MMOUG May 1994 Newsletter

The views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily the views held by
the MMOUG or it's members. Don't agree with something you've read here?
Write and tell us about it!  If you have any contributions, please upload them to area
18 of the WoodMeister or send them to me via Internet at USDSSKZS@IBMMAIL.COM.  If
you work for the State of Missouri and have access to DISOSS, you can send them to
POOLMWV at DSSHOST.

Mid Missouri OS/2 User's Group Minutes

Minutes for 5/18/94 Meeting

Location:  Department of Conservation Training Room.

Attendees:  Gary Pool, Lynn Christie, Ken Gray, Jim Casstevens, Dayton
Shepherd, Penny Shepherd, Phillip Wilson, Randy Wright, Rick Wolters,
Gerri Jeffery, Ben Hoffman

Guests:  Greg Lane, Gennarro Griffith, Steve Maring, Dave Brumer,
Darrell Jungmeyer, Brian Oligschlaeger, David Scott, Randall Wilkerson,
Daryl Glascock.

Meeting:

Nominations were taken for Club officers.  They were:

President                       Phillip Wilson
Vice President                  Gerri Jeffery
Secretary                       Ben Hoffman
Treasurer                       Randy Wright
BBS Officer                     Woody Sturges
Information Officer             Gary Pool
Membership                      Rick Wolters

Nominations were closed and all officers were elected by acclamation.

Scott Jeffries for Computer Associates gave a presentation and
demonstration on CA Realizer and CA Superproject.

A drawing was then held for a copy of CA Realizer or CA Project
donated by CA.  Lynn Christie won and will receive a copy of CA
Realizer.  Two books were drawn for and Dayton Shepherd and Rick Wolters
won them.

A press release from the IBM Corp. was read saying 5 Million copies of
OS/2 have been sold and that OS/2 has won 37 Major Industry awards.

The next month's meeting will be in Columbia, at the Boone County
Electric Coop  Community Room at 4pm on Wednesday 6/15/94.  The speaker
will be Joe Woodwell from OneUp Corporation and the topics will be their
products:  Window Washer (screen saver), Open Shutter (screen capture)
and Smart Source (code converter from DOS/Windows to 32bit OS/2).

The July meeting will be in Jefferson City and held at the Department of
Social Services building off of Elm Street.  We are attempting to get a
speaker from Oberon.

The meeting was adjourned.

Information Officer Input/Output (IO I/O)

Well, finally I've gotten around to getting the Newsletter off the ground since I have been officially
confirmed as Information Officer.  Dale Heckemeyer (I know I've blown the spelling on your last
name, Dale -- but it's close) did a fantastic job of producing the Newsletter in INF format, as well
as having excellent content.  Thanks, Dale.

As the now reigning Information Officer, I have definite plans for the Newsletter.  Since this is my
first go at it, the Newsletter does not yet have all the bells and whistles that I'd like, but once I
get the initial issue out, it will hopefully improve in the future.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, my style is very informal and conversational.  Unlike Dale,
who is a journalism major, my publishing experience is limited to being the editor of Newsletters in
college and during post-graduate school.  I've had no training in style and content -- and I'm sure
it will show!

I plan to have several regular columns every month: MMOUG Minutes, IO I/O (Information
Officer Input/Output), The Dog House (the home of REXX), Humor, OS/2 TNT
(OS/2 Tips 'N' Techniques), Threads (interesting announcements and posts), Rebound (I'll
get information from Woody about what's on the boards).  As you can see, you could also
be exposed to some terrible puns!  I'd also like some thoughts from the President, a preview
of upcoming meetings, and I'd like to include a membership form as part of the INF file.

