The long awaited peer-to-peer network for OS/2.  This is
       actually Lan Requester 4.0 with the Peer Services supported by GUI.

     o LAN Requester 4.0 - The client portion of OS/2 LAN Server, Peer Services
       is command-line only.

     o Netware Client 2.11 - The Novell Netware client software for OS/2.

     o LAN Distance 1.1 Remote - Allows remote connections between PCs and LANs
       through modems.

     o TCP/IP 3.0 for OS/2 - The latest version of IBM's TCP/IP Base Kit,
       available only in Warp Connect.  This can actually replace the Internet
       Access Kit on the BonusPak CD-ROM, more about this later.

     o Network SignOn Coordinator - A utility that can be configured to
       simultaneously connect you to multiple networks or programs, syncronize
       passwords, etc.

 MISCELLANEOUS

     o AskPSP - A 'help desk'-type database including some frequently
       encountered problems and questions, along with solutions.

     o Lotus Notes Express - Separately bundled (is that an oxymoron or what?!)
       in Warp Connect is a Lotus CD containing the 'runtime' client version of
       Lotus Notes.  Notes being what it is, this should really be included in
       the network section.  Notes Express can send E-Mail and use the seven
       applications and databases included, but cannot use or create custom
       ones.

 HOW IS WARP CONNECT DIFFERENT FROM OTHER WARPS?

      1. Warp Connect is only available on CD-ROM.  You can make floppies from
         the images on the CD-ROM.

      2. The installation assumes you'll install at least one networking
         feature.  'Easy Installation' is preset to load the Netware Client and
         Internet TCP/IP through modem (although you can prevent each one if
         needed), 'Advanced Installation' lets you specify which network
         drivers to load, or load none at all.

      3. The TCP/IP 3.0 in Warp Connect is intended to replace the Internet
         Access Kit in the BonusPak.  Throughout the documentation, IBM
         stresses that you should not install the BonusPak IAK under Warp
         Connect. (I really don't know why, more on this later)

      4. Three manuals are shipped with Warp Connect, following the formats of
         the LAN Server documentation.  The first, 'Easy Start', is intended as
         a quick reference for the computer literate, following installation.
         'Up and Running' is more comprehensive, and the 'Users Guide' is
         essentially the same as in previous Warps, but updated with
         corrections, etc.

 Note:  I've installed both Warp Connect with WIN-OS/2 (Blue) and without
        WIN-OS/2 (Red).  During the installation of WC Blue (the first one
        available), Warp would not run the Dos SVGA program during
        installation.  By subsequently choosing VGA rather than the detected
        SVGA Tseng, I was able to later run Selective Install and update my
        video drivers correctly. This problem did not occur with earlier
        versions of Warp.

 WARP CONNECT QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

 Warp Connect seems to be a bundling of available products.  Is there anything
 truly new or otherwise unavailable included in Warp Connect?

          Two things: TCP/IP 3.0 and OS/2 Peer.

          TCP/IP 3.0 is the new version of the 2.0 kits previously (and still)
          available separately.  It resolves the conflict between version 2.0
          and the BonusPak IAK by effectively replacing the IAK (I did find it
          necessary to install and configure the IAK before using TCP/IP 3.0
          for Advantis, more about this later).  3.0 includes the equivalent of
          the 2.0 Base kit and several other kits sold separately.

          OS/2 Peer is a GUI peer-to-peer network system for OS/2.  It is
          essentially a repackaged version of LAN Requester 4.0, which has
          command line only support for Peer Services.  If you're using LAN
          Server and LAN Requester currently, OS/2 Peer can replace your
          current LAN Requester and give you graphical peer-to-peer support and
          SMB server access simultaneously.

 Why is the Internet Connection still on the BonusPak disc if TCP/IP 3.0
 replaces it?

          No doubt one reason was the expense of pressing new BonusPak discs
          without the Internet Connection.  I found, however, that the only
          reliable way to install TCP/IP for use with the Advantis dialer was
          to install it over the BonusPak Internet Connection.

          If you're using Advantis as your provider with DIALER.EXE as your
          SLIP dialer, you must install TCP/IP 3.0 over an existing and working
          copy of DIALER.EXE, otherwise DIALER.EXE simply won't work and you'll
          have to manually configure the other dialer for your provider.  In
          other words, install the BonusPak Internet Connection and configure
          it, then install Warp Connect's TCP/IP using Selective Install for
          Networks, Easy Installation, TCP/IP over your modem, into your
          existing TCP/IP directory.

 I have a network adapter and LAN connection already configured with MPTS.
 We're not using TCP/IP on the LAN, so I want to install TCP/IP only for a
 modem connection to the Internet.  The TCP/IP installation doesn't list
 modems, but it automatically detects my network card and installs the protocol
 there.  How do I get around this?

          You don't need to.  Let the installation add the TCP/IP protocol to
          your existing network adapter, no configuration will be needed here
          if you're only using modem access.  TCP/IP will install normally,
          using the Advantis DIALER.EXE if it installs over an existing IBM
          Internet Connection, or you can configure the TCP/IP SLIP and PPP
          dialer with the addresses from your provider after installation.

          If you don't have a network adapter, the installation will detect
          this and install MPTS with the IBM Parallel Port adapter driver.
          This is necessary just to give the protocol *something* to install
          to.

 I'm running Warp at home without a network.  Is there any reason why I would
 consider an upgrade to Warp Connect?

          To really take full advantage of Warp Connect, you'll need multiple
          installations across a network.  Even so, there are some features
          that might appeal even to a standalone user.

          If you have more than one computer, such as a desktop and a notebook,
          you could use OS/2 Peer to implement a simple and inexpensive
          network.  LAN Distance could then give you dialup access to your home
          PC while you're on the road.  If you have Warp Connect on a networked
          PC at work, you could use LAN Distance to dial in and access the
          company LAN offsite.

          If you're using the Internet Connection with a provider other than
          Advantis, you'll find TCP/IP 3.0 (available only in Warp Connect) is
          much easier to configure for other providers and offers a more
          complete set of tools for improved access. However, if you are using
          Advantis and not using TCP/IP over a LAN, the regular BonusPak
          Internet Connection would mean less overhead on a standalone system.

          With the exception of the latest TCP/IP and OS/2 Peer, all the
          specific features of Warp Connect are also available for separate
          purchase for users of other versions of OS/2.  It's really just a
          matter of convenience and expense, depending on the features you
          want.

 I'm running LAN Server and LAN Requester 4.0, and I reinstalled Requester from
 Warp Connect.  Now my time to logon has increased tremendously.  Once I'm
 logged on the speed is fine, but it takes me five times as long to get
 connected.  Why?

          I experienced this situation but couldn't find a cause.  Apparently
          IBM did find the cause, because it's been addressed by the LAN Server
          and MPTS Service Paks 8150 and 8152, available from CompuServe, the
          PCC BBS and any other source of IBM Service and FixPaks.

 What is this Lotus Notes 'Express' and what good is it?

          A complete description of what Lotus Notes actually is is beyond the
          scope of this article.  I hope to provide one in a later issue.  I
          should also note that as I write this, Lotus has announced some
          changes to their Notes client packages in preparation for Release 4.
          Since these aren't available yet, we'll concentrate on the existing
          packages.

          Notes Express, bundled with Warp Connect on a separate CD-ROM, is the
          smallest of several versions of Lotus Notes clients.  If your network
          includes a Notes Server, you can use Notes Express to share EMail and
          seven database/groupware applications with other Notes users across
          the network.  Express is limited to using only the seven templates
          included and does not allow custom Notes application development.

          A larger version, Notes Desktop Client, includes EMail access and 25
          templates, with the ability to use custom templates also.  Desktop
          Client still cannot create templates or applications, however.  All
          copies of Notes Express qualify for upgrade to Desktop Client.  IBM's
          AttachPak for Warp Connect includes the code to automatically perform
          this upgrade.

          A full Client license of Notes has EMail, the 25 templates and the
          ability to create custom Notes applications.  Express can be
          incrementally upgraded to this level through Lotus Development
          Corporation.

          In any case, any version of a Notes Client requires access to a Notes
          Server in order to be useful.  You could install Notes Express
          without accessing a Notes Server, but in this way everything must be
          installed locally and 55 megabytes of hard drive is a high price to
          pay for curiosity.  Since any existing Notes network would already
          have Client software of some kind, this bundling seems to be a means
          of encouraging the installation of new Notes systems.

 IBM AttachPak for Warp Connect?

          A separate collection of OS/2 programs designed to enhance Warp
          Connect's networking range in an IBM host oriented corporate
          environment.  Here's what's included:

                1. Personal Communications/3270 Entry Level - A subset of the
                   available full package, this version supports the 802.2
                   protocol for up to two simultaneous sessions on a 3270 host.

                2. Mobile File Sync - Allows a LAN Requester or Peer to cache
                   network files to a local drive for use offline and later
                   reconciliation.

                3. System Performance Monitor/2, single system - Displays
                   performance and configuration details on a local PC or one
                   client at a time from a server.

                4. CM/2 SNA Application Environment - Supports development of
                   SNA applications in Communications Manager/2.

                5. AnyNet Sockets - Provides IP Sockets emulation for NetBIOS,
                   SNA or IPX based networks.

                6. DCE Client - Adds Client support when used in an IBM
                   Distributed Computing Environment network.

                7. Dial-In Access Client for DIALs - Supports dialup access to
                   IBM 8235 Servers.

                8. NetView Distribution Manager/2 Startup - Connects to an
                   NVDM/2 server for download of the full NVDM/2 Client,
                   available separately.

                9. Lotus Notes Desktop Client upgrade - will upgrade an
                   installation of Warp Connect's Notes Express to the next
                   client level.

          If you have to ask what any of these mean, you probably don't need
          them.  If any two or three of these is useful in your environment,
          the AttachPak is a bargain at $209 list price.

 - Ed Trumbo


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.4. FIXPAK 16 - 'OS/2 Warp 3.1'? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Note:  As we went to press, IBM had pulled FixPak 16 due to the unusual number
        of reported problems.  A new FixPak 17 is expected at any time. The
        following document is presented for its information value.

 FixPak 16, a rather large set of updates and fixes to the Warp family,
 continues to generate controversy.  Many people who apply FP16 report various
 results, from faster and more reliable performance to total system
 destruction.  I've been following the reports over the Internet but haven't
 been able to narrow down a specific set of hardware or software that
 absolutely refuses to accept FP16.  It goes without saying that before
 applying such an extensive change to a system, a verified backup is a
 necessity.  FP16 also is known to require the latest set of 'kicker' disks
 (two boot disks designed to facilitate the installation of Corrective Service
 Disks), people who have installed FP16 with the CSD kickers made prior to
 12-5-95 have reported the most serious problems.  It may be worthwhile to
 revert to standard VGA mode if you're running a higher resolution or using
 video drivers that didn't ship with OS/2, then restore your preferred video
 mode after FP16.

 What is so important about FP16, anyway?  If you ask any group of OS/2
 specialists or other operating system-savvy people to name the one
 architectural flaw in OS/2, they will almost univesally point to the 'single
 input message queue', by any other name.  This means that OS/2 itself and all
 running applications share one message queue, thus any process that locks or
 hangs while waiting for input will also bring other processes to a halt behind
 it.  We're all pretty familar with the result: a seemingly locked Desktop that
 won't process any mouse or keyboard activity, the series of 'Grey Dialogs of
 Death' which don't really kill the locked process, often culminating in the
 Workplace Shell itself crashing and restarting.  NT users love to crow about
 this, since for all its relative faults NT is blessed with individual input
 queues.

 FP16 doesn't eliminate the single input queue limitation of OS/2, but it does
 improve Warp's input queue handling.  Warp with FP16 checks the input queue
 regularly, and any process which is not responding to the system will
 automatically lose its focus, leaving other processes and potential processes
 available.  How well does this work?  After four weeks of extensive use on
 three systems that used to be prone to input queue lockups, I really haven't
 had a single lockup yet and thus can't say how effective the new queue
 processing is.  Of course, maybe this says it all...

