[Please note: this is a text only version of the on-line magazine, OS/2 e-Zine!.  OS/2 e-Zine! is a graphical, WWW OS/2 publication and, if possible, should be viewed in its HTML format available on-line at http://www.os2ezine.com/ or zipped for off-line reading.  Some graphically oriented articles have been removed from this document.]


OS/2 e-Zine!		November 16, 1997		volume 2, number 11
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1997		Falcon Networking  	ISSN 1203-5696

                  "Over Half a Million Satisfied Visitors!"


OPINIONS:

  Chris' Rant
  Warp for Windows
  Confronting the Bigwigs
 
DEPARTMENTS:

  the Beta File
  News from the OS/2 World
  OS/2 Gaming News
  Graphics Tips
  OS/2 Networking
  the REXX Files
  How Do I?


REVIEWS:

OS/2 Essentials v2 - Christopher B. Wright

Entrepreneur - Colin Hildinger

-First Looks and Nifty Gadgets-
  Lookout for OS/2	mp123 v0.59l
  PM2Web v1.0		OS/2 Warp Tour


READER SURVEY

Results from our October Survey
    Find out what your fellow readers told us last month! 

What do you think about Lotus?
    Answer these 4 simple questions and find out how you compare to
    other OS/2 users.  Results will be printed next month!

1997 Readers' Choice Nominations
    It's time to nominate your favourite products and developers for
    eligibility in the 1997 OS/2 e-Zine! Readers' Choice
    Awards!


CELEBRITY CORNER

The Warpstock Report - Christopher B. Wright
    Each month, OS/2 e-Zine! brings you IBMers, ISVs, OS/2
    industry personalities, and celebrities to share their opinions
    and more!  This month, we bring you the scoop on all the goings-on
    at the first ever "Warpstock".


ARTICLES

Warp 4 Optimization - Ted Waldron III
    If you find Warp 4 terminally slow and have reverted to Warp 3,
    take note: there are some things you can do to speed up "Merlin". 
    Our CONFIG.SYS expert shares his experiences.

How to Support OS/2- Colin Hildinger
    If you have ever wondered how you can lend a hand to the OS/2
    advocacy effort, this simple list will get you started in no
    time.


END NOTES:

  Hot Sellers - the top 10 selling OS/2 apps from BMT Micro.
  Hot Sellers - the top 15 selling OS/2 apps from Indelible Blue.
  Hot Sellers - the top 10 selling OS/2 apps from J3 Computer Technologies.
  Hot Sellers - the top 10 selling OS/2 apps from Mensys.


ODDS & ENDS:

* How to Subscribe to OS/2 e-Zine! for FREE.
* How YOU can Sponsor OS/2 e-Zine!
* The Sponsors that Make this Issue Possible


Copyright 1997   -   Falcon Networking
ISSN 1203-5696

***********************************

Corporate Sponsors

(http://www.bmtmicro.com/) BMT Micro
Your complete source for over 175 of the best OS/2 shareware applications available.  Drop by today and check out our WWW catalog or download the .INF version.

(http://www.indelible-blue.com/) Indelible Blue
Indelible Blue, a mail order company, provides OS/2 software and hardware solutions to customers worldwide.

(http://www.kellergroup.com/) Keller Group Inc.
Developers of FaxWorks for OS/2 and PMfax, the fax and voice solution for OS/2, with versions for stand-alone, LAN and Internet Faxing.

(http://www.mensys.nl/indexuk.html) Mensys
The one place to go in Europe for all OS/2 Warp software.

(http://www.pcs-soft.com/) Perez Computing Services
Defend against desktop freezes with Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander and create online documents/help with the IPF Editor.

(http://www.prioritymaster.com/) ScheduPerformance, Inc.
Dramatically improve performance on your OS/2 system now with the patented priority scanning logic and visual priority identification of Priority Master II.

(http://www.softouch.com/) SofTouch Systems, Inc.
Home of the bestselling set of disk and desktop maintenance products for 
OS/2: GammaTech Utilities, UniMaint, and FileStar/2!  ---- _Your System's Safe and Sound with SofTouch Around_

(http://www.stardock.com/) Stardock Systems
Providing quality software for the home _and_ office.

(http://www.sundialsystems.com/) Sundial Systems Corporation
Productivity applications:  Relish - time management; Mesa 2 - spreadsheet; Clearlook - word processor; DBExpert - database.

***********************************

Chris' Rant	- by Chris Wenham

Java: It's Not Just For Browsers Anymore

I usually don't say much about Java since I think you probably get enough of it anyway.  So if you're still not interested in hearing more about it, flip to the next page.

As you may know, Java is under fire for being too slow and immature.  Valid complaints, but one is due for retirement, and the other is completely missing a vital point.

Performance of Java applications, which currently crawl along on most computers, won't be an issue in the months and years to come. This I'm sure of.  While I won't go out on a limb yet to predict the success/demise of Java, I'll wager that by this time next year the performance of Java applications will be a non-issue with anyone except a benchmark freak.

Why?  Look at the history of OS/2, Windows and other GUIs.  Programs that ran under these environments were criticized as being slower than their DOS/Character-mode counterparts.  Well today they still are, and always will be slower than an application that only has to push a 100th of the same information to the screen.  But recent years have given us computers that run so fast that we simply don't _care_ anymore!  

From a human's perception, it doesn't matter that a GUI application is technically running slower than a character-mode one.  It visually and responsively acts just as fast.

If your Java program runs at half the speed of your comfort level, then in 18 months you'll be able to buy a new computer for the same price that runs it twice as fast (or upgrade it for even cheaper).  Then again in another 18 months, and again, and again, and so on until eventually you just don't even notice anymore.