I have always liked the INF version of the Newsletter, which can be distributed throughout
the world.  In addition, we are also going to be sending out an abbreviated, hard copy version
of the Newsletter to our members.  If you are reading the hard copy, be sure to download the
INF version to ensure that you get the full benefit.

gp

The Dog House

Welcome to the Dog House, home of REXX.  Gee, this should be distributed on FidoNet!
If you have never used REXX, you are missing out on a powerful aspect of OS/2.  It is a
programming language that is included with the base operating system.  In the Dog House,
I plan to show different snippets of REXX code.  Hopefully, by examining the code, you can
find your own uses for REXX.

A REXX program is identified by two aspects:  It has an extension of CMD, and the
very first line of the program is a remark, identified by '/*' at the beginning of the line and
'*/' at the end of the line.  Here is the famous "Hello, World" program in REXX:

HELLO.CMD

/* This indicates that this is a REXX program as opposed to a regular CMD file. */
Say "Hello World" /* Comment: "Hello World" is displayed on screen. */

This obviously is the tip of the iceberg as far as REXX goes.  In the upcoming months, I will
include code snippets that are more complex.  These code examples are ones that I find
useful to learn more about REXX.  If you have any contributions, please upload them to area
18 of the WoodMeister or send them to me via Internet at USDSSKZS@IBMMAIL.COM.  If
you work for the State of Missouri and have access to DISOSS, you can send them to
POOLMWV at DSSHOST.

Humor

For all of you Bulletin Board Aficionados, this is the definitive Unofficial Smile Dictionary:

The Unofficial Smilie Dictionary
--------------------------------

:-)   Your basic smilie. This smilie is used to inflect a sarcastic or
      joking statement since we can't hear voice inflection over Unix.
;-)   Winky smilie. User just made a flirtatious and/or sarcastic remark.
      More of a "don't hit me for what I just said" smilie.
:-(   Frowning smilie. User did not like that last statement or is upset
      or depressed about something.
:-I   Indifferent smilie. Better than a Frowning smilie but not quite as
      good as a happy smilie
:->   User just made a really biting sarcastic remark. Worse than a :-).
>:->  User just made a really devilish remark.
>;->  Winky and devil combined. A very lewd remark was just made.

Those are the basic ones...Here are some somewhat less common ones:

(-:   User is left handed
%-)   User has been staring at a green screen for 15 hours straight
User is drunk
:|   User is a robot
8-)   User is wearing sunglasses
B:-)  Sunglasses on head
::-)  User wears normal glasses
B-)   User wears horn-rimmed glasses
8:-)  User is a little girl
:-)-8 User is a Big girl
:-{)  User has a mustache
:-{}  User wears lipstick
{:-)  User wears a toupee
}:-(  Toupee in an updraft
:-   User is a Vampire
:-E   Bucktoothed vampire
:-F   Bucktoothed vampire with one tooth missing
:-7   User just made a wry statement
:-*   User just ate something sour
:-)~  User drools
:-~)  User has a cold
:'-(  User is crying
:'-)  User is so happy, s/he is crying
:-@   User is screaming
:-#   User wears braces
:)   User has a broken nose
:v)   User has a broken nose, but it's the other way
:_)   User's nose is sliding off of his face
:<)   User is from an Ivy League School
-:-)  User is a punk rocker
-:-(  (real punk rockers don't smile)
:=)   User has two noses
+-:-) User is the Pope or holds some other religious office
`:-)  User shaved one of his eyebrows off this morning
,:-)  Same thing...other side
-I   User is asleep
-O   User is yawning/snoring
:-Q   User is a smoker
:-?   User smokes a pipe
O-)   Megaton Man On Patrol!  (or else, user is a scuba diver)
O :-) User is an angel (at heart, at least)
:-P   Nyahhhh!
:-S   User just made an incoherent statement
:-D   User is laughing (at you!)
:-X   User's lips are sealed
:-C   User is really bummed
<-)  User is Chinese
<-(  User is Chinese and doesn't like these kind of jokes
:-/   User is skeptical
C=:-) User is a chef
@=    User is pro-nuclear war
*<:-) User is wearing a Santa Claus Hat
:-o   Uh oh!
(8-o  It's Mr. Bill!
*:o)  And Bozo the Clown!
3:|   Pet smilie
3:   Mean Pet smilie
d8=   Your pet beaver is wearing goggles and a hard hat.
E-:-) User is a Ham radio operator
:-9   User is licking his/her lips
%-6   User is braindead
:-)  User is wearing a walkman
(:I   User is an egghead
<:-I  User is a dunce
K:P   User is a little kid with a propeller beanie
@:-)  User is wearing a turban
:-0   No Yelling!  (Quiet Lab)
:-:   Mutant Smilie
      The invisible smilie
X-(   User just died
8 :-) User is a wizard
C=}>;*{))  Mega-Smilie... A drunk, devilish chef with a toupee in an updraft,
                          a mustache, and a double chin