 FP16 has conclusively fixed some serious video and print queue problems I had
 developed on my server, which is running November 1994 Warp Red and LAN Server
 4.0 Entry.  It has greatly reduced the instances of small bitmap video
 distortion on my client system.  I believe (though I'm not sure) that it
 corrected a problem with Infomagic's Hobbes INF browser (see the Review
 section in this issue).  Overall, the original FixPak 16 was well worth my
 effort to download and apply, but your mileage may vary.  Before deciding to
 apply FP16 to your own systems, it may be helpful to think of it as Warp 3.1,
 with the personal evaluation, testing and nail-biting that this implies.  If
 IBM had chosen to handle it as an updated version, complete with a public
 rollout and media circus, it would have really stuck Warp in the faces of the
 'OS/2 is dead' drones of our industry.  Oh well, that is still coming with
 'Merlin'...

 - Ed Trumbo


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.5. OS/2 Automation with REXX ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 written and presented by Ed Trumbo on January 12, 1996

 There are reasons why OS/2 REXX doesn't get the attention it deserves. First,
 there is the natural assumption that a programming language would be of little
 interest to anyone but professional developers.  As a text mode programming
 language, it isn't nearly as glamourous as the Workplace Shell and the
 BonusPak.  There is also a lack of appreciation of the special nature of OS/2
 REXX as a native component of the operating system.  While compilers and
 interpreters of other languages tend to exist as separate entities in an
 environment, REXX is designed to be a batch processor, cross- application
 macro language and automation tool for its underlying platform.

 Since there really is nothing quite like REXX in the microcomputer market
 (aside from REXX on IBM's own PC-DOS 7), REXX is often glossed over or left to
 high-end discussions among developers.  I hope to address that situation here,
 by showing how REXX becomes more than just another language and allows direct
 interaction with and control of its underlying environment.

 THE DESIGN OF REXX

 REXX was created by IBM Fellow Mike Cowlishaw in the late 1960's to serve as
 an enhanced process control and macro language on large computer systems.  Its
 syntax was heavily influenced by PL/I, but it shares an important design
 characteristic with C.  REXX itself is a small set of core commands and
 functions that is extended by separate libraries.  These libraries give REXX
 its platform specific nature, each target system has its own set of functions
 appropriate to the characterisitcs of that system.  These system functions are
 CALLed by a REXX program to perform any function that might be required by
 programs running on a particular system.

 OS/2-CENTRIC REXX

 The standard OS/2 REXX library, RexxUtil, contains functions for manipulating
 the Workplace Shell and its objects, the file systems and (to some extent)
 running processes.  Here's a summary of some common OS/2 REXX functions:

 SysCreateObject() creates objects such as folders, program references, etc.

 SysDestroyObject() deletes objects

 SysDriveInfo() returns free space, total space and status of specified drive

 SysDriveMap() returns information an all available drives

 SysGetEA() reads information from file extended attributes

 SysPutEA() adds or updates data from file extended attributes

 SysSearchPath() searches an OS/2 path for file(s) and returns full path if
 found

 For full details on the syntax of each function, please refer to the INF
 reference "REXX Information" located in the "Information" folder on your
 Desktop.

 Since these are functions, they must be executed as part of a REXX command or
 variable assignment.  For example, the following:

 alldrives = SysDriveMap(C,'USED')

 would assign a string containing the letters of all available drives to the
 variable 'alldrives', and this:

  IF SysCreateObject("WPFolder", "New Folder", "<WP_DESKTOP>") THEN
      SAY 'Folder was sucessfully created.'
      ELSE SAY 'Folder could not be created'

 would present the success message if the function returned 1 or present the
 failure message if the return code was 0.

 ACCESSING A REXX LIBRARY

 Using an OS/2 REXX library function requires a CALL to the external library,
 like this:

 CALL RxFuncAdd 'SysCls', 'RexxUtil', 'SysCls'

 This method can be used when only a specific function is required by your
 program.  A better method in most cases would be to include the entire
 RexxUtil library at the beginning of your program, like this:

  CALL RxFuncAdd 'SysLoadFuncs', 'RexxUtil', 'SysLoadFuncs'
  CALL SysLoadFuncs

 This rather verbose method is comparable to C's <#include> directive.
 Fortunately, once RexxUtil or any other REXX libraries are loaded this way,
 they remain loaded and available to the entire system.  If you use REXX often,
 it's a good idea to put the above directives in your STARTUP.CMD.

 WHY USE OS/2 REXX?

 You may be wondering why REXX is important to an end user.  After all, most of
 the above examples can be accomplished directly using the Workplace Shell.
 Naturally, there are immediate benefits to automating a process that may take
 extensive manipulation in the Workplace Shell environment.  With REXX's
 programming constructs at hand, it's possible to perform operations across an
 entire set of files or objects, while the Workplace Shell would require manual
 manipulation of each file or object.

 Advanced system maintenance is another practical application of OS/2 REXX.
 Consider the requirements of uninstalling an OS/2 intensive graphical
 application, which may have installed Desktop objects, copied .DLL's to system
 directories, added Templates to the Templates folder and registered object
 classes in OS2.INI.  All but the last of these could be done from the
 Workplace Shell, but registering and deregistering object classes can only be
 done from a program.  Refer to the Tip section later in this issue for
 examples of Object Class maintenance from REXX.

 EXAMPLE: The Ultimate Command Line

  REXX can also enhance command line operations.  REXX can parse, interpret and
 pass commands to itself, OS/2 or other command line addressable systems such
 as DB2.

 This is a REXX program which sets up a command line instance under REXX
 control and sends typed in commands to the appropriate environment.  It
 supports dynamic REXX the same way that REXXTRY.CMD does, dynamic OS/2
 commands the same way as a standard OS/2 command line session, and DB2 or
 dynamic SQL instructions the same way as typing 'db2' from an OS/2 prompt.  It
 does all this from a single command line instance by parsing the command line
 and passing the line to each environment.  With some customizing, it could
 support command lines to any shell environment.

          /*  Universal command line for OS/2, REXX, DB2 and SQL
              @Copyright Ed Trumbo, 1995, 1996

          Freeware.  You are welcome to use, modify or distribute this code as long as
          any changes are documented as such and my original copyright is included.

          Revision date : 1-11-1996

          Revision description :
          Added parameter check for database connection.

          Program description:
          Supports DB2, Dynamic SQL, Dynamic REXX and OS/2 commands.
          Accepts input from the command line, inserts 'db2' or strips 'c' and 'r'
          in front and passes it back to CMD.EXE or REXX for processing.

          APARs:
          'c', 'r' and 'quit' are case-sensitive, must be lower case.
          */

          '@echo off'
          'mode co132'   /* Set window parameters  */
          argv = ' '
          entry = ' '
          newline = ' '
          cmdarg = 'db2'  /* Initialize variables with defaults */

          INTERPRET cmdarg 'set client connect 1 max_netbios_connections 32'
          CALL SysCls
          PARSE ARG argp      /* Check for database name parameter */
          IF argp <> ' ' THEN DO      /* If name is there... */
            SAY 'Getting connection to' argp'...'
            ADDRESS CMD cmdarg 'connect to' argp    /* ...establish connection */
            END  /* do */
          'ECHO.'
          SAY "Ed's Ultimate Command Line Environment"
          'ECHO.'

          DO WHILE argv <> 'quit'    /* Loop until user exit */
              PARSE PULL newline    /* Get command line */
              PARSE VAR newline argv newline    /* Check for overrides */
              SELECT
                WHEN argv = 'r' THEN INTERPRET newline  /* Pass to REXX */
                WHEN argv = 'c' THEN ADDRESS CMD newline /* Pass to OS/2 */
              OTHERWISE
                ADDRESS CMD cmdarg argv newline   /* Pass to DB2 */
              END  /* select */
          END  /* do */

          EXIT(1)

 This code assumes the use of DB2, which is its default target for command
 lines.  By using command line arguments when launching the program, you can
 establish a database connection automatically.  To target a specific
 environment for processing, preface the command line with 'r' for REXX or 'c'
 for OS/2.

 CONCLUSION

 Given its system-level integration library, REXX serves as much more than a
 super-batch language.  It really has no parallel anywhere else in the
 microcomputer marketplace, yet it scales well all the way into mainframe
 programming and batch processing.  Its immediate and extensive benefits make
 REXX the ideal language for non-specialists to use in OS/2 operation and
 maintenance.

 In future presentations, we'll go deeper into REXX's potential in an OS/2
 environment, including interprocess communication and visual REXX development
 with third-party systems.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5. Reviews ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.1. PartitionMagic ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 REVIEW:  PartitionMagic by PowerQuest

 When was the last time you re-partitioned your hard drive?  Not something you
 do just for the fun of it, eh?  Re-partitioning means fully backing up the
 drive, doing an FDISK, formatting the new partitions, and restoring the data.
 I can think of better things to do with my weekends.

 Several months ago, I decided that it was time to re-partition my hard drive,
 install Boot Manager, and convert FAT to HPFS.  The problem was that I would
 not have a weekend free until this summer, and I knew it would be a weekend
 project.  Then along came PartitionMagic. Re-partitioning without losing data!
 Shrinking partitions, expanding partitions, moving data around inside
 partitions, and creating new partitions--without losing data!  Yeah, right!
 I'll believe this when I see it.

 I saw it.  Since I couldn't use the package as soon as I got a hold of it--the
 weekend thing--I had plenty of time to plan what I would do. Prior to
 PartitionMagic, I had a system configured for Dual Boot.  The first physical
 hard drive consisted of a bootable FAT drive (C) and one logical drive (E) in
 the extended partition.  The second hard drive consisted of one primary FAT
 drive (D) and one logical drive (F) in the extended partition.  My plan was to
 end up with Boot Manager, a DOS bootable drive, and four HPFS partitions.
 Little was I to know how simple this was!  My weekend project ended up taking
 just hours.

 According to the user's manual (yes, some of us do read it!), PartitionMagic
 requires, at least:  a 386SX running at 16MHz, 4 MB of RAM, one 3.5-1.44 MB
 diskette drive, 3 MB of hard disk space, a VGA monitor, and OS/2 2.1 or DOS
 5.0.  It does not require a mouse!

 PowerQuest recommends that you have:  a 486DX running at 66 MHz, 16 MB of RAM,
 one 3.5-1.44 MB diskette drive, 4 MB of hard drive space, an SVGA monitor,
 OS/2 2.1 or later, or DOS 5.0 or later, and a mouse or compatible pointing
 device.

 My system falls in between PowerQuest's minimum and recommended, with: a 386DX
 running at 40 MHz, 16 MB of RAM, one 3.5-1.44 MB diskette drive, many MB of
 hard drive space, an SVGA monitor, OS/2 WARP and DO S 5.0, and a mouse.

 Okay, I'm thinking, that's the first hurdle cleared!  So I read on in the User
 Guide.  It's pretty easy reading, and very thorough.  It even lists several
 errors and their causes in one of the Appendices.  As we would expect,
 PowerQuest recommends that you backup your hard drive before you use
 PartitionMagic.  "While PartitionMagic has been thoroughly tested to be safe
 and reliable, other factors, such as power failures, operating system bugs,
 and hardware design bugs can put your data at risk.  No software program,
 including PartitionMagic, is perfect."  So, I made my backups.

 There are three PartitionMagic executables--one for DOS and two for OS/2.  The
 DOS executable and one of the OS/2 executables have a similar graphical
 interface.  The other OS/2 executable is text-based. If you want to modify
 your OS/2 boot drive, you must use the text-based program--after booting from
 an alternate source (for example: the floppy drive).

 So the project began!  I wanted to expand the size of my C: drive, convert it
 to HPFS, create a Boot Manager partition, and create a bootable DOS partition.

