OS/2 Shareware BBS: 32 Periodic/32-Periodic.zip/mm0793.zip/July93.TXT

Text File | 1993-07-01 | 56KB | 1,161 lines

                       MMOUG July 1993 Newsletter

                           Volume 1 Number 2


Mid Missouri OS/2 Users Group
=============================
The MMOUG meets once a month, meeting at the Columbia IBM office on even months
and at the Jefferson City office on odd months. Click below for more information.

July Meeting Announcement
-------------------------
When:       July 14, 1993 at 4 PM

Where:      Jefferson City IBM Office (See directions)

Activities: Ben Hoffman, the Personal Software Products representative for Mid-Missouri,
will be explaining what Personal Software Products is as a division/company,
and his role.

Directions:

Jefferson City IBM Office
One Elm Plaza
Jefferson City, MO 65101
314-634-0200

From Columbia:

Highway 63 South to Highway 54 West (across the bridge) to
(be careful, this is still a dangerous intersection) Highway 50 East.
Go through lights at MO. Blvd, Broadway, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe

Take the CLARK AVENUE exit off of Highway 50.
Turn right onto Clark Ave, THEN
make an almost immediate left onto ELM Street.
Take Elm Street to IBM. IBM will be on the left.

  Eastland         Highway
 /                 Patrol         Elm Street
McDonalds________    HQ       ________________
|                \___________/                |
|______________________________________________\_______
                 Highway 50                     Clark Ave Exit

Thanks to Gary Pool for providing these directions.

What you missed at the last meeting!
------------------------------------
Describe Corporation's Mary Serok demoed their 32-bit PM word processor,
Describe 4.0. Mary showed us the true WYSIWYG nature of Describe, the style
pallette's ability to help document layout, as well as it's tremendous file
import/export features. Describe's word processor looks like a superior product
designed with OS/2 and the WPS in mind.

Our giveaway was a copy of :hp1.OS/2 2.1 Unleashed!:ehp1. which Dale Hackemeyer
(yours truly) won. Remember folks, you've got to be present to win!

Mid Missouri OS/2 Users Group Information
-----------------
Current Officers:
    Phillip Wilson - President
    Diane Kehl - Vice President
    Robert Shelley - Treasurer
    Shawn Frazier - Membership Secretary
    David Finch - Recording Secretary
    Woody Sturges - BBS Officer
    Dale Hackemeyer - Information Officer

Official MMOUG BBS:
    OS/2 Woodmeister - [phone] (1:289/27)

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


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

Welcome to the Mid-Missouri OS/2 Users Group
(MMOUG) newletter.  I want to personally thank all who have
joined the group.  We hope to keep the agendas full
of interesting and beneficial things.  Any suggestions
are welcome. Please leave a message for Diane Kehl on the
OS/2 Woodmeister or on IBM's OS2BBS (userid - KEHLD).

We have  a few more things in the works to further help the
group.  We are putting together a Jefferson City node for
MMOUG members to cut down on long distance phone calls.
Hopefully that will be in operation before the end of July.

For those of you who have not heard, the OS/2 2.1 upgrade
and program products are available now and shipping.  I
can't wait to buy a sound card <grin>.

Finally, I would like to thank Stac Electronics for the
donation of "Stacker for OS/2".  We will be drawing
for that goodie at one of the future meetings.  I would also
like to thank Harvey Summers for donating a CD-ROM full of
Adobe Type Manager fonts and games that will also be given away
at a future meeting.

Tell your friends, collegues, and neighbors about the
group.  We can all help one another and, hopefully, have
some fun doing it. <BIG GRIN>

Take Care.

Phillip Wilson
President, Mid Missouri OS/2 Users Group


Notes from the BBS side...
==========================

Well, it looks like traffic is picking up a little here on the OS/2
Woodmeister.  Thanks to Shawn Frazier (MMOUG Membership
Officer and OWM Files Cosysop extraordinaire), the OWM is
seeing ALL KINDS of new OS/2 files (almost) every day.
He's been given a mission to fill my files drive (another
400M to go!), so we can expect to see many more files in
the months to come.  Thanks, Shawn!

Drivers for 2.x are appearing almost daily now.  Make
sure and check out the new files every once in a while to
see if there's anything you need.

Tidbit #1:
From the Files menu, use the Locate command to find files of
particular interest.  Enter a search string containing part
of the expression you're looking for.  For example, to
check out S3 drivers, "L"ocate "S3", and the
system will show all available files with S3 in the filename or
description.  It's a great way to find files of interest.

Tidbit #2:
Don't forget the online help.  Most menus allow a "?" to get help screens.
If there's something you're not sure of, use the "?" command to get more info.

For those of you interested in gaining local access to
the OWM from Jefferson City, we're pleased to announce that
The OWM Jeff City Point should be up this month.  It'll be
open to MMOUG members only, and will carry all the OS/2
message areas that I currently carry (as well as my "Ask
Phillip", and "Hard Core" areas).  That's in the works, and
is about done.

We're still working with COIN to get OWM access to Internet services.
That's going slow, but is moving ahead.  David Finch is
giving us more and more positive information each time we
talk to him.  Of course, we'll keep everyone informed of
the status of this project.

That's it for me this month.  Don't forget to check in
every now and then to browse the new files.  There's
definitely something for everyone...

