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Feedback from April 21

OS/2 Applications

Responding to Mr. Bill Halteman's request for OS/2 word processors and spreadsheets: I have been using DeScribe and Mesa2 for about 2 years now. I can do far more with DeScribe than I could with WordPerfect (either the DOS or Windows version) and it runs smoother than MSWord 6.0 (which I had to use to suit a client). The knock, of course, is that the company is in a holding pattern -- no new development going on. But when it does everything I already need it to do, why do I need an updated version? I have the new WordPro, and have given it a short spin, but I don't find it doing any more than I can do with DeScribe.

As for spreadsheets, Mesa2 does everything I could do before with QuattroPro or Excel. Again, the fact that it is a native OS/2 app makes running it easier.

So Mr. Halteman, if you are looking for apps for those two purposes, I suggest you get a copy of the DeScribe

Clyde Stauffer


Unicode in OS/2?

I heard rumors that IBM is planning to add Unicode support into OS/2. Has anyone else heard about this? I find OS/2 lacking in foreign language support for my domestic version of OS/2. I would like to be able to use double-byte character sets in my English OS/2 Warp, and I anticipate being able to do so, as this would be an improvement to the world's greatest operating system.

George Boles


Fixpacks, programs, and installation tricks.

I just wanted to let you know that I’believe you're incorrect about fixpacks needing to be installed from floppies. Matter of fact, with few exceptions, almost nothing seems to need installation from floppies anymore.

My common procedure for installing software, including fixkpacks, is to download or copy all files to a tmp directory. I’then start the install/update procedure from within that directory, and then correct any directory reference discrepencies as they appear during the install routine. This makes for very fast installs.

I've installed OD 1.0, 1.5, and the two fixpacks this way with no trouble. I've also installed the diamond device drivers this way, although I’currently use the S3 Trio64 drivers for warp 4 to drive my diamond stealth 64 Video VRAM (currently known as the Stealth 3000 series) which seems to work flawlessly with everything I've run up to now, better than the diamond drivers even. (fewer crashes, no loss of driver info when installing additional software).

Being a direct node on the net, I’found that copying files to floppies to be tedious when I’could just download them into a directory, so I started trying this approach, and it has worked fine for me.

There's only been one exception to this rule, and it was only a partial exception: Way back in the days of TCPIP 2.0 and OS/2 2.1, you could copy the TCPIP disks to a tmp directory, but, when prompted to install LAPS, you had to run that off the floppy, although the rest of the install went from the tmp directory.

Hope this makes your computing easier.

Ronald Bense


OS/2 is dead! --- (Yeah, right.)

Just read "OS/2 is dead! --- (Yeah, right.)", and all I gotta say is...

Right on, right on, right on!! That was (to mis-quote an excerpt from one of Bill Cosby's)"one of the most right on-est things" (sorry Bill, the memory IS one of the first things to go!!) I've ever read.

Seriously, it's too bad this O/S is getting, not so much BAD publicity, as it is NONE (!!!). It's not only great for use at work, but even better at home! If only the pseudo N....endo/P....ation WANNABEs in the form of home consumer PC/W....doze users would only smarten up, perhaps the ISVs would be more encouraged to start porting/writing for WARP!!! Why point at your system when you can (verbally) boss it around??!!

May the fWARPs be with you!!!

Paul Sweeney


Hi, I read your article and I think I have the same feeling here. Although unlike you I do try to convince people to try other options rather than use Microsoft products , but I do know when to stop and does not go out forcing people to stop using Microsoft products. I too use some of them, but I believe that it is not that Windows Users are trying to sabotage OS/2, it is just that they say what they know, and what people (MS) want them to think. Most of my friends here haven't even heard of OS/2, and even if they did, it is very hard and I mean very hard to get hold of a copy here.

By the way, I'm from the Philippines. Only a few, and I mean really few, shops here have OS/2. And even if they do they sell it at a very high price comparatively to an OS/2 package in the States.

Danny Cheng


I just wanted to say that OS/2 e-Zine! is a breath of fresh air in my life! I agree with your sentiments exactly in your editorial: OS/2 works for me now. Thanks.

Peter MacDougall


Microsoft

I would just like to add my 2 cents worth on the Windows'95 OS/2 debate. I tried Windows'95 and it crashed with the first DOS app I ran. Rather than re-install 'Windoze' I reinstalled OS/2 and haven't had a problems since.

I have also filed a complaint with the US Justice Dept because every PC manufacturer I contacted, except IBM, only offers Microsoft operating systems. When I asked to have OS/2 Warp installed as the operating system I was told that only Microsoft OS's were available. Whether Bill Gates likes it or not OS/2 has, is and will remain my operating system of choice.

Brian T. Stuart


USB and OS/2

In the latest issue of Personal Computer World (IMHO, the top computing monthly in the UK, and certainly the only OS/2-friendly one), there's a feature on the Universal Serial Bus (USB), the new standard replacement for the serial port. I've heard about USB before, but this is the first time I've found out what it's meant to do.

The article says USB should eliminate IRQ and DMA conflicts, and allows for "hot plug & play" of devices. Best of all, it's backed by pretty well all the major industry players including IBM, Microsoft, Compaq and Apple. All sounds great, as long as it works - well, we were told PnP was the end of interrupt conflicts...

