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Feedback from Issue #3

the REXX Files [--Top--]

I started a similar project a couple of months ago, but seldom seem to have the time to work on it. Hopefully your project will urge me along. I also had trouble finding a book on REXX. I tried SuperCrown, Bookstar, Fry's, and CompUSA without any luck. I finally found some at a Barnes and Noble book superstor. All I can say is that they have a marvelous collection of computer books. I bought the book "Teach Yourself REXX in 21 Days" by the Schindlers. I got it because 1) I have been impresses with Esther's contributions to OS2USER on Compuserve - this lady is dedicated to OS/2 -, and 2) It seems like a fine book.

Looking forward to your series.

Jan Schatz


Trevor's Rant [--Top--]

In my view, IBM must get Java support into Web Explorer as well as whatever other Netscape features now in Netscape 2.0. Being seen as an industry leader (or at least strong player) in the Internet is vital.

Eric Kintzer


I read with interest your article on Netscape and WebEplorer. You pointed out that Netscape should make a browser for OS/2... While it just might work out that way eventually! The XFree86 group is supposed to be porting the XFree86 X Windows system to OS/2! Netscape is currently running on various implemintations of X Windows (including XFree86 run on Linux). The recompile of Netscape for OS/2 should be simple... So maybe one day there will be Netscape/2 or whatever - wether we want it or not!

Cymen Vig


Trevor, in your rant about Web Explorer, you complained about WebEx's poor hotlist. Don't you know about the drag and drop URL objects? OS/2 is an object oriented OS after all. Just right click and hold anywhere on a web page and drag onto the desktop or a folder. Web Explorer URL objects can be treated like any other object and sorted into folders. Then you can just drag one back to reload the page whenever you want. I find that it works quite well. Can Netscape do that?

grwalsh@interlog.com


- Yes, as we all know, WebEx has superior drag and drop abilities for pseudo-hot lists. The problem is that not all users use the Workplace Shell--some have limited systems and choose an alternate shell to lighten system demands. Also, some of those who do use the WPS--again the ones with limited systems--can experience poor performance when dragging urls from WebEx. There can be significant HD accessig (up to 2 or 3 seconds) every time an url is dragged and again when it reaches the border of WebEx. This kind of performance makes the feature unusable for most low end systems. Hence my request for what is really a simple feature.

Chris's Rant [--Top--]

I find myself is agreement with most of what Chris has to say in his Rant about Netscape's disregard for the HTML standard and the dangers of allowing a company to impose their standards at will. I do, however, have a few comments regarding this issue.

Platform independence and universality is the whole concept which underlies SGML (of which HTML is a Web specific subset). But any "universal" standard is notoriously slow to emerge and hard to come by. By the time all interested parties are consulted and agreed, the standard is often out of date or behind the technology. Private companies are much faster and better innovators than standards committees. So, while Netscape muddies the waters by disregarding established HTML principles, they are also expanding the possibilities and advancing the technology in exciting ways. Let's face it, the so-called Netscape enhancements are pretty cool, and they show us what is possible. Try doing that by committee.

One of the big problems with the Netscpape enhancements that Chris doesn't mention in his rant, is that they make it really easy to waste bandwidth. The bandwidth issue is something all net users have to deal with, of course; but I ask the question "Just because we can cram real time video in 24-bit color down a 28.8K connection, does that mean we should?" Netscape has helped us make the Web pretty, but is that what we really need?

Like Chris, I used to get upset about the thousands of sites that told me I needed Netscape to view them. Now I take comfort in the fact that my browser will eventually catch up with Netscape. We are all waiting for a Web Explorer that supports Java, frames, and all of the other doodads that we can get with the Windows specific Netscape. I can't help but speculate that we would not all be upset at Netscape if only they published a browser that ran under OS/2.

Scott Richard


OS/2'sTime Has Come [--Top--]

I enjoy reading about IBM's accomplishments in advertising OS/2 (however sporadic). There is alot of ignorance out there (some is conspicuous in its format) and news of the dispelling of the fog created by the industry is refreshing. I recently attended a New Year's gathering with a friend of mine who was visiting from Japan.

My friend is an OS/2 user who speaks both Japanese and English. OS/2 is the ONLY OS that has the interchangeability between languages that he (American) and his wife (Japanese) need. During this gathering, we were actually harassed for our choice of operating systems. It surprised me. I remember no such virulent reaction brought forth against Amiga users by the Microsoft majority of a given social group. What are these people scared of? It must be the functionality of OS/2 when compared to Windows '95.

I was quick-witted enough to change the subject to something less controversial, like politics. The backlash to those three little letters that mean real computing will stick with me for a while to come. Thank you for showing me that IBM is still pushing those three little letters: OS/2.

donlim@teleport.com


Linfield's Line--RTFM [--Top--]

I could not disagree more with Kevin Linfield's complaint about the frequently asked "dumb" questions about Warp - theoretically answerable through the IBM manual and/or online help, and his enthusiastic endorsement of the latter.

