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******************************************************************************
Frequently Asked Questions Part 2/3
PC/2 - Program Commander/2 Version 2.10 for
IBM OS/2 2.x, OS/2 WARP, WARP Srv. SMP Presentation Manager
Copyright (C) by Roman Stangl July, 1999
Version 2.10 Draft
******************************************************************************
Contents:
41.) How do I activate and use the PC/2 Spooler Control Window?
42.) Why does the Overview Window sometimes not correspond to the real Desktop
application mix?
43.) I have configured a Popup Menu, but always get the Setup dialog when
clicking on the Desktop.
44.) How can I change the default fonts used by PC/2?
45.) What is the addon WPS 2 PC/2 used for?
46.) How can I open WPS Folder Objects from PC/2's Popup Menu?
47.) What is the difference between the "slow" and "fast" version of PC/2.
48.) Why does an installation update of PC/2 not work with active CM/2?
49.) Why does selection of a tiled background bitmap hang OS/2 Warp 3.0?
50.) Do I have to change anything in CONFIG.SYS to run PC/2?
51.) I have defined a Hotkey, but now my favorite program doesn't get this
key!
52.) What is referred as an *accelerator* key?
53.) Which sequence is used by PC/2 when autostarting programs?
54.) Are duplicate Menuentries allowed?
55.) What's the difference between the Program Title and Window Name?
56.) How can I use a Hotkey that starts a program, each time the Hotkey is
pressed instead of switching to the running instance?
57.) Can Mouse Button 3 be used instead of Mouse Button 1 to activate the
Popup Menu or to switch between Virtual Desktops?
58.) What does "Advanced Marking" mean?
59.) If running PC/2 as the WorkPlace Shell process, how can I launch WPS
Objects or change system settings (as e.g. the background color)?
60.) I've activated Advanced Marking, now both mouse buttons 2 seem no longer
to work as expected for IBM Personal Communications/3270, IBM
Communications Manager/2, Advantis PassPort/2 or EPM.
61.) Does PC/2 also support OS/2 half-packs (OS/2 running on top of
MS Windows)?
62.) I'm running PC/2 as the WorkPlace Shell process, how can I change PM
settings (my system configuration), e.g. the PM background color?
63.) Advanced Marking doesn't paste at the correct location sometimes, what
am I doing wrong?
64.) Are UNC Names supported?
65.) I have multiple partitions with (different versions of) OS/2
66.) I have enabled the feature "Button 2 Border click moves window", but I
can't move some windows, what am I doing wrong?
67.) PC/2 used to work perfectly, but now it hangs OS/2 when starting!
68.) Can PC/2 help my server to recycle at midnight for example to get rid of
resource leaks or hanging programs?
69.) When running PC/2 the focus change when closing windows behaves peculiar!
70.) I'm experiencing unexpected hangups/traps now that I've enabled the
Titlebar Smarticons.
Questions, Answers:
41.) How do I activate and use the PC/2 Spooler Control Window?
To be able to select the PC/2 Spooler, just add a the PC/2 Spooler via
the Control Addition dialog to your Popup Menu. Then select the newly
created item to show the PC/2 Spooler.
The PC/2 Spooler is a container where you can manipulate the printer
queues and print jobs of your local machine by pressing mouse button 2
on any row you want to apply an action. A Popup Menu occurs, which you
can use to select actions.
Note that when running PC/2 as the WPS replacement, the PC/2 Spooler
Control Window is the only way you can control your queues and jobs.
Even more, without the PC/2 Spooler Control Window, the OS/2 spooler
would not even be started!
42.) Why does the Overview Window sometimes not correspond to the real Desktop
application mix?
The Overview Window does its updating by event triggering.
This means that an event (creating, destroying, sizing or moving a
window) is the prerequisite for all windows available on the Desktop to
get shown on the Overview Window.
For example, because many events are generated when a Window is created,
PC/2 ignores all events during working on the first event.