Woody Sturges
BBS Officer, Mid Missouri OS/2 Users Group


Stacker for OS/2 and DOS
========================

Review by Dale Hackemeyer

Real-time hard disk data compression, which the DOS world has enjoyed
for several years, has arrived for OS/2! Stacker for OS/2 & DOS is the
first OS/2 release of Stac's popular disk compression software. While it
is only the first release and does have a few quirks, it is functionally
the same as it's DOS counterpart and just as safe. As the name implies, the
disks contain everything you need to access your stacked disks in both OS/2
and DOS. The format used is the same as in Stacker's current DOS version, and
you can upgrade disks stacked with older versions of Stacker without any
data loss.

The Compromise:

There is one thing about this release that I dislike. All of the
installation and utility programs included with Stacker are DOS programs.
Only the device drivers necessary to use the stacked drive(s) are native
OS/2 programs. Some, but not all, of the programs may be used under an OS/2
DOS session, but some of the more critical programs (such as SETUP and
SDEFRAG) must be used after booting DOS. While none of this
compromises your data's integerity, it does require you have both a DOS boot
disk (either floppy or hard disk) and OS/2 DOS support installed. This release
will only support FAT formatted disks, which makes sense when you consider the
support programs are DOS apps and DOS apps can't read or write on HPFS
formatted disks.

How Stacker works:

If you've never used Stacker before, it may help to understand how Stacker goes
about doubling you're disk capacity. Suppose we're going to stack our 80
Megabyte C: disk. We decide that we want to stack 75Meg of the disk, leaving
5 Meg uncompressed (it is ALWAYS necessary to leave a small portion on a boot
disk uncompressed to store those files needed during boot up before the Stacker
device driver is loaded and running).

To create the stacked drive, Stacker will allocate 75Meg of the disk
to create a file called STACVOL.DSK. This one file is what actually holds
all your compressed data. If data already exists on the drive,
Stacker will integrate those files into the STACVOL.DSK file during the install.
In order to access the stacked drive, device drivers are loaded on bootup that
create a virtual disk drive that uses the data in the STACVOL.DSK file. The
virtual disk acts like any other disk, and you may access it as you would any
disk (one major exception is disk defragmentation programs; you MUST use the
provided SDEFRAG to defragment Stacker drives). As you might expect, the
STACVOL.DSK is an extremely important file on the uncompressed portion of your
disk. All the programs and data on your stacked disk are in this file. So
whatever you do, DON'T DELETE THIS FILE!

Two other programs that Stacker uses are SSWAP (for DOS) and SSWAP2
(for OS/2) which "swaps" your existing unstacked drive and your stacked
drive so your system will use the stacked drive just like it used to
use the unstacked drive. For example, after stacking our 80Meg C: drive,
rather than having a 5Meg C: drive and a 150Meg D: drive, SSWAP
will set things up so we have a 150Meg C: drive and 5Meg D: drive. The install
program copies the necessary system files (i.e. COMMAND.COM or OS2KRNL)
from the 5Meg portion of the disk to the stacked drive to avoid problems with
missing files after the disks are swapped.

Under OS/2, quite a few more files must be kept on both the uncompressed and
stacked disks to get booted up. A program called SYNC2 is ran automatically at
startup to check and make sure all the necessay files are in both places and
will notify you if there are any differences in the files, and will offer to
correct any differences it sees. Stacker users may also specify additional
files that they want synchronized using the SYNC2USR.CFG file.

Stacker's device drivers control the access to the stacked drive. When a read
is requested on a stacked drive, Stacker intercepts the request, finds,
uncompresses, and passes the file to the application requesting it.
The reverse happens when a program writes a file to a stacked disk.

First time installation:

The SETUP program for Stacker is a very complete program, giving you the choice
to either let it do everything automatically, or to let you take control
and do a custom install (do the latter ONLY if you're experienced with Stacker
products or the manual instructs you to do so). You're install times will vary,
depending on the size of the disk being stacked and, more importantly,
whether there are existing files that must be added to the stacked drive.

Installing over existing Stacker:

Unfortunately, SETUP is a bit picky about how your system is setup if you
already have a DOS version of Stacker installed. For instance, I had Stacker
2.0 already installed and at first Stacker's SETUP wouldn't work. It had me
run the CONFIG program to patch my DOS CONFIG.SYS. Turns out Stacker didn't
like that I loaded the device drivers into high memory. After CONFIG the SETUP
program worked fine.

You're not done yet, however. Tucked 163 pages back in the manual is the
section about how to use other Stacker products. Technically you can access
your old Stacker for DOS disks without any problems, but it's best to re-stack
these drives to take advantage of the newer compression schemes. You can
re-stack by using the command SDEFRAG X: /R (where X: is the drive letter
of the stacked drive). Be warned that this process takes some time.
It took almost twenty minutes to re-stack my 26Meg Stacker 2.0 disk on
my old 386-25MHz machine. This must be done under native DOS.

Conclusion:

For the most part, I think Stacker has done an good job with this first release
for OS/2. As with any first release, it has some quirks, but most stem to it's
religious use of DOS utility programs. See page 67 of the manual for a diagram
of which programs can be ran in a OS/2 DOS session and which require you
actaully boot DOS to use them. In general, any program that makes serious
changes to a stacked disk, or that repairs a damaged disk, must be ran under
real DOS. I found out they mean it whan I ran CHKDSK /F and locked the sytstem
hard. Doing the same under DOS fixed things in no time.