 (Keep in mind that C: and E: were on one drive, and D: and F: were on the
 other.)  I booted from a floppy, ran the text-based executable and:

 o CHECKED drive E:  (You have to CHECK a drive before you can modify it.)

 o RESIZED drive E:  (Took 3 minutes to reduce the drive by 50 MB.)

 o MOVED the data--in order to get the 50 MB of free space moved to the front
   of the extended partition (Took 23 minutes to move 170 MB of data.)

 o RESIZED the left boundary of the extended partition (Reduced the partition
   size by 50 MB--this took approximately 2 seconds.)

 o CHECKED drive C:

 o RESIZED drive C:  (Since C: was a FAT drive, I could not increase it by the
   full 50 MB--PM respects the FAT limitation of 65526 clusters in a drive.  PM
   took approximately 1 minute to increase the drive by 27.6 MB.)

 o CONVERTED drive C: to HPFS (Took 4 minutes to convert 127.6 MB--only 87 MB
   was used.)

 o RESIZED drive C:  (I ncreased drive to 150.1 MB--now that it's an HPFS
   drive, it sees the other 22.4 MB that was freed up from shrinking the
   extended partition.  This took approximately 2 minutes.)

 o EXITED PartitionMagic.  Upon exiting, PartitionMagic will tell you that you
   need to reboot to install the changes.  So I put in a bootable floppy and
   rebooted.  After converting the OS/2 boot drive from FAT to HPFS, you need
   to:  _ copy SYSINSTX.COM from the INSTALL diskette to the root drive; _ copy
   UHPFS.DLL to the C:  drive; _ run SYSINSTX C:;_ modify or create the
   IFS=C:/OS2/HPFS.IFS line in CONFIG.SYS

 o RESIZED drive C:  (Shrank it by 10 MB) MOVED data in drive C: to the right

 o EXITED PartitionMagic

 o Used FDISK to create a Boot Manager partition, a DOS bootable partition, and
   make both the DOS bootable and the OS/2 bootable partitions available to
   Boot Manager.

 Next, I rebooted into OS/2, installed PartitionMagic, ran the OS/2 graphical
 program, and resized the partitions on my second hard drive and moved their
 data around.  It's really easy.  Just click on the partition and click on the
 buttons, or drag the ends of the partitions with the mouse.

 Then, I rebooted into DOS and ran the DOS program.  I was surprised to see my
 HPFS partitions show up.  Now that I think about it, I shouldn't have been
 surprised.  After all, this is a low-level utility.  My HPFS partitions showed
 up, but their drive letters didn't.  That should have told me to leave them
 alone but I like living dangerously.  I used the DOS executable to resize an
 HPFS partition.

 When I rebooted into OS/2, my mouse was frozen in the middle of the screen.  I
 rebooted again, and still the mouse was frozen.  I rebooted from an OS/2
 floppy, ran the text-based executable, and resized the HPFS partition back to
 what it was originally.  When I rebooted into OS/2, my mouse was still frozen.
 I shutdown the system, powered off, and called it a night.  The next day, when
 I powered on, my mouse was fine.  I don't think I want to try modifying an
 HPFS partition with the DOS executable again.  If the drive letter doesn't
 show up, leave the partition alone!

 To give you the Reader's Digest version:  I started out with a Dual Boot OS/2
 FAT drive and a logical drive in an extended partition on my first hard drive,
 and a primary drive and a logical drive in an extended partition on my second
 hard drive.  After PartitionMagic, I have a Boot Manager partition, a DOS boot
 partition, an OS/2 HPFS boot partition and a logical drive in an extended
 partition on my first hard drive; and a primary drive and two logical drives
 in the extended partition on my second drive.  This probably took less time
 than if I had re-partitioned the drives with FDISK, reformatted, and restored
 data; and was accomplished with no data loss (at least, none that has shown up
 yet).

 PartitionMagic's License Agreement is written in READABLE language and is
 understandable.  You are purchasing a PERSONAL LICENSE (cannot be transferred
 to another person) to use the software "on no more than two computers owned or
 leased by you, and only on one computer at a time.  If you wish to use the
 SOFTWARE on more than two computers that are owned or leased by you, you must
 pay an additional license fee." PowerQuest does offer a Professional License
 that will permit you to use PartitionMagic on a n unlimited number of
 machines.  The one thing that I don't like about the license agreement is that
 you do not own the software (but that's nothing new)--"Title to the
 SOFTWARE...shall at all times remain with PowerQuest."  Now, I don't plan to
 violate any copyright laws but I don't like being told that if I purchase a
 software package I don't own it.  However, as I said before, this is nothing
 new in the software industry.

 Another important consideration is technical support.  PowerQuest offers 60
 days of free technical support to registered users of PartitionMagic.

 On the positive side:

 PartitionMagic comes in three flavors--DOS graphical, OS/2 graphical, and OS/2
 text-based.  PartitionMagic is very easy to use--even if you don't read the
 User Guide, you could probably figure it out.  However, read the
 Guide--especially before you try to modify your boot drive. While OS/2's
 graphical executable is running, FDISK is locked, so that you can't run two
 programs using FDISK at the same time.  That would cause certain disaster!
 You can modify partitions, move data in those partitions, and not lose that
 data.  The license agreement seems reasonable, even though you don't own the
 software!  The graphical programs are color coded--different partitions and
 drive types appear in different colors.  The CHECK feature gives you
 information that OS/2's CHKDSK does not.  For example:  CHECK reports on the
 status of the partition (active or not active), the date of the last CHKDSK,
 any Hot Fixes used, and the Physical Geometry of the drive.

 On the negative side:

 When I selected the INFO option on an 8.7 MB FAT partition (my DOS boot
 partition), PartitionMagic reported it as a 16-bit FAT, more than 32 Mbytes
 partition.  After modifying my OS/2 boot partition, CHKDSK reported but
 corrected a minor file allocation error.  After modifying my OS/2 boot
 partition, PartitionMagic shows that I have Free Space of 0.0 MB in front of
 the boot partition but will not delete it.  Nor will FDISK see it.  Something
 that needs to be investigated.  After converting my OS/2 boot partition from
 FAT to HPFS, PartitionMagic is reporting a sector allocation error but OS/2's
 CHKDSK does not see this error.  However, since I have de-installed and
 re-installed the DOS and Windows support in OS/2 since converting the drive,
 PartitionMagic may just be seeing an error that CHKDSK cannot.  Another thing
 that needs to be investigated.  After modifying an HPFS drive with the DOS
 executable, CHKDSK found quite a few errors and created 128 *.CHK files.
 Don't try this one on your system (modifying HPFS with DOS)!  You can convert
 a FAT drive to HPFS but not the other way around.  But, why would you want to?

 Yesterday evening, I called PowerQuest's technical support number hoping to
 find answers to some questions.

 When I told the technician about the 0.0 partition appearing between my DOS
 and OS/2 boot partitions, he said that that is probably normal because
 Partition Magic allows for four primary partitions on a drive. Since I'm using
 three--Boot Manager, DOS, and OS/2--PartitionMagic is probably reserving room
 for a fourth.  I'm satisfied with that answer.

 When I told him about the error (Error #1027) that I was getting when
 PartitionMagic did a CHECK of my OS/2 boot drive, he asked me if I had
 converted from FAT to HPFS.  He asked this before I volunteered the
 information.  That made me wonder if converting from FAT to HPFS is a known
 problem.  I downloaded a utility from the BBS that will, hopefully, help
 PowerQuest diagnose the problem on my OS/2 boot drive. PartitionMagic version
 1.05 (I am using version 1.04) was released into production last Friday.
 PowerQuest's technician said that this new version fixes the way
 PartitionMagic deals with extended attributes (maybe that is the problem with
 my OS/2 boot drive?). However, I was unable to successfully download that file
 from the BBS last night.

 Until I find out what Error #1027 is and whether version 1.05 fixes it, I'm
 not sure whether I'd recommend using PartitionMagic to convert FAT drives to
 HPFS drives.  It seems to be fine when shrinking, expanding, and moving
 partitions; and I haven't seen any evidence, other than the PartitionMagic
 CHECK option failing, of problems with my converted drive.  Whatever caused
 Error #1027 may have been fixed with the new version of PartitionMagic but,
 then again, it may not.

 All things considered, PartitionMagic is a product worth looking into if you
 have partitions to move around.  Just keep in mind that this is a low-level
 utility and, as with any low-level utility, BACKUP before using!

 - Diane Brooks


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.2. OS/2 Essentials ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 OS/2 Essentials
 by Stardock Systems,Inc.

 After using a new platform for a month or two, when the first rush of
 exploration and discovery fades, a typical computer user is inclined to ask
 "But what about...".  In the Dos and Windows market, it was common for that
 sentence to be finished by third- party products that attempt to relieve the
 user from the tedium of command-line access or GUI's that never seem to be GUI
 enough. The fortunes of entire companies have been developed on providing
 decent alternatives to the Dos BACKUP and RESTORE commands or Windows' lacking
 abilities in file management.

 While many of the obvious problems in earlier platforms have been addressed by
 OS/2 itself, there are always certain things that we believe could be done
 better.  This is usually the first area set upon by developers of shareware.
 Does OS/2 lack a convenient way to manage files entirely within one window?
 Some intrepid programmer will create their ideal vision of an OS/2 file
 manager for their own use, and perhaps release it to the world in hopes of
 collecting a few registration fees, padding their resume or both.

 The challenge for the hapless user is to access the resources for such
 software, evaluate each according to their needs and hopefully select one,
 paying the appropriate fees to the author for their efforts.  As anyone who
 has ever visited the Hobbes OS/2 site in New Mexico can attest, this could be
 a very time consuming and expensive approach.

 Stardock Systems attempts to take some of difficulty out of the search for
 familiar and beneficial tools for OS/2.  They have selected what they consider
 the best of the most needed shareware products on the OS/2 market, licensed
 their commercial versions and packaged them in a commercial product called
 (with a lack of humility) "OS/2 Essentials".  How good are these utilities,
 how good is the package and is it worth the purchase?

 THE PROGRAMS

 "OS/2 Essentials" consists of the following products:

     o DirMaster, a file manager

     o Screen Saver

     o FileGraph/PM, a graphical disk space manager

     o Roids, an arcade game with sound support

     o WPS Trashcan object

     o FileBar, an on-screen 'bar' that can replace the LaunchPad

     o A collection of icons

 Since they really are separate products, let's look at each separately:

 DirMaster.  For all the obvious benefits of GUI's and OOUI's, there will
 always be certain operations that are easier to perform from a command line.
 When both typing and GUI fail, custom File Managers step in.  Usually designed
 to present a directory tree and an active directory on screen, a file manager
 becomes a smorgasbord of features covering every aspect of every operation one
 might care to perform on files.

 This creeping feature-itis is often the downfall of such programs, and this
 one is no exception.  A very cluttered display, an awkward method of changing
 directories and drives and an intimidating set of configuration requirements
 and options make this more trouble than it's worth.

 Screen Saver.  There was a time when screen savers fulfilled a legitimate
 purpose - the prevention of ghost images being burned into the delicate glass
 of sedentary monitors.  Of course, we've long since outgrown this stage.
 Today, screen savers are both an art form and an industry of their own, as you
 can see from the latest crop of sound-enabled, multi-module Flying
 Toaster/Beavis and Butthead/Star Trek/Simpsons/Twilight Zone/Sports
 Illustrated Swimsuit packages For Windows.

 This screen saver features an admirable collection of modules that will keep
 your display hopping, all customizable according to speed, number of various
 objects to display, etc.  One unfortunate lack in the program is the inability
 to specify a favorite module as the default, one can only activate or
 deactivate specific modules, from there the program will choose at random
 among the active modules which one to display.  This is a minor complaint, as
 many of the modules are equally appealing to watch.  Nice one!

 FileGraph/PM.  As the former administrator of a terminally overloaded Netware
 network, I came to appreciate the need for a quick glance at disk usage
 statistics.  Naturally, Dos provides no such thing.  Netware also doesn't
 provide an easy way to peer down into a directory tree to see who or what is
 hogging disk resources.

 This program does one thing and does it quite well:  it creates a horizontal
 bar chart displaying the relative storage taken by each directory or directory
 path on a given drive.  Available drives can be displayed one at a time in an
 expandable outline form, showing the relative storage of each directory or
 directory path in green (small directory), yellow (larger directory) or red
 (very large directory).  Very good.

 Roids.  'Roids' is closely based on the old 'Asteroids' arcade game.  This was
 actually one of the first multimedia-enabled games for OS/2.  What can be said
 for 'Roids', except shoot the boulders before they crash into you!
 Unfortunately, Roids suffers from two problems:  it is keyboard only, and
 rather sluggish and unintuitive at that; and its playing speed and difficulty
 levels are wound too tight.  At the Beginner level, it's like watching paint
 dry, at the next level up it's unusable from a keyboard.  Too bad.

