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Source: Christian Langanke (wpstk@netlabs.org)
Moderator: Trevor Smith (trevor@haligonian.com)
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The OS/2 Netlabs proudly announces a new project, namely

T H E   W O R K P L A C E   S H E L L   T O O L K I T


What is the Workplace Shell Toolkit ?

This toolkit is a collection of APIs being designed to greatly reduce
the amount of effort required to build common Workplace Shell
Classes. These APIs are divided into several minor and major
categories. Most of the APIs are helper functions, grouped in
subcategories:

- Module helper functions (EXE and DLL)
- PM control helper functions
- System helper functions
- Error helper functions
- File helper functions
- Date and time related helper functions

Of course, many more are still to be implemented.

Larger function categories deal with a whole set of tasks being
required to provide certain WPS class functionality, making the
implementation much easier compared to the formerly required large
amount of code, needing a lot of testing and also having much nearly
redundant code. Two major categories are already implemented:

- Settings and details manager functions
- Extended Attributes manager functions

The detailed online help povides a syntax explanation as well as a
programming guide for the major categories, both in the well known
INF book layout style, that programmers are used to from the IBM
Toolkit for OS/2 WARP. Moreover, for each category a sample program
is provided, enabling you to easily test all APIs with your compiler
and toolkit configuration.


Supported compilers/Requirements

The following compilers are supported:

- IBM C Set ++  Version 2.1 with nmake support
- IBM VisualAge C++ Version 3.0 with nmake support
- gcc of emx V0.9d with GNU make support

Also required is:

- the IBM Toolkit for either OS/2 WARP 3 or WARP 4
- an HPFS partition for being able to compile the
  toolkit library, sample programs and online docs.


Where can I obtain the Workplace Shell Toolkit ?

The Workplace Shell Toolkit is free software and OpenSource, as such
it can be used, modified and redistributed under the terms of the GNU
Library General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation, in version 2 as it comes in the "COPYING.LIB" file of the
WPS Toolkit source distribution.

In short, this license allows everyone to use the unmodified toolkit
library in both free or commercial software products without any
other limitation or any fee. Only if a modified version of the
toolkit library is being used, the modified toolkit and its modified
sources must be made publicly available. This applies to the modified
toolkit only, but not to a program using the toolkit.

OS/2 Netlabs provides an Open Source Archive on the Netlabs CVS
Server, from where you can download the current developer version
either with the "Netlabs Open Source Archive Client" or plain CVS.

If you have good ideas for extending the library, or if you are
interested in participating the Workplace Shell Toolkit project team,
then contact us vial email at:

   wpstk@netlabs.org


See the following web pages:

The OS/2 Netlabs home page:

  http://www.netlabs.org

The home page of the "Netlabs Open Source Archive Client":

  http://www.netlabs.org/nosa

If you use plain CVS, point your CVSROOT to:

   http://www.netlabs.org:d:/netlabs.src/wpstk 

and login as "guest" with password "readonly". The recommended way
for CVS beginners is to use the Netlabs Open Source Archive Client
though.

Send comments and suggestions to:

  wpstk@netlabs.org

What's next ?

As soon as the forthcoming home page of the Workplace Shell Toolkit
is up, a binary distribution will be made available on internet FTP
servers (like Hobbes etc). This distribution will already contain the
library compiled for all supported compilers and the compiled online
help and thus be ready to use.

In addition, we of course search for programmers wanting to share
their special WPS code with us, that could be of use for other WPS
prgrammers as well. Do you have a particular useful function or a
good idea of how to encapsulate a complex task in a really simple set
of APIs? Then don't hesitate to contact us at:

   wpstk@netlabs.org

The toolkit is for you programmers, and you can help us most to make
it the way that you and all of the OS/2 Workplace Shell developers
can get the most benefit out of it.
 
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