So when PC/2 is drawing a window on the Overview Window as a result of a
window creation, and another window is created (but doesn't trigger any
action by PC/2 because PC/2 is already busy with the previous event) it
will not be displayed on the Overview Window.
To compensate for this, PC/2 redraws all windows again, when another
event is triggered. However, even then, there is a low possibility that
a window doesn't get recognized by PC/2.
When the system is idle, no event triggers PC/2 actions and PC/2 is
therefore idle too.
PC/2 versions previous to 1.80 took another approach. They always drew
the windows available, loading the CPU to a permanent 15 % even when
the system was doing nothing. I am happy to say, this is no longer the
case.
43.) I have configured a Popup Menu, but always get the Setup dialog when
clicking on the Desktop.
To display the configured Popup Menu, the Menu *must* contain the entry
"Configure Desktop", otherwise, the Setup dialog will be displayed.
To add the Menuentry "Configure Desktop", select the pushbutton
"Add Control" from the Setup dialog. Then select "Configure Popup Menu
Settings" to add the entry "Configure Desktop" to your Popup Menu.
Now you will get the Popup Menu when clicking mouse button 1 or mouse
button 3 on the Desktop.
44.) How can I change the default fonts used by PC/2?
You can change the font of the Popup Menu, the Spooler Window and the
Overview window by simply dragging a font from the font palette:
+) to change the Popup Menu's font, drop the font onto the Smarticonbar
on PC/2's Overview Window
+) to change the Spooler Window Container's font, drop the font onto the
container
+) to change the Overview Window's font, drop the font onto the Overview
Window (all fonts will be accepted, though some fonts produce not
exactly the requested result).
+) to change the SessionBar Window's font, drop the font onto the
SessionBar.
+) to change the QuickSwitch Window's font, activate the QuickSwitch
window drop the font onto it while it is still displayed.
45.) What is the addon WPS 2 PC/2 used for?
WPS 2 PC/2 is a WPS Object, residing in WPS2PC2.DLL. This DLL must reside
in a directory that is accessible through the LIBPATH environment
variable in your CONFIG.SYS.
When WPS 2 PC/2 is installed and registered to the WPS, you can extract
settings from WPS Program and Folder objects to be used within PC/2's
Popup Menu.
To extract the data from WPS Objects, just select the and drag them
over to WPS 2 PC/2's closed icon on your Desktop, and drop them to let
WPS 2 PC/2 extract their contents.
To add extracted WPS Object data to PC/2's Popup Menu, open the
WPS 2 PC/2 Object and PC/2's Setup dialog, and drag the Status bitmap
(Full suitcase) from WPS 2 PC/2's window onto the Submenu/Program
Configuration listbox on PC/2's Setup dialog.
Menuitems corresponding to the settings of the WPS Objects you extracted
will be added at the bottom of the current level of the Popup Menu (you
probably will notice that the listbox gets filled with the top-level
WPS Objects converted to Popup Menu entries).
From now on, you can use exactly the same settings of your WPS Objects
from PC/2's Popup Menu without entering them twice (even DOS settings
will be extracted).
46.) How can I open WPS Folder Objects from PC/2's Popup Menu?
Just create a Program Menuitem by selecting Add Program from PC/2's
Setup dialog. Then drag one WPS Folder Object on PC/2's Program
Installation dialog (and replace the Program Title field for better
readability) - that's all.
47.) What is the difference between the "slow" and "fast" version of PC/2.
With version 1.90, PC/2 slightly changed the way how the Overview window
is updated.
Up to version 1.80, PC/2 used to updated the Overview window only on
the screen, causing some flicker. This approach is called "slow" because
it gives the best performance for video chipsets, that have a small
performance of moving data from main memory to video memory (e.g. the
8514/A adapter because of its IO-mapped design). This version is called
PC2SLOW.EXE (in PC/2 1.90) and can either be renamed to PC2.EXE or you
change the settings of PC/2's WPS Object.
