The Developer's Connection for OS/2- by Stacy John Behrens

One of OS/2's biggest ongoing complaints has been its lack of support from Independent Software Vendors (ISV's). IBM has been quietly trying to remedy this situation since OS/2 was released. One of their most useful ideas has been the Developer's Connection CD-ROM sets. Currently in the eighth edition, the DevCon CD-ROMs are among the best software deals of all time for anyone who wishes to create software for OS/2 or to discover many of the wide variety of applications and tools available for OS/2.

OK, that sounds good but what about specifics? Well, the DevCon set comes out quarterly (four times a year) and costs approximately $120 US for a one year subscription. It contains the latest beta version of OS/2 Warp at the time of its printing.

As the name would indicate, it is aimed at software developers and accordingly most of the software on the discs is in some way related to development. Some of the applications are full working versions, some are time expiring versions and some are demos. There are a wide variety of tools and utilities from IBM as well as third party software vendors available on the discs, many of which are the best currently available for OS/2. It also contains toolkits for working with the various APIs for multimedia, networking, OS/2 Warp itself and much more. For the serious software developer, these CD-ROMs may very well prove to be indispensable.

It literally takes several pages of small text to list all of the applications, toolkits, and utilities available. Among the utilities available are DB/2, C-Set/2, Workframe, Communication Manager/2, VisualGen, MetaWare High C/C++, Magus Pageturner, Visual SlickEdit, VX/REXX, Sybase Open Client Developers Kit, and many more. Also included is support for development for OpenGL, DIVE, OpenDoc, and several more advanced extensions.

The DevCon set is not limited to just OS/2 on the Intel platform. Support for PowerPC and AIX development is also included. And since development is difficult unless you have the documentation you need, there is an enormous library of technical and product information available on the CD's about almost any product or system feature you would care to think of. There is even a complete set of development tools for network development.

Impressed yet? You should be. Even if you are not a developer, the DevCon CD-ROMs are a great way to examine and use many of the most advanced software tools available for OS/2 at a minimal cost. For developers, it is foolish not to get your hands on these CDs as fast as you can. The Developers Connection for OS/2 can be ordered by calling IBM at 1-800-6DEVCON (1-800-633-8266) in the US. Outside the US, contact your nearest IBM representative for ordering information.

This is Stacy John Behrens first contribution to OS/2 e-Zine!. If you want to know more about him, you'll have to ask him yourself.

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