OS/2 e-Zine!			July 1996			Volume 1 Number 9
----------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1996		Haligonian Media  		ISSN 1203-5696


OPINIONS:

  Editorial
  Chris' Rant
  Linfield's Line
  OS/2 Revisited
  A Successful OS
  the Raves...
	HyperView v3.4
	Animouse v1.0a


RESOURCES:

  the Beta File
  Chris' ColorWorks Power Tips
  Answers from e-Zine!
  Need for Speed
  the REXX Files
  NetRexx Part II


REVIEWS:					

Merlin!!			Misc Reviews			Diversions
  Intro		  		  Object Desktop v1.5		  Soup KIDchen v1.1
  Opener			  The Secure Workplace	  Oil v1.1
  Predictions			  PartitionMagic v2.03		  
  Kevin's Bug List
  Merlin's GUI
  Installation

PROFILE:

* Jason Perlow Speaks Out - Interview by Chris Williams


ARTICLES:

* The Win95 Revolution - Marty Cawthon
* Off-line Adventures - Trevor Smith
* GNU Part 4: Tex - Murray Williams


END NOTES:

* NetHead
* The Chronicles of John Ominor
* Hot Sellers 1 - the top 10 selling commercial OS/2 applications.
* Hot Sellers 2 - the top 10 selling OS/2 shareware applications.

ODDS & ENDS:

* How to Subscribe to OS/2 e-Zine! for FREE.
* How YOU can Sponsor OS/2 e-Zine!
* The Sponsors that Make this Issue Possible


Copyright 1996   -   Haligonian Media
ISSN 1203-5696

***********************************

What Will Merlin Require from US?

As most of you no doubt know, the Merlin beta began shipping late last month.  If you are one of the lucky people who was in a position of influence or who was chosen from the on-line sign up site you're probably happily talking to your computer and gazing at those lovely coloured notebook tabs right now.  If you're not one of those people, you've probably come here looking for more information about the elusive bird.  Fear not, we'll deliver it in our special Merlin Supplement posted right here by July 5th!

Many people have recently begun arguing about the hardware Merlin will demand.  Many are complaining that it will be too much and worrying that IBM is about to shoot itself in the foot.  Let's step back from the emotion for a minute and think about the situation.

IBM doesn't seem to be playing the same game they did with Warp 3.0 when it was released.  As I sit looking at the box of red spine Warp on my desk, the unbelievable claim that it runs in, "4MB of random access memory (RAM)," stares back at me.  OK, I know after almost two years of playing with it that I could get it to run in 4 meg, but let's not kid ourselves.  For the average user, that would not be possible or desirable.  It's bad enough in 8 meg!

IBM has been more honest so far with Merlin and has admitted up front that you will want 16 meg of RAM if you are not going to install the VoiceType capabilities, at least 24 meg if you are.  They also clearly say that you'll need at least a Pentium, preferably a fast one if you want to take advantage of VoiceType.  Oh, and don't forget lots of HD space (about 300+ meg).  I, for one, applaud their honesty.

But what about those of us who don't have a machine up to the task?  Where does that leave us?  Well, I don't think the situation is as bad a problem as many believe.

If you don't have adequate hardware for Merlin, your first option is to upgrade your system.  First, let's check the prices for memory.  Here in Canada we pay slightly more for RAM (after exchange) than in the States, but not a lot.  Even here prices are in the cellar.  A recent ad clipped from a local paper shows that 16 meg of RAM can be had for less than $200.  Assuming you already have at least 8 meg, you can upgrade to VoiceType levels for a couple hundred bucks Canadian.  I've been told this amount of memory can be had for close to $100 in the US.

Hard drive space?  I too was feeling the pinch on my hard driven hard drive lately so I picked up an extra Gigabyte just this week.  It set me back $255 Canadian (it installed flawlessly and seems to be running smoothly).  Some drives may be a little higher in price but clearly HD space isn't too expensive these days.

Processor?  Pentiums themselves are also rather cheap lately ($229 Canadian for a P100 chip) but assuming you don't want to (or can't) swap CPUs, a whole new Pentium 100 motherboard with PCI bus will set you back about $430 Canadian.  That's getting up there but still, it's not that much.

But what if you have to upgrade all three?  Or what if upgrading your motherboard means you would need a new video card to fit the PCI slot?  Well, let's look at prices for whole systems.  Again, checking only one ad in my local paper we see that a system with:

o  a Pentium 133Mhz CPU
o  16 meg of RAM
o  2.0 Gig HD
o  256k cache
o  Triton II chipset
o  1.44 floppy
o  6x CD ROM
o  2 meg S3-64bit MPEG video card
o  Sound Blaster 16 with deluxe speakers
o  Monitor, and (I'm sorry to say)
o  Win95 and various other software

costs $2128 Canadian.  This is about $1575 US at today's exchange rate.  This isn't enough RAM to use VoiceType but otherwise it's plenty of horsepower and, as I mentioned above, another 16 meg is only $200 ($98 for another 8 meg).  So obviously a machine up to Merlin's standards is within the reach of the average consumer today.

Also, you might remember that Merlin won't actually be available to the people buying these computers for at least 3 months.  Obviously prices will continue to drop over the next quarter and by the time OS/2 Warp v4.0 (or whatever it is finally called) ships I strongly suspect that anyone who has purchased a system in the previous three months will either have the hardware to run all its bells and whistles or will be about $100 away from that level.

So does this sound like a of price prohibitive bullet that IBM is aiming at its foot?  Personally, I don't think so.  Yes Merlin will require some potent machinery, but that is the price of powerful toys.  Many people act as if they've been insulted because the VoiceType technology won't run on their 486 with 16 meg of RAM.  As unfortunate as it may be, this is just a fact of life.  Powerful features require powerful hardware.

People should remember that there is still a long time (in computer terms) before the general public will get their hands on Merlin and what seems steep now, may not be then.  And they should do less complaining when IBM offers such powerful features without charging extra for them.

If you don't have the hardware now, it's likely only a few hundred dollars away.

***********************************

Our Sponsors:

(http://www.wilmington.net/bmtmicro/smalled/) Bianchi Software
Developer of Smalled, the small, high powered, intuitive OS/2 editor.

(http://www.wilmington.net/bmtmicro/) BMT Micro
Your complete source for over 75 of the best OS/2 shareware applications available.  Drop by today and check out our WWW catalog or download the .INF version.

(http://www.ChipChat.com/home00.html) ChipChat Technology Group
ChipChat produces excellent 32-bit OS/2 software for wireless text paging 
and state-of-the-art multimedia Sound Cards for Micro Channel PS/2 computers.

(http://www.wilmington.net/bmtmicro/zoc/) EmTec Innovative Software
EmTec Innovative Software produces state-of-the-art OS/2 ISDN, modem
and telnet communications software.  OS/2 Magazine and Inside OS/2 1995
award winner.

(http://www.hotinc.com/) House of Technology, Inc.
Your Canadian Source For OS/2 Applications.

(http://www.indelible-blue.com/ib/) Indelible Blue
Indelible Blue, a mail order company, provides OS/2 software and hardware solutions to customers worldwide.

(http://www.i-stream.com/) InterStream, Inc.
Visit our Web Site today for OS/2 Products, Consulting Services, Mailing Lists and download our very fast MPEG Player!
 
(http://www.os2store.com/) J3 Computer Technologies
Wide selection of OS/2 Applications, Great Prices and Outstanding Customer Service... "He who dares, wins!"

(http://www.Mount-Baker.com/) Mt. Baker Software
Developers of "Money Tree", a full featured personal financial package  
for OS/2.

(http://www.aescon.com/innoval/) Post Road Mailer
The Post Road Mailer is a high performance, 32-bit, email program with drag and drop filing, printing, shredding, word wrap and multiple MIME attachments.

(http://www.prominic.com/) Prominic Technologies
Software developer and IBM PC VAR preloading OS/2 Warp.  Expert staff provides advice on hardware and creates custom software.

(http://www.prioritymaster.com/) ScheduPerformance, Inc.
Dramatically improve performance on your OS/2 system NOW with the patented priority scanning logic and visual priority identification of Priority Master II.

(http://www.cfw.com/~shenan/) Shenandoah Equipment Co.
Providers of lifetime warrantied name brand simms, laptop and printer memory at competitive prices.

(http://www.spg-net.com/) SPG Inc.
Creators of ColorWorks for OS/2 - The Artist's Ultimate Power Program!  ColorWorks has earned both the 1995 OS/2 Magazine Editor's Choice & the 1995 OS/2 Professional Magazine Best New Product Awards.

(http://www.aescon.com/innoval/) Surf'nRexx
Use REXX to build powerful Internet utilities using our DLLs.  Package also includes 10 utilities as samples.

***********************************

Chris' Rant- by Chris Wenham


Just like you learn that the world is round because "it just is" and that bad things happen to good people because "they just do," we all learn sooner or later that there are people in the world who will never listen to reason and stick with the same backward mindset they always have had because "they just do."

What are they, stupid?  Am I talking to a brick wall?  Is there no Holy Turin Shroud or Darwin's Finch I can show them that will convince them once and for all that I'm making sense?

You may get this feeling if you call a company and ask them to support your nonstandard video card or, laughs aside, your "non standard" operating system.  But that's just inertia.  One customer has, in reality, very little sway with a large business organization.  What I'm talking about are individuals, the people you meet day in and day out who, for whatever reason they're holding private, will only listen to what they want to hear.

And we're all guilty of doing it at some time or another.

How often is it you've wanted to punch one of these people on the nose?  How often have you wanted to tie them down and beat sense into their heads with sheer volume or physical violence?  How could such obnoxious people ever get born in the first place?  These are the ones that saunter into a gathering of your friends and proudly announce that their teacher at college is dumping OS/2 and switching to Windows 95 because it's, "Just plain easier!" and say it with the air and attitude that makes one think it was supposed to be grand and final proof of a platform's demise.  And then what can you do?  Splutter that everyone has their different needs and one person's bad experience shouldn't be used to blah-blah waffle-waffle... oh no they've lost interest in me.

Can you talk fast enough?  Can you debunk him fast enough?  Can you win back the attention (and affection) of the crowd?  Quick, is there some snappy quip you can use to take the wind out of his sails?  Whoops... too late... he's done his work and now he's left, with some excuse about being paged.  You can't challenge him anymore because he's not there.  You can't try to "mop up" his lies from the minds of the group because the conversation has changed to another topic and it'll just sound like wounded pride if you try to bring it up again.

The thing is that we're not all Adolf Hitlers able to proselytize a group into action with the power of speech.  And there's not one, but thousands of these guys, all doing the same thing all over the world.

Crusaders like these will not listen to reason because it's not reason that is their driving force.  Eric Hoffer wrote about a person whom he called the "True Believer."  They have the ability to, "shut their eyes and stop their ears," to facts that do not deserve to be seen or heard.  They cannot be disheartened by an obstacle because they deny its existence.  They accept crude absurdities, trivial nonsense and sublime truths and believe them to be the sole, eternal truth.  "Bill Gates invented the GUI," or, "There aren't any applications for OS/2."

It is said that they do this because they recognize and despise their own inferiority.  "The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his holy cause."  And one quote I enjoy, "He's likely to mind his own business when it's worth minding.  When it's not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business."  So tell me, does it sound like someone you know?

The infuriating fact is that there isn't anything you can do about them.  You can't take away their quest because that is what their blood is made of.  It's not an operating system, it's the holy cause.  The truth is that it doesn't matter what the real value of the product is.  You could point at the holes in Windows 95's architecture until your finger drops off but it won't make a blind bit of difference to them.  It doesn't matter to them.  For someone who needs a religion, there is nothing you can do but convert them from one fanaticism to another.  In the meantime, frustrated users on both sides of the fence have to deal with the flak, half-truths, flat lies and lies of omission. 

For me I have to deal with a very unpalatable truth that I was, and am still to some point, just like this.  Now that I see what it's like to be on the flip side of the coin it tastes very, very bitter in my mouth.  This is the really ugly side of human nature that is manifesting itself in, of all places, computer operating systems.  I even hear stories of the really extreme camp of "Winbigots" plotting to purchase a Macintosh for the sole purpose of taking to it with a sledgehammer.  Sheesh.  Why don't they get a grip?

Well they never will.  Too bad.  There's a lot of talent and energy there that could have gone to something much more useful.

-----

(http://www.spectra.net/~fox) Chris Wenham is a Team OS/2er in Binghamton, NY with a catchy-titled company -- (http://www.spectra.net/~pendulum/webworks) Wenham's Web Works. He has written comedy, sci-fi, HTML, Pascal, C++ and now writes software reviews.

***********************************

Linfield's Line- by Kevin Linfield


Well, after last month's column, I wonder how many of you have returned to read this one.  Bitching and moaning about companies and products is something we all do, yet most of us are afraid to do in public (I consider Usenet and WWW sites public).  Last month, I wrote about problems I saw in IBM's new version of OS/2 (code named Merlin) and I am quite surprised at the overall reaction I received.  I also noticed that I made the "hit list" in comp.os.os2.advocacy and although the initial post was very negative, many of you came to my defense.  Based on the responses I received (and read), I feel that I can categorize OS/2
e-Zine! 's readership into different classes.

1.  Rational People

Most of the e-mail and Usenet postings I received/read were positive.  It would appear that many people feel I brought up some very disturbing trends of IBM and where (and how) it is positioning OS/2.  I'm guessing that this group of people are home users and like myself, are scared of losing OS/2 to the corporate market (like what happened to AIX a number of years ago).  I was pleased to note that most of the e-mail messages were polite, and while agreeing (or disagreeing) with me, a few respondents tried to find alternatives to my conclusions.

2.  Irrational People

A minority of the messages (and posts) I received were downright rude.  A few called me some nasty names and wanted to know why I was abandoning the OS/2 userbase.  One respondent appeared to take things personally and did his darnest to get me into a flame war.  Another e-mailed Trevor (editor of e-Zine! ) and wanted to know why a negative article was allowed to be in e-Zine!.  Lucky for me no-one tried to bomb my mailbox and although everyone is entitled to their opinion, it would have been nice if those who were nasty had waited a day after typing their message before sending it off.

3.  The Silent Majority

I'm sure most people who read my rant did nothing about it.  No letter to the editor, no flame to me, nothing.  They probably felt that it was not worth the effort, or that their time could be spent doing better things.

So, now that the aftermath is over, let us get some things straight.  I have not abandoned OS/2.  Quite the contrary, I have been using OS/2 since 2.0 and run it on my home machine, my notebook, and my work PC.  I started writing professionally in April 1994 when I felt that the Canadian magazines were ignoring OS/2.  I have reviewed many OS/2 software packages, and as stated in Linfield's List, my writing has appeared in many Canadian publications.

Has my opinion of Merlin changed?  I now have a copy, and have installed it on my 486DX66 with 16 MB of RAM.  (You can check out my bug reports and comments on comp.os.os2.beta.  Search for the keyword Kevin.)  If you have anything less than I have, you will be quite disappointed.  This thing thrashes my hard drive, and I didn't install any of the Bonus Pak, OpenDOC, networking features, nor many of the accessories.  It looks great, but there is not a heck of a lot of new features that I can use (or need to use).  VoiceType is what I want, but I do not have the financial resources to upgrade to a Pentium 133 with 48 MB of RAM (Donations graciously accepted :).

Now that IBM has stated its recommendation that you will need a MINIMUM of a 486DX33 with 16 MB of RAM for Merlin (with NO voice support), I hope others realize that this will not necessarily be an easy upgrade for millions of OS/2 users.  I'll freely admit that Merlin sounds great, but I currently don't have the hardware (or the money to upgrade) to be able to take advantage of many of its features.  What else can I say?  Only time will tell.

-----

Kevin Linfield is a Toronto based consultant and a freelance writer.  He can be reached via e-mail at (linfield@torfree.net) linfield@torfree.net.  Be sure to check out (http://www.haligonian.com/os2/list.html) Linfield's List, Kevin's favourite OS/2 Freeware.

***********************************

OS/2's Time... Revisited- by Bernard B. Yoo


In the December 1995 and January 1996 issues of OS/2 e-Zine! I wrote about why OS/2 wasn't yet popular and why it soon would be.  It's been a while since then and it is time for me to see how well my predictions did.  First a brief summary.

In the December 1995 issue, I wrote that OS/2 wasn't yet popular because of:

o  installation and configuration problems
o  lack of RAM
o  lack of "mainstream" applications and device driver support
o  lack of publicity

Then, in the January 1996 issue, I wrote that OS/2 will ultimately succeed because of:

o  improvements in OS/2's installation and configuration routines
o  increases in the number of preloads
o  maturing hardware
o  emergence of innovative software developers
o  increasing advertising
o  increasing popularity

As I write this article, it is early June, 1996.  Much has happened to both prove and disprove the points I made in my earlier articles.  I think the reasons I stated six months ago for why OS/2 wasn't popular are generally accepted.  My predictions regarding the future success of OS/2 are more interesting though.  Let's take a look at them one at a time.

I predicted improvements in OS/2's installation and configuration routines.  Since no new versions of the Warp client have been released since OS/2 Warp PowerPC Edition in December, we cannot conclusively determine whether or not OS/2's installation routine has improved.

However, according to a (http://www.austin.ibm.com/pspinfo/nwswarp5.html) recent press release, Merlin, the next Intel-based version of OS/2, will come with a comprehensive device-driver CD-ROM that will help users obtain the latest drivers through the World Wide Web.  This press release also mentioned GRADD, a new graphics device driver architecture that will make device driver development for OS/2 much easier.

I predicted an increase in the number of machines preloaded with OS/2.  While there are a few companies now offering machines preloaded with OS/2, such as Indelible Blue, the ads from the major computer vendors still don't mention OS/2 and the computers on display in all the retail stores I visit still have either Windows 95 or Windows 3.1 installed.  It is interesting to note that many of the major vendors no longer specifically advertise their Windows 95 preloads and many vendors seem to be continuing to offer Windows 3.1.  Although it is good news that Windows 95 is not taking over as many thought it would, this still does not necessarily mean a noticeable increase in the number of machines preloaded with OS/2.  On this point, so far I have been wrong.

On my third prediction, maturing hardware, I was right on.  In the past, Windows 3.x had an advantage over OS/2, because it ran relatively well on systems that were too underpowered for OS/2.  However, to take full advantage of today's increasingly powerful hardware, the user now needs the sophistication of OS/2.  Powerful Intel-based systems, with Pentium processors and 16 megs of RAM are rapidly becoming the "basic" system.  Also, RAM prices have dropped to a record low and are still dropping, allowing many current computer owners to upgrade their memory if not their entire system.  By the end of the summer, the basic system will consist of a fast Pentium processor and 16 to 24 megs of RAM.  When Merlin is released (about this time), it will be well-poised to take advantage of this extra power with built-in Java support, OpenDoc, and VoiceType dictation.

My next point about the emergence of innovative software developers has also come true.  OS/2 software developers are continuing to produce superb products, unmatched in performance and flexibility by the offerings of any other major desktop operating system.  Stardock Systems has released Object Desktop v1.5, a performance and feature enhanced version of its unmatched desktop enhancement product.  Stardock is getting ready to release Object Desktop Professional, which has the ability to effortlessly view a wide range of file formats.  SPG has outdone its untouchable graphics software package, ColorWorks, by releasing V2.  SPG also gave a set of enhancements to current version 1 users free of charge and dropped the price of the enhanced V1+.

Mike Cowlishaw, the developer of REXX and the REXX-based GoServe Web and Gopher server, is developing (www2.hursley.ibm.com/netrexx/) NetREXX, a programming language that promises the ability to develop Java applications faster, more efficiently, and more easily, while maintaining the ability to be run by any Java-capable Web browser.

The steady flow of OS/2 shareware apps (see Gary Hammer's "(http://www.os2.hammer.org/uhtml/Warp/h3/h3index.html) Must Have OS/2 Applications") further adds to the already large, albeit seldom-noticed, base of powerful, robust, and flexible OS/2 applications.

On the point of increasing advertising, I lose again though.  Because I can't bear to continue agonizing over why IBM doesn't advertise OS/2 more, I've come up with my own explanations.  First, IBM is a "solutions provider" who will work with any OS that its clients want to use, even if that means using a competitor's OS.  Perhaps IBM is afraid that by specifically promoting OS/2, it will scare off customers who want to use another OS.  Second IBM may think that OS/2 is still not a mature product for the same reasons I outlined in my December 1995 article.  Third, IBM may prefer to solicit the corporate/business market, where its clients are more willing to pay for the services they receive.  Finally, and most interestingly, IBM may feel that OS/2 sales are doing just fine without advertising, and this takes us to my final prediction from January.

In the second (http://www.austin.ibm.com/pspinfo/telsem2.html) OS/2 Warp Teleseminar, John Thompson stated that 15 million units of OS/2 have been sold and that more than half of these sales occurred since the introduction of Warp.  Despite the lack of media attention and advertising, OS/2 continues to show strong sales.  The success of OS/2 may be the best-kept secret in the software industry.

To sum up,  my predictions of maturing hardware, innovative software developers, and increasing popularity have all come true, while my predictions of increasing preloads and increasing advertisement have not.  My prediction of improved installation remains inconclusive.  While three out of five is not a particularly good score for predictions, I think I was correct on the three most important points.  Paradoxically, despite the severe lack of preloads and advertising, OS/2 is doing quite well.

-----

(bernie@owlnet.rice.edu) Bernard B. Yoo is a student of mechanical engineering and political science at Rice University.  After using Windows 3.x for four years, her finally started using OS/2 in October '95.