Beginning with version 1.90, PC/2 defaults to draw most changes of
the Overview window into memory first, and just copies it onto the
screen, when the drawing has finished, eliminating most flicker.
This approach is called "fast" because for modern video chipsets
(e.g. XGA, S3) there is no performance impact of moving data from
main memory to video memory. This version requires a slightly more
memory). Beginning with version 2.00, only the "fast" method is included,
as this fits best to modern video hardware. Hovever, you can compile PC/2
if you need the "slow" method.
48.) Why does an installation update of PC/2 not work with active CM/2?
IBM Communication Manager/2 locks the DLL PC2HOOK.DLL when running,
therefore you have to stop and shut down CM/2 prior to run an update of
PC/2.
This behavior of CM/2 is not expected and I can't explain it -
but there are potentially more programs out having this behavior. So
I suggest you shut down or not start applications prior to running an
installation update of PC/2, if you experience problems installing PC/2.
49.) Why does selection of a tiled background bitmap hang OS/2 Warp 3.0?
OS/2 WARP has a bug, when requesting display of a tiled background
bitmap. It even behaves a little different between OS/2 WARP and OS/2
WARP Fullpack. A defect (PMR 4X472) has been opened against OS/2 WARP,
so a future CSD (Corrective Service Diskette) will hopefully repair this
defect.
This bug is not a PC/2 problem, since selecting a tiled background
bitmap works correctly under OS/2 2.x.
During beta tests of OS/2 WARP 3 and 4, I informed OS/2 development a few
times about this bug (on an IBM internal forum, and via a note), but I
have not yet heard back yet, in time for the cutoff date of this release.
50.) Do I have to change anything in CONFIG.SYS to run PC/2?
No, PC/2 is so smart that it can locate all its files (the DLLs, the
online HLP and configuration files) in the directory PC/2 was started
from! This also holds true then using PC/2 as the WPS replacement.
In contrast, many other programs require modifications in your CONFIG.SYS
or that you copy some files in certain directories.
Just WPS 2 PC/2 requires its DLL and HLP file in the directory \OS2\DLL
and \OS2\HELP, because the WPS requires them in a path pointed to by the
LIBPATH and HELP environment variables. Both files will be copied by the
installation automatically.
You may experience an error during startup of PC/2 that the online help
can't be initialized. Most probably you are simply missing to include the
current directory (.;) in the path pointed to by the HELP environment
variable.
51.) I have defined a Hotkey, but now my favorite program doesn't get this
key!
When you have defined a Hotkey, PC/2 "sees" that Hotkey when any PM
window (PM programs, OS/2 and DOS windows) has the focus unless:
*) you have selected the checkbox "No systemwide Hotkeys" on the Desktop
dialog notebook - using this option, PC/2 detects Hotkeys only when
either PC/2, the Window List, or the WPS are the active tasks when
pressing the Hotkey
or
*) the key is captured by OS/2 or a device driver (e.g. CTRL+ESC)
or
*) you have launched another program (after PC/2) that also detects keys
systemwide.
52.) What is referred as an *accelerator* key?
An accelerator is a special OS/2 PM (Presentation Manager) resource, that,
when pressed, informs the window having the focus not by the key's ASCII
character code, but by a special message.
If a key is not captured by OS/2 (or a device driver) itself, PC/2 will
"see" that accelerator key instead of an application when a systemwide
Hotkey is defined for that key within PC/2, unless the SHIFT key is
pressed simultaneously.
For example, the EPM editor has defined an accelerator key for ALT+S,
to invoke its split line function. You can define ALT+S as a systemwide
Hotkey to launch PMSEEK, then EPM will no longer see this key, unless you
have pressed the SHIFT key while pressing the Hotkey.
53.) Which sequence is used by PC/2 when autostarting programs?