The manual is suprisingly easy to read for the non-technical. Chapter four
is a very complete command reference, giving an explanation of what a
command does, why it's needed, the syntax, and all of the parameters.
There are seperate chapters discussing the OS/2 and DOS device drivers, what
they do and how to set them up yourself. Next to every command or device
driver described in the manual is a small graphic indicating whether it
is to be used under OS/2, an OS/2 based DOS session, or a computer booted
with real DOS.

The peformance of a stacked disk is somewhat less than that of an unstacked
disk, but it isn't very noticable when using programs, but is noticable when
doing large amounts of file copying and deleting. The compression ratio
achieved will vary depending on the types of files on your stacked disk. ZIP
and other compressed files, as well as compressed executables, won't be
compressed at all by Stacker and take up more room on a stacked disk. Though
it is billed as "doubling your hard disk space", a 2:1 ratio is seldom
acheived. I currently have a 1.8:1 ratio on my disk. The new version
also has better compression algorithms than previous releases. With Stacker
2.0 for DOS I had a 1.6:1 ratio, and after restacking my disk, I was up to
1.8:1.

Despite the quirks, Stacker has run error free and headache free for me, and I'd
recommend it for anyone who's feeling the disk crunch under OS/2.


The OS/2 FAQ
============

Perhaps one of the most useful resources for a beginning (and even experienced)
OS/2 user is the OS/2 FAQ (that's Frequently Asked Questions) file. Compiled
by Timothy F. Sipples and distributed worldwide on OS/2 FTP sites and BBS's,
it's an indispensable guide to OS/2 hardware, software, and useful tips and
techniques.
:p.
Some of the topics covered include:

Fundamentals:

    - Differences between versions.
    - DOS and Windows compatibility.
    - Availability and Cost

Hardware:

    - Hardware requirements
    - SVGA support
    - Printer support
    - Specific hardware recomendations

Software:

    - Applications
    - Shareware and Freeware
    - Disk utilities
    - Multimedia
    - Networking products
    - Backup software
    - Special software offers

Installation, Maintenance, and Support:

    - Installing
    - Hard disk partitioning
    - Technical support
    - Online services
    - User Groups (We're in there!)
    - OS/2 BBS's (Woody's in there!)

Using OS/2:

    - Making OS/2 resemble UNIX or Windows
    - Background processes
    - Performance Tuning
    - Clever tricks
    - REXX

The latest version was released June 14th and is updated almost monthly.
You can find the FAQ on the Woodmeister in the file FAQ21A.ZIP. Both ASCII
and INF versions are included!

All in all, I think Timothy has done a terrific job of compiling and updating
the information in the FAQ.
:p.
You can reach him at on the Internet at ([e-mail])


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

Creating WPS objects
--------------------
While the Workplace Shell is an easy to use interface, it does have it's
quirks. One day a few months ago I noticed the system clock program didn't
come up. When I finally opened my "System Setup" folder, I found that it
was empty. No Keyboard, no Mouse, no Clock. Nothing.

After searching the disk looking for the missing programs, I was at a loss. Had
my clock, keyboard, and other system setup programs been deleted? As it turns
out, yes and no.

The clock, mouse, keyboard, and other programs in the "System Setup" folder
aren't actually programs, but objects that point to the actual programs
residing in system DLL's. Somehow the objects in my folder were wiped out,
but since they were merely pointers to the programs, all I needed to do to
get my clock and other programs back was recreate those objects.

After seeing a post in the OS2 fidonet conference, I figured out how to
recreate the delinquent objects. Taking some example REXX code from the
same message, I've created two REXX files to help in restoring system objects.

LSTOBJ.CMD is a REXX file that will list all objects available in the system.
It's a long listing, so be ready to hit the <PAUSE> key!

NEWOBJ.CMD is a REXX file that will create the system objects that you request.
This command file is a little tricky as it requires that you edit parts of the
file to create the appropriate objects. Two objects, "System" and "Keyboard",
are created by the example file.

CAUTION: System objects cannot be deleted with the Shredder! If you create one
         of these objects as a test, you must have a program such as BlackHole
         on your desktop that will delete anything should you decide to delete
         it.

3 steps are required to create the objects:

- Run the LISTOBJ command file and note which objects you wish to create.
- Edit the "call SysCreateObjecte" line(s) in NEWOBJ.CMD to reflect the
  additions you wish to make, either by changing the existing calls, and/or
  by adding additional calls as needed.
- Run your new NEWOBJ.CMD command file to create the new objects on your
  desktop.

If everything goes smoothly, you should have one or more new objects appearing
in the upper left hand corner of your desktop.

LSTOBJ.CMD
   /* REXX file to list WPS system objects.    */
   /*                                          */
   /*     From the July 1993 MMOUG newsletter. */

   "@echo off"
   "cls"
   SAY "Getting list of all WPS objects&colon.";

   /* Add WPS system functions to REXX. */
   call RxFuncAdd 'SysLoadFuncs', 'RexxUtil', 'SysLoadFuncs'
   call SysLoadFuncs

   /* Loop to list each system object. */
   call SysQueryClassList "list."
   do i=1 to list.0
     say "Class" i "is" list.i
   end

   SAY "List creation completed."
   EXIT


NEWOBJ.CMD
   /* REXX file to create WPS system objects. Edit and/or   */
   /* add SysCreateObject calls to get the desired objects. */
   /*                                                       */
   /*                   From the July 1993 MMOUG newsletter */

   "@echo off"
   "cls"
   SAY "Creating WPS objects&colon.";

   /* Add WPS system functions to REXX. */
   call RxFuncAdd 'SysLoadFuncs', 'RexxUtil', 'SysLoadFuncs'
   call SysLoadFuncs

   /* Call(s) to add system objects. */
   call SysCreateObject 'WPSystem', 'System', '<WP_DESKTOP>'
   call SysCreateObject 'WPKeyboard', 'Keyboard', '<WP_DESKTOP>'

   SAY "WPS objects creation completed."
   EXIT

BlackHole
You can find this program on the OS/2 Woodmeister under the file BLAKHOLE.ZIP.