Back in the early 90's Windows accelerator cards replaced generic SVGA, and all of a sudden everything snapped with speed.  Look for hardware acceleration of Java too, either as an add-on card, as part of the supporting chipset, or even merged into the CPU itself.

Immaturity isn't going to last for long either.  Java has been one of the fastest growing children in the industry, especially with the Herculean efforts of IBM as a surrogate father.  What Java hasn't got today will most likely arrive tomorrow.  I mean, it's growing _fast_.

But something has been missed.  When the pundits and moguls sneer at Java for its immaturity they're missing the fact that the advent of Java is the coming of age, the maturity of the computer industry itself.  It's the stubble of beard growth on a young man's face, just fuzz right now, but an indication of the real adulthood it signifies.  

While Java's platform independence is irrelevant to the individual user who only uses one platform him/herself anyway, it's crucially relevant to the industry as a whole.  It's that long overdue, logical next-step from the days when big computer manufacturers like Digital and IBM put down their differences and settled on ASCII as a means of sharing information.  Now, just like we can take for granted the ability to share information on the level of bits and bytes, we can look forward to the days when we can share functionality too.

So have I bored you to tears yet?  :-)

All the above promises of paradigm-churning maturity will all evaporate if Java doesn't deliver some basic, fundamental benefits to you and me, John Q. Public, the masses at large, the Rest Of Us.  We're not programmers, the majority of us don't use more than one operating system anyway, so all this hubbub about platform independence is pointless and irrelevant to us.  But, uh... that's Java's major key advantage, right?  If that means nothing to the people who really count, then Java's gonna fail, right?  I mean, what other whiz-bang feature is left?

I hope, and believe, it is JavaBeans.

Simply put, JavaBeans brings to software what Lego Bricks did for toys.  Average home and small business users can connect together packaged functions to make custom programs for themselves, without having to be programmers.  Imagine connecting software components together on your screen to make a program the same way you plug CD Players, Amplifiers and Cassette Decks together with audio cables to make a home entertainment system.  

You ever play with Sierra's "The Incredible Machine" or Maxis' "Widget Workshop"?  Yeah, just like that.  You drag parts onto the screen and tie them together with a few pipes.  'Paint' the way the screen should look, then generate the program and run it.  Voila!  Application instamatique.  You don't even have to know how to use a pair of Begin-End brackets (don't worry if you don't know what those are, that's the point).

This is going to be much easier than OLE or OpenDoc.

Maybe one day you'll be able to run Java on your wristwatch, and then you can tell it to send e-mail to Bill Gates.  More likely you'll step up to a Kiosk one day and insert a smart-card that lets you order a Palmtop computer and have it billed and shipped to you without ever revealing personal information to someone looking over your shoulder.  When you then get that Palmtop computer you'll stick your smart-card back in it and use it to access the same software the Kiosk was running, except now without the Kiosk, to order a birthday present for your nephew.

Oh, and you'll be able to play games and stuff on it too.



(Hah!  I made it through all that without using a single coffee metaphor!  Woo-hoo!)

          -- * --

(http://www.spectra.net/~fox/) Chris Wenham is a freelance web designer, writer and Englishman who now lives in Endicott, NY.  In the past he has written comedy, sci-fi, Pascal, Rexx, HTML and Gibberish.  He has been using OS/2 exclusively for the past 2 years.

***********************************

Warp for Windows	- by Pierre R.  LaFlamme


Presented below is a bold and interesting initiative for the GROWTH of the OS/2 Warp installed user base.
   
Overview

Is it a Microsoft Windows world?  Should it be?  This paper presents a marketing opportunity concept that explores recent technology trends and the computing consumer.  It identifies available technologies and existing talent and focuses these resources on a grand collaboration for the growth of the OS/2 Warp installed user base.  It offers a basis for doing 'good business' in the promotion of OS/2 Warp.  Ultimately this paper hopes to unite and ignite a new Warp Wave of enthusiasm based on optimism and future business opportunities.

Warp at Idle

It is expected that the typical reader of this paper is an OS/2 user.  If you are, then the  current state of Warp is known to you.  If you aren't an OS/2 user, then the state of Warp is this section's caption, WARP AT IDLE.  There has been much said and written about the lack of marketing success of IBM's OS/2 Warp.  Many an OS/2 user will no doubt fault IBM.  Others will
point to questionable business tactics by Microsoft.  Regardless of where you come down on this debate, the reality of the situation is plain.  Windows is dominant.  OS/2 isn't.  

A Window of Opportunity

In the world of business, being number 2, 3, or 4 is not necessarily bad.  The important thing is to "be" and surely nobody disputes the existence of OS/2.  Microsoft, though dominant, surely fears IBM's OS/2 simply because it exists.  

So if a Windows user were to ask me, "Is it a Microsoft Windows world?" I'd answer yes.  I'd also follow up by asking, "why one operating system?  I have several."  At this point, I think you see the "hook" that will drive future opportunity.  Call it "computer envy", "consumer choice", "let me decide",  or whatever, people love technology that gives them choices and therein lies an opportunity.  

So if you believe that offering choices forms the basis of doing 'good business', how can one use this to grow the installed customer base for Warp?  After all, surely IBM with its billions of dollars must be aware of such things?

Maybe it's done by building a new burger joint next to the existing one.

The Burger War!

I'm not going to tell you I have any clue as to how things are done at IBM.  Matter of fact, I'm actually assuming they are concentrating on other things like providing more and better Windows NT programs than Microsoft itself.  This is not a bad business strategy but it doesn't have to be the only game in town.  Here is the idea plain and simple:

Produce a OS/2 Warp Windows Sampler CD that installs from Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Windows NT machines.  The CD will deliver (automated installation) a fully functional OS/2 Warp 4 operating system on a logical HPFS partition.  The fully functional OS/2 Warp will run for 120 days.  Of course, the CD also installs a boot manager, the delivery mechanism for CHOICE between the users current OS and Warp.