PC/2 uses a recursive depth-first search, when searching the Popup Menu
for applications marked to be autostarted. For example, assume your Popup
Menu looks like the following graphics (tree view):
+----+ Px ... x'th Program Menuentry, not
+--| A2 | not having autostart flag
| +----+ set
| | P1 |
+----+ | +----+ Sy ... y'th Submenu Menuentry
+--| A1 | | | A3 |
| +----+ | +----+ Az ... z'th Program Menuentry, having
| | S2 |--+ autostart flag set
+----+ | +----+ +----+
| S1 !--+ | S3 |-----| P2 |
+----+ +----+ +----+
| A5 | | P3 |
+----+ +----+ +----+
| S4 |-----| P4 | | A4 |
+----+ +----+ +----+
| P5 |
+----+
| A6 |
+----+
\----/ \----/ \----/
root first second
level Submenu Submenu
level level
Having above Popup Menu, invoking PC/2 would autostart applications in
the following order:
A1 --> A2 --> A3 --> A4 --> A5 --> A6
To define a certain sequence for your applications to autostart, you have
to position their Menuentries according to above graphics.
54.) Are duplicate Menuentries allowed?
It is possible to have multiple Menuentries for the same applications,
but I *strongly* recommend creation of just *one* Menuentry for a single
application.
PC/2 currently does *not* support a concept of "shadow Menuentries",
behaving similar to WPS Shadowobjects.
55.) What's the difference between the Program Title and Window Name?
The Program Title is the text displayed for an application's Menuentry in
PC/2's Popup Menu. Some applications (e.g. OS/2 and DOS windows) even use
this text in their titlebar, but mode applications (e.g. EPM) choose to
set their titlebar text according to their own preferences.
The Window Name is the text used by PC/2 to identify one certain PM
window among all windows on PM. To identify a certain window, PC/2 uses
the Window Name text and matches it with all windows on PM. A window is
identified when the Menuentry's Window Name matches either the window's
titlebar *or* the window's Window List entry. The first window of all
windows on PM which matches with the Menuentry's Window Name is assumed
as the window launched by this Menuentry by PC/2.
If you choose not to fill the Window Name entryfield, PC/2 just copies
the contents of the Program Title entryfield into Window Name.
Most easily, just use the Spy notebook page to find out the names of the
Desktop (WPS) and Window List or any other window you are interested in!
56.) How can I use a Hotkey that starts a program, each time the Hotkey is
pressed instead of switching to the running instance?
Just ensure that the program's Window Name entryfield contains a text,
that never occurs on any other window's titlebar *or* Window List entry
*or* window class name.
For example I prefer CTRL+O to start an OS/2 window each time I press
CTRL+O. I do so by entering the following data for this OS/2 window:
Program Title: OS/2 Window
Window Name: HK OS/2 Window
Under the assumption that now other window on PM contains the string
"HK OS/2 Window", CTRL+O will always start a new OS/2 window, but switch
to the running one (if none is running, one is started of course).
However, the Hotkey will not switch to a window names "OS/2 Window",
because the string "HK OS/2 Window" is no substring of "OS/2 Window".
Of course, if I for example would invoke EPM "HK OS/2 Window", then my
OS/2 Window's Window Name "HK OS/2 Window" would be successfully matched
with this EPM session when pressing CTRL+O, and the Hotkey would switch
to this EPM session instead of starting another OS/2 window.
Just ensure that it is very unlikely that any PM window contains the
Window Name in its titlebar *or* Window List entry *or* window class, to
start a new instances of the program each time the Hotkey is pressed.
To find out a window's class name, you may use the Spy notebook page of
the Desktop Dialog.
57.) Can Mouse Button 3 be used instead of Mouse Button 1 to activate the
Popup Menu or to switch between Virtual Desktops?
Yes, you may use the Desktop Configuration dialog to enable the
activation of the Popup Menu and to switch between Virtual Desktops by
clicking on surrounding rows or columns for clicking with mouse button 3.
You may even select that the Popup Menu appears when clicking anywhere
on the screen. This makes of course only sense when using mouse button 3,
because mouse button 1 is used by OS/2 applications themselves.
58.) What does "Advanced Marking" mean?
