Virtual OS/2 International Consumer Education

December 1998

The News Page 3

I have uploaded the newest version of BootOS2, v9.17, to Hobbes at:
ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/btos2917.zip

The eventual destination will be:
ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/system/btos2917.zip

BootOS2 v9.17 - Build a bootable OS/2 system using existing installation.

The BOOTOS2 program is a utility that allows you to build a BOOTable OS/2 V2, V3 or V4 system using an existing OS/2 V2, V3 or V4 system. The BOOT system can be installed on either Floppy Disks or a Hard Disk Partition.

Hot Scroll 1.1 has been released, and is the last release unless bugs are found.
ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/incoming/hots11.zip
ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/wps/hots11.zip

New

- Patched the ESC key that made dialogs disappear in the PM Loader.

+ New Timer Scrolling (like in StarOffice 5.0)
+ New, the Mouse Pointer can be changed while Hot Scroll is active.
- Loader.exe not updated.

Hot Scroll 1.1
==============================================
Allows to scroll vertically and horizontallywithout Scroll Bars with either:

- Scroll Lock
- Any Keyboard Key or Mouse Button Combination.

Features:

- Normal Scrolling
- Timer Scrolling (like StarOffice 5.0)
- Support for different options for different
  applications:
  - Focus Change in Scroll Lock mode
  - Adjustable Speed
  - Non-proportional mode
  - Fake Dynamic Scrolling
  - Mouse Leash
  - Reversed Scrolling
  - Complete control over Timer Scrolling

Now with a PM interface!

Hello. There is a mailing list for ftp.ifs now.

To subscribe someone has to send a message to majordomo@bmtmicro.com and put the name of the list followed by their email address.

So, to subscribe you need to:

1. send a message to majordomo@bmtmicrocom
   
2. the subject does not matter
   
3. the body of the message must say: subscribe ftpifs-list@bmtmicro <your e-mail>
   

FTP.IFS is read/write FTP client made as File System Driver. This means that you may have w: as hobbes.nmsu.edu. You may find latest version on http://hobbes.nmsu.edu in /pub/incoming or at http://www.bmtmicro.com.

The Java-PalmPilot Project Homepage at:
http://yaztromo.idirect.com/java-pilot.html

...has been updated. New items to the homepage include the December 4th build of the SLP and PADP Protocols and Demonstration Application available for download.

The Java-PalmPilot Project is an attempt to create a cross-platform, Java based solution for both PalmPilot users and developers. The Java-PalmPilot Project is being developed entirely under OS/2 WARP v4, using IBM's VisualAge for Java v2.0 Pro, and IBM JDK 1.1.7A.

If you're a PalmPilot users, please take a moment to download and run the demo (~30k total size), and send your feedback to "Brad BARCLAY" (yaztromo@idirect.com).

Thank-you!

The EmTec FTP client version 5.05 is an updated and enhanced release of the FTP client which is included in the EmTec Network Suite. EmTec FTP is a 32 bit multithreaded PM based FTP client and is fully WPS aware. With the EmTec FTP client you can drag and drop files, resume broken transfers, run multiple copies of the program at the same time, and more.

FTP sessions and login information can be saved on the fly for later access and full support for firewall is included.

Available at ftp://ftp.bmtmicro.com/bmtmicro/eftp505.zip

New in this release:

FIX: Can not download directories under certain circumstances

FIX: Trap on closing a connection window when a file is viewed

FIX: "Local file overwrite warning" option does not work properly. Warning dialog box even if the option was checked

FIX: Audible tone on closing a connection window even if no transfer completed

FIX: "Select last visited directory" does not work with Peter Moylan's FtpServer v0.6x

NEW: Options to not to show Server Phonebook when EmTec FTP starts.

NEW: Tree-like Server Phonebook and Bookmarks menu.

NEW: Window submenu in Control Panel includes all opened connections

FIX: occasional trap on closing a connection window

FIX: better handling of multiline FTP server responses

FIX: bug in handling LIST command responce

Fixpak 39 for Warp 3, in both standard and RSU versions, have been released today. You can download the standard version from:
http://os2.miningco.com/msubfixp.htm#DiskImages

and the RSU (zipped) version from:
http://os2.miningco.com/msubfixp.htm#rsu

Solution Technology, Inc.