***********************************

Successful Operating Systems- by Paul Muir


Applications, Applications and Applications

When most people buy a computer or upgrade an old one it is usually because they have some specific goal in mind, whether it is playing games, teaching the kids or improving productivity in the home or business environment.  People will not buy a computer and load an operating system because it is technically the most advanced on the market unless it comes with something built in that they need (or at least, think they need).

The life blood of an operating system is not the operating system's features but the applications that are available to utilize those features.  If you have a technically excellent OS but nobody writes applications for it, then nobody is going to buy it.

Poor operating systems can often survive and prosper if they have developer support -- the applications "work around" the inefficiencies or deficiencies in the base OS.  More than any other reason, this is why I believe that Microsoft's Windows 3.x was successful at a time when OS/2 was available.  I do not believe that even the most diehard supporter of Windows would argue that OS/2 with its multitasking, multithreading architecture was a poorer technical choice than Windows 3.x and yet Windows maintained its market dominance.

Based on the above, if OS/2 (Warp or Merlin) is going to be a popular OS with general "Joe Public" acceptance rather than just with power users and specialists who appreciate a high powered OS, the applications must be available.  So, for the record here is my "wish list" of applications that I consider to be essential for a successful OS, broken down into general categories with comments where I believe OS/2 is ahead or behind the pack:

Productivity

Good file handling utilities are essential to managing a system.  The Warp drives object is cumbersome and (at least to me) not very intuitive or informative.  Also a good set of utilities to monitor system performance, system optimization, disk defragmentation, duplicate file elimination, etc. are essential.

Personally speaking, I have not yet found the perfect file manager although several shareware and commercial applications come close to this.  As far as the other utilities go most of these needs are satisfied by shareware and commercial applications but they tend to be scattered.  What is really needed is one single package with a consistent interface.  A classic example of this kind of package is PC Tools for Windows by Symantec which bundled some simple and some complex functions into one product.

Work Related

An "office" suite of coordinated applications including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation/graphics creator and database manager is also essential.  The ability to use the word processor to write web pages, buttons to access the developers' web sites for instant support and fault finding and automatic upgrading of fixes and patches is also appreciated.

OS/2 has been sorely lacking in this field but the new Lotus SmartSuite promises to not only rectify this, but to take OS/2 to a very advanced level.  The one button access to web sites should be relatively easy to incorporate if it is not already there and Warp's automatic software downloading and installation procedure exists and could easily be adapted and expanded to these applications.

Internet Related

Obviously in today's Internet-hyped environment a good set of Internet tools, including a web browser, e-mail and news reader is essential, but given the fact that standards are changing daily, they must be capable of taking add-ins to upgrade their capabilities (one button download and installation again please).

OS/2 appears to be doing reasonably well in this field, ahead in some areas and behind in others, especially with the various shareware offerings around as alternatives to the IBM provided applications (outside of the web browser).

Multimedia/Graphics

As with the Internet, multimedia is "the thing" to have.  I define multimedia as the ability to create, store and output sounds and pictures (single frames or movies).  Any good system needs to be able to manipulate and play all the various formats available today.  OS/2 appears to have the basics already built-in and there are some good applications out there for some areas, but the system's developers need to exploit all the features that are available.

Communications

Although the Internet is a form of communications it is sufficiently specialized to be a subject on its own.  Here, I am referring to the more general form of communications such as faxing, e-mail, telephony (answering machines) and dumb terminal emulation.

Generally, OS/2 appears to be reasonably well equipped although I believe that much more can be done to integrate the applications together.  For example, when the phone rings let's have software (rather than hardware) that detects whether it is a voice call for the answering machine, a fax or a data transfer.  Several applications are under development for Windows 95 which start to address this communications integration but I have not yet seen any for OS/2.

One area where I have found OS/2 very lacking is in the file transfer arena.  Yes, I have purchased Kopy Kat and I have downloaded trial copies of other similar applications but none of them come anywhere near Traveling Software's Laplink for Windows in terms of functionality and ease of use.  This is one area where tremendous potential exists for a developer -- if anybody is working on this please let me know!

Gimmicks, Razzmatazz and Games

Sorry, but no OS is going to be truly successful and popular without its share of machine gun sounds, sexy voices and pretty interfaces with dancing ladies (or gentlemen if you prefer) to impress friends and colleagues.

OS/2 goes some way to meeting this requirement but seems to fall short when it comes to the glamorous stuff.  If you ever compare the Microsoft Intellipoint and Intellitype features with OS/2 you will see what I mean -- accelerated pointers, snap to pointers and keyboards that sound like typewriters are all within the capabilities of OS/2.  It's just that nobody has created them (yes, I have tried BocaSoft Sounds and it is a start, but it needs more bells and whistles).

On the games side, OS/2 is starting to catch up with some very sophisticated and highly acclaimed applications but the choice appears to be limited.  For example, I haven't seen any good flight or car simulations on the market yet.  Anybody know if Microprose or similar is working on any ports to OS/2?

So why am I writing this?

Good question.  For a start a good way to relieve high blood pressure and frustration is to write something down and circulate it -- who knows maybe those "killer apps" are out there and I just don't know about them yet.  Maybe IBM will read this and decide that Merlin should have some of these features built-in or maybe a developer will read it and decide to survey the market to see how much interest is truly out there in a new product.  Whatever happens, it can't do any harm and it might just help OS/2 to become a better and/or more popular system, which helps all users.

And please, do not shoot the messenger.  I am just a typical user who likes OS/2 and respects its technical merits.

-----

(paulmuir@singnet.com.sg) Paul Muir uses OS/2 Warp and Windows 3.11 at work as tools and enjoys tinkering with them at home as a hobby.  So far he has assembled three computers without really understanding the detail of why they work, just that they do (so far anyway).

***********************************

the Rave: HyperView v3.4- by Noah Sumner


I am an OS/2 user, but a convert from DOS.  The one main feature that I really missed in OS/2 was the list utility.  You could get 4OS/2, but it does a lot more then just give you the list utility.

For a while I made my own .cmd file to simply pipe the result of TYPE to MORE.  This, however, was very lacking in features.  And, of course, you better not want to go back up!

Then, when I was surfing around to find some programs for the (http://www.io.org/~to2) Toronto OS/2 User Group Shareware disk, I found it: HyperView.  This wonderful program not only has a command line interface but a PM interface as well.

Both interfaces are quick and easy to load.  (I am particularly fond of the PM interface.)  As you can see, it has many options.  One of the best is the easy to change font size.

HyperView is great to view text files, but what about a document from a word processor?  Easy, HyperView supports many formats of the most popular word processors (DOS, Windows, and native OS/2).

Okay so I can view all sorts of text documents.  Great.  But I can also simply load up a word processor.  Well what if I told you it can load HTML documents too?  Not only can you view HTML documents with HyperView but it will automatically strip out the HTML tags and use the tags' information to format the text (a center tag would cause HyperView to center the text)!!!

This is all great, but we haven't even covered the latest version yet!  Often I want to see the readme for a zipped file; with HyperView you can do that too (this feature requires InfoZip's Unzip).  What about .INF files for OS/2?   HyperView can view those too.  In fact, I would say there is almost no form of text that HyperView can't view.

HyperView will also handle word wrap and even change the spacing of things for you.  These changes to the document can't be saved however.

"HyperView is truly a great program, but surely there are some problems," you say?  Amazingly, I can only think of one addition that I would like to see: the ability to Print.  Before every user starts sending me messages on how to do this, I know it can be done but you have to gather all the text and then open LPT1 (or PRN, etc.).  I would like to see one button that will do this for me.

Overall though, HyperView 3.4 is a great product.  It is loaded with features and for US$35 you get both the command line and PM interface.  I encourage all of you to download a copy and try it out.

-----

* HyperView v3.4
by (http://www.wilmington.net/bmtmicro/catalog/hview.html) Michael H. Shacter
download from (ftp.wilmington.net/bmtmicro/hv34.zip) BMT Micro (ZIP, 200k)
Registration: US$35

-----

(nss@idirect.com) Noah Sumner is a member of Team OS/2, and is the Shareware Disk of the month editor for the Toronto OS/2 User Group. He is living in Toronto, Ontario (Canada).

***********************************

the Rave: Animouse for OS/2 v1.0a- by Ryan Dill


Are you a sucker for glitz?  Have you ever seen some of the more "cosmetic" features of certain other operating systems and sighed with envy?  "Ahhh, it's OK," you tried to tell yourself... "They may look good, but that's about it.  In OS/2, I have an operating system with some real meat on its bones.  Crash protection, multitasking, object-orientation, years of experience, why would I need more?"

Still, there was always that little, shallow part inside you that kept crying, "I want it I want it I want it!" like a little kid seeing a new toy.  One of the best examples: Windows 95 and its animated cursors.  After seeing Win95 for the first time, those cursors were one of the coolest things that stuck in my mind, so it always sort of bugged me that such an obviously powerful operating system as OS/2 (especially Warp) didn't have anything similar built-in.  Sure, its icons could animate, but frankly Win95's animated cursors made me jealous, and made me wish someone would get off of their duff and do the same thing for OS/2.

Wishes do come true!  The folks at Sentience Software in Australia have created the perfect little program to fix feelings of animation inadequacy.  In their words:

"Animouse is a fun little program that animates your mouse pointer so that you can show your friends and co-workers how cool your computer is and how pathetic theirs is."

With an attitude like that, you know they are the type of people who enjoy their work.  Sentience Software has created a great program for those of you who want to spiff up your desktop and impress those who don't have OS/2.  Animouse lets you replace the default OS/2 cursors with animations obtained from a variety of sources.  The program itself comes with a few sample animations, but more animations can be downloaded from (http://www.sentience.com.au/animouse/animouse.html) Sentience Software's website (or the (web.idirect.com/~dpp/animouse/animouse.html) US mirror).

If the prebuilt animations aren't enough for you, Animouse includes detailed instructions on building your own unique animations, using OS/2's Icon and System Editors (or compatible programs).  Create animations to your heart's content!  Just make sure to spread your new animations far and wide among your friends and over the Internet so that others can share in your "creative genius".  (Animouse's author, Dan Libby, requests that you (dandaman@aloha.com) inform him of any animations you put on the 'net, just so he can keep a record of what's where.)

The program itself is fairly easy to figure out, but if you have any problems, and the FAQ in Animouse's help file doesn't solve them, help is easily available through e-mail, snail-mail or phone (addresses found in the help).

Animouse is a commercial application, but a downloadable demo is available at Sentience's web site.  The demo is limited in that it only comes with two animations and doesn't allow for new ones to be added, but it's an easy way to find out if you like the program before shelling out the cash for it.

One caveat: Animouse is slightly demanding in terms of video hardware, and all video cards are not created equal.  Some few video cards may experience a 'flicker' effect that gets annoying after a while.  (My own Trident card flickers noticeably, but that's what I get for being cheap.)  Any system running in 640x480x16 colors is also likely to have problems, but if you're doing anything graphics-intensive you'd want to have as many colors possible anyway.  All the more reason to download the demo and test it on your system, if the demo works well, you've got it made.  Otherwise: been thinking of shelling out for a video upgrade?  Now's the time!

Currently Indelible Blue hasn't started selling Animouse, but they will; when they do, the price will probably be $19.95 US, and since it's now only $19.95 AUS (yes, $1 AUS is less than $1 US) it's in your best interest to get Animouse now, before the price goes up.  Try out the demo; buy the full version; impress your friends!  This is one nifty little utility that should make the grouchiest person smile.

-----

* Animouse v1.0a
by (http://www.sentience.com.au/) Sentience Software
download from (http://www.sentience.com.au/animouse/anidemo.zip) Australia or the (web.idirect.com/~dpp/animouse/anidemo.zip) US (ZIP, 278k)
MSRP: AUS$19.95

-----

(dragon.acadiau.ca/~007943d/) Ryan Dill is a student in Computer Science at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada. He holds fast to the belief that sleep, while nice, is highly overrated.

***********************************

the Beta File


Welcome back to the Beta File, your source for the latest breaking news in OS/2 beta development.  Once again this month, big names and new companies are announcing and continuing OS/2 beta development.  Read on for details...

Of course, during any given month, we don't come across every company currently in development.  So if you would like to help fill out this column, you have a product that you're sure is going to be the next killer app, or you want a little free hype (editor@haligonian.com) drop us a note!

          * * *

On July 1st, Stardock Systems announced the availability of the Process Commander Early Experience program.  More information can be found on Stardock's (http://www.stardock.com/pc.html) Process Commander Web page, which gives a very in-depth description of all the program's abilities.

Designed for mission-critical custom applications and end users who won't tolerate system downtime, Process Commander allows OS/2 users to recover from system hangs and intervene at a low level to kill programs that are monopolizing the CPU or the system message queue.  Process Commander even allows users to telnet over a network onto a remote machine and kill a process from there, making it a support person's dream.

Process Commander also delivers a Presentation Manager process manager for monitoring the statistics of running programs, setting the priority of threads and viewing semaphores, shared memory and more.

Stardock is targeting a September release for Process Commander.  The introductory list price will be US$69.95, however, early adopters and corporate evaluators can order the beta (or "Early Experience Program" in Stardock-speak) for Process Commander during the month of July.  The Early Experience Program costs US$45 and includes all betas and a free copy of the final version.  To join, (sales@stardock.com) e-mail Stardock, check their web site or call (800) 672-2338.  The Early Experience Program will only be open until the end of July.

          * * *

Stardock Systems' other big news this month is the wrapping up of the Object Desktop Professional beta test.  OD Pro is a new industrial strength version of their popular Object Desktop 1.5 with a whole slew of new features including:

o  Object Viewers - allow users to view, print and use hundreds of data types (graphic files, word processor documents, spreadsheets, databases, etc.) by simply double-clicking on the files from the Workplace Shell.

o  Object Backup - a fully functional backup program which includes support for ATAPI IDE tape drives and backing up to any other drives that OS/2 can see, such as network or Iomega Zip drives.

o  Object Advisors - help lower training costs by offering interactive help to any Workplace Shell object.

o  Object Security - provides object level security including passwords for objects and desktops by adding an extra security tab on every object's notebook.

o  Object Inspectors - lets you get to the guts of Workplace Shell objects and view or change important settings.

The beta process has been lengthy with a large number of beta testers, however the core product is based on the existing Object Desktop code, so not as much testing was needed as would have been for a traditional new product.  Unfortunately the beta test is not open to new participants but the final product is expected "sometime soon".  The price will be US$179.95 with an upgrade price for exsting Object Desktop users of US$69 for users of version 1.5 and US$119 for users of 1.0.  For more info check out (http://www.stardock.com/) Stardock's Web site.

          * * *

Frankenstein Software, a company which should have just released the game Mongol Commander when you read this, is also wrapping up development on another new game for OS/2, PowerFootball.  The game is a strategy/arcade solitaire football simulation in which the user can design plays and then attempt to execute them on the field.  PowerFootball is a compact, mouse-controlled game with arcade-style graphics and 8-way scrolling.

Chief Developer, Jack Rollan, claims, "This simulation also features advanced artificial intelligence for the computer coach and for each player position.  PowerFootball is designed to be multitasking-friendly, and at 512k RAM, it will demand minimal system resources."

Just finishing their testing of the game, Frankenstein Software is scheduled to release PowerFootball sometime in July at US$19.99.  For more information contact them at (71175.1676@CompuServe.com) 71175.1676@CompuServe.com or (516) 538-6420 (7pm-11pm EST).

          * * *

On the shareware front, (bgrems@daheim.ping.at) Bernhard Rems is working on a product titled "CAOS/2" (in the future this may change to "Nightshift").

CAOS/2 is a program for amateur astronomers.  It calculates the circumstances of your next observing session and then makes suggestions of what to observe depending on: location, moon up/down, instrument, limiting magnitude, experience, and interest.  It will include a log book and allow you to submit your observations to the Internet Amateur Astronomers' Catalog.

The beta has been ongoing for a while and the program is now up to version 0.15.  In Rems' own words, "The philosophy of beta testing -- as I see it -- is to get as much input as soon as possible."  The only fully functional parts of the app right now are the submission to IAAC and the calculation of astronomical time (JD, startime, etc.).

If you would like to participate, the developer is still looking for a handful of testers because he expects valuable input from the beta team.  Just e-mail Rems at the above address.  He will mail the beta to participants.  Stable updates will be put on Hobbes from time to time but releases in-between will only go to the beta testers.

Pricing for a final release is not yet set and it may turn out to be freeware.  And if you're looking for this type of product, get your vote in now because Rems says, "Depending on where most beta testers come from, the program could be either in English or in German.  Due to the strength of OS/2 in the German market, the latter is quite possible."  At the moment, it is in English.

          * * *

And, of course, finally this month, computer users everywhere are now happily talking to their computers as IBM began its public beta-testing program for the next release of OS/2 Warp, code-named Merlin, late last month.  Wally Casey, vice president of client product management, IBM Software Group said:

"Now getting on the Internet is as easy as saying: 'Jump to 1996 Olympic Games,' and you're there.  You can go through your existing electronic mail software by telling your computer to 'open,' 'discard,' 'next,' 'reply,' and so on -- all without having to touch the keyboard or the mouse.

IBM is shipping the beta software to 10,000 selected participants worldwide, including current Warp customers, software developers, hardware vendors, channel partners and other business partners.  IBM briefly posted a page on their (http://www.austin.ibm.com/pspinfo/betahome.html) WWW beta site and the response was so overwhelming that they had filled their quota in less than a few days and had to take the on-line order form down!

The new beta of OS/2 Warp includes IBM's latest VoiceType technology, built-in Java and object-oriented technology, a redesigned interface (including the OS/2 Warp Center) and the new Assistance Center.  Final release is promised by the end of the year and some even claim it will be available in the 3rd quarter.

For more information see the (http://www.software.ibm.com) IBM home page

***********************************

Chris' ColorWorks Power Tips- by Chris Wenham


Get to Know Reapply

(Works with both ColorWorks V2 and V1+)

Using Reapply you can create a frame around a photograph easily and fast.  First take your source image, select Effects.Clone and click OK after making sure the starting point is the bottom left corner of the image.  Now open up a new canvas that's the same size as the source. Take the rectangle tool, make sure it's set to "filled", and draw a rectangle that's about 5 pixels smaller on each side than the canvas you're drawing to.  (So say the new canvas is 200x200, your rectangle would start at 5, 5 and end at 194, 194 (trust me, it works) to leave a 5 pixel "buffer" all around the edge.)  ColorWorks will clone from the source canvas to the new one into the space of that rectangle.  Now:

o  Select Effects.Clear all effects.
o  Double click on the rectangle tool and switch off the "Filled" checkbox.
o  Use Brushes.Settings to make a brush of size 2 with a Light softness of 1.
o  Pick a black color from the palette.
o  Press Shift + Backspace, this will Reapply the rectangle you'd already drawn for the clone effect, but this time it draws a black frame.
o  Pick the next smallest brush (size 1).
o  Pick a different color, like red, from the palette.
o  Reapply with Shift + Backspace twice.

The black you laid down first makes the shadow and gives the appearance of the red frame being raised.  The soft brushes also round the corners.  If you need a stronger red, just press Shift + Backspace once more.

The above is just a simple illustration of what you can do with the Reapply command.  It's one of the most useful features in ColorWorks, allowing you to layer effects with the same shape/track you've just drawn with.  Combined with the stacking of effects together you can accomplish very complex processes in only a few keystrokes.

Of Gamma Correction and Web Publishing

(Tip works with both ColorWorks V2 and V1+)

When SPG designed ColorWorks they included features for advanced Gamma Correction.  It adjusts for nonlinearities between the voltage sent to the monitor and its color output.  Every monitor has a different gamma setting depending on how it was made, how old it is, and how long it's been switched on.  Colors even change slightly as it warms up.  Gamma Correction becomes important in print publishing when you need to be sure the colors you see on the screen are going to be the same when they print out.

However, in Web publishing you have a slight problem -- you can't possibly know what the Gamma of a person's monitor is when they come to visit your page.  After designing a graphic in ColorWorks, saving it, and then viewing it with a non gamma-correcting web browser you may find that your images are darker than they were in ColorWorks.

The best you can do is to shoot for the "average" gamma so your images are neither washed out on Macs nor dark and gloomy on Suns.  Try for 1.8 or 2.2 on each of red, green and blue.  Find these settings in Options.Canvas Creation Settings on the "Monitor Gamma" tab.  If you don't want any gamma correction at all just set it to 1.0.

One last tip I discovered when searching for alternatives (before smacking my forehead and realizing I could have just set the gamma to 1.0) was to cut and paste the image into a simple picture viewing utility like Galleria (mask, float and Edit.Cut).  You could then save it without gamma correction and be able to save images smaller than ColorWorks's 100x100 pixel minimum, set transparency colors and more.  (I'd say this is temporary at least since there should be a GIF89 export filter for ColorWorks out soon, plus the elimination of the 100x100 pixel minimum with version 3.)

To learn more about monitor gamma and how to compensate for it, head to the (swissnet.ai.mit.edu/wtr/gamma.html) What About Gamma? page.

ColorWorks Culture

The following was first posted by Joel Krautheim on the c.o.o.* newsgroups; we've stolen it and brought it to you here:

Here is a funny story -- During one of our first SMP (symmetric multiprocessing -- the trick of spreading a drawing operation across more than one CPU) testing trips to IBM Boca Raton, we were having problems getting the performance gains we expected, one of the IBM SMP gurus at the time, an absolutely brilliant man named Jim Macon, said to us, "wait a minute, let me get the Colonel."  We said to ourselves, "Yeah, get his butt in here and let's get to the bottom of this."  A few minutes later Jim came back with a diskette and proceeded to work on the system, then we tried the operation again and got the results we expected.