 WPS Trashcan object.  Perhaps the best program of the pack, WPS Trashcan
 implements the venerable Trashcan object on your Desktop.  Without replacing
 the Shredder (although you might wish to), the Trashcan will allow you to put
 in limbo any files, directories or objects you want to delete, and truly
 delete them later if you're really really sure.  More compassionate than the
 Shredder and much more reliable than Undelete, this is a genuine treasure.

 FileBar.  The 'fifth wheel' award in Warp would surely go to the LaunchPad.
 Apparently included because Windows 3.x (which needed launchpads desperately)
 already had several third party products, IBM must have forgotten that the
 Workplace Shell is essentially one big LaunchPad.

 Even so, this FileBar is an unobtrusive, pop-up menu bar that looks very
 suspiciously like (gasp!) Windows 95's filebar. Fully customizable, you can
 add your own preferred features and programs for convenient menu access right
 from the Desktop.  If you like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing
 you'll like.

 Icons.  A mercifully brief collection of those most silly of computer
 commodities.  If wading through the EA-grinding collection of custom icons on
 Hobbes is too much, you might find a cute one here.  Strangely, there are
 several duplicates, even in as few as these.

 LICENSING

 With a collection of software from different authors, this couldn't have been
 too easy for Stardock to manage.  Fortunately, they have a single license for
 all products included here, and after some of the ridiculous and offensive
 licensing I've seen lately this was a joy to read.  Each program is licensed
 to you, the purchaser, for your installation on as many PC's as you have, as
 long as each program is used only on one PC at any one time. Bravo, Stardock!

 It must be pointed out that although these programs have shareware versions
 available, "OS/2 Essentials" is the commercial product of Stardock Systems.
 It is not to be copied or distributed.

 SUMMARY

 "OS/2 Essentials" may not perfectly live up to its name, but overall it's an
 impressive collection of some fine utilities bundled into a convenient
 package.  Implementing any two items in this bundle will easily justify the
 tiny cost.  Combined with a refreshing, sensible license, "OS/2 Essentials" is
 a worthwhile purchase for any OS/2 user.  Shadow this one to your Desktop!

 - Ed Trumbo


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.3. OS/2 and LAN Server Certification Handbooks ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 OS/2 Certification Handbook
 OS/2 Lan Server Certification Handbook

 by various authors,
 both published by New Riders Publishing

 The computer industry and its customers both face an interesting quandary.
 How do we 'benchmark' the technical skills and knowledge of our practitioners?
 While four-year degrees in computer science may be useful for programmers,
 they just don't provide appropriate background and training in the specific
 products used by clients.  An increasingly popular solution to this issue is
 the use of vendor administered, voluntary 'certification' based on specific
 products and environments.

 Novell was the first (as far as I know) to introduce its certification
 programs, and thanks to its aggressive promotion of these programs the CNA,
 CNE and ECNE designations are much sought by both practitioner and customer
 alike.  Other companies have followed suit, such as Microsoft, Lotus and IBM.

 IBM offers voluntary certification in Administration, Engineering and
 Training, for OS/2 and Lan Server.  The battery of tests, administered by
 Drake Prometric, covers a series of topics designed to test depth of knowledge
 and experience in all support aspects of the products.  Although the testing
 process can get rather expensive, Drake and IBM typically offer free testing
 at various OS/2 oriented conferences.

 Naturally, with certification becoming an increasingly valuable 'feather in
 the cap', an after market industry of study guides and sample tests has sprung
 up.  In cooperation with New Riders Publishing, IBM offers two 'Certification
 Handbooks' as study guides.

 OS/2 CERTIFICATION HANDBOOK

 As with many other New Riders computer books, this is a large volume that
 attempts to cover all aspects of the product or topic in question.  Most such
 books end up skimping in one area or another, note the number of 'OS/2 bibles'
 that ignore or otherwise downplay REXX, certainly one of OS/2 unique
 strengths. A certification handbook really can't afford to do so, and "OS/2
 CH" includes a lengthy Appendix devoted to one of the best REXX
 tutorial/reference I've seen outside of a dedicated REXX book.

 CH covers installation, use and optimization of OS/2 2.x and Warp, often with
 separate information detailing the differences between versions.  This is
 unique, as many other 'bibles' emphasize one version exclusively.  Throughout
 the book, there is an extraordinary emphasis on *supporting* OS/2 and its
 customers, which is what really distinguishes this book from others of its
 size, weight, gravitational pull, etc.

 OS/2 LAN SERVER CERTIFICATION HANDBOOK

 Into a much less crowded market comes LSCH.  Aside from Ziff-Davis'
 "Connecting with Lan Server 4.0" by Barry Nance, this is perhaps the only
 after-market publication devoted to IBM's superb LAN package.  As with CH
 above, LSCH thoroughly covers all aspects of pre- and post-installation, use
 and optimization of Lan Server 3.0 and 4.0.

 BOTH BOOKS

 The two books are so much alike that at this point we can consider them
 together.  Both books have an identical structure, a few major 'parts' broken
 down into individual chapters and headings.  This makes them ideally suited as
 reference manuals. Each chapter ends with 'Review Questions and Answers',
 although I found many of these to be along the lines of 'Who's buried in
 Grant's tomb' and not at all like the more rigorous questions on the exams.

 Each book comes with a bundled CD-ROM.  If fact, both come with the same
 CD-ROM.  Unfortunately, this is the one area of these books where IBM/New
 Riders really, really blew it! Instead of offering a disk chock full of
 relevant reference materials, utilities, shareware and such, all of which
 would nicely complement the books and serve its intended market, we get a CD
 with contents like:

     floppy images of the Warp and Lan Server demo disks

     specification sheets of Warp and Lan Server

     descriptions of the Developer's Assistance and Ready-and-Approved programs

     the IBM Lan Systems Buyer's Guide

     CERT94.ZIP, a program featuring a collection of sample questions from the
     certification exams

     the Netware to Lan Server Migration tool

 Some of this is basically useless, not to mention readily available in much
 more current form on-line.  Imagine these books with a sample copy of the
 Technical Connection CD from IBM, or even the OS/2 Online Book Collection, and
 compare these to the kind of promotional giveaway-type CD provided instead.
 It made me wish CD's were erasable.

 Second major beef: the price.  Each of these books costs $89.99 list price.
 Although the computer reading public is accustomed to paying $40-$50 for books
 of this size and scope, this kind of double pricing indicates an attempt to
 exploit 'certification' mania rather than truly distinguish the books from the
 many other similar ones that are available.

 THE BOTTOM LINE

 Both of these books are comprehensive and well written.  The text makes an
 excellent resource for those who support OS/2 and Lan Server customers, as
 opposed to merely paraphrasing the manuals. Unfortunately, the grossly
 inflated price and the useless CD's make these books a questionable purchase
 at best.  The same books at half price, or at current price with better disks,
 would have been so much better.

 - Ed Trumbo


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.4. IDE/EIDE Hard Drive Controllers ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Promise EIDE2300 VLB

 Promise DC4030-VL2 Cache

 Precision DC680CD Cache

 The quest for the best system performance under OS/2 inevitably brings up the
 issue of hardware components.  While the most impressive gains come from
 adding RAM, faster processors and video accelerators, choosing the best
 combinations of hard drive(s) and controllers provides a big boost in the
 performance of a disk intensive system like OS/2.

 Today, hard drives are available in two basic specifications: Enhanced
 Integrated Drive Electronics (EIDE) and Small Computer Systems Interface
 (SCSI).  EIDE, a recent improvement to the IDE specification, has become the
 most common type of drive used in standard PC's.  EIDE brings IDE's
 performance up to near SCSI levels and accommodates other devices such as
 CD-ROMs and tape drives written to the EIDE specs.  SCSI is the standard for
 Macintosh PC's and is used in high-end IBM compatibles.  SCSI is known for
 offering faster performance, higher capacities and support for a diversity of
 devices.

 I've long avoided the use of SCSI hard drives because of my experiences with
 them in the past.  Although they enjoy widespread support as server drives,
 they are considerably more expensive than EIDE drives and tend to be
 unreliable and sensitive to the point of neurosis.

 Let's look at three Vesa Local Bus IDE and EIDE controllers that can offer a
 viable alternative to SCSI, and how well they're supported under OS/2.

 PRECISION DC680CD CACHE -

 The first of two of these controllers that implement an on-board processor and
 dedicated cache RAM is the Precision DC680CD.  The Precision card incorporates
 a Tekram BIOS and a Harris 286 compatible processor to relieve CPU control of
 disk I/O.  Using two banks of two 30-pin SIMMs, one can add anything from 512K
 to 16M of RAM on board, freeing up system memory that would ordinarily be
 devoted to disk caching.

 The DC680CD supports floppy drives up to 1.44M and includes two EIDE sockets,
 allowing up to four EIDE drives at once.  In addition, there is a separate
 socket for use with an ATAPI CD-ROM drive.  The card supports auto detection
 of hard drives, even to the point of identifying the specific make and model.

 One unique feature of the DC680CD is its support for mirroring, or RAID Level
 1.  Mirroring is the technique of connecting two identical drives to one
 controller and setting them to run in sync.  If one drive fails or goes
 off-line for any reason, the system continues running from the other drive
 seamlessly.  This is configurable entirely from the card's BIOS at any time.

 The DC680CD is also capable of switching the 'bootable' drive from its own
 BIOS, overriding the drive jumpers, cabling and system BIOS.  With two of
 these controllers maxed out at four drives each, one could actually boot eight
 different OS's, all without special formatting or drive swapping.

 Benchmarking a cached controller is an exercise in futility.  Track to track
 seek and access times were reported as taking 0.0 milliseconds, with
 throughput rated at 6.6 Megs per second.  Take with a grain of salt, as
 benchmarking software can easily be thrown off by caching, but this should
 give you an idea of the raw performance available to a PC equipped with this
 controller.

 On to the OS/2 specifics. The DC680CD ships with a 1995 revision driver for
 32-bit OS/2.  The driver worked the first time I installed it, no switches
 were necessary.  In fact, no switches are supported! It's a beautiful thing
 when third-party OS/2 drivers work properly and as advertised right out of the
 box, and Precision deserves my compliments.  Here's an important safety tip:
 do not use their custom driver when installing OS/2, I experienced many
 bizarre failures and crashes after these attempts.  The DC680 is usable with
 OS/2's default IBM1S506.ADD driver, wait until after an OS/2 installation to
 apply the custom driver.

 Note:  I tested the DC680CD on two homebrew 486-66's with 20Megs RAM and Warp
        Connect.  The card(s) supported one 1.44 floppy drive, two 80ns 1Meg
        SIMMs and two Western Digital Caviar 1280 EIDE drives.

 PROMISE DC4030VL-2 -

 The second of our caching controllers is a bit older, it does not take
 advantage of the EIDE enhancements, although EIDE hard drives can be used with
 it.  The DC4030VL-2 supports up to four hard drives using two separate IDE
 slots, and two banks of two 30-pin SIMM slots configurable for 512K to 16Megs
 of dedicated cache.

 I've had the most experience with this controller since I've used it regularly
 for over a year now.  Unfortunately, most of these experiences have not been
 good.  Beginning with OS/2 2.1, I found that after installing this controller
 and its driver, I could no longer reliably use my secondary mouse button.  I
 could not resolve this most peculiar problem until I abandoned Promise's
 driver in favor of the standard IBM1S506.ADD.  This deprived me of the
 advanced capabilities of the Promise driver, but the cache and performance
 were there so I continued to use the 4030 in my system.

 With the release of Warp, I found Warp would not even install or recognize my
 hard drives under the Promise controller and IBM driver. This was actually
 documented (incorrectly at first) in Warp's manual. After an IBM APAR amended
 the documented fix, I attempted the fix and found that it still did not work.
 By using an updated Promise driver, I was finally able to install and use Warp
 with the driver in 32-bit mode. Or so I thought.  My system would boot and run
 reliably two or three times after installation, but the next time my Desktop
 and/or .ini files would be put through a blender. Promise acknowledges this
 problem and blames it on 'certain motherboards' and HPFS, their suggested
 fixes involve one of three things: use FAT on your OS/2 boot drive, create a
 separate FAT partition to store .ini's and Desktop or use the /W switch to
 force the controller into 16-bit mode.  I experienced the same corruption on
 an OS/2 FAT boot drive.  I found the second method quite difficult and equally
 unreliable.