How?

There are several key technologies that allow for the above idea.  They are 1.), lower CD production costs, 2.) tremendous increases in average user hard disk storage space and, 3.) drive image software delivery systems.  

Now if you are unfamiliar with drive image software, I'll briefly explain.  A drive image is a sector by sector copy of a hard disk.  This image is stored in file format.  Because it is a  file it is also portable and can be put on a disk or CD.  The technologies offered by PowerQuest and GhostSoft are examples and they are WONDERFUL!  No longer is a computer user simply stuck with the one operating system that came on his computer.  With little or no effort, drive image products allow for the addition of entire systems.  Users who previously feared hard disk partitioning and all the jargon that goes with it are now experiencing operating system freedom.  The freedom to drive any and all operating systems around the block.

In the idea presented above, the drive image software for the CD is tailored to the specific delivery of OS/2 Warp on a logical drive.  It examines the users current hard disk, looks for extra or unused hard disk space and then formats, extracts and installs the OS/2 Warp image without (or with limited) user intervention.  Because it installs itself as a HPFS file system (one Microsoft does not support, THANK YOU!), it will not alter the existing drive letter mapping of the user's current Windows configuration.

The version of Warp 4 installed by this method is a plain VGA version designed to get Warp up and running.  One thing it does install is an easily configurable Internet dialer (InJoy maybe) and Netscape.  As you can imagine, the user will quickly want to add sound, improve resolution, get drivers etc.  All this and a great deal of "HELLO" and "WELCOME" can be offered the POTENTIAL new user through a well managed internet site (funded with advertising of OS/2 products)! 

So at this point the Windows user has a boot manager, a running copy of Warp 4 and access to a great and well organized "Welcome to Warp" internet page.  What else needs to happen?

Lots!

In a kinder and gentler way, we need to highlight the fine features of OS/2.  Remember the trouble you had and the mysterious way OS/2 worked when you were first learning it?  Icons versus objects?  I see the need for more guides and examples.  Start off by reproducing how one operates on Windows 95.  Show them that Warp isn't really so different.  This should be easy since all things that Windows 95 does are really subsets of Warp anyway.  Then, slowly introduce the user to the alternative methods of doing similar things.  In other words, Warp'em slow! We don't want to blow a fuse on the first encounter.

Well as you can see, much more needs to happen from this point. After all this is a "try it before you buy it" idea.  But rather than discussing this, we first need to produce the CD with the deliverable image.

Team

In pondering as to who should put this scheme into action, my thoughts keep coming back to Warpstock.  Here is an organized event for the good of the OS/2 community.  OS/2 users taking charge of OS/2.  I like it.  In a similar vein, this effort could also be a collaborative effort of OS/2 users and OS/2 independent software vendors.

Here's a possible team:

o  Produce time limited Warp 4 version (IBM)
o  Produce attractive lean VGA version of Warp 4 (Stardock)
                        (package OD with it, make Warp shine!)
o  image software (GhostSoft, PowerQuest, in collaboration with TEAM)
o  boot manager (IBM, or others if we can find them)
o  take CD orders through internet (all OS/2 retail vendors)
o  stamp out disks and deliver (IB, BMT, others)
o  set up Internet welcome wagon (hard to pick, so many fine sites)

To be realistic, I don't expect the CD sampler can be produced for free.  I would envision a $20 charge credited toward full registration fee of Warp.  I do, however, see a cost offset by packing additional related software with the Warp CD sample.  A good example is the drive imaging product itself.  PowerQuest or GhostSoft or somebody could really shine! 

When Do We Start?

Looking at my date book, may I suggest now? :-)  The next year will witness a tremendous amount of Microsoft movement.  Many in the industry see this as a golden opportunity to interject a bit of IBM calmness in a frantic computing environment.  Many users will be thoroughly confused as to the many choices they have with Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4 and Windows NT 5.  

This means more opportunity for Warp!
     
I'm interested in your comments.  Send the good as well as the bad.  My e-mail is: (prl@swva.net) prl@swva.net.

          -- * --

(prl@swva.net) Pierre LaFlamme is the owner of SE&C, a small structural engineering firm located in southwestern Virginia.  His company specializes in construction documents for commercial and industrial buildings.  He began using OS/2 in 1995  with Warp 3.0 and has become a fan of the Workplace Shell and the fine underpinnings of the OS/2 operating system.

***********************************
Confronting the Bigwigs	- by Tim Harrison

Will IBM's Executives Meet with the Users?

Nothing is more frustrating for an OS/2 lover than seeing more messages, reading more articles, or hearing more snide comments about OS/2's death.  I feel my heart beating faster, my blood growing cold, and I feel this intense urge to suddenly edit my config.sys and reboot, just to show that I'm actively using and supporting OS/2.  I feel helpless, yet I imagine jumping on a plane, flying to IBM's headquarters, and having a chat with the esteemed Louis Gerstner.  I keep thinking that maybe I could stride into that office, head held high, show Mr. Gerstner the error of his ways, and watch him suddenly grasp how important it is to the world that he immediately channel all the IBM development money into OS/2.  What a wonderful thought, eh?  Hey, why not?

Consider this a warning.  I will not spout facts and figures here.  This is a personal essay.