No more command prompt title bars!
----------------------------------
When I first installed OS/2, I didn't think much of the title bars that
appeared at the top of every OS/2 and DOS command prompt, it even helped
to differentiate between the two when running in a full screen session.

However, after spending a few months with OS/2, I didn't feel like having a
silly bar at the top of my screen telling me to type HELP for more information.
After a little poking around for information I found it's very easy to make
those title bars go away.

For OS/2 sessions, look in your CONFIG.SYS file for the SET PROMPT=$i[$p] line.
The $i part is what displays the title bar at the top of you screen. Simply
delete $i and save your CONFIG.SYS. After rebooting, the title bars will be
gone.

For DOS sessions, look in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file for the PROMPT $i$p$ line.
As with the OS/2 PROMPT statement, the $i part turns the title bars on and off.
Delete the $i and save your AUTOEXEC.BAT. The next DOS session you open will
be sans title bars.

Getting the most of memory.
---------------------------
There are several lines in the CONFIG.SYS file that allocate memory for
various system functions. While OS/2 does an excellent job of allocating
memory during setup, it can be a bit wasteful, especially if
you run in a low memory environment. Here are some changes you can make
to improve things:

PRINTMONBUFSIZE=132,132,132
This line sets the size of the printer buffers. Why is 132 there three times?
It's allocating buffers for LPT1, LPT2, and LPT3. What? You don't use all
three parallel ports? Then set the values to 0 for the ports you don't use.
If you don't print much either, set the value lower for the ports you do
use.

IFS=D:\OS2\HPFS.IFS  /CACHE:64 /AUTOCHECK:DE /CRECL:4
This line controls the setup of the High Performance File System (HPFS).
The /CACHE:64 part allocates memory for the disk cache. If you don't have
much physical RAM, a higher setting won't increase performance, it will
decrease it! This is because it takes longer to page memory to disk and back,
and the more RAM for the cache is less RAM for programs, so swapping will
occur more often. The optimum setting for the cache varies from system to
system, so the best way to set this is by trial and error.

THREADS=256
Threads is the number of independent actions that OS/2 is expected to
manage.  Each thread requires a small fraction of Physical RAM, thus
if your not running particularly massive OS/2 applications, which have
many threads, then why reserve so many?  In case you're worried about
not assigning enough, there is a small utility program called MAP57.ZIP on
Woody's BBS that will give you a report on the number of threads in use by
your system.  With this utility I was able to halve my default setting to 128,
which is still rather high, but it's better to have more than required,
otherwise your system's preformance will be terrible if you remove too many.

NOTE: This section was adapted from Joes Tips, which can be found in the file
      JOESTIPS.ZIP on the OS/2 Woodmeister.:ent.


New Software!
=============

OS/2 Software recently announced or released

Stacker for OS/2 & DOS
----------------------
Stac to Ship OS/2 Version of Stacker

ATLANTA, May 24, 1993  Stac Electronics (NASDAQ:STAC), the leading supplier
of data compression products for personal computers, today announced the
availability of Stacker(r) for OS/2(r) & DOS, a new software product that
automatically and transparently doubles the storage capacity of systems
running OS/2 2.0 and later, and DOS 5.0 and later.  Now users can compress
OS/2, Windows and DOS files.

"Stacker for OS/2 & DOS is a true lifesaver for those of us using the FAT
file system," said Ron Kiyomura of McDonnell-Douglas Inc.  "With the demands
the OS/2 operating system puts on disk storage, Stac Electronics has provided
a way to relieve disk storage problems at a fraction of the cost of new
hardware."

Like its sister product for Windows and DOS, Stacker for OS/2 & DOS is based
on the company's patented Stacker LZS(tm) compression technology that is
relied upon daily by more than 4 million computer users worldwide.  It is 100
percent compatible with OS/2, its applications and all hard disk FAT drives.
Stacker for OS/2 & DOS contains device drivers for both OS/2 and DOS
giving users access to compressed disks from either operating system.
Furthermore, it is easy to install and operates continuously, without any
perceptible degradation to system performance.

"Stacker for OS/2 & DOS is a means of making OS/2 accessible to more users,"
said Gary Clow, Stac's president. "Stacker for OS/2 & DOS makes it possible
to run OS/2 and its applications, as well as Windows and DOS and their
applications, on a large number of computers that have sufficient CPU
horsepower but come up short on storage capacity."

"Before the user even begins creating a word processing document, spreadsheet
or database, the average OS/2 system and applications require nearly 80
megabytes of storage," added Clow.  For example, on a 100-megabyte OS/2 boot
drive, OS/2 and a typical collection of applications including word processor,
spreadsheet, graphics and databases,  occupy 76 megabytes of space, leaving
just 24 megabytes free.  Add Stacker for OS/2 & DOS to the system and the
amount of free space grows to 112 megabytes.