 For more than a year, I'd used the 16-bit switch to continue running the
 Promise controller under OS/2.  As difficult and aggravating as it was, once
 you've experienced a caching controller, there's no way you'll want to run
 without one.  Of course, I've since switched to the DC680.

 Benchmarks on the DC4030VL-2 reveal some differences to the Precision card,
 the track-to-track seek and access came out as 0.1 milliseconds and the
 throughput was 8.9Megs/second.  Again, I can't make too much out of this since
 benchmarks are unreliable where caches, dedicated processors and custom BIOSes
 are involved.

 Note:  I tested the DC4030VL-2 on three homebrew 486-66's with 16-20Megs RAM,
        using OS/2 2.1, Warp and Warp Connect.  The card(s) supported one 1.44M
        floppy drive, 2 80ns 1Meg SIMMs and two Western Digital Caviar EIDE
        drive with capacities ranging from 540Meg to 1.2Gig.

 PROMISE EIDE2300 - The last controller in my review does not support an on
 board memory cache.  The Promise EIDE2300 does however support the EIDE
 specification and includes a full complement of high performance I/O ports;
 two serial ports using an on board 16550 UART and an EPP bi-directional
 parallel port.  Combined with a good VLB video accelerator, the typical PC
 would have a complete system throughput solution in two slots.

 The EIDE2300 has two slots for IDE support, one has support for VLB throughput
 while the second uses standard throughput.  Promise's documentation recommends
 using the VLB socket for high performance devices like hard drives and using
 the second socket for slower devices like CD-ROMs and tape drives.

 I looked forward to using this card, as my PC is maxed out as far as slots go
 and I've already lost one power supply because of it.  Based on my experience
 with Promise's 4030 controller, I didn't waste time trying to run Warp with
 the default IBM1S506 driver, I immediately implemented Promise's EIDE2300.ADD
 and re-installed Warp.  The installation went without incident and my system
 proved stable and usable.  Or so I thought!  An obscure problem surfaced not
 long after installation, when it seemed that several OS/2 applications were
 stalling during their installations.  All affected software had one thing in
 common, they all used the standard IBM installation routine with the pull-down
 menus, readme file with 'Continue' and 'Cancel' buttons, etc.  The
 installation window would come up, but clicking on 'Continue' produced an
 endless loop.  Only after seeing the same behavior on a second 2300 based OS/2
 PC did I make the connection.  This particular failure was not caused by using
 the driver to install OS/2, I added the card and driver to an existing
 installation, using a different motherboard than I'd used for the 4030's.
 Interestingly, I found I could avoid this by using the 4030 driver, but it
 adds up to Yet Another Flaky Driver from Promise!

 Benchmarks were more natural on this non-cached card.  Track-to-track seek and
 access came out to 0.8 milliseconds, which exceeded the rated speed of the
 drives themselves.  Throughput came out as 4.5meg/second.

 SUMMARY

 With a dedicated BIOS, CPU and hard cache RAM, an IDE/EIDE controller promises
 (no pun intended!) to provide the kind of performance associated with SCSI,
 without the aggravation.  In this roundup, only one controller actually did
 so.  The Precision DC680CD caching controller makes an excellent addition to
 any OS/2 PC using EIDE drives and VLB slots.

 Although the Promise 4030VL-2 can be made usable, there are just too many
 compromises and risks involved.  If they ever manage to learn the subtle art
 of OS/2 device driver creation, a more modern version of the 4030 would be
 worth looking into.  The same goes for the 2300.

 SPECIFICATIONS:

  Promise EIDE2300 -
                                              Up to 4 hard drives and 2 floppy drives
                                              Enhanced IDE
                                              Support for ATAPI CD-ROM
                                              2 9-pin 16550 high speed serial ports and 1 EPP bi-directional Parallel port
                                              Drivers for OS/2 (2.x and up)
                                              Price range : $50-$70

  Promise DC4030-VL2 -
                                                Up to 4 hard drives and 2 floppy drives (2.88Meg or less)
                                                Up to 16Meg cache memory using 30 pin SIMMs
                                                80286 processor on board
                                                Drivers for OS/2 (2.x and up)
                                                Price range :  $120-$150 (without cache RAM)

  Precision DC680CD -
                                                Up to 4 hard drives and 2 floppy drives (1.44Meg or less)
                                                Enhanced IDE
                                                Separate port for ATAPI CD-ROM
                                                RAID Level 1 (Mirroring) as an optional setting
                                                Up to 16Meg cache memory on board using 30 pin SIMMs
                                                80C286 processor on board
                                                Drivers for OS/2 (2.x, 3.x)
                                                Price range :  $130-$160 (without cache RAM)

 - Ed Trumbo


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.5. Hobbes Archive CD's ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Walnut Creek, December 1995 edition
 InfoMagic, October 1995 edition

 Programmers and developers have been a core audience for OS/2 since its
 earliest days.  While this hasn't translated into a vast collection of
 mainstream shrinkwrapped applications, there are tremendous selections of
 public domain and shareware programs in every possible category available for
 OS/2, enough to satisfy practically any need for native code or information.

 The 'Hobbes' server at New Mexico State University has become the defacto
 standard location for collecting and disseminating OS/2 public domain and
 shareware.  Available by Internet FTP and WWW, it has grown over the years to
 hundreds of megabytes.  Sorting through this collection online would be
 difficult and unrealistic for most people.

 Fortunately, CD-ROMs make it possible to store the entire archive and
 distribute it conveniently and inexpensively.  For several years, Walnut Creek
 has produced regularly (well, somewhat regularly) updated editions of the
 Hobbes archive on CD-ROM.  They are no longer alone in this market, as
 InfoMagic has begun releasing their own version of the Hobbes archive.
 Although each collection basically includes the same content, the two
 companies take a very different approach in presentation.

 WALNUT CREEK HOBBES, DECEMBER 1995

 I've been buying the Walnut Creek Hobbes archive since I found the November
 1992 disc at a local trade show.  The recently released December 1995 edition
 overcomes the problems that plagued the March and June discs.

 Until early 1995, the Hobbes directories were divided into '1.x' and '2.x'
 categories, to distinguish between 16 and 32-bit files.  With the advent of
 Warp, Hobbes was restructured into a more descriptive directory structure
 based on 16 bit (primarily for OS/2 1.x but usable on all versions), 32 bit
 (applying to OS/2 2.x and up) and Warp (OS/2 3.x specific) files.  The March
 1995 Walnut Creek archive suffered from having been imaged during this
 restructuring, the resulting disc was an incoherent mess of files duplicated
 and wrongly categorized.  Hobbes was straightened out in time for Walnut
 Creek's June 1995 archive, but the complete archive was too large to fit on
 one CD.  Walnut Creek sacrificed some directories, including the IBM EWS
 mirror, to keep the archive on one disc.

 With the new December 1995 edition, Walnut Creek has finally expanded their
 Hobbes archive to two CD-ROMs containing the complete Hobbes image.  The first
 disc is dedicated to the standard archives of public domain, shareware and
 text files, the second disc contains IBM EWS, CSD's, Service Paks and other
 "official" files, primarily from IBM.

 Walnut Creek makes the Hobbes directories accessible through DOS and OS/2 text
 mode browsers launched by GO.BAT and GO.CMD, respectively.  While they
 simplify the process of browsing and extracting the archived files to disk,
 the VIEW.EXE and OS2VIEW.EXE programs don't offer much ability to preview
 individual archives or 'readme' files.  Besides the short descriptions in the
 directory listings, the only way to examine the actual contents of a zip file
 is to extract it to a hard drive.  Some programs even require their own
 installation routines after this.

 The December discs now include two Windows browsers, one for 16 bit Windows
 and one for 32 bit Windows.  The W16VIEW.EXE will work with OS/2's Windows
 while the W32VIEW.EXE does not.

 INFOMAGIC HOBBES, OCTOBER 1995

 InfoMagic has been competing with Walnut Creek on several fronts for some time
 now.  Their October Hobbes collection is their second release of this archive.
 It attracted my attention when Walnut Creek apparently skipped its Hobbes
 updates between June and December.

 While Walnut Creek just now released a two disc archive, InfoMagic's archive
 ships on four CD's.  This collection is in 'ready-to-run' format, meaning that
 Hobbes files are already unzipped on the discs.  If a program doesn't require
 its own installation or write-access to the default drive, you can actually
 run that program right from the CD.  Walnut Creek had released a
 'ready-to-run' Hobbes disc over a year ago, but it was mostly the GNU Unix
 ports and has not been updated since its initial release.

 The ready-to-run structure makes the InfoMagic discs easier to browse and
 preview programs before commiting hard drive space, even temporarily.  It is
 also convenient for reading 'readme's and manuals before running installation
 programs that might clutter your .INI's, WPS classes, DLL directories and
 Templates folders with plenty of stubborn baggage.

 The browser is where the InfoMagic collection really shines.  No primitive
 unzip shell here!  InfoMagic wants one megabyte of local storage to install a
 superb, OS/2 specific, feature-rich INF browser that will display the
 directory of a chosen archive, select included text files for viewing, open a
 command line in the chosen directory or launch the installation program, if
 any.  As an amateur IPF developer, I was very impressed with the
 sophistication and polish evident in this browser, from the consistent
 alignment of text to the user editable CFG file.  Congratulations to Jerry
 Hofmann of Hofmann Consulting, Inc., who developed this for InfoMagic.

 Having said all of that, I must point out that I experienced some problems
 using the browser.  It would intermittently fail to prompt me for the
 appropriate CD, bringing up an empty window when I selected a file not
 contained on the currently mounted CD.  Also, when launched the browser loses
 focus and clocks perpetually, until I launch another program and return to
 click in the browser window.  I can't be sure if these problems are related to
 my application of FixPak 16, but since my system handled FixPak 16 without
 problems otherwise, I'm inclined to consider the browser 'not ready for prime
 time'.

 CONCLUSION

 I won't debate the merits of the Hobbes archive itself.  It goes without
 saying that if you use OS/2, you need Hobbes and you need a steady supply of
 the latest updates to Hobbes.  Walnut Creek's expansion to a two disc set is
 the only excuse an OS/2 user needs to add that second CD-ROM drive to their
 PC, LAN server or BBS.

 It comes down to the distinctive methods of presentation.  InfoMagic is the
 clear winner in terms of initial efforts toward usability and convenience, but
 they need to fix a few bugs in that wonderful browser.  Having to swap four
 CD's rather than two is a small price to pay for interactive testing and easy
 access.

 I expect Walnut Creek will still be favored by LAN administrators and BBS
 operators, who will only need two CD-ROM drives online rather than four to
 provide the entire archive.

 For that matter, Hobbes is so important to OS/2 and these CD sets are so
 relatively cheap that I truly recommend them both, especially if their update
 schedules continue to be complementary rather than competitive.

 - Ed Trumbo

 PRODUCT INFORMATION

 The Hobbes archive is maintained by Myke Kretzer at the New Mexico State
 University.  It is directly available over the Internet at hobbes.nmsu.edu.

 Walnut Creek Hobbes Archive $29.95 single issue $19.95 for a four issue
 subscription

 InfoMagic Hobbes Archive $35.00


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6. Tips and Tricks ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.1. Work Areas ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Picture "work areas" as Your Favorite Desktop On Demand.

 Every GUI provides the ability to open multiple windows and programs on
 screen.  OS/2 can even be set up to restart previously active programs, either
 from the Startup folder or through the setting of the AUTOSTART variable in
 CONFIG.SYS. This is an all-or-nothing option, though, dependent on conditions
 that must be updated manually.  It would be convenient to automatically open
 every needed program all at once, arranged according to your own preferences
 and in the right proportions, but only when you actually wanted to.