Note: A lot of these can be typed without noses to make midget smilies.

:)  Midget smilie
:|  Gleep...a friendly midget smilie who will gladly be your friend
=)  Variation on a theme...
:} - What should we call these? (what?)
:) - Happy
:> - what?
:@ - what?
:D - Laughter
:I - Hmmm...
:( - Sad
: - Real Downer
:< - what?
:{ - what?
:O - Yelling
?
:C - what?
:Q - what?
:,( - Crying
| - Hugs and
:* - Kisses
I - Asleep
o -Snoring

  :-`   smiley spitting out its chewing tobacco
  :-1   smiley bland face
  :-!           "
  :-@   smiley face screaming
  :-#  smiley face with bushy mustache
  :-$   smiley face with it's mouth wired shut
  :-%   smiley banker
  :-6   smiley after eating something sour
  :)   smiley with pointy nose (righty)
  :-7   smiley after a wry statement
  8-)   smiley swimmer
  :-*   smiley after eating something bitter
  :-0   smiley orator
        smiley invisible man
  (:-)  smiley big-face
  ):-)          "
  ):-(  unsmiley big-face
  )8-)  scuba smiley big-face
  =:-)  smiley punk-rocker
  =:-(  (real punk rockers don't smile)
  +:-)  smiley priest
  :-q   smiley trying to touch its tongue to its nose
  :-e   disappointed smiley
  :-t   cross smiley
  :-i   semi-smiley
  :-o   smiley singing national anthem
  :-p   smiley sticking its tongue out (at you!)
  :-   un-smiley blockhead
  :-|   smiley blockhead
  :-{   smiley variation on a theme
  :-}   ditto
  {:-)  smiley with its hair parted in the middle
  }:-)  above in an updraft
  :-a   lefty smiley touching tongue to nose
  :-s   smiley after a BIZARRE comment
  :-d   lefty smiley razzing you
  g-)   smiley with pince-nez glasses
  :-j   left smiling smiley
  :-k   beats me, looks like something, tho.
  :-l   y. a. s.
  :-:   mutant smiley
  :-\   undecided smiley
  :-   "have an ordinary day" smiley
  ;-)   winking smiley
  :-<   real sad smiley
  :->   y.a.s.
  :-z   y.a.c.s.
  :-x   "my lips are sealed" smiley
  :-c   bummed out smiley
  :-v   talking head smiley
  :v)   left-pointing nose smiley
  :-b   left-pointing tongue smiley
  :-/   lefty undecided smiley
  :-?   smiley smoking a pipe
  .-|   one-eyed smiley
  ,-}   wry and winking
  0-)   smiley cyclops (scuba diver?)
  :-=)  older smiley with mustache
  :u)   smiley with funny-looking left nose
  :n)   smiley with funny-looking right nose
  :<    midget unsmiley
  :>    midget smiley
  }:#})  mega-smiley:  updrafted bushy-mustached pointy nosed smiley with
                        a double-chin

:-)     ha ha                   ~~:-(   net.flame
-)     hee hee                 O -)   net.religion
-D     ho ho
:->     hey hey                 8 :-I   net.unix-wizards
:-(     boo hoo                   X-(   net.suicide
:-I     hmm                     E-:-I   net.ham-radio
:-O     uh oh                    >:-I   net.startrek
:-P     nyah nyah                3:o   net.pets
-P     yuk