The major question on my mind is: will Warp support for USB be there at the start, or are we going to have to wait eighteen months longer than Windoze users, as usually seems to be the case?

If anyone has views on this, or even solid info regarding future USB support in OS/2, I'd be interested to hear from them. Wouldn't it make a nice change for support to be there at the beginning this time?

Tim Walker


SyQuest Article Feedback

Thanks for the review of the SyQuest drive. I am considering purchasing a removable drive for backups and for moving large "presentation" type files to a laptop. I was not aware that SyQuest included OS/2 support. (Thanks for that tidbit.) As far as IDE performance goes, the office where I work uses SyQuest drives as removable harddrives on computers to process classified imformation daily. The only real complaint they have is that they are stuck with a small hard drive... Thanks again for a valuable article, those of us still thinking are grateful for your bravery and boldness.

Ben Beeson


FTP Browswer 1.6 Review

Yes, but how does it compare with Warp 4's FTP Host? They sound almost the same.

Mike Palmer


Actually, FTP Browser is quite different from Warp 4's hosts. If you are referring to the FTP-PM utility, there is no comparison -- FTP Browser has 10x the features of Warp's app. And it is a completely different type of program than the FTP folders built into Warp 4. Have a look at the screen shots in our review for more detail.

- editor


Error in HP 5P Review

Note: these next few letters refer to an error that was printed in our review of the Hewlett Packard ScanJet 5P. When we were made aware of the error, we corrected it and refreshed the web site (so you won't find the error there anymore).

Just for the record, though, we thought we'd print these letters as well.

- editor


I recently purchased an HP 4P (partly due to Esthers' article). Since she wrote that article, HP changed SCSI cards to a SYMBIOS triangular shaped Plug'N'Play.

Naturally, this hosed up Danmar's driver. However, after working a month with Dan, Paul (CopyShop/2) and a few folks from the Newsgroups, we got it all to work.

And - you CAN reassign the IRQ of the HP SCSI card. What you have to do is to find the SYMBIOS driver for the card (SYM416.ADD) and add the followign switches to it in the OS2 CONFIG.SYS.

BASEDEV=SYM416.ADD /OVERRIDE /IRQ=12 /V /Q

The /OVERRIDE switch turns off the Plug'N'Play. The /IRQ switch is self explanatory. I think you can even reassign the memory address (/IO=). I didn't try that in OS/2, but I did do it in Windows, to keep the card active when booting between OS's.

Mike Palmer


Trevor sent me a copy of your comments on my review of the HP5P scanner. Thanks for reading it and making the comments. My only defense for my errors is that when I got the scanner I was *TOTALLY* ignorant of SCSI; how it worked and why and where were a mystery.

I'm not getting educated, but to solve the problem as you did, I think, shows more than a casual awareness of SCSI. Something which I and many like me are unlikely to have the time to find in a short period.

Anyway, thanks again for the comments.

- Bob Smith


Warp 4 Unleashed

Hi, I upgraded to Warp 4 a few months ago. There were a lot of new features in the OS and as usual the IBM docs leave you off after installation. The online docs seem to know about as much as me. What I really missed was something like the OS2 Warp Unleashed book to give a bound and easy to read list of hints, background and explanations.

I sent off for it a couple of months ago and recently got my check back, with an explanation that Sams had decided to cancel the publication. I know I am speaking to the choir and should be writing Sams, but that book would really fill a niche. The local mall bookstore is 50 Internet books, 30 *** for Dummies and the rest on how to do apps, C, 95, NT or Unix. I regularly see several old OS2 rev 2.0 books being dumped at the popular book and computer stores.

It seems really dumb, funny and sad. The loss of all the paper magazines and no books. I do appreciate the online info such as OS2 e-Zine!, but I really prefer the paper (a book never crashes and is easier to browse thru to prepare yourself for surgery).

Just my thoughts, I know sifting thru the newsgroups can help, but there are thousands of postings each time I get on and I would appreciate (AND PAY FOR) a condensed, edited and useful supplement to my use of OS2. Please feel free to use my comments in any contact with potential authors, pundits or publishers.

Steve Trapp


Survey

The "how long will you be using" question [in your latest survey] should include some thing to the effect of "no end in sight" in addition to the "don't know." "Don't know" could be short or long term, there is no way to tell from the answer. I.E., some users may well be business users who's organization is looking at a platform shift while others of us are happy for the foreseeable future but could find ourselves moving when something truely better shows up.

(NT 4.0xxx is clearly not it. I know that this is gratuitous but I couldn't resist. I use NT 4.0 updated to Fixpack 2 and patched with the hot fixes at work. After Fixpack 2 I could not read the floppy drive without seeing the "blue screen of death." The kernel hot fix corrected that. One wonders if they test these things.)

John Wolff


Thanks for the feedback John. We actually meant the "more than 2 yrs" option to refer to anything above 2 yrs, including "no end in sight". The "don't know" category was intended for people who really had not given the question any thought.

- editor


The MS Banking Story on MS's Web Site

Actually, that story has been appearing and disappearing on their web site since December or so. You may have helped bring about its disappearance this last time but you were not the first one, so nyah. :) :)

George Lengel

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