 OS/2 has this ability through the "work area".  A Work Area is a special type
 of Folder that will automatically activate all program objects contained
 within it whenever the folder is opened.  For instance, a Work Area folder
 could contain shadows of the program icons relating to a given project, such
 as Describe,  Lotus 1-2-3, your PIM Address Book for reference, etc. Let's
 also say that at one time you arranged the windows of these active programs
 for easy access on your screen.  Rather than loading each program separately
 and recreating this layout each time you want to access these programs, you
 can define the folder as a Work Area.

 Try this: Drag a Folder template onto the Desktop or another folder.  Open its
 Settings Notebook and click on the General tab. Check the "Work Area' box and
 close the Notebook.  This new folder is now defined as a Work Area folder.

 Shadow a few relevant programs into this folder and close it. When you reopen
 the folder, each program will launch automatically.  You can now adjust their
 layout on screen for convenient access.  Go ahead and close the applications,
 the last screen positions will be remembered as usual.

 From now on, opening that folder will automatically open all objects contained
 within it, using the same windows proportions as before.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.2. Location of Templates ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Many OS/2 aware applications provide their own document Templates, which
 during installation are automatically added to OS/2's Templates folder.  By
 right-clicking on these Templates, you can Move them to more convenient
 locations for easier access, perhaps the folders for the related application.

 Some programs' Templates will Move this way, other treat the Move command like
 Copy, duplicating the Templates at the destination but not removing them from
 the Templates directory.  For instance, Mesa 2's Templates will Move out of
 the Templates folder, but the IBM Internet Connection Templates will Copy.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.3. Obscure or Undocumented Commands ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Every software package of any significant scope has among its various
 capabilities certain features that often go neglected.  This may be because
 these features have no corresponding equivalent in similar programs, it may be
 poorly documented or even completely undocumented. Let's explore some of these
 features in OS/2.

 RMVIEW

 Warp's BonusPak comes with a handy System Information Tool, a subset of IBM's
 NetFinity package.  Although this is good for simple requirements, there are
 times when it would help to have a complete snapshot of very low-level
 information about your hardware, without having to navigate a GUI interface.

 RMVIEW is a command-line utility which will inspect your hardware and
 exhaustively report on every relevant characteristic and configuration detail
 that it can detect.  Being command-line, you can easily redirect its text
 output to a file for handy reference later.

 Here's a summary of RMVIEW's switches:

   RMVIEW  Version .94
   Syntax: RMVIEW [switch]

     /P   Display Physical view (default)
     /P1       Physical view with planar chipset
     /D   Display Driver view
     /D1       Driver view with planar chipset
     /L   Display Logical view
      /R    Display raw data. Use with P L D switch

     /IRQ  Display claimed Interrupt levels (IRQ)
     /IO   Display claimed IO ports above 100 Hex
     /IOA  Display all claimed IO ports
     /DMA  Display claimed DMA channels
     /MEM  Display claimed Memory regions
      /SO   Sort IO, IOA, IRQ, DMA, MEM by owner

     /HW   Display Hardware Tree
     /?   Help

 RMVIEW is a convenient way to inspect your system for new hardware
 installations or debugging hardware conflicts.  You will find RMVIEW
 documented in OS/2's on-line help and in certain third-party manuals, please
 refer to these for more information on this impressive utility.

 OSDELETE

 As hard as it may be to imagine, there may be situations where it's desirable
 to completely remove OS/2 from a partition.  Although this command is
 'officially' undocumented, you will find this command-line menu program in the
 \OS2\SYSTEM\INSTALL directory of your boot drive.

 OSDELETE, when run on a dual-boot Dos system, will completely remove OS/2 from
 the partition, restoring single-boot Dos capability.  No switches are
 necessary or available.

 There is one caveat to OSDELETE, it cannot remove the hidden "EA DATA. SF"
 file which stores OS/2's extended attributes on FAT partitions.  This file
 must be manually deleted afterwards.

 SEMAINT

 For another poorly documented feature of OS/2 refer to Jim Wong's tutorial on
 SEMAINT in the April GDOUG newsletter or its reprint in GDOUG Volume 1.
 Briefly, it allows the creation of a custom partition for 'maintenance'
 booting, in case a severe error occurs on your primary partition.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.4. Fine Tuning Icon Positions within a Folder ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 A folder with more than a few icons in it can take on a cluttered appearance,
 even after selecting 'Arrange'.  A good example is the Templates folder, which
 is subject to frequent updates by product installations, etc.  It can be
 difficult to find a frequently used 'Program' Template if it's lost in a sea
 of 'Digital Audio' and 'FPWorks' Templates.

 Fortunately, a folder's pop-up menu provides a Sort option.  Bring up a
 folder's menu by either secondary clicking on an empty spot or single clicking
 the close button.  Select the arrow beside 'Sort'.  Note that you can sort by
 name or several other criteria, in this example we'll use name. Select 'Sort'
 and your icons will automatically arrange themselves by name, the exact
 appearance of your folder may vary depending on your selected preference in
 the folder's 'Settings/View' notebook.

 Speaking of the Settings notebook, you can specify that the folder should
 "Always Maintain Sort Order' by checking the box by that name in the 'Sort'
 page of the folder's notebook.  With this selected, your icons will
 automatically sort and flow with any icon insertions and deletions you do.

 What if you want an extra level of control over your icon positions, perhaps
 to force the 'Data File', 'Program' and 'Folder' Templates to appear at the
 top of the folder regardless of the other contents?  To do this, we can take
 advantage of ASCII sorting, which follows the order of punctuations, numbers,
 uppercase and finally lowercase characters.

     CAUTION: Changing an icon's name as described below also changes the
     associated filename, if the icon is in fact directly associated with a
     file. This tip should be applied unmodified only on HPFS drives and only
     to icons representing WPS objects rather than icons representing
     executables or data files.  On FAT file systems, you should use a legal
     FAT character (underscore, etc.) instead of a space and be sure to remain
     within the 8 character limit.

 Apply the 'Always Maintain Sort Order' parameter to your folder as described
 above (the default Sort value is Name) and close the Settings notebook. Note
 that the icons are now sorted in ASCII style by name.  Choose an icon which
 you want to force to the top of the folder and open its Settings notebook.  On
 the 'General' page, position the cursor in front of the name and enter a
 space.  Yes, just hit the space bar!  Close the notebook and note that the
 icon has now jumped to the top of your folder display.

 By using a space, we've pushed the icon name into a much higher sort position
 than other icons that start with alphanumeric characters, without disrupting
 its visible name.

 - Ed Trumbo


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.5. Uninstalling Applications with REXX ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Picture this.  You decide to remove an unneeded application from your OS/2
 system.  The application doesn't come with an automated uninstall capability,
 so you perform the usual Workplace Shell steps; shredding the folder on the
 Desktop, deleting the related Templates objects, etc.  Where you attempt to
 shred the folder on the Drive, however, OS/2 informs you that several .DLL's
 are 'read-only, in use or a shadow of the object is in use'.  Perhaps you've
 resorted to booting from floppy or a maintenance partition to remove the
 stubborn files.  What causes this, and how can it be resolved?

 Being an object-oriented system, OS/2's Workplace Shell makes use of 'object
 classes', all derived from the root class WPObject.  Other applications may
 add their own classes to OS/2, based on their own .DLL's.  When you're unable
 to delete .DLL's or other similar files and there's no attribute settings or
 active processes preventing it, it is likely caused by a registered object
 class in OS/2's .INI files.  Of course, several factors prevent the .INI's
 from being edited directly.

 Fortunately, REXX is able to do so easily and safely.  Using two OS/2-specific
 functions in RexxUtil, we can deregister the unneeded object classes, reboot
 and delete the associated files.

 First, we'll need to get a good look at the names of all currently registered
 objects classes in your system.  Use the following REXX program to obtain a
 list of your classes:

          /* List currently registered object classes.  These examples can be found in
          the OS/2 Procedures Language/2 REXX INF file in the Information folder */

          CALL RxFuncAdd 'SysLoadFuncs', 'RexxUtil', 'SysLoadFuncs'
          CALL SysLoadFuncs

          CALL SysQueryClassList "list."
          DO i = 1 TO list.0
            SAY 'Class' i 'is' list.i
          end

 You may want to redirect the output to a file, since the list can be quite
 long on a well-used system.  Here's an abbreviated example of its output:

     Class 13 is BA2Device E:/BA2/BA2DEV.DLL

 With another REXX program, we can delete, or deregister, this object class.
 Use the following function:

          IF SysDeregisterObjectClass('BA2Device') THEN
              SAY 'Object Class deregistered'

 If you run the first program again, you'll see that the object class has been
 removed from the system.  After a shutdown and reboot, you'll be able to
 remove the unlocked files.  By removing obsolete entries, you'll recover drive
 space and keep your .INI's lean and fast.

 As always, exercise caution when manipulating system files.  Keep a current
 and verified backup on hand and avoid experimenting with production systems.

 - Ed Trumbo


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7. Commentary ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.1. Computer Journalism Aptitude Test ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Now you too can be a computer industry journalist!

 Have you ever wanted to live a life of fame, free goodies, glamour and
 intrigue?  Do you wonder if you have what it takes to join the ranks of the
 technical elite?  Do you have the typing ability, the sense of "political
 correctness" or the vivid imagination to put the appropriate spin on any
 story?  If you answered 'yes' to any of these, then take this simple
 multiple-choice test to see if you're really qualified to write for today's
 computer media!

 1. In a recent presentation to financial analysts, IBM Chairman Lou Gerstner
 announced that:

         a. OS/2 Warp is being removed from the market.

         b. OS/2 as a product line is dead.

         c. IBM will once again emphasize OS/2's capabilities as an
            enterprise-class, corporate client and server operating system, and
            deemphasize the home consumer market.

         d. IBM will leave the computer industry entirely, to avoid further
            annoying Microsoft.

 2. The August 14, 1995 cover of Information Week, based on the above story and
 depicting the "funeral" of an OS/2 box, was:

         a. An appropriate and clever graphical depiction of the facts of the
            announcement.

         b. Perhaps an overstated interpretation of the facts, mixed with
            wishful thinking.

         c. An utterly false, grotesque and lurid example of yellow journalism
            at its worst, offensive to all intelligent readers regardless of
            software preferences.

         d. A waste of space better devoted to more shots of Windows 95 and/or
            Bill Gates.

 3. OS/2 continues to win an exhaustive list of "readers choice", editorial and
 technical awards from the press and industry.  This means:

         a. They're lying.

         b. Nothing, pre-loaded market share means everything.

         c. Many qualified individuals in technically rigorous environments
            consider OS/2 to be the best product of its kind, year after year.

         d. Our readers, editors and technicians are idiots.

 4. When writing an article about IBM products, you should:

         a. Spend half the article dwelling on Microsoft's competing products,
            available or not.

         b. Only print negative comments from ex-customers when it's a cover
            story.  Print the favorable quotes in a separate article much
            deeper in the "advert" sections of the issue.

         c. Write with a clear understanding of the facts and use the standards
            applied to other products.

         d. Be brief so you'll have room for the 18th "preview" article on
            Windows 95.

 5. When writing about the OS/2 market, you should describe it as:

         a. A small cadre of former Amiga-loving fringe kooks.

         b. People who will switch to Windows 95 like the rest of us.

         c. Enterprise administrators, corporate developers and personal
            power-users.

         d. Deluded anarchists who refuse to accept Microsoft's "benevolent
            dictatorship".

 6. You test a beta version of OS/2 4.0 and find it reasonably stable for a
 beta and offering several convenient and interesting new features.  Pick an
 appropriate headline for your article:

         a. "OS/2 beta addresses shortcomings, adds problems"

         b. "OS/2 4.0 lacks Win32xyz support"

         c. "OS/2 4.0 stable, effective client/server platform"

         d. "Gates accuses IBM of stealing Windows 99 ideas"

 Test scores

 If you answered A or B to more than three questions, you're well qualified to
 join the ranks of computer industry journalists everywhere, whether it's
 print, television or radio.  You have an excellent grasp of the currently
 fashionable agendas and political correctness required.

 If you answered D to more than three questions, you can just bypass the media
 entirely and be hired as a Microsoft marketer or PR flak.  After all, why just
 report the news when you can invent news about what you're planning to do?