I've been told that I should just give up, as I can't change the path that OS/2 is on.  What path is that?  To dominance as a network operating system (incredibly optimistic viewpoint)?  To its death, which has been heralded for so long by so many people, as a desktop operating system (incredibly pessimistic viewpoint)?  A lot of people that I talk to have just taken the "NT is where everyone is going, so why fight it?" stance, and are either migrating now, or planning on it soon.  And just why can't we fight it?  We still buy copies of the operating system.  We still use the OS/2 products we know and love (and purchase new ones when they are made available).  We do this because we love the freedom of choice we enjoy.  We do this because we feel that we are running an operating system that is superior.  We do this because we _can_.  I shall now step off my soapbox for a little while, but reserve the right to get right back up upon it.

A personal note.  I approached my investment manager recently with a business plan.  My partners and I had put an incredible amount of work into it.  Part of the plan was our choice of operating system.  OS/2 Warp Server, and OS/2 Warp 4.  He read it, read it again, and read it a third time.  He called me a short time later, and asked two simple questions: Why are you intending to use OS/2?  Wouldn't Unix be a better idea?  I hadn't expected this.  Of course, Unix is a wonderful operating environment.  I use Linux at home as well, and actually enjoy it.  However, my experience is mostly in OS/2 and I knew I could count on it to come through in a business environment.  Any business environment.  However, I held back one thing in my response.  I love OS/2.  I wanted to have it in my workplace.  I wanted to show my support.  However, I couldn't say, "...and IBM stands behind OS/2 100%" because I didn't feel it.

The continuing argument (recently more prominently discussed in OS/2 e-Zine!) that IBM should sell off OS/2 to a third party, or licence the client code, has brought to mind the need for a commitment from IBM.  We seem to be lost in a deluge of "official statements", press releases, rumours, and form letters.  At least I am.  Has anyone actually managed to get a chance to talk to someone high up in the ranks of IBM?  Has anyone actually received anything more than an "official statement" from IBM?

I'm not attempting to start some form of grass roots revolution here.  I've seen some movements begin with the most wonderful of intentions, only to degenerate into name calling, stone throwing, and ending up only hurting the cause (I'm not necessarily pointing to an OS/2 example here).  I would, however, like to see one simple thing (simple may not be the correct word)...  I would like to see IBM executives agree to meet with the heads of the ISVs, ISPs and User Groups, and answer the direct questions and concerns of the OS/2 community at large.  I know the top dogs are busy, but, maybe they could fit in a 2 or 3 hour meeting, sometime in their work week.  It's not like we buy their products or anything.    

Now, as much as I agree with IBM's intentions to position OS/2 in the network computing environment, I also wish to have the option to run it at home with support from its creators and a fantastic bunch of ISVs behind me.  Yet, how can I expect to have that option when I feel that IBM doesn't understand the needs of the installed OS/2 user base?  I feel that if we had an opportunity to lay out our gripes, concerns, and ideas, maybe someone would begin to understand what it is that the users are yelling about.

Pardon me while I climb back onto my handy soapbox.  (Remember, I reserved that right several paragraphs above.)  I feel I must repeat myself.  We (as users) support OS/2 because we can.  We trust it.  We run our mission critical applications on it.  We run our games on it.  We connect to the Internet and our networks with it.  It's a system that works.  It's a system that is powerful.  It's a system that gives us a choice of what software we wish to run to be productive, to connect to others, or just to have fun.  And, it's stable.

IBM seems to want to stumble blindly into the darkened tunnel of the future.  Sure, networking does, and will, play an important role in the future.  However, what about the users who are on those networks?  What about the users who want the choice?  What about the users who are forced to run other operating systems at home?  Are they going to want to run Windows at home, and then something else at work?  They're going to want to use the same platform in both places.  With OS/2 in the workplace, it's not a far hop to bring it home to the PC there.  Why can't marketing reflect that?

I think the users should have a choice in what that future holds.  As it stands, it seems that the major corporations decide the future of computing.  Big business makes the product, and then creates the need for that product.  Why can't the users hold that power?  We can't just stop this trend, but we can sure change its direction.  Why can't _we_ drive the industry?  After all, _we_ are the ones who use the products they develop.  Let's keep our ability to choose.  And let's see what IBM says...

          -- * --

(tharrison@orc.ca) Tim Harrison is the head of Superior Internetworking, a group with interests in the Internet Service Provider industry.  He is an OS/2 supporter, a self described "armchair activist", and general all-around computer do-gooder.

***********************************

the Beta File	- by Ryan Dill

Welcome back to the Beta File, your source for the latest breaking news in OS/2 beta development.  Each month we scour the OS/2 world to bring you interesting news of OS/2 software in development.   If you have a product that you're sure is going to be the next killer app, or you want a little free exposure for your beta test, (feedback@os2ezine.com) drop us a note!

          -- * --

We'll start off this month with a few updates to beta programs that we have mentioned in previous issues.

The graphics front-end IPAD (mentioned in (http://www.os2ezine.com/v2n7/beta.htm) July '97), has been updated again (11/3/97), this time to (http://www.demon.co.uk/cgi-bin/titan/getfile?/IPAD/os2/ipad501b.zip) version 5.0.1 (ZIP, 550k).  Nick Knight's MR/2 Newsreader (mentioned in (http://www.os2ezine.com/v2n6/beta.htm) June '97), has been updated (10/31/97) to (http://www.apk.net/secant/nick/news42.zip) beta #42 (ZIP, 1M).  Lastly, an updated version (11/7/97) of the graphics manipulation program Embellish's 2.02a beta (mentioned in (http://www.os2ezine.com/v2n7/beta.htm) July '97) is  (ftp://ftp.dadaware.com/dadaware/embo202.zip) available (ZIP, 2.4M).