1101 South Rogers Circle, Suite 14 | Boca Raton, FL 33487
Voice: 561-241-3210 | Fax: 561-997-6518
E-mail: solution@gate.net | WWW: http://www.gate.net/~stidev

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: December 4, 1998

Contact: Leon D. Zetekoff, N.C.E.
561-241-3210, Fax: 561-997-6518
E-Mail: solution@gate.net
WWW: http://www.gate.net/~stidev

Closed Beta of Image Edition(R) for OS/2 and updated TWAIN for OS/2(SM) Starts

Boca Raton, Florida-- Solution Technology, Inc. (STi) announces the start of a closed beta for their significantly enhanced Image Edition(R) for OS/2 as well as a parallel update to their TWAIN for OS/2(SM) high performance image acquisition system.

The update to Image Edition for OS/2 includes many functional user enhancements, auto-migration. enhanced database recovery and regeneration as well as an updated Btrieve database and fixes to reported problems. The update to TWAIN for OS/2 includes new data sources for Hewlett-Packard, EPSON, and Fujitsu devices. Support for new models, some enhancements, and fixes to reported problems have been included.

"This is a significant release for STi", said Leon Zetekoff, STi Product Manager. "We're anticipating a release following incorporation of beta changes by the end of January, 1999."

Solution Technology, Inc. is a leading supplier of components for image analysis, data-entry and document management applications. Other barcode, forms reading, image data-entry, and departmental document management products for OS/2 and NT are available for use in the transportation, banking, distribution, and insurance industries among others. Product and pricing information can be requested by calling (561) 241-3210 or by visiting STi's web site at http://www.gate.net/~stidev.

TWAIN for OS/2 is a servicemark of Solution Technology, Inc.

Image Edition is a trademark of Ovation Data Services.

OS/2 is a trademark of IBM Corporation.

Other marks are owned by their respective companies.

Denmark - December 1, 1998 -- F/X Communications announced today the release of a new and highly anticipated Internet gateway product for OS/2.

The InJoy Gateway runs on the computer with the Internet connection and acts as an Internet Gateway for the other computers on your private LAN. The product is designed for LAN-to-LAN configurations, including the many new Cable Modem, ADL and ADSL installations.

The InJoy Gateway is the base module of the upcoming InJoy Firewall suite and more information is available at the InJoy Firewall product page:
http://www.fx.dk/firewall

Like other products from the InJoy product family, the InJoy Gateway is millennium proof, scalar and UNBELIEVABLY fast. It has been carefully designed to provide the stability needed by consumers, small businesses and even large enterprises.

InJoy Gateway FEATURES:

• NDIS Protocol Engine
  
• NAT Support (RFC 1631-style Network Address Translation)
  
• Direct Internet Access for your LAN PCs.
  
• No reconfiguration on other machines
  
• Configuration of inside NAT addresses (by netmask)
  
• Built-in trace aids setup
  
• Famous F/X Communication's quality support
  
• Y2K compliant
  
• Step-by-step documentation
  

FUTURE PLANS:

• Full Firewall/filtering/gateweay in one product
  
• A Graphical User Interface (Java, web-based)
  

Of interest to all java developers using OS/2 as their development platform!

TogetherSoft provides installation instructions for TogetherJ on OS/2. TogetherJ is a UML tool similar to Rational Rose but written in Java that includes real roundtrip engineering and Peter Coads' own notation as an option.

This product is getting rave reviews and although I haven't tried it apparently it integrates with VisualAge for Java.

Download the free whiteboard copy (5.4 MB) from:
http://www.togethersoft.com

If you find it works well with OS/2 tell them so and help make OS/2 the best place to develop for Java!!!

Magician 1.1.0 for OS/2 Released!

The Magician interface is an implementation of OpenGL for Java. Using Magician, programmers can write portable Java code that seamlessly uses existing native OpenGL libraries to provide high-performance rendering over a variety of platforms, both UNIX-, Win32-, OS/2- and Apple Mac-based.