It may be true, as he says, that "OS/2 Warp comes with a 400 page manual," but I can assure him that the 400 page manual in MY Red Warp package was useful only for getting the program installed and running in a rudimentary fashion. Over half the manual is devoted to listing unsupported hardware devices, analyzing likely configuration problems or proposing different hard drive setups.

I was specifically appalled at the complete lack of discussion of multitasking both in documentation and online. I searched many times for a variety of topics, trying to make the switch from DOS to OS/2, and was sorely disappointed at the lack of usable information. And let's not even mention the TERRIBLE online documentation for either IBM Works or the Internet Access Kit. As a result, I found it necessary to build a large library of printed OS/2 Warp documentation in order to properly run and extract the maximum benefit from the power of the operating system.

Vic Ridgley


Regarding Linfield's Line on the "OS/2 support/help hierarchy" one other invaluable source of information, particularly with hard-to-diagnose and harder-to-solve problems is the Warp Pharmacy locations on the WWW. Time and again I have been rewarded with just the right piece of info to solve my problem from something posted directly there or from a link sourced from their sites.

Don Hobsbawn


Word Processor reviews [--Top--]

I moved from AmiPro 3.0b to DeScribe and am now using DeScribe 5.0. I prefer the latter. However, all the word processors are missing an important feature, introduced several years ago by WordPerfect, which allows one to make dynamic links between footnotes and footnote references, footnotes and tables, etc, so that when a table or footnote is inserted (causing page references, table and figure numbers and footnote numbers to change) the reference in the referring footnote also changes automatically. Lotus promises this feature in its coming WordPro for OS/2, which is supposed to come out sometime this year (or next or ...).

The people at DeScribe have put this feature on its list for future development, but seem to be reluctant to do any serious development of new features for the product right now. Too bad, both for DeScribe and for the market for OS/2, which needs competing (and competitive) applications.

tuchledj@sluvca.slu.edu


Your review of DeScribe was well written and accurate. Nice job!

I would suggest, however, that in addition to the flaws you mentioned, there is also DeScribe's inability to handle colored text. I realize that you can define a page of text as an image frame and then give the entire page/frame one color. This hardly meets the level of today's word processor. For me, this is a serious enough flaw that I am looking for another OS/2 word processor.

Bill Haybyrne


My work is research, and as such I must include in any professional document which I create a number of references to other literature sources. In the Dos/Windows world, this task was tremendously simplified by software which maintains a database of references, and which is able to read word processor files and then format reference codes in a style compatible with the journal to which the document is to be submitted.

This feature remains, as far as I can tell, unavailable to users of OS/2 (unless we just run our old Dos/Win software ... but that's not the point). It's a bit frustrating because after reading numerous 'reviews' of OS/2 word processors, it is clear that software reviewers rely strictly on 'off-the-cuff' journalism, never needing to reference to past literature. Thus, this serious hole in OS/2 word processing functionality is never addressed.

Ken Brady, Ph.D.


- Your point is taken! Unfortunately we do occasionally miss some features that are important to our readers. Thanks for the suggestion and we'll try to do better next time around!

FTP Client reviews [--Top--]

I have looked at two of the ftp reviews so far(FTP It, and Neologic). One thing that I found was missing was the fact that there was no mention of being able to ftp through a firewall.(I know that Neologic will). As a corporate user, being able get through a firewall is a must.

Mike Leckey, Jr.


- Sorry about that. That was an editorial oversight. We should have been more diligent in assigning what details were to appear in each article but we weren't.

Roids! review [--Top--]

Roids may be good (it is! I played it once...) but it doesn't, I'm sorry to say, even approach Maelstrom which is available only on the ... gulp :( ... Mac! Rendered 256 colour graphics, awesome sound, speed is good and it's shareware. I don't own a Mac (used to have them at my old College) but it's a serious example of a good Mac game ... I wonder what Doom 2 is like

Dr. James Price


OS/2 Warp Unleashed review [--Top--]

IMHO, OS/2 Warp Unleashed was a hasty remake of the earlier 'OS/2 Unleashed' with a few added sidebars specific to Warp.

Other than the sidebars, it probably took 10 minutes using the search and destroy functions of some word processor to create it from its predecessor.

It contains a wealth of information, all of which is common to Warp AND 2.1, but stuff like the IAK coverage just repeats what's already in the help files or on the screen. No need to spend so much money for just that stuff.

Dave McNally


The book "OS/2 Warp Unleashed" is available at software stores (Egghead, CompUSA, Best Buy) under the guise of the Warp Companion. The only difference is that it is bundled with a CD-ROM of old or "light" versions of Relish, the Graham Utilities, and OS2Tree. However, since these stores sell at a discount, I got the package for $35 - $5 off the price of the book.