          -- * --

(http://www.lotus.com/) Lotus has released the beta version of SmartSuite for OS/2 Warp 4 (the office suite formerly known as SmartSuite 97 for OS/2) to the public.  To install the beta, you first need to have installed a special version of OS/2 Warp 4 FixPak 3 (called FixPak 3 SE, or Special Edition).  This FixPak contains certain Open32 code SmartSuite needs to run, code that isn't yet included in normal Warp 4 FixPaks.  (Open32 is an IBM Win32 porting library, which greatly aids developers in porting a Windows 32-bit application to an OS/2 32-bit application, as was done with this version of SmartSuite) Lotus representatives have stated that in the future, possibly by the next beta release, these Open32 fixes will be included in normal Warp 4 FixPaks, so you won't have to juggle 'basic' and 'SE' FixPaks.

SmartSuite for Warp 4 includes a word processor (Word Pro), a spreadsheet (1-2-3), a database (Approach), Personal Information Manager (Organizer), and a program for graphical presentations (Freelance Graphics).  The suite is designed for Internet/intranet interaction; all your programs can save to Internet drives as easily as local ones.  In addition to normal word processing capabilities, Word Pro allows easy generation of HTML pages for the World Wide Web with no HTML knowledge necessary.  Lotus 1-2-3 tables can similarly be published directly to the Web, and Approach allows the user to access a wide range of databases, such as Notes or Oracle, no matter where they are.

If you're a licensed Lotus beta tester for SmartSuite for Warp 4, you'll get a copy of the program on CD if you haven't already (the beta kits started shipping to testers on the 12th of November).  For everyone else, the beta is freely downloadable from the Internet.  The problem is, this beta is BIG.  FixPak 3 SE by itself is 29 megabytes ZIPped, while the actual SmartSuite beta is closer to 100 megabytes.  Because of this, a number of download options are available, such as downloading twenty 5-megabyte files rather than one huge file.  One can also install only the parts of the suite that are desired, rather than the whole thing.  (e.g., you can install just Word Pro and Freelance Graphics.)

The beta has been stored on one of OS/2's main archive sites, (http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/) Hobbes, and (http://www.innoval.com/) Innoval's Hobbes Report now has a (http://www.aescon.com/bestofos2/ss.htm) SmartSuite beta page which contains various information and download links.  To find out more information about SmartSuite for OS/2, see the (http://www.lotus.com/home.nsf/welcome/smartsuiteos2/) Suite's page at Lotus.  For anyone who doesn't want to bother downloading close to 130 megs of files, resellers such as (http://www.indelible-blue.com/ibapps/products.nsf/7077ed230e5238bd852564d7005e241e/934d5c4a140748358525654800680ebf?OpenDocument) Indelible Blue and (https://www.os2store.com/proddes/lotus_sswarp4_beta.html) J3 Computer Technologies are also offering the software on CD.  (Materials, time and labor bring the cost of the CD to US$10 before shipping.)  No word is yet available from Lotus of the final intended price of SmartSuite for Warp 4, but since SmartSuite 96 for is now selling for about US$399 at both of the above places, it's a safe bet that SmartSuite for Warp 4's full price will be above $400 US (less for academic and upgrades).

          -- * --

(cdhodge@ibm.net) Christopher Hodges has written a MIDI sequencer which uses OS/2's Real-Time MIDI subsystem, (http://www.io.com/~timur/rtmidi.html) RTMIDI, and he's currently seeking beta testers to help him test it on OS/2 systems other than his own.  His current setup is Warp 4 with a Sound Blaster 16 card (yes, it can be used with RTMIDI), so anyone with a different sound card (or cards) is encouraged to e-mail Christopher with details.

The MStation Sequencer has some of the following features:

o  An unlimited number of tracks - (Defaults to 24 but user can add)
o  Merging of multiple tracks into one
o  Transposition on a per-track basis
o  Can send program/bank changes on a per-track basis
o  Track muting
o  A 16-Channel mixer with volume and left-to-right panning
o  A metronome 
o  Uses OS/2's high-resolution timer for accurate timestamping
o  Tempo change

Many more features are planned for the final release of the MStation Sequencer, but the author wants to make sure this version is working correctly with a variety of hardware first.  At this early stage, no decisions regarding price or final availability date have been made.  If you'd like more info or would like to be a tester as MStation develops, (cdhodge@ibm.net) e-mail Christopher and let him know.

          -- * --

The members of the (http://www.physiol.med.tu-muenchen.de/~robert/freetype.html) FreeType Project have released the first public beta of their TrueType font rendering engine.  This freeware product is a cross-platform library which allows you to design font servers (the part of your environment which is responsible for displaying your various fonts) which will display TrueType fonts (as originally developed by (http://www.apple.com/) Apple and (http://www.microsoft.com/) Microsoft) quickly and with quality.  Since it's developed wholly from published TrueType documentation and specs rather than ported or derived from the TrueType engines for the Macintosh and Windows, FreeType doesn't have to pay any royalties for using TrueType technology.  Hence, the FreeType engine is free for anyone to use and comes with all source code included.  Being cross platform, it could be fairly useful to OS/2 developers.  (In fact, the majority of engine development is being done on OS/2 and Linux)

The FreeType engine is said to be of a quality equal to the built-in engines of Windows and the Macintosh, plus it brings a variety of features to platforms which use it for development.  Some of the interesting ones include gray-level rendering (which can provide smoothed fonts like the anti-aliased ones in Windows 95); a byte-code interpreter which 'hints' at fonts, allowing them to display extremely well even at small sizes; support for collections of TrueType fonts in a single file, and the ability to extend the FreeType engine as needed.

This beta release contains a completely functional API (Application Programming Interface), so the members of the FreeType project encourage any OS/2 developers interested in font display to download it and develop code based on the FreeType engine.  In that way, any bugs remaining in the engine will be tracked down and developers will gain a better understanding of what FreeType can do.  The beta can be  (ftp://ftp.physiol.med.tu-muenchen.de/pub/freetype/ft-beta.zip) downloaded (ZIP, 347k) from the FreeType Project's (http://www.physiol.med.tu-muenchen.de/~robert/freetype.html) home page, where you can also find a FAQ, screen shots, and demo web pages of the engine in action.  Any comments on the development of FreeType under OS/2 can be sent to (robert@physiol.med.tu-muenchen.de) Robert Wilhelm.