:-}     beard
:-{     mustache
:-#     braces
:-X     bow tie
:-Q     smoker
<:I     dunce
(:I     egghead
@:I     turban

8-)     glasses
B-)     horn-rims
8:-)    glasses on forehead
:-8(    condescending stare
;-)     wink
>:-<    mad

Drama :-(       Comedy :-)      Surprise :-o     Suspense 8-

Male    :-      Female  >-
Birth   -O     Death 8-#
Infinity        8

                                   ACRONYMS

             B4N             Bye for Now
             BAD             Broken as Designed
             BAMF            Bad Assed Mother F.......
             BBS             Bulletin Board System
             BRB             Be right back
             BBR             Burnt Beyond Repair
             BRS             Big Red Switch
             BTA             But then Again (in response to)
             BTW             By the way
             BWQ             Buzz Word Quotient
             CI$             Compuserve Information System <tm>
             CU              See you
             CUL8R           See you later
             DL or D/L       Download, transmit to you
             DTRT            Do The Right Thing
             DWIMC           Do What I Mean, Correctly
             ETLA            Extended Three Letter Acronym
             ESAD            Eat S... and Die
             FFRD            Flying F... in a rolling donut
                             (I don't give a FF in a RD)
             FISH            First In, Still Here
             FOAF            Friend of A Friend
             FRED            F...... Ridiculous Electronic Device
             FUBAR           "Fixed" up beyond all recognition
             FURTB           Full up ready to burst (about hard disk drives!)
             FWIW            For what it's worth
             FYI             For your information
             GDW             Grin, Duck and Weave
             GFR             Grim File Reaper (pervasive data destroyer)
             GIGO            Garbage in, Garbage Out
             GIGO            Garbage In, Gospel Out
                             (people accepting blindly what the computer says)
             GLGH            Good Luck and Good Hunting
             IAE             In any event
             IMAO            In My Arrogant Opinion
             IMHO            In my humble opinion
             IMO             In my opinion
             IOW             In other words
             IWBNI           It would Be Nice If
             IYFEG           Insert Your Favourite Ethnic Group
             MLA             Multiple Letter Acronym
             MOTAS           Member of the Appropriate Sex
             MOTOS           Member of the Opposite Sex
             MOTSS           Member of the Same Sex
             NFW             No F...ing Way
             NSS             No S..., Shylock
             OIC             Oh, I see
             OTOH            On the other hand
             PITA            Pain in the ...
             PLOKTA          Press Lots of keys to abort
             POSSLQ          Person of Opposite Sex sharing living quarters
             PMFBI           Pardon Me for butting in
             ROF,L           Rolling on floor, laughing
             ROFLASTC     Rolling on the floor laughing so hard I scared
                                the cat
             RPG             Role Playing Games
             RSN             Real soon now
             RTFM            Read the f...ing manual (or message)
             SFLA            Stupid Four Letter Acronym
             SMOP            Small Matter of Programming
             SNAFU           Situation normal, all "fixed" up
             SO              Significant Other
             SWMBO           She who must be obeyed
             TAFN            Thats all for Now
             TDM             Too Damn Many
             TGIF            Thank God Its Friday
             TIA             Thanks in advance
             TLA             Three Letter Acronym (now surpassed by MLA)
             TTL4N           Thats the lot for now
             TTFN            Ta Ta For Now
             UL or U/L       Upload, send to the BBS
             WIMP            Windows, Icons, Mouse, Pointing
                             (to describe Windows and other similar interfaces)
             WOFTAM          Waste of Flaming time and money
             WYGIWYPF        What you get is what you pay for
             WYSBYGI         What you see before you get it
             WYSIWYG         What you see is what you get
             YABA            Yet Another Bloody Acronym

             Sysop           System Operator, person who runs the BBS/Forum

                            SPECIALISED ACRONYMS
There are specialised ones for particular echos/forums,  I'm sure you'll
get the idea from the list below from the Star Trek forums that use the
following.....