Easy Installation

Users are given a choice of Express or Custom Setup with Stacker for OS/2 &
DOS.  Express Setup assesses the system and automatically installs Stacker
on all of the system hard drives that use the FAT file system.  Stacker's
Custom Setup offers the user a variety of configuration options for maximum
control of the system.

For those who need more disk space in order to install OS/2, users simply
compress the data on the drive first and then OS/2 will be compressed
on-the-fly as it is being installed.

Transparent Operation

Once installed, Stacker for OS/2 & DOS operates instantaneously, continuously
and transparently to the user.  Stacker for OS/2 & DOS works with systems
with only an OS/2 boot partition as well as also Dual Boot and Boot Manager
systems.

Other Stacker for OS/2 & DOS features include:

- Stacker AutoProtect(tm) - detects disk errors at boot time and
  immediately protects your Stacker volume.
- Stacker AutoRecovery(tm) - automatically repairs errors on the disk.
- Stacker Optimizer(tm) defragments a Stacker drive for optimal
  performance.
- Compression Reporting - provides the compression ratio for files in a
  Stacker drive.
- Extended attributes support - fully supports OS/2's ability to attach
  additional information to files.
- Support for 2 GB Stacker drives - creates Stacker drives up to two
  gigabytes in total capacity.
- Unstack - restores a drive to its uncompressed condition and
  deactivates the Stacker software.
- Online help - includes context-sensitive help throughout setup


Pricing and Availability

Stacker for OS/2 & DOS has a suggested retail price of $199.  It will be
available in volume during the first week of June to end-users through
dealers or can be ordered directly from Stac, and comes with 90 days free
telephone support and unlimited electronic support.

The Company:ehp2.
.br
Stac Electronics is the leading supplier of high performance data compression
products for personal computers.  Implemented in software and silicon, Stac's
products are sold direct from the company and through retail and OEM sales
distribution channels worldwide.

Contact Information:
Stac Electronics
Lisa Gunderson  [phone]


WordPerfect 5.2 for OS/2
------------------------
WORDPERFECT CORP. DEVELOPS WORDPERFECT 5.2 FOR OS/2

OREM, Utah, January 18, 1993--WordPerfect Corporation today announced
the development of WordPerfect(R) 5.2 for OS/2(R) 2.0, the first
graphical version of WordPerfect for OS/2.  The product is being jointly
developed with Micrografx(R) using Mirrors(TM) technology and uses the
same feature set as WordPerfect 5.2 for Windows.  WordPerfect 5.2 for
OS/2 is scheduled to ship this spring.

"Support from the industry's leading word processing software developer
is a clear indication of the market's support and acceptance of OS/2,"
said Lee Reiswig, president of IBM's Personal Software Products
division.  "WordPerfect 5.2 for OS/2 will satisfy customers' needs for
a graphical word processor that will take advantage of OS/2's advanced
technology."

The file format of WordPerfect 5.2 for OS/2 is identical to that of
WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS and WordPerfect 5.2 for Windows so files are
compatible across platforms.  WordPerfect 5.2 for OS/2 will also be
compatible with WordPerfect presentations and WordPerfect Office 4.0 for
OS/2 that are scheduled for release in 1993.

"Our users are implementing OS/2 and need applications today," said
Rich Running, director of WordPerfect for OS/2 marketing at WordPerfect
Corporation.  "We want to help them make a smooth transition to
WordPerfect for OS/2 without sacrificing file compatibility or making a
single major investment in training."

WordPerfect 5.2 for OS.2 will contain the features of WordPerfect
5.2 for Windows including the Button Bar, Ruler, the QuickFinder for
indexing and text retrieval, and a QuickMenu to quickly select Button
Bars.

"This is the first phase of our OS/2 word processing strategy," said
Dave Moon, vice president of development at WordPerfect Corporation.
"We are developing WordPerfect 6.0 for OS/2 which will be a 32-bit,
multi-threaded product that better integrates with the WorkPlace shell."

Notes:

WordPerfect Corporation, founded in 1979, is located in Orem, Utah
and manufactures the world's best-selling word processing software,
WordPerfect, as well as WordPerfect Office, (E-mail/scheduling/
calendaring) and WordPerfect Presentations, presentation graphics
software.  The privately held company develops software for DOS,
Windows, OS/2, Macintosh, UNIX, VMS, AS/400, NeXT, Data General, Pen,
and System/370 platforms.

WordPerfect is a registered trademark of WordPerfect Corporation.
OS/2 is a registered trademark of International Business Machines.
Micrografx is a registered trademark of Micrografx Corporation.

For more information, contact WordPerfect Corporation: [phone]