What happened you ask?  When Jim left the room he went back to his office and built a patch for the OS/2 SMP "KERNEL" in a FEW MINUTES, it was the patch that was on the diskette.  Ever since, it has been a running joke at SPG that when something isn't going right, somebody says, "tell the Colonel to get his butt in here and fix this."

News from SPG

(http://www.spg-net.com/) SPG's Web site

SPG released two new on-line technique lessons this month, Watermarking images and Creating 3D effects.  The 3D effects tutorial expands on the "instant spheres" trick from one of my earlier powertips columns, showing you how to do cones, bars, lozenge shapes and more.  The Watermarking effects tutorial is more simple, and covers two different ways in which you can add a "Watermark" to your images.

After testing the water with a CD-ROM-Only version of ColorWorks V2, SPG has decided to do the same with their V1+ product.  This US$99 version (selling for less at places like (http://www.indelible-blue.com/ib/) Indelible Blue) leaves out the printed manuals in favor of the on-line "Mega Manual" found on the CD-ROM.

-----

(http://www.spectra.net/~fox) Chris Wenham is a Team OS/2er in Binghamton, NY and president of his own company -- (http://www.spectra.net/~pendulum/webworks) Wenham's Web Works. He has written comedy, sci-fi, HTML, Pascal, C++ and will work for tips.

***********************************

Answers from e-Zine!



Welcome back to the place for answers to all your OS/2 questions!  Each month we bring you tips, tricks, questions and answers from our readers and contributors relating to common (and some not so common) OS/2 problems and questions.  If you've got a question or tip you would like to share with us, (editor@haligonian.com) send it in!


- An Object Desktop tip:

We all have it.  The Bookmark folder that contains our WebExplorer URLs, nicely organized by category.  Here is a way to supercharge that folder and enhance your surfing.

1. Create a Control Center and call it Bookmark Center
2. Add your Bookmarks folder to the Bookmark Control Center
3. Remove all sections except the Bookmarks object

I've placed my Bookmark Control Center in the upper right corner and have set the activation point for the same corner.  

Virtual Desktop users may want to define this Control Center as a locked window, so it is available for all your WebEx sessions. 

Press the Bookmark object, grab the desired URL object with mouse button two and drop on WebEx.

- (mb75612@deere.com) Mike Beedlow

-----

- Should I buy a Canon BJC 210 printer to use under OS/2 Warp?  Has anyone had any experience with this printer?

From what I have gathered reading Usenet you want to stay away from Canon printers if you are running OS/2.  They don't support it.  Of course, there's omni.drv but you still depend on IBM here and the quality of the drivers is varying to be polite...  I'd suggest either an HP or a Lexmark.  Check this month's "Byte".  I'd recommend Lexmark.  They are originally an IBM subsidiary and their OS/2 support is probably the best to be had driver-wise.

- (bernhard@valkyrie.lfn.unterland.de) Bernhard Rohrer

-----

- I have apparently lost the ability in Warp to read the OSO001.MSG file in its original location.  The PATH and DPATH include the directory for the file but only when I copy it to the root directory of my boot drive is OS/2 able to find it.  This means that when I ask for something and pipe it through MORE it doesn't work unless the MSG file is in the root directory.  It also seems to mean that when a program crashes and I ask to view the information about the failure it doesn't display it.  It merely replays the notice of failure and the only option I have is to end the program.  What's wrong?

OS/2 uses the DPATH environment variable to locate this file, which should normally be located in x:\OS2\SYSTEM.  Since the directory is already included in the DPATH statement, the only thing I can think of is that there is a file in a directory that is listed before x:\OS2\SYSTEM (but after x:\) that is causing a problem.  Try moving the x:\OS2\SYSTEM entry in your DPATH line to just in front of the x:\ entry.

Since modifications to CONFIG.SYS require a reboot before they take affect, a quick way to see if this will work is to open a command prompt and set the DPATH statement from there, then use MORE to see if it worked.

1. open an OS/2 command prompt and switch to the root directory
2. type  SET DPATH=E:\OS2;E:\OS2\SYSTEM;E:\OS2\INSTALL;E:\;E:\OS2\BITMAP;E:\OS2\MDOS;etc... (make the appropriate modifications for your system)
3. type TYPE x:\CONFIG.SYS | MORE
4. If it worked, make the same changes to the DPATH line in your CONFIG.SYS and reboot.

- (jiml@teleport.com) Jim Little

-----

- Whenever I open folders on my desktop there is a big delay and a lot of disk accessing.  Also, whenever a system sound is played the same thing happens (the disk churns for a while before the sound is played).  This never happens on my system when I'm using Windows 3.x.  Is this because I only have 8 meg?  What can I do?

The simple answer is, yes.  OS/2 will probably never run on your system like Windows 3.x does in only 8 meg.  This is good and bad though.

The bad part is obvious: disk thrashing, slow performance, etc.

The good part is that this means your OS is actually doing something.  You're getting the benefits of all the technology that has gone into OS/2 over the years.  This means your objects are actually objects (and OS/2 keeps track of where they are, etc.), folders can contain files, objects, other folders, shadows, etc., and various other things.

There are two things you can do to alleviate the problems you're having.  The first is relatively cheap but requires some work and isn't a perfect solution.  You can eliminate some of the features from your OS/2 setup such as multimedia support (including system sounds) and turn off "extras" such as animated windows.  In your cutting, you may also want to get rid of Windows support (or even DOS support) and Internet support (if you don't need it) or at least DOS Internet support.  This can be accomplished by a combination of selective uninstall and pruning your config.sys file.

Then you might even consider using an alternate shell instead of booting the Workplace Shell.  You can save as much as 2 meg of RAM by using something like FileBar as your default shell (instructions on how to do this are included in the docs of FileBar).

Second, is the more expensive but infinitely preferable option.  Buy more RAM.  Memory prices are cheap these days -- one correspondent recently told me he had just picked up 16 meg for US$109.  At those prices, you're crazy not to take the plunge if your system can handle the extra simms.

- (editor@haligonian.com) Trevor Smith

-----

That's it for this month.  If you have a tip or question that you don't see covered here, don't forget to (editor@haligonian.com) send it in!

***********************************

The Need for (More) Speed- by Jon Cochran


I'm sure you're familiar with the feeling.  Your computer is slower than you think it really ought to be.  Of course, you need it to be faster so you can be more productive.  Your desire for speed has nothing to do with the fact that the latest Wing Commander (IV at the moment) just won't run fast enough.  But whatever your reasons, in most cases upgrading your computer is a relatively economical way to get vastly improved performance at a reasonable price.

Over the next few months, I'll be writing a series of articles on the best ideas and solutions I've encountered recently in upgrading my old system.  I'll go over some of the problems I've encountered and hopefully my experiences will help you avoid some of the same problems.  I'm also going to be talking about some issues that are specific to OS/2 users when upgrading hardware.  Hopefully, by the time I'm done writing these articles, I'll have a fire breathing Pentium-class system that can toast my friend's new Aptiva, and you'll have gained some valuable advice.

Is Upgrading Right For You?

First things first: is your system even worth upgrading?  If it's an all ISA, 486/25, you're probably better off getting a new system.  If you're still puttering along with a 386, you definitely need to get a new system.

If however, you've got a 486-class machine with some sort of local-bus system, then by all means you should upgrade!  The local-bus requirement is, in my opinion, your guideline to answering the upgrade question.  Without a local-bus system, you're just not going to get the performance you need to play Duke Nukem at 800x600 resolution.   If your system is an older 486 based system that only has local bus video, and no local bus hard drive, you should still consider upgrading your system.  Despite the fact that you won't get the same performance from your hard drive as a local bus system, you'll still see decent performance.

One last factor to consider is memory.  If your system takes 30 pin Simms, upgrading past 8MB of memory will be a major pain.  If you can get a converter to convert 72pin simms to 30 pin, by all means you should, and do it soon, because 30 pin simms seem to be fading out of sight.

What to Upgrade?

As I just finished mentioning, memory is a big consideration.  In fact, it can make the biggest impact on your system of any upgrade you can undertake.  If you have 8MB, you should definitely consider 16MB (especially since it appears that Merlin has gotten a little RAM greedy).  If you've got 16, what's stopping you from going to 24?  Prices are certainly cheap enough, in fact, I'd dare say that RAM is one of the cheapest upgrades you can get these days.

Another sore spot for a lot of OS/2 (and Windows 95) users is Hard Drive space.  In the past, solutions like Stacker were popular, but these days, Hard Drives are so cheap, it's almost a crime to use disk compression.  In my next article, I'll talk about upgrading your hard drive, how to make sure your BIOS is going to work with your new Hard Drive, and what to do if it doesn't.  And, I'll even tell you how to clone your original hard drive to your new hard drive, swap them, and have OS/2 boot off your new hard drive, just like it did off your old one.  And it's free!  What more could you possibly want?

So maybe you're thinking, gee, more hard drive space...  I can store more games now!  But, alas, the multimedia portions of your system are just slowing those games down.  That's OK, because I'll also be talking about how and why to upgrade your CD-ROM drive, and how to correctly install a new sound card under OS/2.  Yes, there is a wrong way, and if you try to change it, chances are you'll do it the wrong way, just like I did.  And, by the way, if anyone pesters me, I'll also include some nifty Pro Audio Spectrum tips, because (until I got rid of it for my new AWE32) I think I was one of the 6 people who actually got it to work right under OS/2 and WinOS2.

After that's out of the way, we can talk about processors, and what's available for systems these days.  You may be surprised at just how inexpensive a really nice Pentium class overdrive can be had for these days.  And, yes, I said Pentium-class, because sometimes you'll find that a non-Intel chip can smoke the "Real Deal".

And then, finally, I'll mention some little upgrades that are relatively inexpensive, but will help you to wring that last bit of performance out of your system.

If anyone out there in Web-land has any ideas or suggestions, please feel free to (cochran@genius.rider.edu) e-mail them to me, and I'll try to include them in my next article.

-----

(cochran@genius.rider.edu) Jon Cochran is a full time student at Rider University majoring in History/Secondary Education.  He hopes (or at least his parents do) to graduate soon.

***********************************

the REXX Files- by Paul Monaghan


I've done it, I think that I am now a convert.  Converted to what you may ask?  Well NetREXX of course!

What is NetREXX?  NetREXX is a new programming language, a "flavor" of REXX if you will, written by Mike Cowlishaw at the IBM U.K. laboratories.  With NetREXX you can create Java Applets and programs in a REXX-like language instead of in JAVA.  I must admit that I don't fully understand it, but after looking at the source to some of this, I said to myself "I can do this, this is REXX!"

At first glance a NetREXX program doesn't look much different than REXX.  Take this for instance:

   /This is a NetREXX program /
        say 'This is a NetREXX program'

The above is REXX.  It's also NetREXX when compiled by the NetREXX compiler.  "Easy," you say?  But of course!  NetREXX also gives the programmer access to Java Classes.  That's right, program a NetREXX program, and then you can convert it to a Java applet, or Java Program to be run within your favorite browser such as the IBM WebExplorer Java Demo, or within JavaPM for OS/2.  Your NetREXX program, once "caffeinated" (converted to Java) keeps its portability.  That means that any Java applets you create can be run on any operating system that can run Java.

"What are the REAL benefits?" you may be asking.  Well to put it bluntly, ease of use.  Java is similar to the C programming language, which leaves it in the hands of seasoned programmers, making it difficult to learn.  NetREXX, on the other hand, takes its lead from REXX, which was designed to be easy to use, and not require too much brain-beating.  If you already know REXX, then NetREXX should be a breeze.

I must admit that NetREXX is a little overwhelming at first, and some knowledge of Java does help.  Also, you need more than just NetREXX for NetREXX to work; you need the IBM OS/2 Java Developers Kit, or JDK for short, but don't worry, IBM has made this available as a FREE download on the WWW.  You can get all the info you need to start with NetREXX and Java at the (www2.hursley.ibm.com/netrexx/) NetREXX homepage.

I started playing with NetREXX the second the download was finished, and I must admit that it is a little weird at first.

First off you have to write an "NRX" file, or NetREXX file, that is the NetREXX source code.  Once you've done this you then have to compile it.  (The NetREXX compiler is actually written in REXX; Mr. Cowlishaw promises that a coming version will be written in Java, which means that anyone on any platform will be able to run NetREXX.)  What the compiler does is break down the file and figure out what it has to pass to the Java compiler, which then makes your Java Class file which is the finished Java program.  Yes, this does get a little confusing, but I think that anyone who has played with REXX can figure much of this out without loosing much hair.

Still, I don't want to make it sound like anyone can sit in front of their computer and snap off a Java Applet with NetREXX is two seconds.  This isn't the case.  But you will make Applets faster with NetREXX than having to learn all of Java.

I must admit that my attempts have been dismal, but keep in mind I've only just started using NetREXX -- I'd say around 5 hours -- so I'm not exactly fully versed in its abilities yet.  I played with a few of the example applets that come with NetREXX, trying to edit them, and while some of the parameters to some of the functions are easy to figure out, some have me completely baffled.

I encourage anyone interested in REXX and JAVA to give NetREXX a try.  It's an interesting new language that gives the programmer multiplatform distribution abilities.  Keep in mind that while I've talked about Java and NetREXX as a way to add to WWW pages, Java and NetREXX can create real "live" programs that run independently of a WWW browser.  So take a look, and go check out the NetREXX homepage for more info and to download the software.

Next time I will be back with more regular REXX.  I'm eager to try some sort of visual REXX environment, as I mentioned last time.  I will, however, drop a few updates from time to time on this new incarnation of REXX, NetREXX, and see where it hopes to go.

-----

(paulm@ulix.net) Paul Monaghan is a Network Manager for (http://www.ulix.net) ICAN a Montreal ISP.  He also maintains a web page on (http://www.ulix.net/freedom) How to make a BBS Telnetable and is a member of Team OS/2.

***********************************

NetRexx: A Blend of Java and Rexx- by Dirk Hamstra


New programming languages pop up every day.  All languages come with their own set of features and quirks and many share one characteristic: they never make it into mainstream IT.  Sun's Java, now in beta for OS/2, is a relatively new language.  But in contrast to other languages, Java is going to make it big time.

I've changed my mind about Java in the last few months.  Initially I thought Java was a language for creating small programs ("applets") for downloading and interpreting on various browsers.  However, Java can also be used to create programs that can be uploaded and run on servers ("servlets").  Combine Java with JDBC (Java Database Connectivity), JOE (an object request broker) and a slew of products with coffee-related names and you have a full blown programming language with a cross-platform execution environment.

These features are not for free.  Java is complex language.  For OS/2 users, however, there is good news.  From the IBM labs in Hursley, England, comes NetRexx.  NetRexx is a new dialect of Rexx that provides access to all functions and features of Java using the Rexx syntax.  In the remainder of this article I'll discuss both Java and NetRexx.

Java

Java is part of the Java family that includes JavaScript.  Both languages share many characteristics with C and C++.  Their syntax is comparable but the semantics differ.  Java is a "com-terpreted" language.  This means that Java is precompiled with pseudo-code (a.k.a P-code or bytecode).  The P-code is then executed by an interpreter.  This gives Java the benefits of a compiled language, like static binding, without requiring the presence of the source code at execution time.  JavaScript on the other hand is completely interpreted.  Bindings are dynamic and you need the source code at run time.

One of the major attractions of the Java family of products is the ability to run unmodified programs on different hardware and software platforms.  Creating a cross platform execution environment is not a new idea.  Look at Rexx.  Rexx has been available to users of OS/2, MVS, AIX, NT, Amiga, and other operating systems for years.  Programs developed on one platform can usually be executed on another.  Other important features of Rexx are ease of use and a low learning curve.

NetRexx

The portability and efficiency features of Java and the ease of use of Rexx are combined in NetRexx, which is derived from Rexx and Java.  NetRexx syntax is similar to Rexx, but some changes have been made to the Rexx Language.  This makes NetRexx not fully upwardly compatible with Rexx.  Here are some of the changes:

o  Usage of the keyword "ask" instead of "pull".  Another alternative to "pull" is using Java input streams.
o  NetRexx does not have the concept of external data queues, so "push" and "queue" cannot be used.
o  Signal ON/OFF is replaced by exception handlers (catch).
o  A nice addition is the option to specify the arbitrary precision of calculations through the NUMERIC statement.  This option can be set for a whole program, or modified within the program.

Creating NetRexx programs can roughly be split in two steps.  First write your code in Rexx, and second, generate Java P-code by running your code through the NetRexx translator.  Programming in NetRexx offers a number of advantages over writing code in native Java.  For example, storage allocation and reclamation are automatic in NetRexx.  Java implements a variety of numeric and string types.  NetRexx on the other hand implements all types in one class that follows the rules of Rexx strings.

For string manipulations NetRexx behaves like plain Rexx.  Objects are used to handle non-strings.  The following sample Customer program demonstrates what an object is in NetRexx, how it can be created, and how to define actions for the object.

/* Customer.nrx -- customer template  */
class Customer
     name           -- list of properties for this customer
     address
     phone

An object is created from a class description.  The class statement, which names the class (Customer), is always the first statement.  Java expects the filename to correspond to the class inside it.  Thus, the program must be written in a file called Customer.nrx.  For NetRexx programs, the default file extension is ".nrx".  A list of properties of the class (name, address, phone) follows the class statement.

Actions that can be performed on the object are defined in the method section.  For Customer, the methods Customer, change_address, and display have been defined.

/* Create a new customer */
method Customer (new_name, new_address, new_phone)
  -- the new customer has not been initialized yet, copy the
  -- parameter values to the object properties

     name = new_name
     address = new_address
     phone = new_phone

/* Change customers address */
method change_address(new_address) returns Customer
     address = new_address
     return this

/* Display customer information */
method display()
     say `Customer` name address phone

The Customer.nrx file is compiled into a class file called Customer.class by the NetRexxTranslator.  Subsequently the Customer.class can be run in a Java environment.

To create a customer from the class definition, you would use a program similar to the following:

/* sampleCustomer.nrx -- instance of a customer */

aCustomer = Customer(Joe, aStreet, 552-3490)  -- create a customer
aCustomer.print                               -- display the customer information
aCustomer.update_address(anAvenue).print      -- update the address information and show the
                                              --new values

In summary, NetRexx combines the best features of Rexx and Java.  The combination allows OS/2 users to benefit from the ease of programming in Rexx and the efficiency and portability of Java.  The experimental version of NetRexx is available now on: (www2.hursley.ibm.com/) http://www2.hursley.ibm.com/. To work with the current version you must install OS/2 with HPFS and the Java Development Kit for OS/2.

-----

(hamstra@icanect.net) Dirk Hamstra is active as an OO-consultant with RCG IT and he is an independent partner of DOOSYS IT Consultants US, an international OO-consulting organization.

***********************************

Editor's Introduction to Merlin



Wow, it's finally here.

For a long time we (and many OS/2 afficianados) had despaired that Merlin would never arrive, but it finally has.  Even this initial limited beta had us worried up here in Canada that we weren't going to see it -- it was almost two weeks after the first reports hit Usenet that Merlin had been released before we finally got our hands on a copy.

In the end though, IBM may move slowly (they are a big company, after all) but they move surely.

Of course, the first thing we did here at OS/2 e-Zine! after we got our copy was install it.  What a monumental wave of relief that was!  After the months of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) spread by some cynics (some of their claims were, "Merlin doesn't exist," and, "IBM will never ship it on time,") Merlin does seem to be on time and on target.

For those who have worried that IBM is forsaking the "home" market, I think Merlin gives us some signs of hope.  Despite the fact that the corporate world seems to be mostly disinterested in "other" OSs with fancy interfaces, IBM has chosen to significantly chisel, draw and colour what was already a functional interface.  I think that the sound themes and redrawn icons are proof that even if IBM won't publicly throw its hat in the ring, it wouldn't mind if home users elected OS/2 to manage their computers.

Oh, and if you're wondering about the latest news regarding Netscape and OS/2, well, there isn't much.  Both companies are being very tight-lipped.  Officials at IBM will only say that they are in Negotiations with Netscape; the folks at Netscape will say even less.  For now, we'll have to cross our fingers and play with the very slightly modified WebExplorer v1.2 that ships with this version of Merlin.

And Merlin is still beta software.  After a promising first day playing with the new OS, we were all but ready to declare it so good that we would start using it as our daily environment.  On second thought though, maybe we were a little hasty.  On day number two Merlin refused to boot at all (gremlins?) and a complete reinstall was required.  There are some other worries too; in fact just when I was almost finished writing this editorial, I saved it with my text editor of choice and the file disappeared.  This is "Merlin Editorial: Revision Two" so I hope I can remember all the pearls of wisdom I had jotted down before the accident.  Needless to say, most people will not be using Merlin for day to day use, at least not for important tasks.

For these various reasons, as is our custom here at OS/2 e-Zine!, we will not be doing "reviews" of Merlin and its various components.  This would be unfair to IBM and to our readers since things are bound to change drastically over the next 3 months as IBM tightens the bolts and polishes the paint.  For now, as many on the Internet have already noted, let's say that Merlin seems a little sluggish in some situations when compared to its predecessor.