          -- * --

Also for developers, (martin@tofu.rhcl.niu.edu) Johanne Martin has released his third beta of version 2.0 of his SVGA and VESA Kit for EMX.  'EMX' is Eberhard Mattes' development environment for creating (and running) 32-bit programs for OS/2 2.x, Warp (3.x, 4.x) and DOS.  EMX is designed primarily for porting Unix software to OS/2 and DOS, and includes a copy of the GNU C/C++ compiler.  Although the EMX environment includes loads of stuff for programmers, one area which it previously glossed over was high-resolution graphics.  Johanne has decided to fill the gap by releasing his kit, which will allow programmers writing with EMX to develop programs that use high-resolution VESA and SVGA.

Like the EMX environment itself, the SVGA and VESA Kit is freeware.  Version 2.0 has no set release date as of yet, but interested programmers are encouraged to download either the latest release version (v1.9) or the 2.0 b3 and report any problems they find.  The source and runtimes for version 1.9, as well as the source for the beta 2.0 (a runtime only version of 2.0 is not yet available) can be downloaded from the Kit's (http://tofu.rhcl.niu.edu/~martin/svgakit.html) web page.  The latest version of EMX (0.9c + FixPak 4) and all of its documentation can be downloaded from (http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/dev/emx/) Hobbes or the (http://www.os2ss.com/archives/hobbes/os2/dev/emx/) OS/2 Supersite.

          -- * --

(http://fm-net.com/pillarsoft/) PillarSoft, the company that brought OS/2 users the Enhanced E editors and the WarpZip zip management utility, have announced the second beta (v1.01) of a new mini-application, ShowTime/2.  ShowTime/2 is a combination background switcher and slide show viewer.  For anyone who gets bored with seeing the same background on your OS/2 Desktop, ShowTime/2 will allow you to change it at a prearranged time -- much like the Background Magic program mentioned in (http://www.os2ezine.com/v2n10/first.htm) last month's issue.  Select what bitmaps you want to be switched around from the program's file dialog, and then simply select the time you want the program to wait before switching.  ShowTime/2 adds another feature though, because it allows you to set bitmaps to appear either as your Desktop background or as a 'slide show' (the images cycle as the background of a folder in front of you, allowing your Desktop to remain unchanged).  It also displays the time of the last change in the titlebar of the main program.

The current beta of ShowTime/2 only allows images to appear scaled, not normal size or tiled, but the author says this is a feature he'd like to add to the next version.  ShowTime/2 is available for purchase and e-mail delivery through Pillarsoft for US $7 or through (http://www.bmtmicro.com/catalog/showtime.html) BMT Micro for US $10.  (BMT is more expensive, but also has more payment methods and is faster in terms of turnaround.)  For more information, see the (http://fm-net.com/pillarsoft/showtime.html) ShowTime/2 home page.

          -- * --

Is it time for something to improve your Desktop?  Having just reached its second public beta (a small bug fix over the first beta, which was preceded by 4 internal versions), Dialog Enhancer does just that.  Dialog Enhancer is a utility for Warp 4 which replaces many of the graphical resources of OS/2 with 'spiffed up' versions.  Dialog boxes, 'File Open/Save' boxes, basic system programs such as ChkDsk and the Icon Editor -- all have had the graphical resources associated with them tweaked to visually make more sense and to be more appealing.  Many dialogs in Warp 4 which use the old Warp 3 system fonts by default will use the newer and more appealing WarpSans instead once Dialog Enhancer has been applied.

Dialog Enhancer has been tested on all versions of Warp 4 (FixPaks too), but will not work on any other versions of OS/2 (if demand for other versions exists, though, the author is willing to consider it).  Once installed via ObjectREXX, you'll hopefully find that your OS/2 system looks better and makes more sense.  It adds text to dialogs here and there to make those dialogs easier to understand, adds icons to some, makes some take up less space, et cetera.

The author of Dialog Enhancer, (R.S.Castle-96@student.lboro.ac.uk) Richard Castle, is planning on releasing the product as shareware, probably for a price tag of US$15, once the beta cycle is completed.  Until then, anyone is welcome to download it and try it out on their system.  The more people who like the program and register it, the more development that will go into it, so download it and see what you think.  (Keep in mind it's beta software, and acts underneath the hood of OS/2 -- follow the directions, and you should be OK.)  You can download the latest version of Dialog Enhancer (as of this writing, v1.041b) from (http://www-student.lboro.ac.uk/~mcrsc/ostrans.html) the program's web page.

          -- * --

For the web designers out there, the makers of the WYSIWYG ("What You See Is What You Get") HTML publisher HomePage Publisher have just released their second beta of version 2.0 of the program.  HomePage Publisher allows you to create web pages without knowledge of arcane HTML tags -- simply type in your text and then use HPP's various toolbar functions to change it to your liking, using bold and italics, centering and different font and header sizes at the click of a button.  HomePage Publisher even supports drag-and-drop of images into your document; pick a cool graphic and simply drag it out of its OS/2 folder and drop it into your page.  This drag-and-drop extends to other files, so if you want a link in your document to a certain file, just declare the link and drop that file on top of the link.  HPP also allows easy editing of the raw HTML source code, in case you want to add a feature to your page that the program doesn't currently support, like a Java applet or CGI script.