Advanced Marking is a feature of PC/2, that enables you to mark text,
copy it to and paste it from the OS/2 keyboard just by mouse clicks.
Advanced Marking works for entryfields, multiline entryfields, for OS/2
and DOS windows, E editor, EPM, IBM Personal Communications/3270,
Advantis PassPort/2, IBM Communications Manager/2, Netscape Navigator/2
and Lotus Notes windows.
When enabling Advanced Marking you will never have to select Mark, Copy
or Paste from a DOS or OS/2 window's system menu again!
To activate Advanced Marking, just mark the text you want to paste into
OS/2's clipboard by pressing and holding mouse button 1 while selecting
the text (you may already know this from (multiline)entryfields).
Release mouse button 1 whenever you have selected the text you want to
mark and copy into the clipboard. PC/2's Advanced Marking feature will
automatically paste the selected text into OS/2's clipboard.
To paste text from the OS/2 clipboard just doubleclick with mouse button
2 (mouse button 1 is already reserved by OS/2) - that's all.
If you want to mark text without PC/2 automatically copying into the
clipboard, just press and hold the ALT key while selecting the text
(Note: IBM Communications Manager/2 will not allow you to move the mouse
pointer while pressing a key).
If you paste text from the OS/2 clipboard into a OS/2 or DOS windowed
command prompt, trailing \r and/or \n (CRLF) characters are removed in
order to prevent the immediate execution of the pasted text as a command.
However, a single \r\n character sequence is added, if you press and hold
the CTRL key while pasting the text.
Of course you may use Advanced Marking cooperatively with an application
that copies text to or pastes text from the OS/2 clipboard (e.g. your
favourite word processor).
For 3-button mice, you can select that PC/2 uses mouse button 3 instead
of mouse button 2. PC/2 then does not overlay the functionality of
button 2 assigned by the applications.
Note: Advanced Marking was tested with the E edtior from 2.10 to Merlin
(OS/2 WARP V4), EPM 5.51, EPM 6.03a, EPM 6.03b, IBM Personal
Communications/3270 V4.00, IBM Communications Manager/2 1.11 and
Advantis PassPort/2 1.31D and 2.1D, NetScape Navigator/2 2.02,
Lotus Notes 4.52, other versions may be incompatible.
Note: You should turn off VIO marking in the System notebook under WARP 4
when using PC/2's Advanced Marking.
Note: Though users have requested to make Advanced Marking to optionally
require a key pressed simultaneously (e.g. CTRL or ALT), I have yet
found not way for a consistant implementation, as IBM's CM/2 does
not allow this, and at least CTRL is already used to paste with a
CRLF added.
Hint: If you are not sure what and when something gets copied into the
OS/2 clipboard, just open the clipboard (e.g. from either its WPS
Object or CLIPOS2.EXE from the commandline).
59.) If running PC/2 as the WorkPlace Shell process, how can I launch WPS
Objects or change system settings (as e.g. the background color)?
When the WPS (PMSHELL.EXE) is not running, PC/2 displays an error message
when you try to launch WPS objects from PC/2's Popup Menu. As WPS Objects
are part of PMSHELL.EXE, these objects can't live without running
PMSHELL.EXE.
Also if the WPS (PMSHELL.EXE) is not running, you can't change your
system settings. To be exact, you still can do this with an INI editor
and editing OS/2's OS2*.INI files directly, but I would strongly
discourage you doing so, unless you really know what you are doing (you
can easily prevent PM or OS/2 from booting otherwise).
As a sample, the REXX batch file PMColor.cmd is shipped with PC/2, which
allows you to set the PM background color that is displayed after the
next reboot.
If you want to launch a WPS Object, and the programs to interface with
the system settings are also WPS Objects, while running PC/2 as the
WorkPlace Shell process, ensure that PMSHELL.EXE is started before. Just
create a Menuentry by locating PMSHELL.EXE which is usually installed on
your boot drive [d] at:
[d]\os2\PmShell.exe
and launch PMSHELL.EXE from this item before invoking WPS Objects.