For similar reasons, this "no review" policy affects the Voice Type and Voice Dictation abilities of Merlin.  While these are not quite perfect at the present time, at least one user has stated that even now it is possible to use these features on a 60Mhz Pentium.  A letter from an IBM spokesperson to OS/2 e-Zine! earlier this month stated that, "When Merlin is announced later this year, an Intel Pentimum 75Mhz processor with 16 to 24MB RAM will be sufficient to utilize speech navigation and dictation features."  Good news, but we'll withold our judgement.

What you will find in this Special Merlin Supplement is plenty of first looks: Dirk Terrell makes some Merlin predictions; Kevin Linfield presents his list of Merlin bugs; Chris Wright talks about the new interface; and we take a look at the updated installation procedure.  And of course, we have plenty of screen shots!

So read on and don't forget to write to us with your own Merlin experiences and opinions...

***********************************

Merlin...- by Stacy King


Waving the magic wand on the next version of OS/2 Warp!

I have the pleasure of introducing y'all to the next version of OS/2 Warp, code named Merlin, which has just entered beta.   According to IBM PSP's web site, the general availability version will be out sometime in the second half of 1996.

Voice Type Dictation by IBM

I feel the biggest addition made to the new OS/2 has been the inclusion of IBM's VoiceType technology.  This includes navigation by speech and voice dictation.  At the Warp teleseminar on April 29, I saw David Barnes demo this technology and was greatly impressed at the possibilities.  Imagine jumping to a homepage on the web by simply speaking a couple of words!  You do have to configure a macro to do that, but it seems extremely easy.  For the most part, this can replace what you would normally do with a mouse or keyboard.  What is really nice is that this technology will run with any OS/2 supported sound card (i.e., Sound Blaster, etc.) which is usually included in most PCs as a standard feature.  There is a base vocabulary of 10,000 words, and Merlin will allow up to 42,000 more to be added.  Separate dictionaries will be available for people in professions such as law and medicine, and also will be available in 6 languages.

Connecting around the office and around the world

The new version of OS/2 will also have a built in web browser and use IBM's object oriented technology to make running around on the Intranet (office) and the Internet (you know this one) easier.  You can also create icons to point and click (or speak at) for specific Websites and place them on your desktop.  These icons (URLs -- Universal Resource Locators) can be placed into folders, and even stored on diskette.  A new FTP (file transfer protocol) folder will provide similar results to the Web URL objects.  You will be able to drag and drop files to the FTP server, and drag from them as well.  No command line or web browser needed!

Specifically for your office, this version is being touted as a "universal client".  What this means is that you should be able to connect to... well, just about anything!  The more popular servers to connect to are: OS/2 Warp Server, LAN Server, Windows NT, Banyan Vines and Novell NetWare.  Access to mainframes will be provided by the integration of IBM Personal communications/3270 over TCP/IP, allowing 3270 emulations to the host (mainframe) computer.  The peer-to-peer functions that were introduced in OS/2 Warp Connect will also be here, and will work with similar NOS (network operating systems), but will be combined into one product (these were separate in OS/2 Warp Connect).  And you won't have to stay in your office either!  Merlin will include built in remote access and Mobile File Synchronization.  So you can connect from your home or on the road to your LAN.

Espresso, anyone?

Included in Merlin will be Sun Microsystem's Java programming language, which means you can run Java applications and applets right from the OS.  A Java ready Web browser will be integrated into the system, as well.  This kind of integration means that you can grab applets and imbed them into your applications, such as a word processor.  With the "Internet aware user interface" and VoiceType technology, you can grab them from the Internet, drop them on the desktop and launch them with a command... either mouse, keyboard or vocal!

Beauty is in the eye...

The desktop has also been redesigned for a cleaner look with new 3D shadowed icons, a 256 color palette as a default, bitmaps, backgrounds, a new system font and customizable colored notebook tabs in a new settings folder!  Also included is the new WarpCenter, taken from Lotus Corp.'s SmartCenter technology.  This launchpad replacement is object oriented for drag and drop ease of use, and built to help you quickly and easily launch applications.  The WarpCenter floats, so it's easy to see and access at all times, and can also be turned off as well.

Does it work with...??

Merlin will support OpenGL API, from Silicon Graphics Computer Systems (the guys that made the computers that brought the Jurassic Park dinosaurs to life), that will let you develop complex 3D applications for technical and commercial companies.  This technology has been licensed by some of the biggest companies around... AT&T, Cirrus Logic and DEC to name a few.  It is an industry standard in engineering and entertainment.

Merlin will support fonts using the TrueType font specification.  This means that you can take your Windows 3.1 document written in Arial and it will look the same in OS/2.  And you can print it without changing the font.  To any printer.  OpenDoc runtime support is also to be found.

IBM's Developer API Extensions for OS/2 Warp are included too.  Now known as Open32, it consists of 800+ Win32 APIs and 300 Win32 messages.  Porting to OS/2 has never been easier, and this will allow developers to create for OS/2 and Windows at the same time.

As you can see, there is a lot to be excited about.  In fact, as of sometime Tuesday, June 18th the beta request page had been closed due to the overwhelming response.  (It opened for requests on the Friday before.)  So if you were one of the many unlucky people who missed the first beta call, stay tuned to our special Merlin Supplement this month for first looks at many of the features I've listed above!

-----

(wizzywig@jumpnet.com) Stacy King is a Level 2 analyst for CTG at IBM.  She is married to wonderful husband, Larry, has a 3 year old son, Brandon (future computer geek), is a member of the Central Texas PC User's Group, the OS/2 Co-SIG Leader for CTPCUG and a member of Team OS/2.

***********************************

Merlin: Some Predictions- by Dr. Dirk Terrell


I've used OS/2 since 1992 when version 2.0 was first released.  Those were the dark days of being an OS/2 user for sure.  If you could get it running on your hardware, it was quite an improvement over Windows.  But that was the tricky part -- finding device drivers, if they even existed.

Version 2.1 was greatly improved in the device driver area, and in terms of speed and stability.  Warp came with even more extensive hardware support and simple Internet access.  I've watched OS/2 grow more powerful and more popular over the last few years, and now comes the latest incarnation -- OS/2 Warp 4.0, codename Merlin.

Merlin sports a crisper-looking GUI that will hopefully silence the critics of Warp's more industrial look (on installation).  Most noticeable is the WarpCenter, a replacement for the Launchpad which allows you to drop objects onto it for one or two click access.  The Merlin beta ships with a second CD packed with device drivers.  Hopefully, the days of hunting down device drivers are over.  If you do need to go looking, I installed Merlin on a machine with no network card and connected to my ISP with a US Robotics Sportster 28.8 without any problems.

Perhaps the most exciting new features in Merlin though, are Voice Type Navigation (VTN) and Voice Type Dictation (VTD).  VTN allows you to navigate the system with voice commands rather than having to use the keyboard or mouse.  VTD, which is much more resource intensive, allows you to dictate to the machine rather than having to type.  There are obviously some very useful applications of this kind of technology.  The naysayers are out in force, though, claiming that the voice technology is Merlin is no big deal.  I am reminded of a comment in comp.os.os2.advocacy a couple of years ago by an ardent OS/2 detractor when OS/2 supporters were pointing out the built-in Internet access of Warp:

That's the mistake IBM is making.  They think Internet access is a killer application.  It isn't.  To Joe and Jane 30Million Users, the Internet is just more geek crap like modems and BBSes.

Everyday I see more and more ads, commercials, etc with these http://... addresses.  There sure are a lot of geeks out there.

Now the same people are saying that VTN and VTD are just "more geek crap."  Mark my words -- two years from now, these will have become "must have" features.  And once again, OS/2 leads the way.

-----

(http://www.gnv.com/HTMLWizard/) Dr. Dirk Terrell is an astronomer at the University of Florida specializing in interacting binary stars.  His hobbies include cave diving, martial arts, painting and writing OS/2 software such as HTML Wizard.

***********************************

Merlin Bugs and "Undocumented Features"- by Kevin Linfield


Since I have installed Merlin on my home machine (486DX66, 16 MB RAM, ATI Mach 32 video at 1280x1024) I have been both impressed and disappointed in many things.  But, as part of my job as beta tester, I must be critical and mention problems and things that I think must be changed.

Installation

1. Java support was installed (onto my first HPFS partition) but I did not select this for install (yes, I made sure the box was not checked).

2.  Merlin autodetected the wrong IRQ for my Sound Blaster Pro Deluxe.  Warp 3.0 detected (or guessed) IRQ 5.  Merlin tried IRQ 7 and I had to change it.

3.  The install program did not take into account swapper size when installing into a limited partition.  My swapper grew so big that my installation failed because the partition was filled.

4.  Even though I chose advanced install and had Warp on my E: drive the install defaulted to C: (Win 95).

5.  If you install the Multimedia on a different partition, you cannot use
the Sound Schemes (files are not found as it defaults to the installation drive).

Selective Install

After using Merlin for a while, I tried to install some other stuff that I didn't install when I started.

1.  I am unable to find out how to install the IAK (or the TCP/IP).  Yes, I could have installed it when I installed Merlin, but I didn't install this part because I was testing only the OS.

2.  When I do a selective install, Merlin claims I have no CD-ROM attached to my machine.  If I tell it I have one (other EIDE), it reinstalls all of the CDROM device drivers.

3.  Java support gets installed again, every time I do a selective install.

WPS stuff

Many of these things are not repeatable, so your mileage may vary.

1.  After I opened the Programs folder (on my Desktop), I was unable to
close it until I shutdown.

2.  There is an EXIT button on the Toolbar (old LaunchPad).

3.  Sometimes I am unable to access the icon on the upper left of my
Desktop (I have "always sort Desktop" on).  Again, shutdown and reboot, then it works fine.

4.  The swapper grows really big.  As stated, I have 16 MB of RAM.  Install defaults my swapper to 2 MB.  After boot it is about 8 MB, and after playing around for about 2 hours, it is at 24 MB.  After 6 hours, it was at 42 MB.  Closing all apps and waiting for 15 minutes it shrunk back to 24 MB.

Applications

1.  DeScribe Voyager is redrawn extremely slowly (almost unusable).  Just
pressing page-up or page-down means a wait.  IBM Works and other programs do not have this problem (ATI Mach 32 with 2 MB of VRAM at 1280x1024x256).

2.  EPM 6.03 will not let me delete blank lines.  I was programming and wanted to delete some blank lines between lines of code.  I can not select the return chars, nor does the DEL key get rid of the line.

3.  IBM Works word processor does not save the state of ruler on or off (I want the ruler OFF always).  This is a "feature" that has been in since FootPrint Works 1.0.

I'm sure that there are more, but these are the major ones that I have noticed.  It would be appreciated if others would verify these for me, and contact IBM with a bug report.

-----

Kevin Linfield is a Toronto based consultant and a freelance writer.  He can be reached via e-mail at (linfield@torfree.net) linfield@torfree.net.  Be sure to check out (http://www.haligonian.com/os2/list.html) Linfield's List, Kevin's favourite OS/2 Freeware.

***********************************

The Merlin GUI- by Christopher B. Wright



With Merlin, the Workplace Shell becomes more than simply an incredibly powerful object-oriented work environment -- it also gets a touch of grace, sophistication, and beauty.  IBM has spent a lot of time getting rid of the rough edges of the WPS -- which, I predict, will probably disappoint many users.  There's some truth to the accusations that Merlin looks a lot like Windows 95:  my response is, "so what?  It looks good."

My only big complaint, and I'll get that out of the way right now, is that Merlin still uses the system proportional font as its default for dialog boxes, help text, and just about everything else you can't change with a drag-and-drop.  IBM includes a new font for title bars, WarpSans, which I like a lot, so I wish they'd get rid of System Proportional and just use WarpSans all around, but there are probably some barriers to that.  Another minor complaint is that you can't specify for high resolutions (1020x768 and up) to display small fonts -- but you can still use the Smallfont utility, which you can get from Hobbes or any other FTP site, that will patch your display DLL file to do just that.

As I mentioned, your first impression of Merlin will be that it looks like Windows 95 -- it has the same kind of edges, the same title bar, and similar icons turned 3/4 out.  Then you will notice the differences:  slimmer and more 3D scroll bars, differently shaped close, min and max buttons, and a strip across the top of the screen that looks a lot more appropriate on a Mac than on a PC.

It seems the IBM GUI designers took what they liked about the Mac and Win95 look and discarded the rest.  I noticed that Merlin didn't seem to look as much like a Nintendo game as Windows 95 does.  The chiseled look is prevalent in Merlin, and the buttons are (thankfully) a little smaller than they used to be.

It looks like windows have been designed to take up less space, as well.  This is especially noticeable for the system settings notebooks.  Not only has IBM color coded the Merlin notebook tabs, they've also made them SMALLER and put them across the top, saving a lot more screen real estate than would otherwise be possible.

Merlin (finally) lets you choose the way you want to arrange your icons in a window, too.  Aside from the default setting (I call it "Urban Sprawl"), you can also choose to display icons on a grid (especially nice -- you can now line up your icons!), from top to bottom, from left to right, from the outer perimeter in, and finally, my favorite, in single or multiple columns (formerly known as "flowed").

There are some quite stunning wallpaper bitmaps (one is a forest and a river, that, when tiled, makes it look like the river is reflecting the forest!), and some cool sounds to go with them.  In fact, Merlin has four "themes" you can set your computer to (space, desktop, garden and ocean), each with a specific set of sounds.  I'm fond of the "space" theme myself, but the others are pretty cool too.

IBM looks like it's doing much better with its icons this time.  They are a little more colorful, intricate, and altogether much nicer to look at.  It has also improved on the Launchpad by giving us the WarpCenter, basically Lotus' SmartCenter with a few interesting additions.  I like the WarpCenter a lot; it's not as flexible as Object Desktop's Control Center, but it takes up less screen space and is still very handy.

If you want to further modify your desktop, you can load Object Desktop on top of it with no problems.  (I installed OD 1.5 flawlessly.)  OD will not replace your scroll bars or the close button (though it will put a close button on some windows Merlin does not unless you turn that setting off), but it will replace the min/max buttons (which looked odd to me, since the OD min/max buttons are raised and the Merlin default close button is not).  The Object Navigator still adds a much needed file manager to Merlin, and while I'm enamored with the WarpCenter, you can't beat the Control Center's virtual desktops.

This is intended to be a general overview only.  There are bits a pieces that I haven't covered as far as the look and feel of Merlin is concerned, but I think I've covered the basics.  If you get a chance to play with Merlin, take it!

-----

(brennanw@richmond.infi.net) Christopher B. Wright is a technical writer in the Northern Virginia/D.C. area, and has been using OS/2 Warp since January 95.  He is also a member of Team OS/2.

***********************************

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed...


IBM has set about making OS/2 installation less painful than it has been in the past and they have succeeded -- partly.

The programming wizards at IBM seem to be working on all parts of OS/2 at the same time as opposed to fixing one piece then moving on to the next.  This shows in the installation routine as much as in any other part of Merlin.  There are some improvements, some new bugs and some features that will obviously be great improvements when they are completed.

IBM is encouraging beta testers to install Merlin over existing OS/2 partitions to test migration of various files.  This is certainly a good idea for testing purposes but if you have the space, our recommended installation setup is to free up 200 MB of disk space (350 if installing VoiceType; 550 if you're doing so on FAT) by using PartitionMagic or deleting old unused partitions.  Install Merlin there and save yourself the headache of losing your existing (and working!) OS/2 partition.

The beta shipment received here included two CDs, one with the actual OS and BonusPak on it and one with device drivers and directions to where users can find more.  It also included a stack of printed READMEs from the CDs for those who don't want or can't print them from the CD.  These were appreciated.  An introductory letter casually mentions how to make the three floppy disks necessary to start the CD installation.  Instructions are also here to make disk images for an entire install but you would be crazy to try; there are 35 or so disk images not including miscellaneous stuff (there are 108 disk images in total in the \DISKIMGS\OS2\35 directory!).

When first starting a Merlin install you'll notice that it looks pretty much like the OS/2 v3.0 installation program: blue screens, text mode, pretty boring stuff.  Once again, users have the choice of "Easy" or "Advanced" installation and, if choosing "Advanced", can jump to FDISK to modify their drives and point to which should be the install partition.

After Merlin gets cooking, the familiar OS/2 installation screens with an "OS/2" progress meter are displayed.  Much later in the installation we see some of the new "eye candy" that IBM has introduced to liven things up.  By the time the installation gets basic OS/2 interface DLLs loaded things have a definitely more chiseled look and feel.  There is a more 3D looking progress bar and a fancy new animation (which will be changed before the final release).

As promised, much of Merlin's quite formidable file list can be installed on drives other than the main boot drive.  This includes, among other things, multimedia, Voice Type and the BonusPak.  A welcome change is the ability to install BonusPak applications during the time of install without changing CDs.

As you might imagine, there are still flaws in the installation program.  The local test machine has never had major problems with OS/2 Warp installs in the past, and we were not surprised to find that Merlin had none either.  Installation was nearly flawless; however, many people have reported significant problems.  As always, the likelihood of success will differ from machine to machine.

A few strange quirks we noted were:

o  a dialog insisting that there was not enough space on the installable partition to complete the installation at the same time that another dialog was showing that we did have more than enough space left;

o  a very un-intuitive Network options setup: while in this brave new world almost everyone is connected in some way, many still live by only a tentative link to the 'net through their modems -- Merlin is extremely confusing to configure without network support but with Internet support (tcp/ip through a modem connection).

While these and other minor flaws are not bugs exactly, they will certainly trip people up or at least slow them down.

A complete installation from inserting the first boot floppy to a finished system took about one hour and ten minutes on a DX266 with 32 meg of RAM and a double speed CD ROM.  However, that time was excluding installation of tcp/ip support which, adding it later through the "Selective Install of Networking Products" in the System Setup folder, took another 20 minutes or so.  Other than the problems mentioned above, the installation was quite good.

The default installation takes users to a clean desktop with a nice looking OS/2 Warp logo over a blue burlap background and objects down the left side for: OS/2 System, Assistance Center, Connections, Programs and (if you have installed tcp/ip support) WebExplorer, as well as a shredder object in the bottom right hand corner of the desktop.  The other default installation object is the new WarpCenter which appears at the top of the standard desktop.

The one component of the test machine not recognized, a Trident VLBus video card, caused us to pop the included Device Driver CD into the drive.  This is nicely set up with an HTML main index so you can browse through the available drivers or seamlessly jump to companies' web sites with the built-in WebExplorer.

While our video card chip is identified as the TVGA9440AGi on the box, the CD index for Trident listed only a TVGI9440.  However, using this driver seems to have worked fine so apparently it is a typo or a minor difference.  And while our device driver was available on the CD itself, there seemed to be only a very limited number of drivers there (about 60).  Perhaps IBM will include more by the time OS/2 v4.0 ships.

In short, overall, installation was a largely painless process.  There will likely still be some people who encounter problems, even after beta bugs are ironed out, but IBM seems to be making strides in the right direction.

***********************************

Object Desktop v1.5- by Christopher B. Wright


In the beginning

A while back, Stardock Systems came out with a nifty little program called "Object Desktop".  This program shipped on two disks: one was the actual program and one was a set of complimentary utilities, bitmaps and icons.  This "nifty little program" caused almost as much excitement as the release of OS/2 Warp itself among some, because it was one of the best examples of the powerful object-oriented aspects of the OS/2 operating system.

The product was an overnight success, and Stardock was catapulted from being a popular ISV with a very successful OS/2 game to being one of the leading ISV's in the OS/2 software market.  Although not without its critics, Object Desktop has become one of the standards for the OS/2 desktop.  Indeed, according to most magazines, it has often been either the number 1 or 2 most-bought software package since its release.

Now, round two.

Object Desktop is back: updated, modified, tweaked and patched.  Stardock has fixed old problems and introduced some interesting new features.  Sporting a new version number (1.5) and some performance enhancements that will make you very happy indeed, this is a fine
product with little to complain about.

Overview

As I said, Object Desktop v1.5 is an excellent product, but don't expect it to be as earth-shattering as v1.0 was when it was first released.  I don't say this critically, just factually: this is an incremental release, and if Stardock had so radically changed it to warrant giving it v2.0 status they would have done so.

Installation

I ordered the upgrade from version 1.0 from Stardock so I didn't get the full Object Desktop packaging.  I received two disks and a four page booklet titled "What's New in Object Desktop 1.5?" explaining some of its new features.  Some people upgrading may be disappointed that they don't get the whole thing, but I was relieved: the last thing I need is another empty box lying around my house.

Object Desktop v1.0 consisted of one program disk, and one disk full of "extra" stuff -- icons, compression utilities, and bitmap wallpaper.  I didn't get the extras disk with my upgrade (because I already had it, I assume), but I still got two disks, an indication of how much OD has grown since its first release.  It installed flawlessly on top of my existing environment, and when I rebooted, it came up with no problems.  I was even a little disappointed -- it didn't seem to have changed much.  This disappointment left quickly when I started to play with it and noticed some very interesting things.

Speed

Before OD v1.5 was released, Brad Wardell of Stardock Systems stated that they had picked up some of the IBM programmers who'd declined to move to Texas, and used them to improve OD's integration with the Workplace Shell.  This allowed Stardock, he claimed, to actually improve the performance of your machine -- he claimed it would actually run faster with OD than without it.

Well, I was dubious.  I couldn't understand it and didn't think it was possible.  I reasoned to myself, he probably means it just doesn't slow everything down as much as OD v1.0, which had noticeably slowed down my machine (not enough to bother me, just enough to notice).

