OS/2 e-Zine! - Designing Web Sites with OS/2

Designing Web Sites With OS/2 - by Tejaswi Kasturi

Greetings fellow Warped Webbers!

I bring you this column in an effort to convey the strengths and weaknesses of OS/2 in designing and producing a first-class Worldwide Web site. I will also discuss products and services which are useful in producing a Worldwide Web site, and useful hardware and software tips.

Background

First, a brief history of my experience in developing Web sites. I started using the Web in late 1993, using NCSA Mosaic under a Sun SPARCstation, since OS/2 did not have a decent Web browser as of yet. I began to experiment and write Web pages in early 1994, and found that there were few OS/2-related sites on the Web. I strove to remedy this situation by creating my OS/2 Internet Resources site to serve as a jump-off point for OS/2 related Web sites, FTP servers, and Usenet newsgroups. Ironically, the site was originally developed using SPARCstations because of the dearth of OS/2 Web browsers.

IBM remedied the situation with WebExplorer, and I quickly moved site maintenance to my OS/2 box, a Comtrade 486DX/25 with about 700 MB of disk space and 8 MB of RAM. This system, although glacially slow by today's standards, was quick enough to do reasonable Web development. As I have migrated to newer machines, I have continued using OS/2 as my primary development platform for various projects, including consulting for the Huntington Library and Gardens, and being a Webmaster for Innovagrafx, Ltd.. I use Warp 4 today for my Web/Intranet design company, 4th Millennium Consulting Group, because it is the best solution for the task at hand.

Why OS/2?

OS/2's Workplace Shell interface, coupled with some enhancements such as Stardock Systems' Object Desktop 1.5, is a near-ideal project manager and workspace. Using Work Areas and Virtual Desktops makes multitasking much easier under OS/2 than with any other operating system. Together with OS/2's world-class reliability and performance and the plethora of available HTML and text editing tools available, the Workplace Shell allows fast and reliable Web site design.

Furthermore, IBM's dedication to Sun's Java programming language has quickly made OS/2 an excellent platform for writing Java applets for the Web. Although most Java development tools are still only available for Windows 95, OS/2's reliability coupled with IBM's fast and effective Java Development Kit and the NetREXX programming language have made Warp 4 a major player in the Java development arena. (See my review of NetREXX in this issue.)

When my projects became more than a few pages in scope, I quickly found problems with writing straight HTML, such as the need for standard headers and footers on each page with such information as modification date, URL, and Next/Previous page links. Including these headers and footers in every page made changing the look of the site -- even by a small amount -- a nightmare.

Fortunately, OS/2 presented a solution to the problem through REXX, its built-in scripting language. REXX and Object REXX, included in Warp 4, are extremely good at text manipulation and file-handling, which made them ideal for writing HTML. Many sites overcome these problems by using CGI scripts written in languages such as Perl on their Web servers. However, since the information on the page is static and machine-generatable, having to run a CGI script every time a Web page is accessed can quickly overburden the server. Instead, I created several REXX/Object REXX scripts which take HTML files, tack on header and footer information, and do appropriate substitution for things such as modification date, URL, and Next/Previous page links. As of now, most of these scripts have been ported over to NetREXX, a REXX-like language which compiles to platform-independent Java bytecode, so that I will be able to run these scripts on another platform if need be.

Why not OS/2?

OS/2 is not perfect for every job, however, despite what the fanatics say. OS/2 is a great all-purpose development platform, but it has some weaknesses which other operating systems are tailor-made to address.

For sheer server efficiency and flexibility, I have yet to find a better solution than FreeBSD UN*X. I run FreeBSD on our internal test server, my ancient 486DX/25 with 8 MB of RAM, and it is quite usable. Our Web hosting provider, Pair Networks, uses FreeBSD on all their servers (high-end Pentium Pro based machines). Few OSs have this kind of scalability while retaining performance and taking advantage of the newest technologies. I would not want to run OS/2 Warp 4 or Windows 95 on a 486DX/25 (although I am sure it is doable).

For testing the newest software and technologies, we need to use Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0, since most products these days come out for those platforms first. I need to check my Web site designs on various browsers which are not available for OS/2, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator beta, so I use these platforms.

For graphics work, a Macintosh may be best. Many of the graphics I have used over the years have been created with a Macintosh using tools such as PhotoShop and Kai's Power Tools. Although these tools have been available for the PC for some time, they still work best under the PowerPC chip with its hefty floating point performance.

Ultimately, getting the task done is the most important thing, and each individual must evaluate his work and the attributes of the various operating systems available in order to come to a judgment.

Where do we go from here?

Every month in this column, I will explore the ins and outs of effective Worldwide Web site design under OS/2. I will mention hardware, software, tips and tricks, and even other operating systems if that is how to get the task done best. All topics are open to discussion, as long as they pertain to OS/2 and Web site design in some way. If you have a topic you would like to discuss, send me e-mail at tej@4m.pair.com.

Next month, look for a description of the hardware I use and how to buy optimal hardware for web development under OS/2. (Web-optimized hardware is quite different from what many people are used to in the generic computer market.) I will explore how to prioritize your purchases for maximal effect.

Tejaswi Kasturi is a Founding Partner in charge of web site/intranet design and system administration at 4th Millennium Consulting Group, an Internet strategy consulting and web site/intranet design firm. In his spare time, Tej uses OS/2 Warp 4 to maintain the OS/2 Internet Resources site, an OS/2 e-Zine! Site of the Week.

[Our Sponsor: Keller Group Inc. - Developers of FaxWorks for OS/2 and PMfax.]

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