    ST-TOS          Star Trek, The Original Series
    ST-TNG          Star Trek, The Next Generation
    STI/ST-TMP      Star Trek, first movie/The Motion Picture
    STII/ST-WOK     Star Trek, second movie/'Wrath of Khan'
    STIII/ST-SFS    Star Trek, third movie/'Search for Spock'
    STIV/ST-TVH     Star Trek, fourth movie/'The Voyage Home'
    STV/ST-TFF      Star Trek, fifth movie/'The Final Frontier'
    STVI/ST-TUC     Star Trek, sixth movie/'The Undiscovered Country'

These emoticons are particularly used by the Japanese but there is no
reason why they should not get worldwide use.....

                              happiness
                ;             embarrasment
                ;;              sadness
                --              when it's the occasion to bow

OS/2 Tips 'N' Techniques

Again, because this is my first attempt and I am pressed for time, this is going to be a
brief section this month.  I'll probably be stealing a lot of information from Stupid OS/2
Tricks.  If you've not downloaded this file, you should!  The latest version is called TRICKS4.ZIP
and can be found on the OS/2 WoodMeister.

Here's a simple little tip.  In the DOS world I would sometimes want to delete only a few files in
a directory, but the names were dissimilar enough that I could not use wild cards.  For example
consider the following directory:

 Volume in drive C is MS-DOS_5
 Volume Serial Number is 187B-8F5B
 Directory of C:\HPO

CAPTURE  BAT       239 02-24-92   9:54a
HPO      BAT      1491 09-05-92   9:40a
P        COM     10880 05-15-89  10:07p
HPOCPRXD CPT      8355 08-12-91   1:11a
HPODIAL  DAT      3090 08-12-91   1:11a
HPOPHONE DAT     10065 10-03-91  12:33p
HPO      DEF       239 09-12-91   2:59p
LPT2DSK  DOC      3927 10-03-86   1:19a
READ     ME       3722 08-12-91   1:11a
HPO      ORG      1494 10-03-91  12:34p
HPOPHONE ORG     10066 08-12-91   1:11a
README   TOO      2426 02-25-92   1:18p
HPODIAL  USR      4011 08-12-91   1:11a

If I wanted to delete P.COM, LPT2DSK.DOC and README.TOO, I'd have to do them one at a
time.  So I wrote a little batch file called DELL.BAT that contained the following:

DELL.BAT

@echo off
cls
if %1.==. goto syntax
echo Deleting the following files:
:doit
if %1.==. goto endit
echo %1
del %1
shift
:syntax
echo The syntax is DELL filenam1.ext filenam2.ext filename3.ext . . .
:end
:exmp.
When I started to change this to a command file in OS/2, I found that DEL in OS/2 does the
same thing already!  Just type:

DEL filenam1.ext filenam2.ext filename3.ext . . .

Quite useful!

Threads

"Threads" are a collection of posts that may be of interest to individual
readers.

5 Millions Copies of OS/2!

PSP PRESS RELEASE  IBM SHIPS FIVE MILLIONTH COPY OF OS/2 --
EARNS 37TH INDUSTRY RECOGNITION AWARD
May 18, 1994

Customers Establish Popular PC Software as Industry Standard

     AUSTIN, Texas, May 18, 1994 . . . IBM's award-winning OS/2*
has become the industry's 32-bit PC operating system standard as
evidenced by the shipment of the software's five millionth copy.
Since the release of OS/2 2.0 in March 1992, OS/2 has ranked
consistently near the top of software best-seller lists and
nabbed almost every major software award -- 37 prestigious honors
in all -- from Technical Excellence to Readers' Choice to Overall
Product of the Year.