I was wrong.  I found my machine more responsive than it had been before.  Folders opened faster, commands started faster, and everything seemed smoother.  This was a purely subjective observation, though, so I decided to run the Performance Plus benchmark utility to make sure.  The Performance Plus benchmark utility is very basic, but serviceable, and I had run it before and after I'd installed OD v1.0.  To my surprise, Brad's claim was accurate: not only was my machine significantly faster than it was with v1.0 on it, it was even slightly faster than it had been without OD on it at all.  I suspect your mileage may vary in this area, but I noticed a performance increase, and you might too.

The Roll-up Button

The next thing I noticed was a strange button to right of the close button.  This is the "Roll-up" Button, similar to the roll-up feature in the Macintosh interface.  When pressed, windows seem to roll up into their title bar, allowing you to access other areas of your computer without actually closing or minimizing the window.  A useful feature, especially on small monitors and laptops.

The Tabbed Launchpad and the Control Center

The Tabbed Launchpad and the Control Center have a few new features also designed for the screen space conscious.  If you click button 2 when your mouse is positioned over either one, you'll see an option called "Hide".  Clicking on Hide causes either one to disappear.  If you move your mouse into a predefined activation area on your screen (this can be set in the Launchpad or Control Center's settings folders), what was hidden will once again be revealed.  This only works once, however.  Once the Control Center or the Tabbed Launchpad reappear, it stays there until you hide it again.  But Stardock included an "Auto hide" option in each object's settings notebook.  If you check the Auto hide box, the object will appear only when your mouse enters the hot area.

A feature specific to the Control Center is the ability to "dock" it to the edges of your screen.  In v1.0, you had to manually position the Control Center wherever you wanted it, and all your careful positioning could be for naught if you accidentally held down mouse button 2 in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Stardock fixed this to some extent by making it possible for the Control Center to "stick" to the top, bottom, left or right of your desktop.  Once there, you have to seriously drag it before it goes anywhere else.  I'd like to see this feature implemented for the Tabbed Launchpad as well.

Another feature specific to the Control Center is its option to "block out" any space it takes up when it's docked, meaning that in theory at least, no other applications will overlap it.  In effect, it allows the control Center to be visible at all times, just like the control bar at the top of the Macintosh desktop.

This is also a nice feature, especially if you're running a few maximized apps on different virtual desktops, but it's inconsistent in its effectiveness.  For example, the Dial Other Internet Providers window always opens in the lower left-hand corner of the screen, whether the Control Center passes through that region or not.  In fact, any non-maximized window (except for the Window List) will overlap the Control Center if it just happens to open over a region the Control Center occupies.  If you click on that window's title bar, it will position itself away from the Control Center, but it's an annoying quirk that made me eventually disable that option in the settings folder.  It may not annoy everyone, though, and it is useful.

The Tabbed Launchpad has a nifty new feature as well (one that I don't use very much because I don't have a shortage of screen space).  It lets you scroll down the current tab when you have more icons than space to display them effectively.  Arrows appear on the active tab when this is possible.  This is a great feature for laptops.

The Object Navigator

The Object Navigator, Stardock's response to the lack of a file manager in OS/2, looks completely revamped and redesigned.  It has some design features similar to the Microsoft Explorer: both show every conceivable drive in one column, and the specific directory you're in, in the other.  This was a bit awkward for me to get used to at first, but I find it very convenient when I want to move a file from a directory on one drive into a directory on another -- multiple windows are no longer necessary.  OD has a few other features thrown in as well.  For starters, everything is object-oriented: anything you do in the Object Navigator is done to the file or folder itself.

The Object Navigator's tool bar has also been expanded and more functionality has been added.  Not only can you copy, create a shadow, move or shred an object, you can also create a new object, create a new folder, perform search functions, and more, right from the toolbar.

Stardock Internet Shell

A new extra is the Stardock Internet Shell for the Web Explorer.  This shell is basically a folder full of interesting URLs, sorted into different categories of interest:  Art & Graphics, Electronic Industry Trade Publications, Government & Political Stuff, OS/2 Stuff (of course) and more.  At the moment, you have to drag the URL object onto the Web Explorer to go to the link, but apparently when Merlin comes out all you'll have to do is double-click on the object and you'll be logged on automatically.  You can add new areas by dragging them off the Web Explorer like you always could, or by using the Web Explorer URL template.

Object Packages

I've saved the best for last.  The Object Package utility is a totally new feature to OD, and is so powerful that, frankly, I don't yet completely understand everything it does.  Basically, the Object Package utility makes it easier to backup, restore, and transfer your workplace shell objects.  With Object Package you could effectively drag your desktop into an Object Package Template and it will save everything about your desktop that needs saving: where the icons are, what the icons are, which ones are program objects, which ones are shadows, etc.  If your desktop ever gets corrupted, or you somehow mess up your configuration, the Object Package you made can restore it.

What's more, you can save it to disk, hand it to someone else, and if they have the same icons, programs, etc. on their computer they can use it to re-create your desktop on their machine!  You could attach the Object Package to an e-mail and send it out over a network to
easily configure many workstations at the same time.

There have been some reports of a few minor flukes in the Object Package tool (sometimes the desktop wasn't restored exactly the way it had been on some machines) but this may have been fixed in the first FixKit for OD 1.5, available on Stardock's web site.

FixKits

OD v1.5 seems very stable, and I've had few problems with it.  I have, however, noticed a minor annoyance: any time I loaded or rebooted OS/2 the Templates icon, Minimized Window Viewer icon, and the Startup icon would all open for no reason at all.  The first FixKit for OD v1.5 has fixed this, and there is a list in the FixKit's readme file of other bugs that it addresses as well.  As always, the FixKit is available free of charge from Stardock's web site.

Price

There was a lot of hoopla about Stardock's announcement of the new pricing for OD v1.5.  Apparently, people who had already bought OD v1.0 were miffed when they learned anyone who bought OD v1.0 after April would get v1.5 for free, while "all" they got was a discount.  I bought OD as soon as it came out; I didn't think what they were charging for OD v1.5 was too steep a price.  It's a matter of preference, but I feel I got my money's worth for this product.

Conclusion

Stardock has taken a great product and made it better.  With v1.0, Object Desktop hit the ground running.  With v1.5, it's gained momentum and has secured its position in the lead of other OS/2 desktop enhancement software.  There's a lot of stuff I like about this release.  Still, there are a few features I would like to see enhancements to (docking for the Tabbed Launchpad, improvements on the Control Center's "Desk Remapping" feature), but overall I have no complaints about this product.  It's worth the money you spend, and I don't think you'll regret it.

-----

Test System:

o  Pentium 120
o  32mb RAM
o  Maxtor 540, 1240
o  Matrox Millenium 4mb WRAM
o  6x CDROM
o  AcerView 76i 17" monitor

-----

* Object Desktop v1.5
by (http://www.stardock.com/) Stardock Systems
MSRP: US$89.95

-----

(brennanw@richmond.infi.net) Christopher B. Wright is a technical writer in the Northern Virginia/D.C. area, and has been using OS/2 Warp since January 95.  He was very recently married and is a member of Team OS/2.

***********************************

The Secure Workplace v4.0- by Jon F. Kaminsky


The new v4.0 of (http://www.primenet.com/~syntegrn/) Syntegration Inc.'s The Secure Workplace advances the art of OS/2 security.  As a user of The Secure Workplace v3, I was not anticipating the degree of change that v4.0 brought to my Desktop.  For this reason, a review of this nature cannot hope to cover all the new aspects of the Secure Workplace v4.0. Therefore, in this article, I will concentrate on the object security features that users will find most attractive, saving most of the administrative features and utilities for another review.

What is The Secure Workplace

The Secure Workplace (SWP) is a collection of OS/2 Workplace Shell (WPS) object, Desktop and security management utilities.  Upon installation, the security functions of SWP are integrated into the WPS; there is no program to execute and nothing to shut down.  Additional pages are added to all objects' settings notebooks, allowing the customization of security level and passwords.  Security can be set at the object, folder, or Desktop level if more global
security measures are required.  Two versions of SWP are available, the standard edition and the professional edition.  The standard edition of the SWP includes:

o  Security Administration applet
o  Window list manager
o  System shutdown utility
o  Workplace reset
o  Object manager
o  Object editor

The professional edition adds file access control and multi-Desktop management (provided by bundling Syntegration's Traveling Workplace product).

What's new in v4.0

SWP v4.0 provides additional power over earlier versions as well as a restructured security paradigm.  New with v4.0 is the concept of privileges at the user level rather than the older notion of security set at the object level.  Security is now implemented dynamically and is preemptive rather than reactive.

These new features add more flexibility, but for those more familiar with v3.0 of SWP, the new version requires a different mindset and the implementation may seem overwhelming at first.  However, those more familiar with, say, Novell Netware's security functions, will be right at home.  Although I'm no network engineer, having previously set up Novell Netware 3.12 for a former employer, I welcomed the similarity in function (although architecturally, SWP is a completely different product).  Setting up security for users has been streamlined in v4.0 and it takes less time to navigate through the available options.

SWP v4.0 also enables single sign-on to a network operating system or remote host.  With this feature, users only identify and authenticate themselves once.  Single sign-on is accomplished by interfacing with the Network Sign on Coordinator (NSC), User Profile Manager (UPM), or your own custom program.  NSC and UPM are provided with OS/2 Warp Connect, LAN Server, and OS/2 Warp Server.  NSC works with Novell Netware File Servers and remote hosts.

Installation

The manual guides the user through the installation process, and also lists all the files which are copied to your hard drive, which is a nice touch (I wish more companies provided this information).  The setup program can also be run with several options which, allow for
unattended installation, generation of a logfile or deinstallation of the product.

The setup program starts with a dialog listing the installation options.  For the default install (all options) you simply click "OK".  The program files are copied to the location of your choice, and during this process the user is updated as to what files are being copied, the list of new classes registered with the WPS and the modifications made to the OS/2  config.sys file.  During this time, the Secure Workplace folder is installed automatically on the Desktop.  In addition to several on-line guides, this folder contains program objects for such utilities as Sign-ON/Sign-OFF, Workplace Reset, System Shutdown, Object Editor, and the Object Manager.

Upon reboot, the user is greeted with the SWP login dialog.  At this point, no Desktop objects are visible and if the User ID and Password are not supplied, you cannot progress any further.  By default, until you explicitly change them,
the User ID and Password are set to "userid" and "password" respectively.  Therefore, the first thing you should do as the administrator is to change these default settings, and give yourself administrative privileges with the Security Administration object located in the SWP folder.  This object opens a settings notebook where the administrator sets up users (including him or herself) either individually or as a group and grants certain privileges either on an individual basis or on a group basis.

How it works

The Secure Workplace is well-integrated into the WPS and is implemented as a SOM class controlled by a security kernel.  The immediate evidence of this is the addition of a "log-off" item on the Desktop pop-up menu, and several pages in the settings notebook of all objects, whether on the Desktop or in a drive object.  Instead of the each object's settings notebook containing the "Setup","Security" and "Password" items as in versions 3.x and earlier, only the "Privileges" tab is now present.  This is a much cleaner way to set up security, and passwords at the object level are no longer required.

The Privileges tab contains up to three pages depending on what object you are accessing.  For example, the Desktop settings notebook privileges tab contains three pages: one for setting individual object privileges such as copy or move, one for setting privileges for Desktop folder menus such as sort or arrange, and one for the Desktop Menu which allows or disallows the normal OS/2 Shutdown, Lockup, or System setup menu items.  Drive objects contain the individual privileges page, the folder page and a Disk Menu page which controls access to the commands copy disk, check disk, format disk, and partition disk commands.  (The partition command is not available to users.)  Data or program objects simply contain the single page for individual privileges.

SWP handles security by allowing administrators to set up security for individual users or groups of users.  Users are granted "Privileges" to objects on the Desktop or on any of the drives (or to entire drives themselves).  Users are required to log on the system using a defined User ID and Password and once they pass this stage, they get the view of the Desktop and the privileges afforded them by the administrator.  If so desired, guests can log on to the workstation and be afforded some level of function defined by the administrator.

A basic level of function for all users can be specified easily by setting up a group called "Everyone", and then adding all users (including guests) to that group.  The Everyone group could be allowed, say, the "visible" and "open or execute" privilege which would allow that group's members to see and use any object on the Desktop, except drive objects and their contents.  However, with only these privileges, a member of the Everyone group cannot copy, move, delete, shadow, rename, drag, drop, create another, or otherwise modify any object.

Because an object's security is controlled by the settings notebook, without access to this notebook, security for any object cannot be changed by a user unless he or she is granted that access by the administrator.  However, while certain functions are removed from an object's pop-up menu by revoking privileges, clever users could circumvent some restrictions from the command line.

Therefore, for airtight security, administrators may also want to hide the OS/2 System folder so that users cannot open a command prompt or the System Setup icon.  You can even  restrict the Alt-F1 key combo to prevent users from accessing the Desktop Recovery function at boot-up, or prevent Ctrl-Alt-Del keyboard  reboots.  It's really that flexible!

Configuring security

To test SWP, I set myself as the administrator and then defined three groups: "Everyone", "Geology", and "Documents".  I also created several fictitious users: Tom, Ward, Fred, Mary, and Guest.  To serve the needs of several of these users and groups, I also created the following Desktop folders:

o  Tom's folder
o  Ward's folder
o  Mary's folder
o  Fred's folder
o  Document folder
o  Guest folder

The Everyone group was given visible and open-execute privileges for the Desktop, and also copy, move, delete, visible, drag, drop, and open-execute privileges for the Drive A: object (so any user could do what they wanted with their own floppies).  By default, the Everyone group was not allowed access to any other drive objects.  Therefore, guests logging on this machine would see all objects on the Desktop and be able to open them (as they are only defined only as members of the Everyone group).

The Geology group was given visible, copy, and open-execute privileges for the entire D:  drive object, which contains nothing but data I wanted members of that group to be able to manipulate.  Members of the Documents group were granted full privileges to the Documents
folder on the Desktop.  The users had full access to their own folders.  All users were added to the Everyone group and were further set up as follows:

o  Tom and Ward were set up as members of the Geology group.  In addition to full access to their individual folders on the Desktop, they also inherited access to the D: drive because they were Geology group members.

o  Mary was set up as a member of a Documents group, and in addition to her personal folder, she required access to the DeScribe folder on Drive G: since she is the Documents group leader.  She also inherited access to the Documents Desktop folder since she is a member of the Documents group.

o  Fred was set up individually, and had full access to only his own Desktop folder.

As a final measure, I set the "Auto Guest" login so when the machine boots, it automatically defaults to the Everyone level of security.  This is strictly a convenience function: if Autoguest is not specified, the workstation will not show any Desktop objects until a user supplies the proper User ID and Password.

SWP proved to be very easy to configure, all options being set by the familiar OS/2 check buttons and pull-down list boxes.  Once a user has been added to the system by the administrator, his or her name automatically appears in the settings notebook of every object.  The best part is how easy it is to make changes after you have invested the time in deciding who gets what.  For example, I decided Ward got transferred to the Documents group and therefore no longer needed access to Geology data, but now needed to work with Mary.  Simply opening up the system administration setup and removing Ward from the Geology group and adding him to the Documents group changed his privileges across the board.

What the users see

Starting up the machine boots the OS and bypasses the login dialog since the Auto Guest access was implemented.  The security at this point defaults to the privileges of a Guest, and the immediate evidence of this is the disappearance of the SWP Desktop folder and the OS/2 system folder.  Other than that, the Desktop looks as normal as any other OS/2 machine.

Security clearance was implemented dynamically as I repeatedly logged in and out as any one of my users.  Logging in as Tom allowed me access to the D: drive object and I was able to work on data.  Logging in as Mary revoked that access but gave me access to all files and folders within the DeScribe folder (so I could perform file maintenance duties) and I moved some files that I wanted Documents group members to work on to the Desktop  Documents folder.  Logging in as Fred set me back to the Everyone group security level but with the added function of being able to manipulate objects inside Fred's personal folder on the Desktop.  I then logged in as myself to see what I could see.  Once I was authenticated, the SWP utilities folder and OS/2 System folder magically appeared on the Desktop and my system basically performed as if I had never installed the SWP product -- complete unfettered access to everything!
 
Caveats and suggested improvements

From my brief working with SWP v4.0, I would like to point out a couple items and offer a few suggestions.  First, users may notice a very slight system degradation due presumably to security kernel functions.  I tested SWP on a P90 with 32 meg and did notice that the time it took for objects to populate a folder or drive was slightly increased.  The delay seemed proportional to the complexity of the set privileges and the number of objects present in a container.  In addition, PM Patrol's CPU monitor told me that a process running deep in the WPS was periodically asking for a small timeslice -- presumably the security kernel working in the background.

Shadows seem to be somewhat troublesome to work with.  Shadows are the rogue objects of any OS/2 system -- they retain properties of the parent object, and you can change properties of the parent object by changing the shadow, yet you can shred them with impunity.  While SWP does provide security against the creation of shadowed objects, shadowed objects that already exist sometimes exhibit strange behavior (although never resulting in security breaches).  This is more a result of how OS/2 deals with shadows than a deficiency in SWP.  With SWP it is best just to avoid using shadows and if users need a program object on the Desktop, simply create an object for that purpose using templates.

It would also be nice for the administrator to see what privileges an object inherits by virtue of being a child of an object whose privileges were previously set.  For example, DeScribe 5 installs 16 sub-folders inside the X:\DeScribe folder with additional folders rooted down into these.  By inheritance, all folders and objects within the X:\DeScribe folder have the same security if set at the X:\DeScribe level.  But suppose you want to change privileges for one folder or object within that structure.  Opening the settings for that object does not display the inherited security from the previous changes made to the parent (X:\DeScribe) folder object.  This isn't a limitation, but it would be a convenience some may appreciate. 

Finally, I would prefer that Guests be prevented from changing the guest password.  For example, a malicious guest could change the password from the default "Guest" and therefore prevent subsequent guests from logging on until the Administrator is called to reset the password.

Summary

I found The SWP to be a top-notch security product and, at least in the case of the Standard edition, it is appropriate for both the business and home user.  Home users will appreciate the flexibility in tailoring privileges to the level of expertise of the many users likely to access a home machine -- spouses, teenage students, children, etc.  Important financial data can be protected while game privileges can be granted to the little ones in the household without fear of losing a carefully configured Desktop.  Worried about the teenagers accessing inappropriate newsgroup material on the Internet?  No problem -- you can give them access to other Internet utilities while easily restricting access to the Newsreader.

Next Month

We take the review of The Secure Workplace a step further by reviewing the administrative features of SWP, including the security utilities and the partnering of Syntegration's The Traveling Workplace to manage multiple Desktops.

-----

* The Secure Workplace v4.0
by (73707.3331@compuserve.com) Syntegration, Inc.
MSRP: $79.95 Standard edition
MRSP: $29.95 Standard upgrade 
MSRP:$120.00 Professional edition

-----

(negcjfk@ibm.net) Jon F. Kaminsky is principal hydrogeologist of Northwest Environmental Geoscience Co. in Tacoma, Washington and when not practicing geology, he indulges in writing shareware OS/2 utilities.  He has written articles for scientific journals, and now, an on-line magazine.

***********************************

PartitionMagic v2.03- by Sidney Maplehurst


PowerQuest is an astonishing company.  They did two things almost everyone in the computer world unanimously declared impossible -- they created a program to interactively resize and move partitions without destroying the data on them and they managed to sell it to the masses.  As recently as April of 1995, these visionaries were a startup company with less than $10,000 in the bank.  Today they are a rapidly growing, multimillion dollar corporation.  And it's not just because of luck.

PartitionMagic

PartitionMagic is the kind of software we all love.  It is simple to use, beautifully intuitive and incredibly powerful.  Until recently, most casual users probably thought that the partitioning tools available to them (FDISK.COM) were things to avoid.  OS/2 forces users to partition their drives when installing if they want to set up a Boot Manager system and I'm sure this has caused more than a few newbies a little anxiety.  PartitionMagic makes that anxiety disappear.

Installation and Performance

PartitionMagic is a near flawless utility.  When you are writing software which is meant to perform hard core duties like partitioning hard drives, there is no room for bugs and PowerQuest has produced a remarkably solid product.  Installation is a breeze and the update from v2.0 to v2.03 available from their (http://www.powerquest.com/) web site (among other places) has childishly-simple instructions.

The program is so compact that it can be run from a floppy drive.  In fact, it is often necessary to do so with the OS/2 version since modifying a partition that OS/2 has open files on could be disastrous.  The entire hard disk installation requires about 5 meg or so.  Starting the program results in a minor but not excessive delay on a 486 DX2-66.

What It Does

PartitionMagic, no matter which version you have (OS/2 or non-OS/2), is built to move, resize, create, delete, check and format partitions.  The OS/2 version also has a feature to convert FAT partitions to HPFS -- a heavenly bonus!  It displays and works with  FAT, HPFS, NTFS, NetWare and Linux Ext2 partitions, and either primary partitions or logical drives in extended partitions.

The graphical interface (assuming you're running it from OS/2's GUI and not from the command line in the case of a maintenance boot) is clean and well laid out.  There are obvious buttons to perform common tasks (Move, Resize, Check, Info, Convert and Create).  Potentially dangerous tasks like Delete and Format are available either from a right-click pop-up menu or the Options menu.  The program displays a simple color coded graphical representation of your hard disk for simple point and click selection.  Although I would never recommend anyone use a program like PartitionMagic without carefully reading the documentation (and neither does PowerQuest) I'm certain that any user could install and run it without ever opening the manual.