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

Internet
--------
OS/2 Related mailing lists
 ┌────────────────┬────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────┐
 │BITNET Address: │Internet Address:           │About the list...                │
 ├────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │JPSOFT@IRISHVMA │[e-mail]        │Discussion of JP Software        │
 │                │                            │products (4OS2, 4DOS). Subscribe │
 │                │                            │by sending a message to          │
 │                │                            │LISTSERV@xxx (where xxx is the   │
 │                │                            │part of the list address after   │
 │                │                            │the @) with SUB JPSOFT name      │
 │                │                            │(where name is your first and    │
 │                │                            │last name).                      │
 ├────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │OS2@BLEKULI1    │[e-mail]      │Moderated OS/2 discussion.       │
 │                │                            │Subscribe by sending a message to│
 │                │                            │LISTSERV@xxx (where xxx is the   │
 │                │                            │part of the list address after   │
 │                │                            │the @) with SUB OS2 name (where  │
 │                │                            │name is your first and last      │
 │                │                            │name).                           │
 ├────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │OS2-L@HEARN     │[e-mail]        │OS/2 discussion. Subscribe by    │
 │                │                            │sending a message to LISTSERV@xxx│
 │                │                            │(where xxx is the part of the    │
 │                │                            │list address after the @) with   │
 │                │                            │SUB OS2-L name (where name is    │
 │                │                            │your first and last name).       │
 ├────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │OS2USERS@MCGILL1│[e-mail]      │OS/2 users discussion. Subscribe │
 │                │                            │by sending a message to          │
 │                │                            │LISTSERV@xxx (where xxx is the   │
 │                │                            │part of the list address after   │
 │                │                            │the @) with SUB OS2USERS name    │
 │                │                            │(where name is your first and    │
 │                │                            │last name).                      │
 ├────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │SASOS2-L@UNCVM1 │[e-mail] │RTPNC SAS/OS2 user group list.   │
 │                │                            │This list doesn't allow automatic│
 │                │                            │subscriptions. You may send a    │
 │                │                            │message requesting to be added to│
 │                │                            │LISTSERV@xxx (where xxx is the   │
 │                │                            │part of the list address after   │
 │                │                            │the @) with SUB UTOS2-L name     │
 │                │                            │(where name is your first and    │
 │                │                            │last name). This message will be │
 │                │                            │forwarded to the maintainers of  │
 │                │                            │the group who can grant          │
 │                │                            │subscriptions.                   │
 ├────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │UTOS2-L@UTKVM1  │[e-mail]      │Discussion of OS/2 at UTK.       │
 │                │                            │Subscribe by sending a message to│
 │                │                            │LISTSERV@xxx (where xxx is the   │
 │                │                            │part of the list address after   │
 │                │                            │the @) with SUB UTOS2-L name     │
 │                │                            │(where name is your first and    │
 │                │                            │last name).                      │
 ├────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
 │N/A             │[e-mail]     │Discussion group dealing with    │
 │                │                            │multimedia aspects of OS/2. To   │
 │                │                            │subscribe to the digest version, │
 │                │                            │send email to                    │
 │                │                            │[e-mail]    │
 │                │                            │with SUBSCRIBE Mmos2-L firstname │
 │                │                            │lastname in the BODY of the mail.│
 │                │                            │To subscribe to the bounce       │
 │                │                            │version, send email to           │
 │                │                            │[e-mail]    │
 │                │                            │with SUBSCRIBE Mmos2-Digest      │
 │                │                            │firstname lastname in the BODY of│
 │                │                            │the mail.                        │
 └────────────────┴────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────┘

ABOUT ELECTRONIC MAILING LISTS.

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

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

OS/2 related FTP sites:
 ┌────────────────────────┬─────────────────┬────────────────────────────────┐
 │NAME:                   │IP ADDRESS:      │Directory & Notes:              │
 ├────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
 │ftp-os2.nmsu.edu        │128.123.35.151   │/os2 (mirror of cdrom.com)      │
 ├────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
 │ftp-os2.cdrom.com       │192.153.46.69    │/os2 (mirrors ftp-os2.nmsu.edu) │
 ├────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
 │software.watson.ibm.com │129.34.139.5     │/pub/os2                        │
 ├────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
 │mtsg.ubc.ca             │137.82.27.1      │/os2                            │
 ├────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
 │luga.latrobe.edu.au     │131.172.2.2      │/pub/os2 (mirror of cdrom.com)  │
 ├────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
 │msdos.archive.umich.edu │141.211.32.2     │/msdos/os2                      │
 ├────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
 │funic.funet.fi          │128.214.6.100    │/pub/os2                        │
 ├────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
 │ftp.ieee.org            │140.98.1.1       │/pub/fidonet/os2                │
 └────────────────────────┴─────────────────┴────────────────────────────────┘

Other FTP sites of interest
 ┌────────────────────────┬─────────────────┬────────────────────────────────┐
 │NAME:                   │IP ADDRESS:      │NOTES:                          │
 ├────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
 │rtfm.mit.edu            │18.70.0.226      │FAQ lists                       │
 ├────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
 │cs.uwp.edu              │131.210.1.4      │Music related stuff             │
 ├────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
 │wuarchive.wustl.edu     │128.252.135.4    │Lots of other stuff             │
 ├────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
 │saffron.inset.com       │192.94.75.2      │Sounds (various formats)        │
 ├────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
 │sounds.sdsu.edu         │130.191.224.2    │Sounds (.au format)             │
 └────────────────────────┴─────────────────┴────────────────────────────────┘

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

These OS/2 newsgroups are available:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


From the Wire
=============

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

OS/2 vs. NT Shootout!
---------------------
From TEAM-OS2 fidonet conference:

    HAL-PC [the Houston Area League of PC users, 2nd largest users
group in the U.S. with 10,000 members) had a Windows NT vs OS/2
shoot-out last Friday evening with presentations by Microsoft and IBM.
In true Texas tradition these "shoot-outs" feature head to head
comparisons between competing products.  As in an Old West shoot-out,
one competitor walks away with his head held high while the loser ends
up face-down in the dust.  Such was the case last Friday.

    The audience consisted of a standing room only crowd of
approximately 1300 representing a cross section of HAL-PC members and
guests.  Microsoft's Doug Davis, of the NT development team, spoke
first and began his presentation with a set of 'slides' presented from
a 486/66MHz PC running NT, followed by a brief tour of NT itself.