     The editors of PC Magazine, an influential publication known
for its comprehensive product testing, bestowed the honor of
"Editors' Choice" on OS/2 2.1 in their May 31 issue.  After
extensive evaluations of 32-bit operating systems, PC Magazine
recommended OS/2 over Windows** NT and other competitive
products.  In fact, OS/2 has shipped nearly 20 times the number
of  NT copies shipped to date.

     In awarding the "Editors' Choice" designation, the
publication said, "OS/2 impressed us with its stability, its
true object-oriented GUI interface and strong DOS and Microsoft
Windows emulation."   The publication rated OS/2 "Excellent" in
the following categories:  Application Development, DOS and
Windows Emulation and Networking and Connectivity.

     "OS/2 continues to prove the skeptics wrong as it converts
more and more users," noted industry consultant Sam Albert,
president of Sam Albert Associates, Scarsdale, N.Y.  "OS/2 is
delivering today what Windows NT hasn't and Chicago hopes to
deliver -- a reliable, industrial-strength 32-bit operating
system."

     The readers of InfoWorld, a PC publication targeted at
people involved in all areas of computing, recently gave OS/2 top
honors in two categories for the second consecutive year:
"Overall Product of the Year" and "Software Product of the Year."
In addition to sweeping these readers' choice awards for the
second year, the editors of InfoWorld recognized OS/2 this year
with yet another "Product of the Year" distinction for
interoperability.

     "OS/2 2.1 was the only operating system where we could get
NetWare, LAN Server and TCP/IP running simultaneously and still
be able to run all our OS/2, DOS and Windows applications with
RAM to spare," beamed Nicholas Petreley of the InfoWorld
Enterprise Team.  "Combine that with the multitasking and
powerful OS/2 Workplace Shell, and we can't imagine ever going
back to a DOS/Windows environment."

:lines align=center.
Another Product of the Year Award
:elines.

     Earlier this year, readers of DATAMATION also selected OS/2
as their "Product of the Year" for a second straight year.  OS/2
won the readers' choice award in the very competitive PC Software
category.

     "The fact that both readers and editors of top computer
publications are recognizing OS/2 -- in some cases for two
consecutive years --  is a strong testament to the growing
momentum and industry-wide enthusiasm for OS/2," said Wally
Casey, director of marketing for IBM's Personal Software Products
division.  "Users and editors alike are demanding a powerful
operating system, and as the growing number of awards
illustrates, they are repeatedly choosing OS/2.  Combine this
with the fact that we've shipped more than five million copies of
OS/2 and there's no doubt that OS/2 is clearly the leading 32-bit
PC operating system on the market."

     In addition to receiving top honors in the United States,
OS/2 has been recognized around the world by numerous
publications and industry organizations, ranging from a "Best
Chinese Information Product of 1993" award from Taiwan's Chinese
Micro-Computer Extended Foundation to a "1993 Must-Have Award"
from Soft et Micro in France.  Most recently, OS/2 earned a
Technical Excellence Award from France's PC Expert and was named
"Operating System of the Year" by Germany's CHIP Magazine.

                           #  #  #

*     Indicates a trademark or registered trademark of the
International Business Machines Corporation.
**    Indicates trademark of the identified company:  Microsoft
(Windows).

REXX Handbook available

The second edition of the "REXX Reference Summary Handbook" will begin
shipping in March, 1994. Order lines are open.

This 160 page, "keyboard-side" companion details all of the instructions and
functions in SAA REXX distributed with OS/2. It also describes all of the
functions included in the REXXLIB and RXWINDOW external function packages
available from Quercus Systems - the Personal REXX developer.

The most significant addition to the second edition, subtitled "Everything You
Wanted To Know About Creating Workplace Shell Objects With REXX, But Didn't
Know Where To Look", is the inclusion of details for creating, maintaining and
manipulating Workplace Shell objects in REXX. Much of this information is
being made generally available for the first time.