Features

The documentation claims that PartitionMagic's Check feature for HPFS drives is faster, more accurate and more complete than OS/2's chkdsk command.  In practice I found it to be very good.  It reports a wealth of details after thoroughly checking the selected partition (FAT or HPFS).  The Info option also provides valuable information about your partitions and works as expected.

The meatier functions, Move, Resize and Convert are pleasantly similar in their efficiency and accuracy.  As amazing as it seems, with PartitionMagic, users can graphically shrink and expand (assuming they have free space) their existing partitions -- without losing the data on them!  It's literally as simple as grabbing the end of the displayed partition and dragging it left or right.  This process can take some time on larger partitions though.  For anyone who has ever set up a partition expecting to need more or less than they actually did, this is the software for you.  No more back-up, delete partition, create new partition, reinstall.

For anyone with large FAT partitions, PartitionMagic is even more valuable.  Because of the inherent waste of the FAT file system (larger partitions have larger cluster sizes and can waste significant space) it is usually more efficient to have three or more small partitions than one large partition.  Consider this note in the Merlin readme file:

This version of OS/2 provides significant new function compared to OS/2 Warp Connect.  Depending on the selections you make during installation, this version will require a maximum of 350 megabytes of hard disk space.

Note: If you have a very large partition (> 1 GB) formatted for FAT, the beta install will require 550 MB due to the large cluster size required by the FAT file system.

That's right, installing all of Merlin on a FAT partition of greater than 1 gigabyte will actually take 550 meg instead of the 350 it would take on an HPFS drive.  Have you started repartitioning yet?
 
Once you've resized your partition and created some free space, you can Move it so the existing free space will be contiguous with another partition.  You can then expand that second partition.  It couldn't be easier!

If you have old FAT partitions from your DOS and Windows days and don't want the hassle of repartitioning and reinstalling your software, you can use the Convert option to dynamically change the FAT partition to HPFS without losing the data currently on it.  And of course, you can Delete, Create or Format partitions with either the FAT or HPFS file systems

Documentation

The documentation is also very good.  The comprehensive manual is a trove of hard disk related information and I've found myself referring to it when I have questions not even related to PartitionMagic.  All the program's functions are explained as are more generic things like 1024 cylinder limits, the differences between primary and extended partitions, multiple visible primaries, drive lettering and FAT cluster size waste.

BUT!

If you think there is no downside to PartitionMagic though, think again.  There is one enormous problem with the OS/2 PM version that users should know about: in practice it may be completely useless.

OS/2, like any other powerful, multitasking OS, often has a variety of files open on different partitions.  PartitionMagic will not allow you to make any modifications to a partition with open files on it and this means basically any OS/2 partition to which you have ever installed a program.  Often, these partitions have DLLs on them which are in use or there are references in your config.sys file (or possibly your INI files) to directories on them.  In my case this meant that the only one of four partitions (3 HPFS, 1 FAT) that I could modify from the OS/2 PM version of PartitionMagic was the FAT partition I use for DOS.

To see if I could get around this, I modified my config.sys, completely deleting every reference to any partition except the one I was booting from.  This did not solve the problem; PartitionMagic still would not let me modify my HPFS partitions claiming that there were files in use on them.

I gave PowerQuest tech support a call and asked if there was any way to solve this.  The gentleman on the phone was somewhat unfamiliar with OS/2 so he put me on hold (not a toll free number) to ask someone else in the department.  When he came back a while later he informed me that having folders on the OS/2 Desktop that refer to directories on other drives can cause OS/2 to lock those drives and, therefore, PartitionMagic will not to allow them to be modified.  I tried moving all such folders off my Desktop.  Even this, in combination with my stripped down config.sys file, would not allow me to modify my partitions from the PM application.

This is not PowerQuest's fault but still, it severely limits the usefulness of the PM version of the program.  Users who think they are getting an intuitive graphical interface for their US$69.95 should be warned that they may never be able to use that graphical interface for much.  I was informed that I could boot to DOS and use the DOS version, which has a nicer interface than the OS/2 text mode, but I declined.  This most likely would have raised another problem -- one of my hard drives is greater than 1024 cylinders and it can not be "seen" on my computer under DOS.

Considering all this, the price isn't thrilling.  While the Windows 95, Windows and DOS version sells for only US$49.95, the OS/2, Windows 95, Windows and DOS version is US$69.95.  PowerQuest, have you forsaken the OS/2 market that helped launch your career?  There is a nice upgrade price though, US$29.95 for users of v1.x.

Conclusions

Despite the above drawback, functionally PartitionMagic is a solid application.  Even though you might think that partitioning your hard drive is something you would seldom do, just owning PartitionMagic could change your opinion.  If you are even remotely involved in the maintenance or repair of many systems, it is essential.  After seeing what a great job PowerQuest has done I have only two things to say.  IBM and Microsoft: shame on you for making us suffer with unflexible FDISK programs for so many years.  PowerQuest: thank you!

-----

* PartitionMagic for OS/2 v2.03
by (http://www.powerquest.com/) PowerQuest Corp.
MSRP: US$35
-----

Sidney Maplehurst is a computer advisor, OS/2 advocate, and all around computer nut.  She also enjoys health food, reading and skydiving.  She has been using OS/2 since v2.0.

***********************************

Soup KIDchen v1.1- by Doug Hicken


Since OS/2's inception, it has been considered an operating system for the "Power User", not for the average home user.  Widdow Works, a small company started in early 1996, is trying to change that perception by introducing a program for children entitled Soup KIDchen v1.1.  Soup KIDchen is an educational program for children aged 2 through 6 that  helps them learn numbers, colors, shapes, and the alphabet by associating them with images and sounds included on the CD-ROM database.  Soup KIDchen encourages parents to take an active role in their child's education and entertainment by allowing them to personalize the database with sounds and pictures of their own.

Installation

The installation of Soup KIDchen uses IBM's install program.  Unlike my other experiences using this install program, no glitches of any kind were encountered.  Because only five meg is required to install, valuable hard disk space isn't wasted.  Since I had previously installed the shareware version, I was curious to see how the install would handle this situation.  No problems were encountered; in fact, it used my icons from the previous install.  Had I created a database while using the shareware version, it would have migrated the database as well.  Soup KIDchen also comes with a CMD file to recreate the icons on the desktop should the Workplace Shell become corrupt.

Getting Started

When you start Soup KIDchen, you are presented with a window that greets you and tells you the basics of the program.  This window only appears the first time you run Soup KIDchen.  Then you hear the sounds of a kitchen and are presented with a fullscreen main menu with the bluejam.midi file playing in the background.  The main menu consists of a countertop that has crayons, blocks, numbers, and building blocks on it that represent the four learning areas or as Widdow Works likes to call them, modules.  When the mouse pointer is moved over any of the above mentioned modules, it changes to a crayon box, the number one, a triangle, or the letter "A" building block depending upon the module selected.

Upon entering one of the modules, you are presented with the items of the module, jumbled up (hence the name "Jumble Screen").  You can rearrange the items by clicking on the right mouse button, or as I found out, by pressing any key on the keyboard not associated with that screen.  When an item is chosen, an entry for the item is displayed that consists of descriptive text, an image, and two .wav files.  If sound is enabled, a description sound file is played.  If the "Descriptive text" located at the top of the image is clicked on with the mouse, the description is played again.  And when you click on the image, the "Effects Sound" is played.  When the mouse goes over the "Descriptive text", the text changes colors.  It's a great touch.

To cycle through the other images in the module, the user can simply click on the number, letter, color, or shape located on the upper left or right of the image.  If you want to return to the jumble screen of a module, you can click on the space on any side of the image.  However, I found it easier for my daughters to tell them to click on the Teapot (a "fridge magnet" beside the image).

The main menu can be reached from the image or from the jumble screen by clicking on the teddy bear in the lower left corner.  To end the program you simply click on the stop icon in the upper left corner.  As a finishing touch, a few soft bells ring on shutdown.

Configurability

Soup KIDchen's strength is in the configurability of its database.  By default Soup KIDchen reads a database named SoupKIDd.ini that uses the 95 entries that come on the CD-ROM.  Most items have more than one entry and Soup KIDchen cycles through the entries for you.  You can add entries to this database or use a different database by starting Soup KIDchen from the command line using the /database switch with the name of the new database you would like to create or use.  Soup KIDchen has six command line switches: /windowed, /nomusic, /noaudio, /module, /configure and /database.  If you decide in the future to merge two separate databases into one, a utility called multidb will do this.

Adding an entry to a database is a simple, straightforward process using an OS/2 style notebook accessed from the Soup KIDchen Configuration object in the Soup KIDchen folder.  Filenames can be typed in, selected from a file dialog accessed through a pop-up menu, or, in true Workplace Shell fashion, dragged and dropped!  When you open the configuration notebook, a windowed version of Soup KIDchen is automatically opened so you can see the changes you make to the database in Soup KIDchen!

A nice touch that has been added to Soup KIDchen is the use of path substitutions.  This allows you to move images and sounds that make up your database if they are all in the same subdirectory.  You only change the path variable, not each entry individually.  If you were to 
move your images or sounds to the hard drive and keep them in the same subdirectories, you would only have to change the values for the variables from e:\[dir] to c:\[dir] and Soup KIDchen would know where to find the images for each entry.

Performance

Unlike other OS/2 multimedia applications that I have run, Soup KIDchen doesn't drain my system resources.  Even with the images and sounds on my CD-ROM, the delay from mouse click to audio or video response is barely noticeable.  I normally run about 10 programs at a time, and my other applications were not affected at all.  You can instantly tell that this is not a Windows port, but a true multi-threaded OS/2 application.  If you wanted to improve performance even more, you could copy the images and sounds to the hard disk and change the paths to reflect these changes.  I was highly impressed with Soup KIDchen's performance.  If you still have an old 8 bit sound card, Soup KIDchen even has 8 bit sound files.

Documentation

When a program such as Soup KIDchen comes without hardcopy docs, I usually dread having to read the on-line help.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that Soup KIDchen uses OS/2's IPF help system and that items were easy to locate.  I did find a few holes in the on-line help, though.  Nowhere in the documentation does it tell the user how to create a new database or how to record .wav files using OS/2.

Fortunately, technical support is excellent and very knowledgeable about their product.  Soup KIDchen executives noted that wepm.exe in MMOS/2 is the best way to record sounds under OS/2 and that local print shops such as Kinko's can scan in family photos and put the images on disks for you, ready to enter into Soup KIDchen.  Context sensitive help is also available in the configuration notebook to help you along.

Conclusions

Clearly, Soup KIDchen is a well thought out educational program.  Most of the bugs were found and corrected in the shareware version hence the 1.1 designation for the commercial release.  The quality of the graphics and sounds are impressive and configurability is second to none.  Performance, ease of use, and documentation are superb.  However, the addition of palette dithering would be nice as would be the ability to add .avi files to the database.

Widdow Works has presented the OS/2 marketplace with an educational program that is sorely needed.  You can try Soup KIDchen in shareware form by downloading it from any major OS/2 shareware site.  Soup KIDchen v1.1 with the complete CD-ROM database is available at major OS/2 vendors.  Version 1.1 retails for US$40.

-----

* Soup KIDchen v1.1
by (widdow@third-wave.com) Widdow Works
download the shareware/demo v1.00s with 16bit sounds from (ftp.wilmington.net/bmtmicro/supk100s.zip) BMT Micro (ZIP, 2.86meg)
MSRP: US$40 (CD version with complete multimedia database)

-----

(doug@uwin.com) Doug Hicken is a Team OS/2 member that has used OS/2 since OS/2 for Windows.  He owns and operates a Pheasant Hunting Preserve in Utah.  Two of his children, Jessica and Chelsey, helped with this review.

***********************************

Oil v1.1- by David Seldon


OS/2, like most other OS's, attracts a lot of tinkerers who want to try their hand at programming but not necessarily at the other skills required to produce a good game.  The result is a boatload of silly little diversions and toys that look like they were slapped together in someone's garage.  Oil v1.1 is not one of those programs.

In fact, Oil is a well put together little game that may keep you happily diverted from your spreadsheet or database for hours.

The Basic Premise

Oil is a puzzle game.  It is similar to other such games available for OS/2 and other operating systems but is possibly different enough that it can be called somewhat "unique".

The object of the game is to connect a pipeline from an oil tank somewhere on an island to a filling station on the edge of that island so a cargo ship can pick up the crude and carry it off to billions of anxious consumers.  The playing field is a grid and each square can take one piece of pipe.  The trick is that the different pipe shapes (crosses, straight pieces, bent pieces) come in random order so you have to work with what you are given.

So What's the Problem?

Sound simple?  Well, it might be except for a few things.  First of all, there's a time limit on each level.  An experienced player will find it easy to complete a pipeline in the allotted time but a beginner will most likely struggle.

Also, each level has a set of goals that must be met.  The player must get a certain amount of points (points are awarded for time left over and for the number of pipeline pieces laid) and must build a certain number of "crosses".  As I mentioned, some of the pipeline pieces that you are given to work with are in the shape of crosses.  This means that instead of just connecting them on two sides, you can attach pieces to all four sides.  If you do this correctly, the oil will turn as it flows through the finished pipeline.  You also get bonus points for each "cross" the oil flows through.

After you complete the pipeline, points are deducted for any pieces you have placed that are not part of the main line.  And on the higher levels there are occasional obstacles (rocks and bushes) which you can not place pieces on.  (Actually, the whole game takes place on islands which are sometimes irregularly shaped so you do not even necessarily have a square playing area.)

Is It Fun?

Yes!  This is not a shoot 'em up or a game that will get your adrenaline running (unless you lead a very boring life) but it is really entertaining.  It's fairly tricky to build your pipeline without leaving loose ends and orphaned pieces and even if you do, there is the element of time and the goals for each level to keep things interesting.  The higher levels can get pretty hard (especially level 11!).

One of the game's assets is its nice graphics and small touches like animated fish jumping out of the sea occasionally.  This is not Myst, mind you, but the game could have been programmed with just squares and line drawings so it's nice that the author took the time to add these touches.

What This Game Needs

What Oil does not have is sounds.  It's purely incidental to game play but the game could really use some background music and maybe some sound effects.  Another missing feature that would be appreciated is a "save game" or "jump to level..." option.  There are 11 levels in the registered version of the game and it can get tiresome going through the earlier ones just to tackle that one level that has eluded you.

Oil's one other glaring shortcoming is its manual/help file.  Well, let me rephrase that: its help file.  There is no manual, not even an on-line one.  And if you go looking in the help for instructions you may be disappointed.  In fact, when I first attempted to play the game, I couldn't figure out how, despite reading the on-line help!  It actually took about a week before I went back and tried again, this time with a little more persistence, and realized how fun it really is.  A clearer "How To Play" page or possibly some tips and tricks in the on-line help would be a major improvement.

Other than these items, the only complaint I had is that there isn't enough of it!  More levels or added obstacles would spice the game up some.

Conclusions

Overall, Oil is a good, solid, fun game.  While the shareware version is somewhat limited (it only has 3 of the 11 levels included in the full version) it will certainly allow you to find out if you want to buy the program.  And for US$10 it probably won't take you long to make that decision.

-----

* Oil v1.1
by (100756.2570@compuserve.com) Martin Schulz
download from (ftp.codrom.com/.4/os2/games/oil11.zip) Walnut Creek CD-ROM FTP site (ZIP, 285k)
Registration: US$10

-----

David Seldon is a part time language teacher and part time student.  When he's not travelling or playing games he enjoys surfing and skiing.

***********************************

Profile: Jason Perlow- by Chris Williams


Jason Perlow has left Team OS/2.  Some people react to this statement with a resounding "Good riddance!", while others are more reserved.  Others still may lament his departure.  One thing is certain.  Just mentioning the name Jason Perlow, the founder of (http://www.teamos2.org/os2web/) OS2Web and long time OS/2 advocate, to many in the ranks of Team OS/2 raises heart rates and emotions.

Of the many words you can use to describe Jason Perlow, no matter what you think of him and the events surrounding him and OS2Web over the past few months, "controversial" is a term that most people can agree upon.  If you ask him, he is the only person ever to be "kicked off" Team OS/2.  Officially, at least according to the Team OS/2 organizers, Jason left of his own accord.  The emotions of the chain of events that lead to the removal of OS2Web, Jason's departure, and OS2Web's eventual return, run in all directions.  Many people were caught up in on-line discussions about it.  A number of regrettable on-line incidents also occurred as a result.

OS/2 e-Zine! interviewed Jason last month, asking him about himself, the controversy that surrounded him, and his opinions on the events that led to OS2Web's removal from TeamOS/2 Online and his exit from the Team OS/2 ranks.

We tried to find out from Jason himself why he has said and done what he has, and where he stands in his beliefs about OS/2 today.  Read on and decide for yourself who Jason Perlow is and what it is that can place a colorful, outspoken individual at the center of such a controversy.

          * * *

OS/2 e-Zine! : Tell us about yourself.  What is important about you that you think others should know?

Perlow:  I'm what most people would call a "straight shooter."  My greatest strength and weakness both is a tendency towards "telling it like it is" at all costs.  Many people interpret this as arrogance -- but when it's backed up by knowledge and experience I think it's justified.  When that's not true, or when opinions begin to cloud the reasoning, it is arrogance.  Like everyone else in this on-line community where we tend to talk (or type) first and think later, I've occasionally been guilty of this.  I'm a human being and I make mistakes.  Don't you?  Certainly allowing this whole OS2Web thing to even become a "Controversy" was a mistake...

OS/2 e-Zine! :  Tell us about "the controversy" from your point of view.  What happened between you and others that caused such strong discord?

Perlow:  There's really no controversy here.  It was a chain of events that was partially  my fault for not seeing a pattern of behavior and a lot of misunderstanding between a lot of people, which led to a lot of high tension and a lot of hasty and bad decisions on both sides.  I probably should have insisted on an actual "title" given to me from the very beginning when I became a staff member at TeamOS/2 Online.  What's really the heart of Team OS/2's problem is there's no chain of command, nobody's in charge.  There's a small group of people who have rather forcefully tried to fill this vacuum, but since nobody "officially" has the power, nobody really feels the responsibility which would go along with it.  I don't think people have realized this.

In any case I was responsible for running OS2Web, acquiring new pages for Team OS/2's web site and acquiring all of their new hardware, the last of which I decided to do because the web site was in serious need of new equipment and my web pages were pulling about 50 percent of their total traffic.  Actually, as you probably know, most of this was originally at my own initiative -- since Jon Lurie and I started OS2Web on our own some time before TeamOS/2 Online even existed -- but we had come to an accommodation with Team-OS/2 On-line and (I thought) were all happy with the arrangement.

I decided that if anyone wanted to know what my title at Team OS/2 was, it was as the web site's Coordinator, because basically that's what I was doing.  When Terry Hamilton resigned from his position as Webmaster he told me explicitly, under no circumstances, to give any of the new hardware I was acquiring for Team OS/2's usage to Matt Stein and James Fitzgibbons due to potential ownership issues and future personality conflicts, and that a new Team OS2Web site should be started under my leadership with a new domain name, perhaps OS2WEB.COM or TEAM-OS2.NET or something along those lines.  This should have been a warning sign to me, but I had disregarded this as pure personal problems and had NexGen (AMD) deliver the new equipment to Matt and James in Canada.

Shortly before Terry Hamilton left, a falling out between the Canadian TeamOS/2 Online staff and their provider, Internex Online, occurred.  For over a month Team OS/2 had no Internet connectivity and I was hounding the two of them during that period to get their act together, and I think this caused a lot of resentment because I was controlling the fate the entire web site, the hardware itself, and had NexGen delay its shipment until they had a firm commitment on connectivity.  I had no choice because I didn't want NexGen to think we were unprofessional and disorganized, and to put Team OS/2's reputation at stake when clearly we had no capacity on our side to deliver the WWW advertisement NexGen rightfully wanted in return for their sponsorship of the web site.

Once Matt and James received the hardware, and connectivity was restored, things really began to deteriorate between us because, for business reasons, I was getting involved more heavily with Windows NT.  Matt and James used this fact as an excuse to rid me from their presence.  Of all the possible reasons they could have used, this struck me as the least likely -- since as vehement as I've always been about promoting OS/2, I have always publicly stated that I am a multiplatformist.  You know -- the right OS for the right job.  Recently my opinions about the definitions of which OS is right for which jobs may have changed, but my admiration and strong support for OS/2 has never wavered one bit.  Matt and James even went as far as to imply that I was misrepresenting TeamOS/2 Online in my Internet postings because the words "NT" were not inevitably linked with negative statements.

I received an e-mail in April from Matt stating that I was no longer a staff member of the web site, but that OS2Web was still welcome there provided that I conformed to proper Team OS/2 behavior.  My initial reaction to this was to immediately inform them I was removing OS2Web from TeamOS/2 Online, which I did.  As far as I was concerned if they felt they could control my opinions, they had no right to host my web pages and benefit from them.

The only questionable aspect of any of this is that none of the IBM sanctioned Team OS/2 support people made any official decision to have me removed as a staff member of TeamOS/2 Online, it was clearly Matt and James' decision and I wasn't consulted or confronted when any issues arose regarding any of my alleged personal behavior and misrepresentation regarding my relationship to TeamOS/2 Online.