Unfortunately PMSHELL.EXE can't be exited once it is running, so you have
to find a process killer (e.g. KILLEM.EXE or PSPM2) to force PMSHELL.EXE
to terminate it when no longer required. Warning! Terminating PMSHELL.EXE
also terminates all WPS Objects too, and the changes you have made to
your system configuration may be lost (keep your system idle for at least
a few minutes before killing PMSHELL.EXE, as the WPS usually will have
updated the OS2*.INI files then).
60.) I've activated Advanced Marking, now both mouse buttons 2 seem no longer
to work as expected for IBM Personal Communications/3270, IBM
Communications Manager/2, Advantis PassPort/2, EPM, NetScape/2 and Lotus
Notes!
This is a restriction when using Advanced Marking. In order to implement
Advanced Marking, PC/2 changes the functionality of mouse button 2. You
may either disable Advanced Marking, or you may invoke the functions from
the menubar (these functions are not used often anyway and are very
likely also selectable from the menubar).
For 3-button mice, you can select that PC/2 uses mouse button 3 instead
of mouse button 2. PC/2 then does not overlay the functionality of
button 2 assigned by the applications.
61.) Does PC/2 also support OS/2 half-packs (OS/2 running on top of
MS Windows)?
Yes, PC/2 supports OS/2 running on top of MS Windows similar to OS/2
full-pack (OS/2 including WIN-OS2). For WIN-OS2, the demonstrational
configuration files assume that WIN-OS2 is used from a path similar to:
[d]\os2\mdos\winos2
where [d] is the drive (e.g. C: ) WIN-OS2 was installed into.
To use PC/2 with MS Windows, replace these references with references
to the path you installed MS Windows similar to:
[d]\Windows
where [d] is the drive (e.g. D: ) MS Window was installed into.
62.) I'm running PC/2 as the WorkPlace Shell process, how can I change PM
settings (my system configuration), e.g. the PM background color?
Most PM settings are adjusted through user-friendly dialogs provided
by the WPS, but these dialogs just hide the low-level interface of the
OS/2 INI files (OS2.INI and OS2SYS.INI), where PM gets its settings
from.
As a sample, the REXX batch file PMColor.cmd is shipped with PC/2, which
allows you to set the PM background color that is displayed after the
next reboot.
To adjust the PM settings you may temporarily invoke the WPS (start
the executable PMSHELL.EXE), or if you are really sure what you are
doing, use an INI editor to directly edit OS/2's OS2*.INI files or
use small REXX scripts (e.g. like SmallFnt.cmd).
Unfortunately PMSHELL.EXE can't be exited once it is running, so you have
to find a process killer (e.g. KILLEM.EXE or PSPM2) to force PMSHELL.EXE
to terminate it when no longer required. Warning! Terminating PMSHELL.EXE
also terminates all WPS Objects too, and the changes you have made to
your system configuration may be lost (keep your system idle for at least
a few minutes before killing PMSHELL.EXE, as the WPS usually will have
updated the OS2*.INI files then).
63.) Advanced Marking doesn't paste at the correct location sometimes, what
am I doing wrong?
Advanced Marking manipulates the default processing of mouse messages for
the applications it supports, however there are limitations that can't be
removed (e.g. the timely expiration of the message processing).
Such limitations may cause text pasted to the wrong position when you
paste by mouse button 2 doubleclicks to a window not having the focus
(e.g. IBM Communications Manager/2). In this case the text may not got
pasted to the position you doubleclicked on, but to the position the
cursor was before the window lost the focus.
You may either move the focus to this window before pasting into it, or
you may increase the delay between both mouseclicks of the doubleclick.
64.) Are UNC Names supported?