HPP has a slew of other useful features too, including spell checking, editing of on-line pages, find/replace, a color wheel to let you find the exact shade of a color you want, and more.  Since version 2.0, the program also includes support for the Netscape frames format -- allowing you to easily create framed documents.

HomePage Publisher is available in an evaluation version that allows 100 saves, plus a few other limitations -- registering the product eliminates all restrictions.  No word is yet available on the price of version 2.0 when it reaches release, but HomePage Publisher 1.0 sells for US$95 so version 2.0 could cost slightly more, since it includes frames support (and possibly will have other features added before release).  Note that the author is offering all registered owners of version 1.0 a free upgrade to version 2.0, so if you've already registered the product, you're safe.

If you'd like to try out HPP, you can download evaluation versions of  (ftp://ftp.bmtmicro.com/bmtmicro/hpp100h.zip) version 1.0h (ZIP, 3.8M) or  (ftp://ftp.apical.com/~jbclerin/pub/hppbeta2.zip) version 2.0 beta 2 (ZIP, 3.9M).  Version 1.0 may currently be purchased from a variety of distributors worldwide, including (http://www.bmtmicro.com/catalog/hpp.html) BMT Micro.  For a list of sites to order from, or just more information about HPP's features, see (http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/clerin/) HomePage Publisher's web page.

          -- * --

(dill@os2ezine.com) Ryan Dill is a student of Computer Science at Acadia University in Wolfville, NS and OS/2 e-Zine! 's technical editor.   He is reported to be relieved that, with the advent of Warp 4, talking to your computer is no longer considered a sign of mental instability.

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News from the OS/2 World	- by Ryan Dill

Greetings all, and welcome again to OS/2 e-Zine! 's monthly news update.  This column is designed to go over certain topics that e-Zine! 's own (http://www.os2ezine.com/news.htm) News Folder might have missed, or only glossed over.

We still believe our News Folder can't be beat when it comes to up-to-the-minute, accurate information, but it usually contains more "official" things like press releases and such.  This column will include a bit more detail about things we think are of interest to OS/2 users everywhere.  Grass roots support, off-the-record news and updates -- stuff that other sources may have missed -- you name it, we've got it!

          -- * --

First, some browser tidbits. Even though the Communicator for OS/2 team is no doubt still hard at work putting together the please-let-it-be-soon-and-let-it-be-slick beta of Netscape Communicator, it appears work is still going on on the older Netscape 2.02. In addition to the Java 1.1 'bridge' which had been floating around the past few weeks (which allows Navigator to use Java 1.1 instead of the 1.02 it used to be limited to), it seems a full version of Navigator which allows you to _choose_ which Java to use has surfaced. As of this writing (early the 16th), it sits on  (ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/os2en202.zip) Hobbes (FTP) and the (http://www.os2ss.com/incoming/hobbes/os2en202.zip) OS/2 Supersite (WWW), but who knows how long it'll stay there? The most recent files in the package are dated the 11th of November, so this Navigator is even more recent than the various Navigator executables which have been floating around IBM's  (ftp://testcase.boulder.ibm.com/ps/fromibm/os2/) Testcase FTP site. (See daily archives of (http://www.warpcast.com/) WarpCast and (http://catbert.istar.ca/os2/) Loren Bandiera's News/Rumors page for details) This version of Navigator includes support for IBM's Workspace-on-Demand (WOD) environment, as well as Java v1.1. (The browser comes with Java 1.02, but allows you to select whether you want to use it or an existing Java 1.1 installation) IBM has only just recently updated their (http://ncc.hursley.ibm.com/javainfo/porting/plans/) Java porting plans to reveal that Java version 1.1.4 for OS/2 is expected by the end of the 4th quarter, so these updates to Netscape are all no doubt followed close behind by OS/2's next version of Java.

Lastly, it seems that Opera Software's (http://www.operasoftware.com/alt_os.html) Project Magic for OS/2 is going well. Originally Opera had stated that they would develop an OS/2 version of their browser only if 3000 or more people requested it within a seven-week period. (Opera is gauging the same sort of support from other platforms, like the Macintosh and Linux). Three weeks into Project Magic, the number of e-mails from OS/2 users was hovering around one thousand, and a few OS/2 users took that to mean that the 3000 mark was not going to be reached, and declared the OS/2 Project Magic a failure. They may have spoken too soon, however -- Opera's public relations guy posted an update letter on their web site November 12th which declared:

  ...I mentioned 3000 orders per platform. This figure
  is not cast in concrete; it was just that I said to the guys in
  Norway: "if we get 3000 people paying $30 each, we will have about
  $100.000, enough to start and finish development." Norway then
  said to me hours before I got started, they wanted 1000 orders
  each until the end of November, so you see we're already there
  with Mac and OS/2 - only Linux and BeOS lagging behind. BeOS is
  a special case, because it's not really 'official', but personally
  I think it holds great promise, and there's a lot a cooperation
  between Be, Inc. and Opera Software AS can do to the market and
  you, the user.

"...we're already there with Mac and OS/2..." That sounds rather promising to me. If you're interested in the possibility of another browser for OS/2 and haven't gotten involved in Project Magic yet, download the Windows version of Opera and test it out in WinOS2. If you like it, write Opera and add your name to the hundreds of OS/2 users who have already pledged their support. Adding competition to the OS/2 browser market can only improve things for the consumers, OS/2 users. You can download a Windows test drive of the Opera browser from (http://www.operasoftware.com/) Opera Software's web site.

          -- * --

Phoenix Software, makers of the to-be-released object-oriented database and information manager, Think Tool Pro, have recently carved a niche on the World Wide Web. Now located at (http://www.phxsoft.com/) http://www.PhxSoft.com, anyone interested in Phoenix and their upcoming products can browse all information on upcoming releases. According to Phoenix' Robert Blake:

  Though we are not shipping yet, we decided to make an
  announcement about our web site. We have had so many people
  requesting information about the Think Tool Pro object database
  and information manager that we thought it would be more
  convenient for people to get all the information off of our web
  site. Now that our web site is nearly complete, we can finally
  offer that service.