The only way I could have prevented this eventual problem was if I had taken up Terry Hamiliton's offer to do a site with other Teamers, because there was no IBM sanctioned Team OS/2 staff (Janet Gobeille and the rest of the IBM Austin Team OS/2 staff had all been surplussed, and Dave Whittle resigned from IBM) to come to my defense when the issue arose.  Unfortunately none of the new Official Team OS/2 staff in Canada (including Terry Hamilton, who is privy to all of this information) have chosen to do so since, because frankly I think everyone found the whole thing too embarrassing and potentially very damaging to the organization.

OS/2 e-Zine! :  Over the past couple of years, many people have watched your perceived attitudes towards OS/2 change.  There is a lot of emotion and interpretation over where your attitudes about OS/2 and the OS/2 community really are and have been.  What were your attitudes, what are they now, and how have they changed?

Perlow:  It's funny that people have chosen me as some kind of barometer for the state of OS/2 advocacy.  Maybe it's because I was one of the most vocal and recognized OS/2 advocates for the past several years, and also OS2Web has gotten a lot of exposure as well.  I was around since the very beginning in '92 as a charter officer of the Westchester OS/2 Users Group, one of the first IBM sponsored OS/2 Users Groups in the US (and maybe even the first OS/2 user group, period), and I was personally given the OS/2 Ambassador award at a Westchester meeting by Lee Reiswig.  Before there was such a thing as Team OS/2, I was already out doing software store demos and such and going on the 'net and talking about it.  I guess people got to think of me as gung ho an OS/2 advocate as you could get.  For one mailing for an OS/2 meeting at Westchester I went to the local post office and liquidated their supply of Elvis stamps on the day the Elvis stamp was released.  Sure enough it was the largest meeting in that user group's history and Stac Electronics showed Stacker for OS/2 to the world for the first time.  During a snow blizzard, nevertheless.

Since '92 I've definitely changed as a person and as a computer professional.  I've worked in several different fortune 500 MIS environments and seen what their needs are and what the modern realities of corporate computing are, and unfortunately those needs are generally not compatible with the desires of an OS/2 advocate.  Back in '92 I was a student, OS/2 2.0 was brand new and the desktop OS standard was yet to be defined.  So there was a lot of young "damn the torpedoes" energy within me back then, and I thought we could make a difference.  IBM also could have made a huge difference in 1992, certainly in 1993 with OS/2 2.11 and definitely with the release of Warp, but they sat idle and let MS catch up on the technology side and unleash the might of their superior marketing savvy.  During this time Windows NT has made a lot of headway in corporate environments as the future desktop and client-server computing standard, with lots of application development commitments garnered from many companies.

OS/2 may be technically superior to NT from an interface and object technology standpoint, but more than four years later we still don't have mainstream OS/2 applications in software stores and it's still difficult to get device support from major hardware companies.  The 32-bit Windows standard has made its mark in stone on Corporate America, whether we OS/2ers choose to believe it or not.  Even IBM has come to this realization and is now trying to win back the enterprise crowd from their NT aspirations with Warp Server and Merlin.

I think it is going to be an extremely uphill battle that in the end probably cannot be won.  There are significantly fewer OS/2 ISVs now than there were two years ago, because none of them, save perhaps Stardock and Lotus, actually made any money.  IBM clearly should have been financing OS/2 ISV projects, when they weren't.  For all the money and time IBM has spent putting bells and whistles into Merlin since the release of Warp, they could have financed the development of 10 OS/2 applications at strategically chosen ISV's.  You have to realize that the apps are the thing.  What good is a superior operating system if you don't have anything to run on it?  I once owned a Betamax video recorder -- but I eventually threw it out when I realized that watching the same dozen movies was getting pretty boring and I couldn't go out and rent any new movies, they were all VHS.  We'll have to wait until the Merlin beta to see if the bells and whistles were really worth it.

OS/2 e-Zine! :  Do you feel the OS/2 community has been fair to you?  Why?

Perlow:  I can't really say the OS/2 community has been unfair to me as a whole.  I still have a lot of friends left.  There are individuals who have decided to target me as some sort of traitor to the OS/2 community, when clearly I'm just trying to continue to educate myself in various aspects of IS technology and continue my growth as a computer professional.  It seems that if you don't adapt an "OS/2 or die" attitude these days as an OS/2 advocate you're a paid Microsoft plant and a public enemy.  I've spent the last four years advocating OS/2 within the user group community and within corporate environments.  I've paid my dues and I know the people who really know who Jason Perlow is realize that.

What most of the more hostile people fail to realize is that I have always seen OS/2 as a technology -- and technologies change, fail or adapt depending on the circumstances.  Also, I am not ashamed to admit that I care more about my career and taking care of my family than any technology.  If NT is a successful technology, well, it's just plain stupid to stay in ignorance of it.  Let the zealots starve if they'd like.  Harsh, but reality is harsh.

OS/2 e-Zine! :  Do you feel you have been fair to the OS/2 community? Why?

Perlow:  I think so.  There comes a point when you have tried your hardest and you have fought all your battles for the good of a cause, and if the cause hasn't produced results, it's time to consider your options.  It's time for Jason Perlow to consider his options now besides OS/2.  I can't continue to ignore other things for the sake of "do or die" OS/2 advocacy.  On the other hand I have always been a proclaimed multiplatform computer technology enthusiast and OS/2 was always just a technology (albeit a very promising technology) I was interested in and never a religion.  Operating Systems are just tools.  Tools are interchangeable and sometimes need to be replaced or at least reevaluated.  From one perspective I can romanticize the David and Goliath thing between IBM and MS as much as everyone else, but from another I realize it's just plain silly.  I mean a mere ten years ago, who would have ever thought that IBM would be "David"?

OS/2 e-Zine! :  How has the controversy surrounding OS2Web changed your attitudes towards OS/2, Team OS/2, and the OS/2 user community and why?

Perlow:  I don't think the incident really changed my views towards OS/2.  OS/2 is still in my opinion the best PC operating system and the best PC client/server product on the market today.  The problem with OS/2 lies in its support from ISVs and commitment within various key business groups within IBM and I don't think many people would argue with me about that.  What has changed is that I realize now Team OS/2 will never be a productive organization because of the way it has grown without any accountability, it is full of many internal political problems and that the OS/2 user community in general has become rabid in desperation.

OS/2 e-Zine! :  What's wrong with Team OS/2?

Perlow:  It was designed to fit the role of a small professional organization and instead became a free-for-all rah-rah club for OS/2 fans.  Dave Whittle originally intended Team OS/2 to be a professional organization for IBMers to promote the usage of OS/2.  When non-IBMers were allowed into the mix without any accountability, and without a basic and enforceable professional code of conduct, Team OS/2 became uncontrollable and the rabid and unprofessional element became extremely visible, even though that element may be a minority.  The lack of an organizational structure as well as a lack of financial independence also creates tremendous problems in terms of administrating and supporting an organization of this type and size.  I wasn't an IBMer -- so on one level I appreciate being "let in."  But we should have been held to the same standards.

OS/2 e-Zine! :  What's right about Team OS/2?

Perlow:  The camaraderie between Teamers is unparalleled with any other computer enthusiast type organization of its kind.  I've also seen some real teamwork and first rate professionalism from Teamers working at trade shows like COMDEX and PC-EXPO and at software store demos.

OS/2 e-Zine! :  Now that you have left OS2Web behind, what are your plans for the future?  Do you still plan to be involved with OS/2 in any way?

Perlow:  Right now I'm working on (http://www.ntweb.org/) NTweb, the "sister" site of OS2Web.  I'm also involved in the creation of a professional organization called the National Association of NT User Groups (NANTUG) in conjunction with the NT user group community and I'm going to be a presenter at two trade shows this summer (Windows Solutions and Networld+Interop).  I will also be writing feature articles for Windows NT Magazine.  While I've given Jeff Bakalchuck full ownership of OS2Web, I will be contributing to it from time to time and I certainly will have a lot to say about Merlin and am looking forward to the beta.  Who knows, if it succeeds and I start saying good things about it, maybe the NT folks will start calling me a traitor as well <grin>.  Sometimes I have trouble understanding why no one else cares more about "what works" instead of just politics.

OS/2 e-Zine! :  Do you still use OS/2 for anything you do day to day and do you plan to keep up with its changes for the foreseeable future?

Perlow:  I would if a motive still existed to do so, but for now Windows NT 4.0 beta-2 meets all of my needs as far as an Internet and productivity platform goes.  For games I use Windows 95.  It's very refreshing to be able to go out to a software store and actually be able to buy software that you KNOW will run on your computer, and to be able to get your OS to run on your hardware out of the box.  If you do have to call up a hardware company, its nice to get a positive reaction from them.  "Oh yeah, we have drivers, they're on our web site."

At work I am also a serious Windows NT user, but I still have to work with a lot of systems that run on OS/2.  OS/2 based Notes servers, CC:mail routers, A/DSM servers, Advanced Function Printing workstations and CA-UNICENTER/STAR are pretty important roles for OS/2 at the company I am currently working for.

I certainly plan on giving Merlin a fair shot.  Being a multi-OS kind of guy, I've been thinking of using my Jaz removable hard-drive creatively and putting Linux on one disk, Merlin on another, NT on a third, Win 95 on a fourth and so on.  Unfortunately I'm not sure this is an easy option for the everyday user.

Now that Jeff is in charge of OS2Web, I know what web page to check for news about OS/2, don't I? <grin>.

OS/2 e-Zine! :  Do you think OS/2 is dead, or does it still have a chance in the market?

Perlow:  I think OS/2 will never be "dead".  IBM is known to support products long after their profitable life cycle.  I'm sure we'll see an OS/2 version 5.  Maybe even a microkernel version.  I don't think it will be as important a player as Windows NT will be, but there will always be shops that will want to continue with OS/2.  There are a lot of companies who have vertical market apps where OS/2 still plays an important role.

But who knows?  AS/400 is in the midst of a revival a decade later... maybe OS/2 can pull off something similar?

OS/2 e-Zine! :  What are your plans for the future now that you have more or less ended your Team OS/2 activities?

Perlow:  Think.  Write.  Hit the trade shows.  Work.  Sleep.  Pay more attention to my wife.  Get more sleep.  Maybe take up golf.  Take down all my Bill Gates dartboards <laugh>.

          * * *

Attempts were made to contact Mathew Stein at the same time this interview was conducted.  He was, unfortunately, unavailable for comment.

-----

(privateI.com/~chrisw) Chris Williams has been actively involved with OS/2 systems for the past six years.  A former IBM employee, OS/2 Ambassador, and long time member of Team OS/2, he is currently a PC and network specialist for Perot Systems Corporation.

***********************************

The Great Windows 95 Revolution- by Marty Cawthon


There is lots of excitement in the consumer marketplace for Pentium-based multimedia computers.  Many, perhaps most, of these come pre-loaded with Windows 95.  Very few, perhaps close to none, come pre-loaded with OS/2.

This easy-to-make observation coupled with the enormous amount of hype from Microsoft and corresponding coverage of Windows 95 by the trade press and popular media may lead OS/2 enthusiasts like ourselves to wonder: "What sort of future is there for OS/2 applications?"

In mid-May I received a mailing from Tiger Software.  It was "VOL VI, Issue 4" of the "CDROM Buyer's Guide", with a cover price of $1.95, but it really is a direct-mail catalog with a "cover price" to qualify for lower US postal rates.

In the front page of this catalog there is a Compatibility Guide to the different applications  
listed.  There are:

o  "Win95 32-Bit" applications which run only on Windows 95 or WindowsNT
o  "Win 95 Win3.1 32-Bit" applications which run on Windows3.1, Windows 95, and WindowsNT (Note that these are Win32s applications)
o  "Win95 Win3.1 16-bit" applications
o  "DOS" applications
o  "MAC" applications

There were no "OS/2" applications listed, nor were there "WIN-OS2" listings.  However, OS2 runs most DOS, "16-bit Windows", and many "Win32s applications".  But OS/2 will not run the "Win95 32-Bit" applications, nor any MAC applications.

So what does it look like?  Is there a developer stampede to Win95?  Is OS/2 being left behind?

I analyzed all 302 CDROM multimedia applications in the catalog according to the platform.  There was a wide diversity of titles, from "Mr Potato Head Saves Veggie Valley" to "Talk to Tabloid Beauties".

Here is what I found:

16-bit Win3.1/Win95		171		*****************
MAC				75		********
Win32s Win3.1/Win95	20		**
DOS				20		**
Win32 Win95/WinNT		12		*

If we remove the MAC titles and compare the number of OS/2 compatible multimedia applications with those that are definitely not OS/2 compatible, we see:


Likely to be OS/2 compatible:
16-bit Win3.1/Win95		171		*****************
Win32s Win3.1/Win95	20		**
DOS				20		**

Known to be NOT OS/2 compatible:
Win32 Win95/WinNT		12		* (6 of these 12 are Microsoft titles)


Or, about 211 titles which are likely to be OS/2 compatible compared to 12 titles which
are genuine Win32 applications and are not OS/2 compatible.

Despite the hype of Windows 95, and despite the large presence of Windows 95 in the consumer market, the "standard platform" appears to be "Win3.1 16-bit", followed far behind by "Win32s (Win3.1 compatible)" and DOS.  Even farther back are native 32-bit Windows 95 applications.

It could be that "The Great OS Debate" may follow in the footsteps of "The Great Bus Debate".  You'll recall a few years ago it was "Micro-Channel vs EISA: Who will win?"  And the winner is: ISA (In terms of market share, not technical superiority...).  So perhaps in the "OS/2 vs Win32 API war" it may turn out that the winner is: Win 3.1 16-bit APIs.

What does this mean for OS/2 enthusiasts?  To me it means "Good News".  There are only a few multimedia titles which OS/2 can absolutely not run.  Most Win3.1 applications, and many Win32s applications run well under OS/2.

IBM's John Soyring stated at a speech in Chicago in April that it is IBM's intention to continue to enhance the usefulness of OS/2.  This, he said includes improving the Windows 3.1 compatibility and improving upon Win32s capability of OS/2.

It's coming up on the one year anniversary of Windows 95 and it appears that the developer community has NOT gone hog-wild for this new product.  An OS/2 user can avail themselves of much of the DOS and 16-bit Windows (Win 3.1 and Win32s) multimedia products available.

The "Great Revolution to Windows 95" just didn't materialize...

-----

(mrc@ChipChat.com) Marty Cawthon is president and cofounder of (http://www.ChipChat.com/home00.html) ChipChat Technology Group, which develops and markets OS/2 communications software, multimedia products, and Internet services.  Mr. Cawthon is a Certified OS/2 Developer, OS/2 Engineer, OS/2 Warp Server Engineer, and Network Communications Engineer.  He has been developing OS/2 software since IBM and Microsoft released version 1.0.

***********************************

Off-line Adventures- by Trevor Smith


You may be wondering why I'm writing about off-line adventures in an on-line magazine.  Am I advocating that users should jump off the information highway and go back to the non-connected world of days gone by?  Not at all.  Well, mostly not at all.

The fact is that despite the media's love for all things on-line, there are times when a combination of on and off-line strategies works best for information gathering and dissemination.  In fact, OS/2 e-Zine! is a perfect example of this.  Every month we devote a fair amount of energy to putting together an on-line resource for OS/2 users, but at the same time we create zipped copies for off-line reading.  Why?  Because some users prefer to get the goods, log off and read at their leisure -- without running up on-line charges.

My Point

Last month's article on Yarn and Souper by Jon F. Kaminsky made me realize that I could benefit from a similar arrangement.  For a while now, I've been spending way too much time and money in on-line charges reading Usenet news groups.  The fact that it's part of my job (as well as a hobby) to keep up on current events and opinions in the OS/2 community means I can spend one third or more of my monthly on-line time reading newsgroups.  I decided it was time I found a way to get the job done without using any of the 65 hours a month my local ISP allows me.

But Wait

Before I could assemble the various tools I needed to do this, I had to decide what my goals for this little project were.  I wanted a system that would:

o  log on to the 'net unattended at a certain hour
o  retrieve specified newsgroups
o  allow me to read and reply to articles while off-line, and
o  upload those articles the next time I connected

This meant I needed:

1. a scheduler of some kind
2. a dialler that would log on without someone around to press the "dial" button
3. a program to retrieve and post news, and
4. a program to read and respond to the news

The Pieces to the Puzzle

The first item seemed pretty straightforward so I headed off to Hobbes to see what shareware was available for OS/2 to schedule tasks.  I found a few likely suspects and after trying some of them, I settled on Alarm Clock v3.0.  Alarm Clock allows users to specify times for events to happen on their systems (either simple reminders or launching programs).  It is reasonably powerful in its ability to schedule recurring events based on many different patterns.  My needs were fairly straightforward though, and luckily Alarm Clock is also easy to set up despite its power.

My Internet provider, like many, provides "free" hours when users can log on and not be billed, in my case, between 2:00am and 8:00am.  Although I'm occasionally awake after 2:00am, it's not my preferred time for news reading.  This is where Alarm Clock came in: I set it to start my Dial Other Providers (DOP) application at 2:15am just to give myself a little leeway in case my computer's clock was off.

But this exposed a flaw in my plan.  I (erroneously) thought that the DOP utility would not dial my provider without me being there to press the "Dial" button.  This meant that while Alarm Clock would open DOP, it would just sit there without dialing unless I was around.  (I found out later that providing the "Name" field of the entry to be dialled as an argument in the DOP settings notebook will cause it to "auto-dial" that entry.)

While In-JOY and other dialers will also "auto-dial" as soon as they are opened, I had a few other reasons for wanting to pursue a different approach.  In reality, all the DOP actually does is call a command line program, ppp.exe, and send a few parameters to it.  So I fiddled with ppp.exe until through experimentation, research and luck, I got it to perform the same function that the DOP graphical interface was.  I now use this command line to dial my provider:

ppp.exe com2 57600 priority 1 rtscts notify exit defaultroute connect "pppdial.cmd"

The "pppdial.cmd" parameter tells ppp.exe to use a REXX script written by (drussell@direct.ca) Don Russell that I use to do automatic redialing if I get busy signals.  This works so well that I now use it exclusively to save a few seconds (because I'm not loading the graphical overhead of the DOP) whenever I want to log on to the 'net.  This may also be of interest to users who run OS/2 on memory challenged systems.  If so, feel free to (editor@haligonian.com) e-mail me.

The News

Now that I had my dialler logging in automatically, I needed some way to get the news.  There are a few different news readers for OS/2 that allow users to download articles, log off and read them from a local hard drive.  Even though Souper and Yarn are not the simplest of these, I chose to use them.  I had originally tried the two programs when I first got Warp but gave up on them for various reasons.  Jon's article gave me renewed enthusiasm and I decided to try again.

I won't go into detail on how to get Souper and Yarn running since the INF file included with Jon's article last month covers that topic quite well.  Let's just say that I had to work slowly and carefully setting them up to get everything working properly.

Once I did, I set Alarm Clock to start Souper shortly after dialling my Internet provider (about 5 minutes later to ensure the dialler had time to log in).  Again, I actually could have used an alternative dialler like (http://www.belle.dk/~bj/Welcome.html) In-JOY to do this.  In fact, In-JOY could have automatically dialled my provider when it was started and automatically started Souper once the connection was made.  For various reasons, I chose to do it the hard way but using In-JOY instead of my command line dialler would have worked fine too.

Now, when Souper logs in, it uploads any articles I have written while off-line and then retrieves all the messages in most of the comp.os.os2.* hierarchy.  After Souper finishes running, my Internet connection sits idle for 15 minutes at which point it shuts off due to inactivity.  This is one of the least elegant parts of my solution but since I'm not being billed for the time anyway and since surely no-one is trying to call me at 3:30am, I don't worry about the 15 minutes of dead phone time.  I can then read the news from the comfort of my own hard drive each morning when I start my day.  Simple.

That's the Climax?

And that was basically it.  I'm sure you've already realized that there are no revolutionary secrets here.  What I've done is patch together a few common OS/2 utilities, mostly freeware, to bring the on-line community to me in an off-line way, and in the process, manage my time a little more efficiently.

BTW, the total cost of all the software needed to perform this little miracle is:

o  DOP - FREE (included with Warp)
o  Souper - FREE
o  Yarn - FREE
o  Alarm Clock v3.0 - US$25
o  My time - well... you get the picture.

-----

* Souper v1.5
by (cthuang@io.org) Chin Huang
download from (hobbes.nmsu.edu/network/tcpip/souper15.zip) Hobbes (ZIP, 173k)
Registration: Freeware

* Yarn v0.90
by (cthuang@io.org) Chin Huang
download from (hobbes.nmsu.edu/network/tcpip/yrn2_090.zip) Hobbes (ZIP, 438k)
Registration: Freeware

* Alarm Clock v3.1
by (http://www.wilmington.net/bmtmicro/catalog/alarmclock.html) WalkerWerks
download from (ftp.wilmington.net/bmtmicro/alrmc31e.zip) BMT Micro (ZIP, 242k)
Registration: US$25

-----

(editor@haligonian.com) Trevor Smith is the editor of OS/2 e-Zine!.  When he's not fiddling off-line newsreaders, he's fiddling with articles like this one.

***********************************

TeX and LaTeX for OS/2 (GNU - Part 4)- by Murray Todd Williams


For those of you just tuning in...

This is the fourth article in a series about GNU software for OS/2.  The (http://www.haligonian.com/v1n6/gnu.html) original article provided a brief introduction to the world of GNU.  GNU software, written under the banner of the Free Software Foundation is a library of software so well written that in many cases it far outperforms commercial products.