Yes, PC/2 supports UNC Names as most programs do, as UNC Name support is
built into OS/2 natively. For example to launch a program from a OS/2
LAN Server or from the OS/2 File and Print Client you may enter: (Note:
Replace [d] with a drive letter, e.g. E: )
Program Title: VirusCheck LAN
Path and Filename: \\DOMAIN1\Utilities\AntiVirus\AV.exe
Working Directory: [d]
Parameters: -CheckSum
Note: The working directory must not be an UNC name (which doesn't work
for OS/2 command windows either, e.g. you can't enter the command
CD \\DOMAIN1\Utilities
You may of course also specify UNC Names in the session's Environment
Settings, e.g. to allow above sample to load DLLs via UNC Names you may
set into the Environment:
ENDLIBPATH=\\DOMAIN\Utilities\AntiVirus\DLL;%ENDLIBPATH%
65.) I have multiple partitions with (different versions of) OS/2
Installations, what can I do to setup a single installation of PC/2
that can run OS/2 version dependent applications, e.g. the Multimedia
Player?
You can simply use the macro %BOOTDRIVE% (which is not case dependent)
instead of a fixed drive letter. When launching the session this macro
gets replaced by d: , where d is the drive letter of the drive you OS/2
was booted from.
You can also use the macro %PC2% which gets replace by the fully
qualified path PC/2's executable was invoked from.
For example to run the OS/2 Multimedia Player from the partition OS/2
booted from you enter:
Program Title: MultiMedia Player
Path and Filename: %BOOTDRIVE%\MMOS2\MPPM.EXE
Working Directory: %BOOTDRIVE%\MMOS2
Parameters: -L %BOOTDRIVE%\MMOS2\MOVIES\MACAW.AVI
IconFile: %PC2%\MMDemo.ico
In the Parameters entryfield you may even want to enter the %BOOTDRIVE%
macro multiple times.
66.) I have enabled the feature "Button 2 Border click moves window", but I
can't move some windows, what am I doing wrong?
Most likely you haven't positioned the mouse pointer correctly on the
border of that window. Just ensure that the mouse pointer is positioned
on the frame window's border, press and hold mouse button 2 and try drag
the window to its new position again. Even if a frame window has no
border at all (e.g. usually for dialog frame windows), you can move that
window, just imagine that it would have a sizeable border as PC/2 handles
that window as if it had a sizing border.
67.) PC/2 used to work perfectly, but now it hangs OS/2 when starting!
There is one known problem when upgrading from OS/2 2.x to OS/2 Warp. If
you have configured a tiled background bitmap under OS/2 2.x you will
experience an OS/2 hang when running PC/2 under OS/2 Warp (either by
upgrading OS/2 or be booting from a different partition) due to an OS/2
bug.
To recover from such a hang, you may take one of the following measures:
*) Delete PC2.INI, before PC/2 launches the next time, for example by
booting a OS/2 command window. PC2.INI may be hidden and read-only,
but will be found in the directory the executable PC2.EXE resides.
Unfortunately you have to reconfigure PC/2's Desktop Configuration
the next time you launch PC/2.
*) Rename or delete the bitmap you have configured as the Desktop
background bitmap of PC/2.
*) Use an INI editor to remove the entries of PC/2's Desktop
background bitmap - this is of course the toughest method! Be
sure you know what you are doing!
68.) Can PC/2 help my server to recycle at midnight for example to get rid of
resource leaks or hanging programs?
Yes, PC/2 can reboot your server at a predetermined time automatically
with the help of the integrated Scheduler. The Scheduler allows you to
automatically launch Menuentries hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or once
a year as if you had selected them from the Popup Menu. As Shutdown OS/2
(beside PowerDown OS/2, Lockup OS/2 and Exit PC/2) is one of the
Menucontrols also being supported by the Scheduler, you can configure
PC/2 to automatically shut down and reboot OS/2 at midnight.
Just remember that the clocks in PCs aren't very accurate at all! You
must also have PC/2 configured that selecting the ShutDown OS/2 Menuentry
automatically (that is no manual intervention required) shuts down and
reboots your workstation!