It can be found at:
http://www.arcana.co.uk/products/magician/download.html

enjoy!.

I have encountered something very interesting!!! AOL developed a JAVA program that is OS/2 friendly. I have tried it, and it works very well.

Here is the link:
http://www.aim.aol.com/beta/javadownload.html

or
http://www.aim.aol.com

Click on Beta for All Platform, and search for AIM for Java. YOU MUST INSTALL Java 1.17, and Fixpak 9 - I think. Find Generic Java Client, download it, Use "UNZIP" to extract the file.

Run aim.cmd in OS/2 WARP 4.

There is an update for the Warp 4 toolkit available at DevCon:
http://www.developer.ibm.com/devcon/

This update release includes:

* Updates to the OS/2 Application Programming Interface (API) have been made in support of OS/2 Warp Server for e-business. There is a new OS/2 Programming Guide and Addendum that describes these changes:

    - DosCancelLockRequestL
    - DosFindFirst
    - DosFindNext
    - DosListIOL
    - DosOpenL
    - DosProtectOpenL
    - DosProtectQueryFileInfo
    - DosProtectSetFileInfo
    - DosProtectSetFileLocksL
    - DosProtectSetFilePtrL
    - DosProtectSetFileSizeL
    - DosQueryFileInfo
    - DosQueryPathInfo
    - DosQuerySysInfo
    - DosQueryThreadAffinity
    - DosSetFileInfo
    - DosSetFileLockL
    - DosSetFilePtrL
    - DosSetFileSizeL
    - DosSetPathInfo
    - DosSetThreadAffinity
    - DosClose
    - DosListIO
    - DosOpen
    - DosRead
    - DosSetFilePtr
    - DosWrite
    - NetServerNameAdd or Net32ServerNameAdd
    - NetServerNameDel or Net32ServerNameDel
    - NetServerNameEnum or Net32ServerNameEnum
    - WinRestartWorkplace
    - IOCTL 69h for Logical Volume Management-DSK_LVMMGMT
    - IOCTL 0Eh for Query Hard Drive Geometry and Physical Parameters
      OEMHLP_QUERYDISKINFO
    - DeviceHelper: DevHlp_GetDosVar
    - Debug: DBG_C_Attach
    - Debug: DBG_C_Detach
    - Debug: DBG_C_RegDebug
    - Debug: DBG_C_QueryDebug
    - New Data Type: FILELOCKL
    - New Data Type: FILEFINDBUF3L
    - New Data Type: FILEFINDBUF4L
    - New Data Type: FILESTATUS3L
    - New Data Type: FILESTATUS4L
    - New Data Type: ListIOL
    - New Data Type: MPAffinity
    - a lot of changed APIs to support high memory (above 512 MByte)

* Corrections have been made to some of the sample makefiles.

* The correct version of the TCP/IP Version 4.1 Programming Reference has been included in this release.

* The previous Toolkit release contained an older version of this book.

* In addition, the following tools were updated in this package:

    - ALP
    - EXEHDR
    - FONTEDIT
    - ICONEDIT
    - IMPLIB
    - IPFC
    - MARKEXE
    - MKMSGF
    - MSGBIND
    - RC (archived version)
    - RC
    - TRCUST

The first publicly available Hardware Monitor that supports Winbond 83781D chip is now UPDATED!!!

Now ThermoProtect V1.05 is available at hobbes.mnsu.edu\pub\incoming\tp-105.zip

New features inculde:

*LM78/LM78-J support, now ThermoProtect will automatically identify LM78 and enter the LM78 compatibility mode.

*Vendor ID is not only showing a bunch of numbers anymore! :) I currently have data on 3 of the more popular chips, they are National Semiconductor's LM78 and LM78-J, and Winbond 83781D. I'll be adding more soon.

If this program is giving you a Vendor ID but saying that it can't identify the chip... please do the following...

1. *MAKE SURE you do have a enviromental monitoring chip of some kind.
   