Jan Schatz


ISDN and OS/2 [--Top--]

Tash: Just a big thank you for your easy to read and understand ISDN article in OS/2 e-Zine. I looked into ISDN a while ago on different Internet sites and it was made to look both costly and complicated - your OS/2 perspective is greatly apprecaited.

I got so excited, it encouraged me to look into ISDN again with some other friends and my local provider. I even created my own 'Count Down to ISDN!' Web page:

Gerard Pinkas


The CompuServe Problem [--Top--]

Being a Golden Commpass user I could not care less if CompuServe never developed OS2CIM in the first place!

Duncan Groenewald


- Maybe you have a point there. This is probably why CompuServe found such a low percentage of their members use CIMOS2--because it was poorly written and poorly supported and their members found alternatives such as Golden Compass to be superior for their needs.

One Warped user and a new Aptiva [--Top--]

I read with interest the article describing the experiences of Alan Levy trying to find the ultimate OS/2 Machine.

I am in a similar position at the moment, and it seems that there isn't a single supplier out there (other than IBM - who can't fill orders, and Indelible Blue - who are pretty expensive) who will even say whether OS/2 runs on their computers, nevermind preinstall Warp.

I would be very interested in an article listing computer suppliers (pref. in the USA - but would be interesting for figures worldwide) that at least acknowledge the existince of OS/2, and preferably certify their computers.

My efforts to find a replacement for my OS/2 computer which has just died, are being frustrated by everyone insisting that Windows95 is the only thing their computers are designed to run.

Is this really just market forces at work, are are Microsoft forcing the hand of suppliers; perhaps by not providing assistance to suppliers that also sell OS/2 Warp pre-insatlled?

Alex Chapman


- In a follow-up to this letter, readers might want to check out the following web page: http://digiserve.com/mercer/os2/ .
Like Alan, I decided to get the biggest and baddest, the Aptiva. Like Alan, I could not find one at any retail outlet. Nor could I find a Compaq, Digital, HP, or any other brand preloaded with Warp, despite a direct mailing I got from IBM saying they were readily available with all those brands! Well, that's ok anyway, because I had an 'in,' didn't I? After all I have access to the IBM Employee discount, so I called IBM direct and ordered my M70.

Like Alan, I waited and waited. I called the automated status line often, and the estimated delivery date kept slipping. Finally out of the blue my system arrived at my door. Well, Alan, I regret to say I wish it had never arrived.

My first big surprise was when I first booted the machine, it did not boot into Warp, but DOS/WINDOWS! All of the intro stuff like why I bought this machine, its features, and all that hype stuff, was Windows based! Then of course there was a dual boot icon if I really wanted to go to Warp.

Most of the software was not preloaded at all, but simply dumped on the hard drive. Almost everything needed to go through some sort of install process before it was functional, and believe me that was not a simple process! The IBM Help line, the main reason we buy IBM, right? was next to useless. The first few times I called I was told that there would be a 2 to 4 hour wait... well that's not good enough, IBM! Subsequent calls did not even estimate the wait time, but after 30 minutes I hung up.

When I finally got in touch with a real live person, he was no help. Obviously he was either a new hire or a contractor, and every time I asked a question I had to explain the question before he could even search his database. No help at all.

Bottom line: The Internet connection didn't work (I have it working on my Compaq just fine!). Subsequently I have learned that the problem is with the MWAVE modem and drivers that aren't out yet. Anyway to make a long sad story short, I decided that discount or no discount, it was not worth the money to me and I sent it back.

I am still using Warp on my faithful Compaq 486, with its standard IDE controller which limits me disk-wise, but hey, it works! I really wanted that Aptiva, but I was sorely disappointed not only with the package, but with IBM's support commitment to it!

I am working for an Insurance company here in Raleigh - one of the few remaining true Blue shops! Our mainframe is IBM, almost every PC in the place is IBM, and they are all running OS/2, with OS/2 LAN Server installed and (of course) Token Ring cabling. I am accustomed to a PC 750 at work, so I know IBM still makes good computers. But in my opinion the Aptiva is not one of them.

Charlie Jewett



...odds and ends [--Top--]

I just purchased one of those DSS satelite dishes through Southwestern Bell, although it's an RCA product thats manufactured by a company called Thompson Electronics. Whats so interresting about this product is that DSS (Digital Satelite System) transmits in digital. Producing an absolutely wonderfull picture and sound onto your TV set!

But the big story is that on the back of my digital decoding box are a standard serial and parralell port conecters which DSS and RCA are being very hush hush about! All they will say at their website, is that those connecters are their for "future interactive programing". I personally belive that this may very well be a hookup via satellite to a realtime internet connection that will make that whole ISDN thing obsolete!

Oh well, I thought I'd just start a damn good rumor. Perhaps you guys would like to take the bait and run with it. It might make a fine artical in your next issue if it does pan out!

Mark Nunnelee


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