Note: To reboot OS/2, PC/2 requires the DOS.SYS device driver of OS/2 to
be installed. Ensure that for OS/2 2.11 the line
DEVICE=[x]\OS2\DOS.SYS, and for OS/2 WARP the line
DEVICE=[x]\OS2\BOOT\DOS.SYS is contained in your CONFIG.SYS, where
[d] is the the drive letter you installed OS/2 at, e.g. E: ).
This line may only be missing for non standard OS/2 Installations,
e.g. maintenance partitions created by BOOTOS2.
69.) When running PC/2 the focus change when closing windows behaves peculiar!
First, most likely you have checked the option "Follow Focus". By
unchecking that option, this seamingly random switch between Virtual
Desktops and/or windows will revert back to normal PM behaviour.
Second a short explanation of the terminology of OS/2: You surely have
heard the term "(input) focus". The control having the input focus will
receive the user input, e.g. if you have a window with 5 entryfields
controls, your keyboard input will be routed to that single entryfield
that just has the input focus. Usually the titlebar of the window the
control having the input focus is in will be marked active - so you can
call it "focus window".
Now assume that the focus window gets closed, PM has then to find another
window becoming the focus window and inside this window a control
receiving the input focus. PM finds the new focus window by examining the
Z-Order. The window a user is working with (our focus window) is usually
on top of Z-Order causing it to cover all other windows. So when this
window gets destroyed, the new window getting on top of Z-Order will
become the new focus window (unless it is minimized).
So what has this to do with PC/2? Well, PC/2 ensures that its QuickSwitch,
its SessionBar and its Overview (only when having selected "Keep PC/2 on
Z-order top") window are kept on top of Z-Order when visible - causing to
cover all other windows. Now when the focus window gets destroyed, one of
PC/2's windows will become the focus window as it is on top of Z-Order.
As this is very inconvenient from the usability standpoint, PC/2 ensures
that its windows stay on top of Z-Order, but tries to refuse becoming the
focus window passing the input focus on the the next window not part of
PC/2 (which may also cause a switch to another Virtual Desktop).
If the window is unfortunately on another Virtual Desktop, OS/2 doesn't
care as it doesn't know the concept of Virtual Desktops. OS/2 just
activates it, and if it is an e.g. editor, keystrokes will be reflected
in the loaded file, however you won't see that window unless you switch
to the Virtual Desktop it is running inn. PC/2 just helps you by
switching to the active window.
You may find it annoying that PC/2 switches Desktops, but otherwise a
window might get the focus you can't see (and PC/2's intension of the
"Follow Focus" option is to prevent that)!
70.) I'm experiencing unexpected hangups/traps now that I've enabled the
Titlebar Smarticons.
Adding smarticons to all titlebars is very complicated as there is not
native support for this in OS/2 (and they way subclassing is implemented
in OS/2 and Windows too, it's easy to run into troubles), so there will
be problems and the only save way to remove them is to disable the
Titlebar Smarticons (at least for the failing applications by adding them
to the exception .
I know there are problems when having enabled Titlebar Smarticons under
OS/2 2.x, or when running more than one program that adds smarticons into
titlebars (e.g. WARP 4 VoiceType Dictation, NPSWPS, XIT,...) or when
using a PM debugger. Unfortunately I have found no way yet to make this
feature perfectly stable (mostly due to problems in PC/2 and partly due
to lack of native OS/2 support for Titlebar Smarticons).
You can exclude the name of executables, which appear to fail when using
Titlebar Smarticons, by adding their case sensitive, unqualified
executable name without the extension in the Exception List on the page
you activated the Titlebar Smarticons. Adding ACS3EINI, VIEW3820, IPMD,
ICSDEBUG and NOTES (without the path and extension!) are applications I
have experienced problems with.
Additionally, the Context Help Smarticon does not work very well under
OS/2 2.x at all, because it behaves differently compared to OS/2 WARP.
Most easily, just use the Spy notebook page to find out the names of the
windows you want to add to the Exception List.
--->>> --->>> --->>> Please also read the third part <<<--- <<<--- <<<---