2. Check if the output from ThermoProtect is making sense or not (ie +5V entry showing +8V is NOT making sense... :))
   
3. Check your motherboard manual and record down the model and the make of the monitoring chip.
   
4. Record the Vendor ID.
   
5. E-Mail me the data... :)
   

Have a look at this web shopping site. It has just opened and has the following features that should interest OS/2 developers and users:

• an on-line catalog created on the fly by CGI programs written in Visual Prolog under OS/2
  
• a shopping basket program using the same technologies
  
• a secure ordering feature using the same
  
• all photos processed using Truespectra Photo>Graphics for OS/2
  
• a catalog maintenance and secure order fulfillment program for the vendor (you can't see these parts) also done in Visual Prolog under OS/2.
  

Developers, here is a really cool aspect -- the vendor's equipment runs Win32, so (after testing) we cross-compiled the executables from our OS/2-resident Visual Prolog development environment; no Windows ever ran on our development site!
http://www.musicalrideboutique.com

SIO2K beta is now at version 9. Check it out...
http://www.gwinn.com

SIO2K is the next release in OS/2 communication replacement drivers.

For you Smalltalk/Object Purists this is for you!

There are some guys at Disney, yes Disney, that are taking Smalltalk and trying new things with it. One is called Squeak, and lo and behold, there is a OS/2 port.

The direct port is at:
http://www.sugarweb.com/squeak/ports/os2native/OS2English.htm

and the one OPTIMIZED for OS/2 (called Cheese) is at:
http://www.plugcom.ru/~squeak/

The main Squeak page is at:
http://squeak.cs.uiuc.edu/

There is a new system health monitor for motherboards with the Winbond chip (for example ASUS P5A) on my homepage:
http://home.t-online.de/home/stefan.milcke/homepage.htm

or:
http://home.t-online.de/home/stefan.milcke/hwmon_en.htm

As a followup to the 5000/5700 driver update for OS/2, Lexmark has also updated drivers for the 3200, 7000, and 7200. Those three have now been updated to rev. 2.510 just like the 5000/5700.

A few weeks ago, MicroEdge announced the availability of version 4.0 of their amazing Visual SlickEdit programmer's editor. See:
http://www.slickedit.com/

for more info.

OS/2 Audio drivers for some of Crystal Semiconductor PCI codecs are now available at:
`http://www.cirrus.com/drivers/audiodrv/os2.html

These drivers support OS/2 digital audio only - no MIDI and no Win-OS/2 support, for now. Please also note that currently there are NO sound cards that feature Crystal's PCI codecs. Crystal's PCI audio codecs can currently only be found on motherboards.

On an unrelated note, effective December 14th, I will no longer be working for Crystal. Fear not, because I am not the person who works on the OS/2 drivers. I do help out occasionally, but Crystal's OS/2 drivers are developed by another full-time employee. This individual, in fact, taught me everything I know about OS/2 audio drivers. Not only that, but I'll be spending my last two weeks at Crystal also working on OS/2, exclusively.

My new position will be at Dell Computer as a BIOS engineer.

MR/2 ICE has been updated to version 1.51: http://nick.secant.com/mr2ice.htm

The Warpzilla team has released a new version, .002, of the OS/2 Mozilla port. It has numerous new features and bug fixes including JavaScript, CSS, and DOM. This release places the Warpzilla team ahead of all the other development teams, including the Win32 team. It can be found at:
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu

in the incoming directory, or at
http://yuggoth.ucam.org/~mjf35/warpzilla/nglayout/

Lexmark posted an updated driver for their 5000/5700 line of printers today. OS/2 users looking for good inkjet printers that have very good OS/2 drivers should consider the 5700.

Here is the e-mail notification I got from them:

Lexmark 5700 Color Jetprinter - Driver Notification Service

The following software is now available for download on Lexmark's web site at:
http://drivers.lexmark.com/drivers.nsf/software/pn=CJOS57LE

32-Bit OS/2 ColorFine printer driver for the Lexmark 5000 Color Jetprinter and Lexmark 5700 Color Jetprinter Series for OS/2 2.1 or later.

Driver version 2.510. Please call Lexmark Technical Support Center at (606) 232-3000 for support.