   Mr.  Davis did not demo any DOS or Windows 3.x applications running
under NT.  He did show how a user could change the mouse pointer from
the standard MS 'arrow' to an arrow with a wiggling tail or to Doug's
favorite, a galloping horse.  Doug referred often to NT's security and
system administration features.  During the NT presentation I kept
thinking that NT looked a great deal like Unix with a Windows
interface.  The other impression that the Microsoft's presentation
left was that NT appeared fat, slow and boring...something that only a
network administrator could love.

   The OS/2 presentation by David Barnes of IBM was entirely
devoted to a tour of OS/2 2.1.  David's presentation on a 486/33
machine w/16MB was lively and animated (literally).  He first started
an animated graphical DOS application called Popeye in a window on the
OS/2 desktop.  While pointing out to the audience that NT cannot run
graphical DOS applications in a window he opened various Windows and
OS/2 applications and pointed out that the hourglass never appeared
and that the animated DOS application 'Popeye' never missed a beat.

    David showed Windows 3.x applications, DOS applications and OS/2
applications including Wordperfect for DOS, the Far Side Calender for
Windows, Describe 4.0, and miscellaneous other applications all
running simultaneously on the desktop.  He captured the graphical
screen image from 'Popeye' and pasted it into a Describe document
while pointing out that the DOS application Popeye continued running
even while the graphics screen was frozen for the clipboard copy.

    David also created a simple OS/2 applications from scratch in
about 5 minutes using drag and drop methods on Digitalks's Parts
product.  Without typing any code he setup a control panel with a
slider, twist knob and digital display which was linked via DDE to a
Lotus for OS/2 worksheet.  A pie chart from the worksheet had been
linked to a Describe document earlier in the presentation.  As the
slide or knob was manipulated with the mouse, the digital display
would update, the corresponding cell in the Lotus Worksheet would
update and the pie chart in the Describe document would redraw.  The
key point in this portion of the demonstration was that this entire
procedure was accomplished without writing any code, live, and in just
a few moments.  Very impressive.

    Unlike the MS presentation, the IBM presentation was interrupted
by frequent applause.  The noise level in the hall continued rising as
neighbors discussed the points that IBM was making.  Not even a lockup
could slow things down.  David shifted gears and talked about the
future of OS/2 including Symmetric Multiprocessing (planed to be out
this year), the Apple-IBM alliance, Taligent, the WorkPlaceOS, etc.

    In contrast to the NT presentation by Microsoft, the OS/2
presentation by IBM was lean, fast and exciting.  The OS/2 multimedia
presentation "brought down the house".  It was GREAT!  At several
points there were two simultaneous real-time video + soundtrack pieces
running on screen simultaneously without video hardware assist.  I
was very impressed.

  At the end of the presentations there was a question and answer
session.  Many constructive questions were directed towards IBM.  The
MS representatives, on the other hand, got grilled.  One guy asked
Microsoft's representative, Doug Davis, a hypothetical question:  If
NT sales do not live up to Microsoft's expectations, would Microsoft
change direction and drop NT like they did with OS/2 a couple of years
back?  Doug replied: "I hope not."

   After the audience questions and answer session, the HAL-PC users
group meeting moderator asked the audience a few questions.  He asked
how many people planned to upgrade to OS/2 2.1 right away.  Hundreds
of individuals, about half the people in the audience, raised their
hands.  He then asked how many people planned to move to NT.  I saw
ONLY TWO PEOPLE raise their hands.  Out of 1,300, TWO.

   This was not what I expected.  With all of the hype and
Microsoft Marketing Muscle, I expected far more "votes" for NT.  I
expect that this is the first time that majority of these people have
seen both NT and OS/2 V2.1 live and up close and this may possibly be
the reaction of more "average users" when they have a chance to see
these OS's for themselves.

    I only wish that Bill Gates could have been there to see it with
his own eyes.

David Matocha
Smartnet OS/2 Conference Moderator

CorelDraw price drops
---------------------
From comp.os.os2.announce newsgroup:

Infoworld reports that Corel Systems has reduced the price of CorelDraw
Version 2.5 for OS/2 to just $199 (list).  CorelDraw should be available
from any software dealer, or it may be ordered directly by calling
800-77-COREL in the United States and Canada.

Corel also announced that their next OS/2 version of CorelDraw will be
based on the core code for CorelDraw 5.  The company will not offer
an OS/2 version of CorelDraw 4, but will instead jump directly to
Version 5, expected in May, 1994.

More vendors to bundle 2.1
--------------------------
From comp.os.os2.announce newsgroup:

Infoworld reports that IBM has enlisted two more computer vendors who
have agreed to bundle OS/2 2.1 with their systems.

Northgate and Unisys have joined the ranks of AST, Dell, ALR, Ariel
Design, and Tangent in agreeing to bundle OS/2 2.1 (instead of
DOS and Windows) with the systems they sell, on request.

Infoworld also reports that, according to Lee Reiswig, IBM's 800 number
is taking between 6,000 and 7,000 orders per day for OS/2 2.1.  These
orders are being taken despite advice given to callers that OS/2 2.1
will be less expensive from software dealers like Egghead and Corporate
Software.

REXX for OS/2 Programming Course
--------------------------------
From comp.os.os2.announce newsgroup

REXX Programming for OS/2 Course - St. Louis

WHAT'S NEW?

REXX is an easy-to-learn interpretive language that lets end users quickly
develop programs to extend existing OS/2* applications, automate repetitive
tasks, and create new applications. Enroll now and learn everything you need
to know to unleash the power of REXX.