The Handbook is not intended as either a tutorial or a learner's guide. With
its 30 page cross referenced index, the Handbook is an important tool that
will allow the novice REXX user and the REXX veteran alike to easily locate
any needed function as well as identifying the various functions which deal
with a particular subject.

The Handbook has been accredited by IBM for use of the official OS/2 logo and
C F S Nevada, Inc. is a member of the IBM Independent Vendor league and
Premier Developer Application Program.

The price for the Handbook is $19.95 plus $3.50 per copy shipping and handling
($4.50 for Canada, $6.00 for Europe, $7.00 for Australia and New Zealand). The
Handbook is shipped via first class mail. Quantity discounts are available for
dealers (inquiries are invited) as well as there being a special price for
user groups of $15.00 plus S and H each in lots of 25 or more.

Current owners of the first edition of the Handbook may order a copy of the
second edition by sending $10.00 + $3.50 S and H directly to C F S Nevada, Inc.
All update orders must be accompanied by an equal number of cutouts of the
blue C F S Nevada, Inc. logo from the back cover of the first edition.

Orders accompanied by a check payable to C F S Nevada, Inc. in U.S. dollars
and drawn on a U.S. bank and can be mailed to:

C F S Nevada, Inc.
953 E. Sahara Avenue, Suite 9B
Las Vegas, Nevada 89104-3012

Credit card payment for new orders will be accepted at 1-800-REXXOS2
(1-800-739-9672).

Upgrade orders must be mailed to C F S Nevada, Inc at the above address.
Inquiries may be directed to C F S Nevada, Inc. at:

           702-732-9616               voice
           702-732-3847               FAX
           72200,347                  CompuServe
           (1:209/705)                FIDO
           HONE81(DEV4672)            IBMLink, TALKLink
           72200.347@compuserve.com   Internet

Please note your Email address on your order. Orders will be processed in the
sequence they are received and the Handbook will be shipped within 10 business
days of the receipt of your order.

HPFS aUtOcHeCk

Editor's Note:  Doug Azzarito is one of the developers of the RBBS and
is currently working for IBM as THE HPFS guru.

At one of the sessions at the recent TI, some discussion
took place on a 'trick' to run CHKDSK on your boot
diskette from a running system. It is possibly dangerous.

To perform a CHKDSK /F in this situation, try the following:

CHKDSK /aUtOcHeCk

note the case of the option is critical.

Can someone explain the details. (Are you listening Mary M?)

Marvin Lichtenthal
marvinl@netcom.com

Subject: CHKDSK forcing it to run on boot disk!

This is a *bad* idea.

This feature is used by HPFS initialization to do AUTOCHECK repair
of HPFS drives.  At that time, the "mini" HPFS file system is using
the drive, so a CHKDSK /F would be illegal.  In order to make AUTOCHECK
work, HPFS tells UHPFS.DLL that the guy using the drive is in fact
the "mini" HPFS, which DOES NOT HAVE WRITE ACCESS TO THE DRIVE.  This
allows CHKDSK to operate without fear.  If YOU send this command to
CHKDSK with the REAL HPFS in use, CHKDSK could start scrambling data,
since the real HPFS does have write access.

Don't expect this feature to be around in the next version of OS/2
(I'll hide it even deeper), but relax, I understand what you're
trying to accomplish, and I'll give you the ability to CHKDSK your
boot drive WITHOUT booting from floppy.

In the meantime, tell everyone to AVOID this "trick."

(another dose of aspirin, please)
Doug Azzarito

Subject: CHKDSK forcing it to run on boot disk!

PS: As an undocumented feature this could go away at any time.
PSS: As an undocumented feature that can cause severe damage
that might not show up until a lot later with symptoms
that do not appear related to the cause, it may be in
IBM's best interest to make it go away.  To use an analogy
appropriate for South Florida, using this undocumented
feature is like going through a flashing railroad crossing
gate- you may save some time, but is it worth it?

Mary Monahan
IBM OS/2 File System Development
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