 If you answered C to more than three questions, I'm afraid you're too much of
 a free thinker for the computer media.  Consider a career as a weathercaster,
 where truth and accuracy are more valued, not to mention more common.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.2. Why Do The Heathen Rage? ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 or, Why The PC Industry Hates OS/2

 I have a confession to make.  I am an OS/2 bigot.  I can also tell you from
 experience that OS/2 bigots are made, not born.  It was never my intention to
 become the type of rabid software zealot that industry pundits love to cluck
 about in their columns, but out of necessity I am quickly becoming one.

 As anyone who runs OS/2 already knows, we are constantly being asked to
 justify our politically incorrect position.  This confuses me for several
 reasons.  For example, I never thought of myself as having a 'position', I
 have software.  Second, I wonder why people who run DOS and Windows for
 Workgroups on Pentium 120's are not constantly asked to justify their rather
 bizarre implementation.  We're all too familiar with the Microsoft Zombies for
 Windows, who when confronted with the obvious and massive superiority of
 practically everything else on the market will keep falling back on shrill
 cries of "We're Number One!".

 It's not hard to understand Microsoft's popularity with computer consultants,
 developers, salespeople and the like.  A market that has been force fed
 anything that billows forth from Redmond means a large (and paying) audience
 for their services.  It is slightly harder to understand why Microsoft is
 popular with the media, unless it's also based on greed and pride, a need not
 to admit that the industry and its clients are being repeatedly and
 perpetually fleeced.

 Hardest of all to understand is the corresponding animosity towards OS/2. The
 PC industry (media, consultants and others) have more affection for most boot
 sector viruses than for the easiest, most powerful and compatible x86 based
 desktop operating system ever made.

 I've decided that the strange attitude about OS/2 is based on two things:

     It's From IBM, and
     It's Good.

 In the minds of those who run (or spout off about) our industry, those two
 things don't belong together.  Perhaps this comes from the early to mid
 1980's, when IBM's software efforts for the PC platform were mostly
 embarassing. More likely it comes from resentment about IBM's early dominance
 of hardware design and standards.  Whatever might be the root cause of all
 this antagonism, it's quite clear that OS/2's merits as a product and as a
 platform have nothing to do with it.  Even OS/2's harshest critics admit this.

 It is OS/2's quality and undeniable superiority to everything else that makes
 it such a threat to those who are determined that no IBM software should be
 acknowledged as a success.  The 'hacker' mindset can't tolerate the thought of
 a product from the mainframe corporate Evil Empire known as IBM that could
 actually take over the PC industry on its own merits.

 What to do about this?  Sadly, there might not be anything to be done for
 someone so far gone that they won't even consider OS/2.  People who don't have
 a built-in mental block should be more receptive to the value in OS/2. As I've
 said before, it's really up to satisfied OS/2 customers to spread the word,
 instead of sitting back and complaining about IBM and Microsoft.

 Some have gone so far as to suggest that IBM sell off OS/2.  Read on...

 - Ed Trumbo


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.3. Why Do The Heathen Rage? 2.0 ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 or, What's Behind the 'Sell Off OS/2' Talk

 For the past two years or so, there has been an increasing attitude among
 certain PC industry 'pundits' that IBM and OS/2 should separate.  Aside from
 the transparent wishful thinking of Microsoft Zombies for Windows who advocate
 the death of OS/2, there are those who advocate the sale or spinoff of OS/2 to
 another company, no longer involved with or controlled by IBM. They reason
 that IBM's poor management, poor marketing and poor reputation in the PC
 market has poisoned OS/2 and that OS/2's only chance lies with another
 company.

 Don't fall for it!  This is just another way for evil-minded idiots to wish
 OS/2 dead without having to actually say it.  It is based on a long standing
 animosity to all things IBM on the part of the PC industry and its
 spokepersons.

 It is obvious that in the hands of a microcomputer-centric company, OS/2 would
 have died long ago.  Indeed, a PC-only company would not likely be capable of
 having created anything as sophisticated as OS/2 in the first place, and would
 not be capable of maintaining and enhancing such a platform. Remember the
 cornerstone engines of Extended Edition and Extended Services? How many
 companies have the ability to create and maintain a PC operating system, a
 communications and connectivity engine and a client/server database manager,
 and do it all as well as IBM has with OS/2 from 1.3 through Warp Connect?

 OS/2 seriously confuses pundits whose experience with computer technology
 never stretches past the boundaries explored by Computer Shopper magazine, but
 it is not lost for people who realize that the most powerful computers in the
 world aren't running DOS and Windows on Pentiums.  When the PC press (and I do
 mean 'PC' in both senses) feed the masses an endless stream of editorials
 saying things like 'operating systems aren't important' or 'people don't buy
 operating systems', it's no wonder that OS/2's appeal remains hidden from too
 many customers.  Intel can make the front page of these 'journals' by
 announcing a slightly clock-accellerated Pentium before the previously
 announced chip is even shipping, yet 'operating systems aren't important'! Are
 you prepared to put your systems software into the hands of anyone but IBM in
 this industry?

 OS/2 is IBM's systems platform for the x86 personal computers.  IBM's market
 extends well beyond the PC's into every type of hardware and software made
 today.  A major part of OS/2's value is its support for connectivity to these
 systems, not merely as a dumb terminal but extending into common database
 engines, applications and development.  I might say that I question the
 motives of those who recommend that IBM 'sell off' OS/2, but in fact there's
 no question that their motives are strictly anti-IBM and anti-OS/2.

 Certainly, IBM has a history of clumsiness in the PC arena.  They had, and
 perhaps earned, a reputation for ineffective software for PC's throughout most
 of the 1980's.  Folks, it's 1996 now, OS/2 and its associated software are
 here now, so don't help the Microsoft Zombies for Windows fight 1986's battles
 the same way they run 1986's software.  OS/2 belongs with IBM, now and
 forever.

 - Ed Trumbo


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8. GDOUG Bylaws ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Note:  The following document is the final draft of the proposed Charter and
       Bylaws governing the Greater Detroit OS/2 User Group.  I invite all
       members and potential members to suggest additions, deletions or
       improvements to the draft.  Suggestions may be brought to GDOUG meetings
       or submitted on-line to the GDOUG Members Forum on the OS/2 Express BBS

Thank you for your participation.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.1. Revisions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Between the second draft and this draft, there have been some significant
 additions, deletions and alterations.  This section summarizes them by
 article.

 Charter  - No change.

 Definitions  - Member "in good standing" requirement AMENDED, from attendance
 at 1 of the past 4 meetings to attendance at 3 meetings during the term of
 membership.

 Article 1: GDOUG Standards  - No change.

 Article 2: Membership Requirements  - Subsection B; REMOVED "A member must be
 present at the meeting in which the vote is held...".

 Article 3: Officer Structure and Requirements  - Subsection A; NEW BBS SysOp
 added as fifth Officer, as a volunteer appointed position.  Subsection B
 AMENDED to require BBS SysOp as an Officer.  REMOVED Subsection C, which
 limited the combined responsibilities of Secretary and Treasurer.

 Article 4: Meeting Requirements  - Subsections B and C; "Temporary and/or
 permanent changes..." AMENDED to "Temporary...", relating to meeting schedules
 and places.

 Article 5: Voting Procedures  - NEW Article. Establishes ballot and proxy
 voting, standards for such votes and Vice-President's role in casting deciding
 votes.

 Article 6: Dissolution of GDOUG  - AMENDED as "Dissolution and/or
 Reorganization of GDOUG".  Subsection A; dissolution vote requirements
 increased.  NEW Subsection B prohibits accepting membership contributions
 during dissolution proceedings.  NEW Subsection D involving reorganization of
 GDOUG.

 Article 7: Amendments to Bylaws  - AMENDED to require ballot and proxy voting.

 Article 8: Standards for Enforcing Bylaws  - NEW Article. Automatically
 nullifies any Bylaw or Subsection that conflicts with federal, state or local
 laws.  Allows for enforcement of any other Bylaw at discretion of membership.

 Amendments 1, 2:  - No change.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.2. Charter ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 The Greater Detroit OS/2 User Group (hereafter referred to as GDOUG) is a
 nonprofit volunteer organization with the following common goals:

     o To promote the use of OS/2 as the operating system platform of choice
       among computer users and software developers

     o To educate its members and others in the use of OS/2 based technology

     o To assist the membership and others by sharing information, assistance
       and resources as related to our other goals

     o To serve as a forum for dialogue with computer hardware, software and
       service vendors, through which we can communicate the ideas and opinions
       of the membership to our aggregate benefit


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.3. Definitions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 A quorum is defined as a majority of members in good standing in a given
 meeting.

 A member in good standing is defined as a person who has paid the membership
 dues as set at the time of membership application, whose membership has not
 expired and who has attended a minimum of three (3) meetings during their term
 of membership.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.4. Article 1: GDOUG Standards ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

  1. GDOUG does not condone nor tolerate any criminal activity, especially but
     not limited to the use or abuse of computer technology among its members,
     during its meetings or using equipment or software designated as GDOUG
     property or in the custody of GDOUG Officers and members.

  2. GDOUG Officers and members shall maintain reasonable standards of civil
     conduct among each other and in any capacity while attending meetings
     and/or representing GDOUG to the public.

  3. Information about individual members (including but not limited to
     addresses, phone numbers, places of employment, etc.) shall be considered
     private and confidential, not to be distributed or used for any purpose
     outside the legitimate activities of GDOUG, without the written permission
     of each member concerned.

  4. Violations of these articles may result in sanctions up to and including
     forfeiture of membership, subject to review by no less than three (3)
     Officers and/or not less than two-thirds of present members at a regularly
     scheduled meeting.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.5. Article 2: Membership Requirements ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

  1. GDOUG membership is available to anyone eighteen (18) years of age or
     older who expresses an interest in OS/2 and GDOUG membership and pays the
     current dues of membership as determined by the membership.  Anyone under
     the age of eighteen may become a member through the sponsorship of a
     member who fulfills the above requirement.

  2. A GDOUG member in good standing shall have the right to one (1) vote in
     elections called for by the Officers or by the terms of these Bylaws.

  3. Membership in GDOUG carries the implicit obligation for the member to
     contribute their knowledge, resources and energy to the group, both during
     and outside the meetings, to the best of their ability.  This may include
     but is not limited to making a presentation or holding a training session,
     promoting the existence and purpose of GDOUG among others and other
     beneficial activities at their discretion.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.6. Article 3: Officer Structure and Requirements ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

  1. GDOUG shall have a standard complement of five (5) Officers, responsible
     for the various duties necessary to serve the membership and fulfill the
     goals of its Charter and requirements of these Bylaws.

     To be an eligible candidate for GDOUG Officer, a member in good standing
     must have been a member for not less than one year prior to election (see
     Amendment 1).

     The Officer structure shall be:

     a. President : The President shall:

        1. officiate at the general meetings of GDOUG

        2. ensure that membership activity remains in compliance with the
           Charter, Bylaws and standards of GDOUG

        3. temporarily fulfill the responsibilities of another Officer if said
           Officer is unable, or appoint a member in good standing to fulfill
           the responsibilities of an Officer until a Special Election can be
           held among the membership

        4. other duties as may be determined by a quorum or required by
           circumstance

     b. Vice-President : The Vice-President shall:

        1. fulfill the responsibilities of President as enumerated above, in
           the event the President is unable

        2. cast the deciding vote in the event of a deadlocked vote among the
           membership and/or Officers

        3. other duties as may be determined by a quorum or required by
           circumstance

     c. Secretary : The Secretary shall:

        1. maintain the mailing list of members and contacts, including all
           information necessary to fulfill GDOUG's obligations

        2. maintain minutes of each meeting

        3. other duties as may be determined by a quorum or required by
           circumstance

     d. Treasurer : The Treasurer shall:

        1. maintain GDOUG funds, including membership dues and other
           contributions

        2. present to the other Officers documentation for all financial
           transactions occurring on a monthly basis, and report to the other
           Officers and membership with a current Balance Sheet for GDOUG not
           less than four (4) times per calendar year

        3. other duties as may be determined by a quorum or required by
           circumstance

     e. Bulletin Board System Operator (BBS SysOp) : The BBS SysOp shall:

        1. maintain and provide access to a modem based dial-up system through
           which members and interested parties may communicate on a regular
           basis, publicly and/or privately

        2. maintain and provide access, using the above medium, to records and
           archives of GDOUG communications, including but not limited to
           newsletters, public and/or private messages and other information of
           benefit to the membership and other interested parties

        3. other duties as required by the above description

  2. GDOUG shall have, at a minimum and at any one time, three Officers
     responsible for conducting and maintaining the business and resources of
     GDOUG.  Unless otherwise stipulated by a quorum at a regularly scheduled
     meeting, these Officers will hold the titles of President, Secretary and
     BBS SysOp, with the associated responsibilities enumerated above, plus
     other duties as necessary to the continued operation and growth of GDOUG.