ABOUT THE COURSE:

This course teaches the skills necessary to write, test, and debug REXX
programs using OS/2 Version 2.  REXX is a procedural language integrated
into OS/2 which goes far beyond the capabilities of DOS batch files.  It
is a powerful tool for both data processing professionals and end users.
Since REXX is a Systems Application Architecture (SAA) language, the syntax
and techniques that you learn will be applicable to other SAA environments.

COURSE DETAILS:

Course code: P1066   Length: 3 days    Tuition: XXXX

Schedule:

St. Louis..........August 3-5
:elines.

TO REGISTER: Call 1-800-IBM-TEACH (1-800-426-8322).

* Trademark or registered trademark of International Business Machines
  Corporation.

OS/2 at Raleigh PC Fair
-----------------------

From TEAM-OS2 fidonet conference:

Chalk up yet another triumph for the relentless steamroller of
TEAMOS2! The Raleigh PC Fair Sunday was a mega success. First the
facts and figures etc, then my "impressions" of the Fair:

Attendances at the Fair: 1500

Attendance at the seminars was much better than I expected:
  End User Seminar 1: 14
  Programmer Seminar: 15-20
  Hockware: 15
  End User 2: 20

We gave away 300 2.0 demo disks, 200 of the OS/2 100 reprints,
and about 100 of the new Solution Paks. Plus two bags of OS/2 key
chains and pins, plus many many flyers,brochures,etc,etc.
We gave away 6 copies of 2.0, 6 t shirts, and 6 mousepads. We
made sure the folks on the PA system kept announcing the OS/2
seminars, door prize winners, etc, so the word "OS/2" was
always booming over the PA system

   But the above isjust "facts and figures" and don't begin to
give the "feel" for the event.

  The first thing that put a smile on my face was seeing about
a half dozen people walking around wearing the "Nice Try" t shirts.
I think every computer type in Raleigh who made COMDEX must
have had one and were wearing them proudly ( keep in mind, these
we "just folks", not part of the Teamer contingent! ). Excellent
"walking advertising". A big Huzzah to Joel Canon for bringing
a couple of hundred OS/2 shopping bags, which we handed out to
people wandering the aisles for them to stuff their stuff into.
The floor was a sea of little OS/2 shopping bags bobbing all
over the place! Unfortunatley we ran out of them about 11AM,
I mean EVERYBODY wanted one!

  In comparison to a year ago, when the commonest question was
"Uhh, what is OS/2?", the questions these days show that people
1) know what OS/2 is, and b) know the issues enough to ask
serious, tough technical questions. From the feedback I got
from the seminar room, our "seminarians" &.) handled themselves
like champs and answered the questions.

  Indelible Blue's credit card machine was humming almost all
day ( 2.1 Unleashed seems to have been a popular favorite ),
and Buck and Katy had a cool temporary wall that they setup
behind our whole section of the fair with OS/2 flags and
banners. From any vantage point in the place, you had no
problem figuring out that OS/2 was there and had a BIG
presence! Joe Mauk from Egghead was taking names from people
who wanted him to notify them when 2.1 hit the store; last
time I peeked at his list, he had about 15 interested parties.
Even Hockware, which one would have thought would attract a
small number of "hacker" types, was a busy table!

  I would say the people were 2 to 3 deep at our area until
about 2-230PM, when the whole Fair started to wind down. At
one point I came back from the bathroom and couldn't even
force my way back up the aisle to our table, I had to
circle all the way around and come in the back way! From
up on the second floor in the seminar area you could get
an "aerial view" of the whole floor. Most of the place was
normal onesy-twosey traffic flow, and then...What's This??
This one area looked like  a Black Hole, just sucking people
in in a big swirling mess!! Guess which area it was!! ;-)
It wasn't just my perception, because the head honcho from
HAV ( the promoters of the Fair ) came past when I was standing
up there aid said "Jeez, your area is MOBBED!!" Did my heart
good.

  I wandered out front now and then to catch some air, and on
two occasions I was standing there by the ticket booth and heard
people buying their tickets and IMMEDIATELY ask "Where can I see
the OS/2 seminars?" A Teamer Huzzah to Jennifer for having the
sense to position the seminar posters all around the front
lobby so people buying their tix couldn't miss them!!

  My favorite attendee was one guy who drove all the way from
RICHMOND VA to attend this and see the OS/2 excitement ( I of
course rewardsed his loyalty with a t-shirt ), and another
guy from Virginia Beach who had on a golf cap that said "Team
OS/2". I asked him where he bought it, and he said "Heck, I
had it made up special!" I love these guys!

Steve Gallagher TEAM OS/2 RTP
internet: [e-mail]
ipnet: [e-mail]


From the Editor
===============

Whew! A month just doesn't seem that long when you've deadlines hanging over
your head! Despite the my time constaints, I think the newsletter is improving
and will continue to get better.

Things should look sharper this month since I've started adding graphics and
I've also gotten better at linking different windows together to try and
keep things more coherent.
:p.
Next month will feature:

- A review of Norton Commander for OS/2
- A look at the book :hp1.OS/2 2.1 Unleashed!:ehp1.
- Improved BBS and User Group listings

Other works in progress include a review of CorelDRAW for OS/2, and Woody's
short review of PM/FOCUS, which he won at the May meeting.

Stay tuned! Things are getting better all the time!

See you at the July meeting.

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