WarpCast Moderator's note: Reports are coming in that these drivers fix the "mirror printing" problem in Communicator

The Larsen Commander program has reached its third public release, which is version 0.93. Point your browser to:
http://home.sol.no/~leilarse/lcmd/index.html

if you are interested in taking a look or download it.

Larsen Commander is an ongoing development project of mine. I am trying to make this one of the best File Managers in the universe, for both OS/2 and Windows. The basics are finished and works well by now.

Some facts:

• Nice, attractive and highly customizable look and feel.
  
• The program actually works very well, and it is quick too.
  
• Powerful and user friendly at the same time.
  
• Built in GUI Console and Command Line Prompt with History.
  
• You can SET environment variables directly in the shell.
  
• Preserves the Command and Directory History between sessions.
  
• File Columns are no wider than the widest item of the respective Column.
  
• Platform independent human editable INI-file.
  
• Easy creation of Program and Shadow Objects on Desktop.
  
• Built in command line commands: PUSHD, POPD, R, SET, TAG, WHICH, +++
  
• All built in commands can be disabled on a per-command basis.
  
• Almost all commands are accessable by keyboard shortcuts.
  
• Directory Cache with smart CD command.
  
• Built in Extended Attribute Viewer.
  
• Smart Program Launching.
  
• Toolbar bubble help.
  

Changes since the previous public release:

• Toolbar buttons bubble help.
  
• You can now tag files by holding the CONTROL key down while mouse clicking.
  
• The "Hidden Files" command now toggles both hidden and system files.
  
• Larsen Commander now run also on Warp prior to Warp 4 with fixpack #4.
  
• Child processes that are started from the command line and tries to read from its STDIN should now work.
  
• The command line will now be colored with a special color whenever a child program (if it was started from the command line) reaches a point where it tries to read something from its STDIN. The color is set back to normal as soon as you have given any input by pressing enter.
  
• You no longer have to hold the mouse button down to see the hint text in the status bar.
  
• Use CTRL+I to toggle the visibility of icons in the current file panel.
  
• Use CTRL+F9 to open the sorting options dialog of the current file panel.
  
• Use ALT+SHIFT+F5 to toggle the visibility of the tool bar.
  
• Use ALT+SHIFT+F6 to toggle the visibility of the command line.
  
• Use ALT+SHIFT+F7 to toggle the visibility of the key bar.
  
• Use ALT+SHIFT+F8 to toggle the visibility of the status bar.
  
• Use ALT+SHIFT+F9 to toggle full "screen" file panels.
  
• Use CTRL+N to activate the menu bar. This is the same as pressing F9.Nice if you are used to File Commander/2.
  
• Text on the console monitor was scrolled outside visible area if pressing SHIFT+UP when there was fewer lines of text in it than the height of the monitor. This was true for a number of other key combinations as well.
  
• All the internal commands of Larsen Commander can now be enabled or disabled in a user friendly manner on the new "Commands" page of the options dialog.
  
• The Progress Bar overflowed when copy or move file(s)that contained a huge number of bytes (more than aproximately 25 MBytes).
  
• New toolbar button: "Open WPS Folder".
  
• Typing "CD\INCOMING" at the command prompt will now operate the same as if "CD \INCOMING" was typed. Nice if you are used to CMD.EXE.
  
• CTRL+F8 (Reverse Sort) did not work at all.
  
• LCMD crashed when trying to scroll an empty console monitor with SHIFT+UP or SHIFT+DOWN.
  
• New popup menu (with View, Edit, Copy, Move, Delete, etc. commands) when Right-Click on a selected or marked file name item in the File Panels.
  
• New commands in command line popup menu: "Enter", "Execute in new session", "Previous command", "Next command" and "Command history".
  
• Entering "start" at the command prompt did not start a new OS/2 window.
  
• Major redesign of the way that a file object is launched from file panels. This fixes the problem that caused VIO programs to be executed in a background window. They are now launched in the foreground Z-order as they should. This change also fixed the problem that Larsen Commander did lock the Single Input Queue of OS/2 when launching WAV-files(among others).
  
