First Looks and Nifty Gadgets

irst Looks and Nifty Gadgets brings you reviews of the new and novel. In each issue we take a look at what's just hitting the streets and some tiny, but tried and true products that are still helping people be as productive as possible.

In this issue we look at: Smart Windows demo v0.79 | PMPopup/2 v1.0

Smart Windows demo v0.79

Just when we had rediscovered and reinstalled CandyBarZ (after reinstalling OS/2 one time, we forgot to reload this great WPS enhancer), the developer of Smart Windows releases his first public demo. Formerly planned as "Tabbed Windows", this newly renamed product promises a host of WPS enhancements, including (but definitely not limited to!) a spiffed up title-bar.

Smart Windows should eventually deliver helpful features to the Desktop such as pointer hiding (if the mouse hasn't been moved for a few seconds); extensive mouse button remapping and some keyboard remapping; and a selection of bitmaps for titlebar buttons and the ability to move or disable the close button (an ability we wanted when Warp 4 was first released). And, of course, Smart Windows will allow users to customize their titlebars with horizontal of vertical "shading", or with bitmaps -- a beautiful effect (GIF, 13k)!

The entire product will be controlled from one very well laid out settings notebook which should impress even the most Windows-envious OS/2er. Every feature has its own page with a corresponding "exception list" page for that feature (in case you don't want fancy titlebars with Lotus 123, for example). Changing the titlebar bitmaps is as easy as clicking on the sample in the notebook; a new pop-up dialog appears listing all the possible bitmaps you can use, or allowing you to define a colour or shade.

While this is only a demo of what the program will do (the Smart Windows demo doesn't actually affect your Desktop at this point, just its own settings notebook), the author says on his web page that he expects, "to release a first beta before the end of June." If the beta is half as good as the demo, expect it to be a winner.

Smart Windows demo v0.79

by Alessandro Cantatore
download from the WarpWare Home Page (ZIP, 570k)
Registration: FREEWARE

PMPopup/2 v1.0

PMPopup/2 is a small program that does just one thing: create pop-up dialog windows on your Desktop. These pop-ups can have buttons, they can be set to disappear after a certain time, the text on them can be modified and they can even generate a short "warning beep" when they pop up.

The real power of PMPopup/2 though, is that when its pop-up windows close, they generate an "errorlevel". This just means that they generate a code when they close, which will be different depending on how the dialog was closed (by a button click or by a timeout). With some simple REXX scripting, you can create a short .CMD file which will pop up a window displaying some information, wait for a button to be pressed, and act accordingly.

PMPopup/2 is not new, but it's a good way to create quick and dirty "graphical" front ends for simple REXX programs.

PMPopup/2 v1.0

by Christian Biskup
download from the OS/2 Supersite (ZIP, 24k)
Registration: FREEWARE

That's it for this issue. Tune in next time for more reviews of neat gadgets and first looks at new OS/2 tools.

Copyright © 1998 - Falcon Networking

ISSN 1203-5696