     Under these circumstances, the elected President shall fulfill the duties
     associated with the Treasurer.

  3. The Office of BBS SysOp is considered an appointed Office and not subject
     to Election by the membership, except in the event of the BBS SysOp's
     resignation from said Office.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.7. Article 4: Meeting Requirements ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

  1. Regularly scheduled and publicly announced meetings of GDOUG shall be
     considered open to anyone who wishes to attend, provided such attendance
     does not disrupt the scheduled proceedings of the meeting.

  2. Meetings shall be regularly scheduled to take place on a monthly basis, on
     the specific date and at the specific time and place as ratified by a
     quorum of the membership.  Temporary changes to this schedule may be
     approved by a quorum at the preceding meeting.

  3. GDOUG shall establish a regular place of meeting based on a quorum of the
     membership.  Temporary changes to this place may be approved by a quorum
     at the preceding meeting.

  4. GDOUG shall publicly announce its meetings through the U.S. Mail to
     persons active in its mailing list and/or through electronic services as
     may be available to GDOUG Officers and members.  These announcements shall
     be mailed and/or posted not less than ten (10) days prior to the date of
     the scheduled meeting.

  5. In the event of an emergency preventing a meeting from occurring at a
     pre-approved date, time and/or place, two (2) or more Officers may
     reschedule and/or relocate said meeting provided it is scheduled for a
     later date.  The Officers are responsible for providing updated notice to
     all persons and at all locations where notice of meetings is given, not
     less than ten (10) days prior to the date of the previously scheduled
     meeting.  If such notice is not possible, any votes and/or resolutions
     taking place at said meeting shall be considered non-binding.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.8. Article 5: Voting Procedures ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

  1. Any member in attendance at a GDOUG meeting may call for a vote among the
     membership on any issue relating to the meetings, operation, policies
     and/or standards of GDOUG.  Another member may second that motion, and the
     vote will be held according to the following standards:

     a. If an issue relates only to the given meeting and members present at
        said meeting (as in adjournment, extension past the preannounced time,
        etc.), the vote may be held by a show of hands and a quorum will
        prevail.

     b. If an issue relates to an Amendment or other alteration of these
        Bylaws, election of Officers or other matters of natural interest to
        the membership at large (except the dissolution of GDOUG, see Article
        6), the issue shall be drafted in writing and presented in the next
        monthly publication of GDOUG, along with a voting ballot.  This ballot
        shall include affirmative, negative and proxy options, with proxy as
        the default value.  Ballots may be returned to a designated Officer by
        U.S. Mail or electronically through E-Mail.  E-Mail ballots shall be
        acknowledged and confirmed by the designated Officer.  Said vote shall
        be held at the following meeting and include the results of a show of
        hands, ballots and proxy.

  2. At any time up to the formal vote during a meeting, an attending member
     may cancel their previous ballot or proxy by participating in the formal
     vote.  The Secretary and/or other designated Officer shall be responsible
     for eliminating duplicated votes.

  3. The value of the proxy vote (affirmative or negative) shall be determined
     by a quorum at the current meeting.

  4. For votes that require a two-thirds majority of members, the
     Vice-President's vote shall be used to round up or down as necessary, if
     the count of two-thirds of members do not otherwise round evenly into
     thirds.  For votes requiring a quorum, the Vice-President's vote shall
     determine the outcome in the event of a tie vote.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.9. Article 6: Dissolution and/or Reorganization of GDOUG ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

  1. By providing no less than sixty (60) days notice to the membership, no
     less than two (2) Officers may call a vote to dissolve GDOUG as an
     organization.  At the end of sixty days, all ballots, proxy options and
     other votes as specified in Article 5 shall be considered.  Upon approval
     of said dissolution by not less than two-thirds of current members, GDOUG
     shall be dissolved.

  2. From the time of such notice, GDOUG shall not accept membership dues from
     prospective members, unless and until such time as a vote cancels the
     dissolution proceedings.

  3. In the event of the dissolution of GDOUG, refunds of membership dues if
     any shall be handled on a prorated basis as follows:

     a. Funds available to GDOUG at the time of dissolution shall first provide
        for reasonable expenses to handle obligations related to the
        dissolution.

     b. A member with more than six (6) months left in an active membership
        shall receive up to one-half of their membership dues as a refund
        within sixty (60) days of the official and documented dissolution of
        GDOUG.

     c. A member with up to six (6) months left in an active membership shall
        not be eligible for refund.

  4. Refunds of GDOUG membership dues in the event of dissolution shall be
     limited to funds available to GDOUG itself.

  5. A reorganization of GDOUG, including the draft of a new Charter and/or
     Bylaws and the election of new Officers, shall follow the same
     requirements enumerated above.  All members of GDOUG shall be considered
     members of the new organization throughout the term of their membership as
     specified by the previous standards of GDOUG in force at the time of their
     membership application.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.10. Article 7: Amendments to GDOUG Bylaws ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

  1. Any amendment to GDOUG Bylaws and/or Charter requires the use of ballot
     and proxy options as specified in Article 5.

  2. These Bylaws may be amended to any extent by an affirmative vote of not
     less than two-thirds of current members.

  3. The Charter of GDOUG may be amended to include additional statements by
     not less than two-thirds of current members.  The Charter may not have its
     original statements removed and/or struck down without a complete
     reorganization of GDOUG as described in Article 6.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.11. Article 8: Standards for Enforcement of Bylaws ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

  1. These Bylaws and Charter are subject to the relevant laws of the United
     States of America, the State of Michigan and Macomb County.  In the event
     that an Article or any Subsection of an Article is found to be in
     violation of the laws of any of the above jurisdictions, said Article or
     Subsection will be automatically null and void.  This nullification shall
     be limited to relevant Articles and Subsections only.

  2. GDOUG, its Officers and members reserve the right to enforce the standards
     and requirements of these Bylaws, within the limits of the laws of the
     aforementioned jurisdictions.

  3. Failure to enforce the standards and requirements of these Bylaws on any
     given occasion shall not limit the right of GDOUG, its Officers and/or
     members to enforce these Bylaws at other times.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.12. Amendments ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 AMENDMENT 1 - Provisions Made for GDOUG First Year of Operation

 Requirements in the above Bylaws stipulating membership requirements, Officer
 eligibility, etc.  relating to length of time of membership and/or attendance
 history are suspended from July 12, 1994 to July 12, 1995.

 AMENDMENT 2 - Waiver of Membership Dues

 A member elected to GDOUG office by a quorum shall be exempt from membership
 dues and renewals through his or her term of office.  If said Officers'
 membership expires during their term, he or she will be responsible for
 renewing membership upon their departure from GDOUG office.

 A quorum may vote to waive the membership dues of any current or proposed
 member, for outstanding services rendered to GDOUG and its membership.  A vote
 of approval will grant a one (1) year membership, extending any current term
 of membership which may exist.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9. GDOUG Membership and Contact info ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 The Greater Detroit OS/2 User Group (GDOUG) was founded in July 1994 to serve
 the needs of OS/2 users and the OS/2 marketplace in the Greater Detroit area.
 We operate on a nonprofit, volunteer basis.  For more information about
 membership and participation, please login to the OS/2 Express or refer to the
 enclosed form.


   President            Edward Trumbo          [e-mail]

   Vice-President       Stan Sobocinski        [e-mail]
                                               [e-mail]

   Secretary            Carolyn Kolaz          CIS: 76460,3040

   Treasurer            Jim Wong               N/A

   BBS SysOp            Jim Held               BBS : [phone]

 Membership Dues: $25 US per year.

 BBS: OS/2 Express

 Greater Detroit OS/2 User Group
 29334 Gloede #A-10
 Warren, MI  48093
 Attn: Edward Trumbo

 The GDOUG Newsletter is a monthly publication of the Greater Detroit OS/2 User
 Group (GDOUG).

 All reviews and opinions expressed herein are those of the respective authors
 and may not reflect the positions of GDOUG, its Officers or members.  All
 information contained herein is presented "as is", without warranty or
 guarantee.  GDOUG, its Officers and members assume no liability for the use or
 misuse of any materials published here.

 "IBM" and "OS/2" are registered trademarks of International Business Machines,
 Inc. and are used without permission.  We hope they won't mind.  All other
 trademarks are the property of their respective holders.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.1. Membership Form ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 For membership by mail (U.S. or electronic), print this form and send to:

 GDOUG
 c/o Edward Trumbo
 29336 Gloede #A-10
 Warren, MI  48093

 or:

 Internet: [e-mail]

 (please type or print)

 Name    : _________________________________

 Address1  : _________________________________

 Address2  : _________________________________

 City    : _________________________________

 State  :   _______  Zip Code: ___________

 Optional information:

 Day Phone : (___) ___-____ x ____

 Evening Phone : (___) ___-____ x ____

 E-Mail  :   _________________________________

        _________________________________

        _________________________________

 -----------------------------------------------------

 [  ]  Sign me up for one year of membership. (US Mail only)

    $25.00 U.S.  Check or Money Order enclosed.

 [  ]  No membership yet, but send me the next issue.

 [  ]  Send newsletter to my ___________________ address.

    (US Mail, Internet, CompuServe, etc.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Edward Trumbo is the President of the Greater Detroit OS/2 User Group.  A
founding member of GDOUG, he has been using OS/2 personally and professionally
since version 2.0.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Stan Sobocinski is the Vice President of the Greater Detroit OS/2 User Group.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Carolyn Kolaz is the Secretary of the Greater Detroit OS/2 User Group.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Jim Wong is the Treasurer of the Greater Detroit OS/2 User Group.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

Jim Held is the BBS System Operator of the OS/2 Express, the official BBS of
the Greater Detroit OS/2 User Group.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 International Business Machines, Inc.
 Armonk, NY
 Orders : (800) 3IBMOS2
 http://www.ibm.com


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Microsoft Corporation
 http://www.microsoft.com


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Stardock
 1-313-453-0328
 Fax: [phone]
 http://oeonline.com/~stardock
 EMail: [e-mail]


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Watcom International, A Powersoft Company
 415 Phillip Street
 Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA  N2L 3X2
 [phone]
 Fax [phone]
 http://www.watcom.com


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 New Riders Publishing


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Novell, Inc.

 http://www.novell.com


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Lotus Development Corporation

 http://www.lotus.com


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Ziff-Davis Publishing


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Promise


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Precision


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Western Digital


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 DeScribe, Inc.


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 A publication of


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Corel


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 PowerQuest Corporation
 [phone]
 http://www.powerquest.com


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Athena Designs, Inc.
 332 Congress St.
 Boston, MA  02210-1217
 [phone]
 [phone]
 [e-mail]
 http://www.athena.com


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Drake ProMetric


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 Walnut Creek CDROM
 Suite 260
 1547 Palos Verdes Mall
 Walnut Creek CA  94596
 USA

 1 800 786-9907 (toll free sales)
 1 800 731-7177 (toll free tech support)
 1 510 674-0783 (sales)
 1 510 603-1234 (tech support)
 1 510 674-0821 FAX
 Email: [e-mail] (orders)
 Email: [e-mail] (information)
 Email: [e-mail] (tech support)
 WWW:  http://www.cdrom.com
 FTP:  ftp.cdrom.com


ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden>  ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ

 InfoMagic, Inc.
 11950 N. Highway 89
 Flagstaff, AZ  86004

 1-800-800-6613
 Fax: [phone]
 e-mail:  [e-mail]
 [e-mail]
 WEB:  www.infomagic.com