• Drive size information in the Info Panel was not updated upon Panel Reread.
  
• Reduced the size of the executable file simply by changing the color and resolution format of several icons. Also changed the salmon bitmap from 256 colors to 16 colors. Executable size reduced by about 40 KBytes.
  
• Program name and parameters was clipped at 32 characters in the various program pages of the options dialog.
  

A couple of months ago I posted a notice stating that I planned to close my AWE64 - OS/2 "How-to" web page, located at:
http://www.monmouth.com/~jlemay

After receiving several email messages asking me to keep the site up for a bit longer, I put off the "closing" for a while. Now that we are rolling up on the end of the year, I have decided that Dec 31 will be a good target date for closing the page. If any of you who graciously responded last time are still interested, or if there is anyone else who would like to take over the site, please contact me by email:
jlemay@pclansolutions.com

KRT Ltd. has released the latest update to OS/2's permier Binary News Harvesting application - "News Harvest".

v1.0.3 can be downloaded from:
http://www.krt.com.au/ns/

Updates include:

• Enhanced MIME engine.
  
• Enhanced support for filtering on subject, poster, et. al.
  
• Added "GoTo" option in pop-up menu to switch current group.
  
• Added support for maximum number of loops to looping option.
  
• A few minor bugfixes.
  

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

News Harvest is an OS/2 Presentation Manger application for the automatic retreival of Usenet News binary articles.

The main design impetus was to create a Fire and Forget utility that would process any number of groups over any number of servers with no user-intervention. This is indeed the case -- once News Harvest is configured with host and group information, a single command will run the process to completion.

A binary news harvester with such simplicity of operation is often low on features. This is not the case with News Harvest:

• Multi-threaded, fully 32-bit executable.
  
• Completly automatic operation.
  
• Rebuilds multipart articles.
  
• Remembers past downloads.
  
• SPAM-keyword filtering.
  
• Fully configurable output paths.
  
• Handles abrupt disconnections (re-connects).
  
• Updates Netscape Navigator news file (optional).
  
• Very low, average CPU load.
  
• Comprehensive logging information (optional).
  
• WPS Drag and Drop.
  
• Output displayed in ordered and intuitive manner.
  
• On-the-fly changing of configuration.
  
• Complete online manual.
  

The OS/2 Alternative (http://www.tstonramp.com/~freiheit/os2apps.shtml), categorized list of currently available, native OS/2 software applications has reached an all-time high of 1,111 links.

I have been quite pleased with the support I've received from OS/2 developers and users which allowed me to first meet and then pass my goal of 1,000 native OS/2 apps a few months ago. I then set my sights on achieving 1,100 by the end of Warpstock '98 in October, and I got that last application in just under the wire. Now with all digits the same, it is time to once again call for everyone to visit the site and recommend additional, current OS/2 applications to be listed.

I prefer links to developers' official websites for information and download of products, but if unavailable, "blind download links" such as from an FTP server are acceptable.

Thank you, OS/2 community, and let's keep up the great work!

There is a new OS/2 game under development.

Sphere Of Influence is a game designed for the OS/2 presentation manager. It is a cross between a role playing game and a simulator with a client/server architecture.
http://www.srv.net/~vision_a/soi.html

The Large OS/2 Customers List (LOS2CL) has been updated.
http://rover.wiesbaden.netsurf.de/~meile/los2cl.html

Although this may be a singular event on my system only, I'd like to tell the OS/2 community to be cautious. After installing JAVA 1.1.7 - the international version without the unicode font,

javainrt.exe from ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/software/asd/java/en_us

and rebooting, the WarpCenter configuration file was broken. For all those who have taken some time and effort to personalize the WarpCenter, I'd recommend to take a little more time and backup the files

[Bootdrive]:\os2\dll\scenter.cfg,
[Bootdrive]:\os2\dll\dock*.cfg (where WarpCenter stores the objects)

to another directory. If they really get damaged, just copy them back over the original files and reboot.

WarpCast Moderator's note: I have heard no other reports of this problem occurring but readers will want to take note of the steps required to backup their WarpCenter config files.