In the (http://www.haligonian.com/v1n7/gnu.html) second article I provided some simple instructions to assist in finding and installing EMX -- the base foundation for GNU on OS/2 -- as well as the GCC compiler, a very powerful compiler for C, C++, and Objective C programs.  (I also gave a preview of GNU's latest miracle: XFree86 for OS/2.

The (http://www.haligonian.com/v1n8/emacs.htm) third article demonstrated GNU EMACS.  This text editor is able to perform incredible tasks (including a built-in psychotherapist!) that dwarf any commercial competitors.

In this article I will endeavor to give you a brief view of TeX and LaTeX2e, point out some basic hints for installation, and show how to run these programs directly through EMACS.

So what is TeX?

Glad you asked!  TeX is sometimes referred to as a text formatter, (as opposed to a text editor) and it's important to explain this distinction.  When it comes to working with "text" we can work with three different types of applications: text editors, text formatters, and word processors.

The text editor basically works exclusively with ASCII text files.  There are no distinguishing features like different fonts, italics or different type sizes.  We use text editors to work on system files (like config.sys) or to program, or to write e-mail.

The word processor is probably the best known application of the 90's.  Examples of these are the WordPerfect, Word Pro or Describe.  They keep track of text formatting codes and keep the special instructions for those codes invisible.  To make a clearer distinction, let's consider all "word processors" to be WYSIWYG.  (What You See Is What You Get.)

The text formatter's end purpose is identical to that of the word processor: to generate a nicely formatted page of text, images, tables, etc.  In the dawn of the Personal Computer era (early 80's) before the word processor became popular, text formatters were widely used.  These programs would take an ASCII file, filled with a document's text and formatting commands and convert it into a finished document.  To center a line you would write:

..ce
This line is centered.

TeX is a very powerful text formatter.  Although it is not a WYSIWYG word processor, it should not be dismissed.  Many people (myself included) swear by TeX.  Here are a few reasons why...

o  No other program handles scientific typesetting -- specifically equations -- better than TeX.  I've had some of the big-name commercial word processors choke when I defined more than five or six equations in a document.  TeX can format hundreds of very complicated pages quickly and without danger of crashing.  Additionally, I've rarely seen an equation editor which typeset equations as well as TeX does.

o  LaTeX, which is sort of a superset of TeX, is set up to provide a very professional layout to its documents.  In fact, chances are good that if you own a dozen computer books, at least one was written in LaTeX.  It has all the advanced bibliography, table of contents, and indexing features of major word processors.  To be honest, if I tried to create an entire book in a WYSIWYG word processor, I don't think I could structure everything to look as professional as it would in TeX.

o  TeX is a very solid standard in the scientific community.  Most large UNIX systems will have TeX installed.  Much of the GNU applications for OS/2 have documents formatted in TeX or one of its hybrids.

How about a peek at some TeX output?

This is not easy to do in this article.  If you can display (or print) postscript files, you can view an (lamar.colostate.edu/~murray/morph4.ps) article I wrote a few year ago, or a (lamar.colostate.edu/~murray/acasman.ps) program manual
(warning: 399K) for some (rather esoteric) software I'm developing.  Both should demonstrate some of the basic capabilities of TeX.

This is a small example of the equation formatting abilities of TeX.  Many more elaborate equations can be flawlessly typeset.

What's the difference between TeX and LaTeX?

Another good question.  I'm glad you asked.  LaTeX is like a layer on top of TeX.  With TeX you have control over everything.  It's like a low-level programming language.  LaTeX has much more convenient commands and features to make document-generation easier.  LaTeX
provides advanced features like automatic bibliographies, tables of contents, chapter and section numbering, and indices.

There are two flavors of LaTeX: old LaTeX and LaTeX2e.  The latter is a more advanced rewrite of the LaTeX standard.  I suggest when you install TeX/LaTeX that you stick to LaTeX2e.

How do I install these programs?

Eberhard Mattes, the man responsible for EMX, the GCC port to OS/2 and the EMACS port, also ported a version of TeX called (appropriately) EMTeX.  This is a very slick version of TeX.  In fact, it's a bit smoother than the version of TeX that I have running under Linux.  Installation is rather painless if you follow the instructions carefully, and configuring everything is an easy task.

Once again, the Hobbes Archive is the best place to start.  Check out the (http://www.teamos2.org/hvm/HVMindex.hobbes.unix.tex.emtex.html) /unix/tex/emtex  directory first.  There you will find the (hobbes.nmsu.edu/os2/unix/tex/emtex/readme.eng) README.ENG and 
(hobbes.nmsu.edu/os2/unix/tex/emtex/install.eng) INSTALL.ENG files.

Assuming you have already read my other articles and installed EMX, GCC and EMACS, this installation should not be difficult.

Additional goodies

There are some programs which will make EMTeX ever simpler to use:

1. (hobbes.nmsu.edu/os2/unix/tex/emtex/utils/pmtex.zip) PMTeX (ZIP, 50k) is a small OS/2 PM utility which will load a TeX file, load your favorite editor, "compile" the file with TeX and launch the PM TeX viewer or send the finished document to a printer.

2. (sunsite.auc.dk/packages/auctex/auctex.zip) AUCTeX (ZIP, 318k) is a large collection of EMACS Lisp files which allow you to do everything from within EMACS.  I cannot tell you how wonderful this package is!  Needless to say, it easily falls in my top ten list of "most important utilities".  For those of you who have already started working with EMACS, "c-hm" gives you a help screen that describes the basic commands in LaTeX (or TeX or BiBTeX) mode.  Be warned: install this one carefully and follow all the instructions.

3. (hobbes.nmsu/edu/os2/unix/ispell40.zip) ISPELL (ZIP, 540k) is a good general spell-checker.  This isn't really a TeX utility, but after you install it, EMACS will spell-check your documents WITHOUT getting hung up on the TeX commands.

4. DVIPM.  Although this is part of the regular EMTeX distribution, I'd like to remind you that it exists.  This is a PM-application which displays your TeX documents very nicely.

In addition, I strongly suggest the following two books for learning LaTeX:

o  Lamport, L., (1994) LaTeX--A Document Preparation System, 2nd edn. for LaTeX2e Reading MA: Addison-Wesley.

o  Kopka, H. and Daly, P. (1995) A guide to LaTeX2e: document preparation for beginners and advanced users Addison-Wesley.

Now go forth and install...

I admit my articles have grown less pedantic each month.  It's important to develop the ability to tinker if you want to use UNIX software.  Each month the installation process has become increasingly difficult.  It's important to understand that GNU software is often tricky to install and use the first time.

If this doesn't scare you off, you'll soon develop the skills needed to bravely port GNU software that hasn't yet been ported to OS/2.  The magic of GNU is that any GNU application should be able to compile on any (supported) operating system with a few minor alterations.  The entire wealth of UNIX utilities is out there and available for OS/2.

My next article, which will complete this series, will explore a program called Ghostscript.  This application will allow you to display postscript files on-screen and print them on a non-postscript printer.  With some fiddling, ghostscript can be called directly from Web Explorer to display postscript files.  I will also provide some useful comments for installing XFree86 for OS/2.

Until then...

-----

(lamar.colostate.edu/~murray) Murray Todd Williams is a student at Colorado State University, working on a M.S. in Statistics.  He is also a member of Team OS/2.

***********************************

It's a bird! It's a plane!  Oh never mind, it's just NetHead...- by Brandon Fesler


Hello everybody, I hope you're having a great day.

John Thompson said recently in the OS/2 Warp Teleseminar II that "OS/2 touches the lives of millions and millions of people around the world... when you execute an ATM transaction... you are interacting with OS/2."  The pundits aren't standing for this though.  They want proof that you can walk into Egghead and buy an ATM machine.

Bill Gates has stated that he wants Microsoft eventually to be the sole software company for the PC.  I already figured this out.  When I looked for a PC version of Monopoly, it was for Windows.

CompuServe recently announced WOW!, an Internet service that is specifically aimed at novices who have managed to get Windows 95 running.  Reports are confirming that all seven of them really do love it.

After IBM announced that "Merlin" would have VoiceType Dictation packaged with the operating system itself, Microsoft announced its own voice recognition system.  Beta testers are ecstatic.  Apparently the way it works is: You tell the machine what you want it to do.  Then, it tells you that it's not going to do it, you really didn't want to do that anyway, and you're going to do this instead.

Microsoft has repeatedly "leaked" information about its upcoming server OS, "Cairo".  Apparently it will be object-oriented, have totally new management facilities and have very good networking abilities.  However, sources denied rumors that when it is released, it will be called "OS/2 Warp Server".

Rumors are saying that IBM is trying to strike a deal with Netscape to include Navigator in Merlin.  Things aren't looking good though.  It seems Netscape's next target system is the lucrative Commodore 64 market.

Recently a man walked into a service station after filling his car with gas.  The attendant took his credit card and swiped it on the reader which was attached to a computer.  The Windows system summarily crashed hard.  The attendant rebooted the system, apologized to the customer, and tried the card again.  The machine locked up.

"Look," the customer said, "I'm an IBM sales rep.  I can get you a fantastic new system which is cheaper than the one you have now, automates the entire credit card system, does all the taxes, all the payroll, automatically balances the registers at night, and won't crash because it runs the latest version of OS/2."

"OS/2!" The attendant yelled.  "I don't want that!  It doesn't come with a pinball game!"

-----

(nethead@okc.oklahoma.net) NetHead is a working stiff who uses OS/2 for his home PC.  He has written a large OS/2 home page and is authoring The Complete OS/2 Reference Guide web site (coming soon).

***********************************

The Chronicles of John Ominor	- by John Ominor, The Inhuman


If there was no Merlin beta,  Ominor would have to invent it.

It has begun.  OS/2 Merlin has officially entered its beta testing stage.  Unlike a certain other software company, IBM, through channels both official and unofficial, had announced a June beta release date and behold, it was done.  Ominor is pleased.  Despite the ever increasing, drug-induced, ignorance-caused admonitions of, "OS/2 is doomed," IBM continues to develop OS/2 Warp's successor on schedule.  The various journalists and Windows advocates who proclaim OS/2's demise consistently manage to forget one important fact.  The failure of OS/2 Warp is contrary to the Will of The Inhuman.

What Ominor finds interesting is that despite this being touted as a closed beta, closed implying extremely limited availability, many familiar names have proclaimed their joy at receiving this software.  But none have thanked The Inhuman.  Ominor must ascertain the number of individuals rejected by IBM, which incidentally is known in some circles as the Inhuman's Biggest Minion.  Ah... there is indeed nothing more refreshing to a parched spirit than the wit of Ominor.  Perhaps you should huddle your families around the monitor for the remainder of this article.

Thy will be done, John Ominor.

Where else would our loved ones be, John Ominor, but tanning their souls in a brilliance brighter than a thousand suns?

Excellent.  Where indeed?

You must remember, my legions of the Un-damned, my Merlin Beta testers, yours is a task critical to OS/2, therefore of grave import to Ominor.  Report all problems, no matter how trivial, to IBM or relinquish your beta to another who will.  If any are in need of a model of efficiency, consider using one of the Windows advocates who has failed to thank The Inhuman for his induction into the Merlin beta program.  This unit has mentioned wishing the Merlin beta was symmetric multiprocessor enabled, and claims that the VoiceType Dictation software has locked his machine several times.  Of course, of all the reports Ominor has read, his seems to be the only machine having such problems.

Ominor is the cause of his sorrows.  Ominor does this to "train" him, much like the voice software will train you.  Now, my tireless worker bee will drive himself ever harder, dig ever deeper, and then report any problems found to the Internet.  From there, his reports may be channeled to a more appropriate destination.  The flaws will be fixed and The Inhuman need not lift a finger.  What the Windows advocate does not see is, in his eagerness to do OS/2 harm, he is merely responding to the tug of his puppet strings.  Learn from his diligence.

Ominor has also noticed that the so-called "signal to noise ratio" has increased as Merlin approaches fruition.  Ominor's ears still ring with the annoying clamors of: "Multitasking is not for average users," and: "the OS/2 GUI is too configurable.  Think of the learning curve," and even: "OS/2 doesn't run my 16-bit application fast enough."  Of course, despite Windows NT being available for quite some time, the advent of Windows 95 caused a change that should finally cause all but the most phobia-ridden hypocrites to question their true motives in dismissing OS/2.  Now their cries are: "You're still using those old 16-bit applications?" and: "Wow!! Nested folders."

"Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose."  The more things change, the more they stay the same.  Today, our 1996 naysayers attack the VoiceType Dictation and Navigation software.  This is software that allows one to interact with his computer using the most natural form of communication known to humans, speech.  It seems that fear and envy makes fools of many.  Recently, it has been Ominor's displeasure to read how the voice software will cause voice strain in the workplace despite the decades long use of the telephone.

Even more displeasing to Ominor was a statement truly inspired by a most grotesque combination of blinding stupidity and multilevel ignorance: "What if someone walks down the hall and shouts 'FORMAT C:'!!"  Ominor must not allow such bumbling numbskullery to continue.

It is interesting that the integrated Java, TrueType fonts, OpenGl, or even Plug and Play support did not elicit such reactions.  Only the feature most likely to capture the imagination of both common and power users alike.  Of course, were Ominor to consent to IBM's endless pleading and allow Himself to be bundled with the base operating system, OS/2's worldwide domination would in fact be total.

-----

The origins and current plans of (dmccoy@mailhost.mnsinc.com) Ominor are known only to (dmccoy@mailhost.mnsinc.com) Ominor.  He is indeed a mystery to all.  Save The Inhuman.

***********************************

June's Top Selling Commercial Applications

*Note:* The following list represents only the top selling OS/2 applications.  OS/2 Warp and OS/2 Warp Connect are not included in the rankings.

This Month	Last Month	Product					Company

1		--		Impos2 v2.0				Compart
2		2		Hobbes CDROM Archive		Walnut Creek
3		3		Partition Magic v2 Personal Ed.	PowerQuest
4		4		Backmaster v2.0			MSR Development
5		--		BackAgain/2 v4.0 Prof. Ed.		Comp. Data Strat.
6		5		System Commander v2.2		V Communications
7		1		Object Desktop				Stardock Systems
8		10		GammaTech Utilities			SofTouch Systems
9		6		DeScribe Voyager CD			DeScribe
10		--		Faxworks Pro v2.0			Global Village


Compiled by (http://www.indelible-blue.com/ib/) Indelible Blue, Inc. - Your Single Source for OS/2 Solutions.

***********************************

June's Top Selling Shareware

This Month	Last Month	Product				Company

1		1		PMMail				SouthSide Software
2		2		Xit				CodeSmith Software
3		6		PMView			Peter Neilsen
4		3		iLink/2			Mental Static
5		5		ScreenSaver			Siegfried Hanish
6		4		Neologic Network Suite	NeoLogic
7		--		WebExplorer Organizer		Andre Phillips
8		7		MR/2 ICE			Nick Knight
9		8		ZOC				EmTec Innovative Software


Compiled by (http://www.wilmington.net/bmtmicro/) BMT Micro - Your Source for Over 75 Quality OS/2 Shareware Applications.

***********************************

How to Subscribe for FREE

* Subscribe to be notified - FREE!

If you would like to recieve an e-mail notice when new issues of OS/2 e-Zine! are posted to the WWW just send a note to (editor@haligonian.com) editor@haligonian.com with:

subscribe os2 notify

in the *subject line*.  Please include your *full name* in the *body of the message*.  We'll take care of the rest!

You will receive an automated response verifying that you have been added to the list with instructions on how to remove yourself should you decide to.

Occasionally we receive notification requests without an e-mail address or with an invalid one.  This can happen if users fail to fill in the relevant information or enter it incorrectly in WebExplorer or whatever program they are using to e-mail us.  Without your proper e-mail address it is impossible for us to add you to our list or even let you know of the problem!  *Please make sure your software is properly configured.*

If you think you have subscribed to our notification list and that new issues have come out but you have not been notified, send an e-mail to editor@haligonian.com explaining the problem.  Make sure you include your complete name and e-mail address.

If you have any questions or suggestions please (editor@haligonian.com) e-mail us or contact us at:

Haligonian Media
7 Pleasant St., Suite B
Dartmouth, N.S.
CANADA   B2Y 3P1

(902) 461-2266

***********************************

Sponsor OS/2 e-Zine!

* Corporate Sponsors

OS/2 e-Zine! is seeking a *limited number* of corporate sponsors.  A variety of affordable advertising options are available to corporate sponsors including *high impact, inline graphical advertising*.  Arrangements are available for multiple issue sponsorship.

For more information please (editor@haligonian.com) e-mail or phone (902) 461-2266.

* Readers can sponsor too!

If you feel OS/2 e-Zine! is useful, entertaining or educational, please send whatever 12 issues are worth to you.  Even sponsorship of a few dollars is appreciated.  Individuals sponsoring US$ 10 (or CDN$ 15) or more will be listed in our Sponsors Page with an optional link to their home page (this listing is voluntary).

Please send:

o  cash, cheque or money order (International or Canadian--payable to Haligonian Media),
o  a note stating that it is for OS/2 e-Zine! sponsorship,
o  your name,
o  address (city, state/province and country),
o  e-mail address, and
o  web url if applicable.


Alternatively, you may choose to sponsor OS/2 e-Zine! through BMT Micro by cash, cheque, money order, Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express or Diner's Club.  Just call:

o  (800) 414-4268 (Voice) 9:00am - 7:00pm EST,
o  (910) 350-2937 (Fax) 24 hours a day,
o  (910) 350-8061 (Modem) 10 lines, all 14.4K, or
o  (910) 799-0923 (Modem) Direct 28.8K line.


Any amount is appreciated and whether you choose to sponsor or not, you will still be able to enjoy every issue of OS/2 e-Zine! on the WWW!

For more information or any other questions please (editor@haligonian.com) e-mail us or contact us at:

Haligonian Media
7 Pleasant St., Suite B
Dartmouth, N.S.
CANADA   B2Y 3P1

(902) 461-2266

***********************************

Our Sponsors:

(http://www.wilmington.net/bmtmicro/smalled/) Bianchi Software
Developer of Smalled, the small, high powered, intuitive OS/2 editor.

(http://www.wilmington.net/bmtmicro/) BMT Micro
Your complete source for over 75 of the best OS/2 shareware applications available.  Drop by today and check out our WWW catalog or download the .INF version.

(http://www.ChipChat.com/home00.html) ChipChat Technology Group
ChipChat produces excellent 32-bit OS/2 software for wireless text paging 
and state-of-the-art multimedia Sound Cards for Micro Channel PS/2 computers.

(http://www.wilmington.net/bmtmicro/zoc/) EmTec Innovative Software
EmTec Innovative Software produces state-of-the-art OS/2 ISDN, modem
and telnet communications software.  OS/2 Magazine and Inside OS/2 1995
award winner.

(http://www.hotinc.com/) House of Technology, Inc.
Your Canadian Source For OS/2 Applications.

(http://www.indelible-blue.com/ib/) Indelible Blue
Indelible Blue, a mail order company, provides OS/2 software and hardware solutions to customers worldwide.

(http://www.i-stream.com/) InterStream, Inc.
Visit our Web Site today for OS/2 Products, Consulting Services, Mailing Lists and download our very fast MPEG Player!
 
(http://www.os2store.com/) J3 Computer Technologies
Wide selection of OS/2 Applications, Great Prices and Outstanding Customer Service... "He who dares, wins!"

(http://www.Mount-Baker.com/) Mt. Baker Software
Developers of "Money Tree", a full featured personal financial package  
for OS/2.

(http://www.aescon.com/innoval/) Post Road Mailer
The Post Road Mailer is a high performance, 32-bit, email program with drag and drop filing, printing, shredding, word wrap and multiple MIME attachments.

(http://www.prominic.com/) Prominic Technologies
Software developer and IBM PC VAR preloading OS/2 Warp.  Expert staff provides advice on hardware and creates custom software.

(http://www.prioritymaster.com/) ScheduPerformance, Inc.
Dramatically improve performance on your OS/2 system NOW with the patented priority scanning logic and visual priority identification of Priority Master II.

(http://www.cfw.com/~shenan/) Shenandoah Equipment Co.
Providers of lifetime warrantied name brand simms, laptop and printer memory at competitive prices.

(http://www.spg-net.com/) SPG Inc.
Creators of ColorWorks for OS/2 - The Artist's Ultimate Power Program!  ColorWorks has earned both the 1995 OS/2 Magazine Editor's Choice & the 1995 OS/2 Professional Magazine Best New Product Awards.

(http://www.aescon.com/innoval/) Surf'nRexx
Use REXX to build powerful Internet utilities using our DLLs.  Package also includes 10 utilities as samples.

***********************************

Coming up next time	- on the Web July 31, 1996


* Features

Southsoft - Take a peek into one of the most successful shareware operations in the OS/2 world and see what makes the folks at Southside Software tick.


* Reviews

HyperWise - IBM's WYSIWYG editor for INF, HLP and HTML files promises to make the world a better place for documentation professionals.  We see if it lives up to its claims.

FileStar/2 v2.0 - SofTouch Systems has released an upgrade to this popular OS/2 file manager and our reviewer puts it through its paces.  Is it "just another upgrade" or a real improvement?.  Find out next month!

Toyland - It's finally here.  After a short delay, we'll finally have first looks at version 1.0 of the popular Soko-ban type game for OS/2.


* All the Regular Stuff

the Rants		the Beta File
the Rave		Opinions
Tips and Answers	Humour
	AND MUCH MORE!

***********************************

Copyright 1996   -   Haligonian Media
ISSN 1203-5696