Think Tool Pro will be of use to any OS/2 user who works with databases and/or other information management. Object oriented, TTP will include a variety of features which take advantage of OS/2's architecture, including drag-and-drop and multithreading, as well as less OS-specific features such as multimedia, security, integration with other programs (FaxWorks, UltiMail/2, etc.) and much more. Once available, Think Tool Pro will retail for around US$249 (US$199 until December 31st), and will ship with a full two month money-back guarantee.

Phoenix Software expects to start shipping Think Tool Pro in the next three or four weeks, so screen shots and a demo version of the program will be available some time before then, both downloadable from the new web site. After TTP, Phoenix will work towards release of Think Tool Groupware, a network version of their product. For the latest and greatest info on Phoenix Software and Think Tool Pro, keep an eye on the (http://www.phxsoft.com/) company web site. Since their intro offer of $199 is only available until the end of December, the product should be available very soon. Any questions that the web site doesn't answer can be sent via e-mail to (info@phxsoft.com) info@PhxSoft.com.

          -- * --

The (http://www.warpcast.com/) WarpCast news service, brought to you by the (http://www.os2ss.com/) OS/2 Supersite and our own OS/2 e-Zine!, moved to its own web domain on November 12th. Complete information, subscription and submission forms may be found at the new site. "The incredibly positive response that WarpCast has received prompted the move to the new domain and a minor reorganization of the web site," said Trevor Smith, President of Haligonian Media, one of the companies responsible for producing WarpCast.  "This move is just part of the ongoing effort we are making to ensure WarpCast is the best source of OS/2 news, rumours, and announcements for everyone."

Smith reports that there are a number of ideas for future enhancement of WarpCast being discussed by staff, with the first to be implemented likely to be a full searching feature, so that OS/2 users can immediately see if a subject they're interested in has _ever_ been mentioned on the service. As always, the service delivers either real-time OS/2 news right to your mailbox, a daily digest of news items, or a Web-browseable collection of the current days news along with all of WarpCast's archives at (http://www.warpcast.com/) http://www.warpcast.com/. If you'd like more information on WarpCast in general, like to subscribe or to submit news or rumors, see the new web site for further details.

          -- * --

A few recent updates to OS/2 you might be interested in: For those of you unaware, the 16-bit TCP/IP stack shipped with OS/2 Warp 4 has been updated again, this time to version 4.02m. It can be  (ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/tcpip/rsu/stack/latestv4.html) installed over the Internet with IBM's RSU (Remote Services Update) if you use Netscape or have already enhanced your copy of WebExplorer (see (http://ps.boulder.ibm.com/pbin-usa-ps/getobj.pl?/pdocs-usa/softupd.html) instructions) Or you can download and install it manually if so desired. 

IBM has also released an update to OS/2's  (ftp://ps.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/tcpip/fixes/dosbox/latest/) DOS TCP/IP support (which is said to, among other things, fix a few problems with running RealAudio and RealPlayer in WinOS2), an update for OS/2's REXEC support (if you don't know what it is, you don't need it), spooler FixPaks for both  (ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/fixes/printerpak/english-us/xr_ws33/) Warp 3 and  (ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/fixes/printerpak/english-us/xr_ms04/) Warp 4 printer spoolers (Currently US English versions only), and an update to (http://service.software.ibm.com/os2ddpak/html/miscellb/os_2warp/i2ostora/index.htm) OS/2's I2O drivers (see (http://www.i2osig.org/) http://www.i2osig.org/ for more information on I2O) . All of these updates and more can be found at the (http://www.os2ss.com/masterupdate/masterupdate.html) Master OS/2 Warp Update list.

Rumors report that FixPak 5 for Warp 4 is currently in a controlled release stage (internal beta), and includes support for various accelerated video drivers. According to (stevew@hartnell.cc.ca.us) Steve Wendt, "...Specifically listed are: ATI Rage II/Mach 64 (PCI only), Chips & Technology 6555X, Matrox Millennium/Mystique, S3 864/TRIO, and S3 Virge/Virge VX. Also included are generic VGA and SVGA support. The generic SVGA driver "will work with most adapters that implement a VESA compliant BIOS." ((eu@uland.com) Eugen Kuleshov)..." It's also possible that this FixPak contains the Lotus SmartSuite Open32 add-ins that are currently only available in FixPak 3 SE (and the internal FP 4 SE); last thing I heard from a Lotus representative was that these fixes were going to be integrated into regular FixPaks in the near future, so even if they don't show up in FP5, I'd expect them to make an appearance in FixPak 6.

          -- * --

In addition to (http://www.stardock.com/) Stardock hosting its Entrepreneur gaming tournament this month (see (http://www.os2ezine.com/v2n11/games.htm) Gaming News this month), it's also announced the release of a new product -- Sort of. Stardock has decided to begin offering parts of its popular OS/2 enhancement Object Desktop for sale separately in addition to as an entire suite of enhancements. This move is good for any OS/2 users who might had previously decided not to buy the whole Object Desktop package because they only would have used one or two of its features, so felt it wouldn't have been worth the price. Titled the _Object Desktop Solution Series_, the new initiative allows you to buy useful add-ons like the OD (http://www.stardock.com/products/odseries/cc.html) Control Center and (http://www.stardock.com/products/odseries/kl.html) Keyboard Launchpad and use them without having to purchase the entire OD package. For more information about what parts of Object Desktop are available (and in development) for purchase, see the (http://www.stardock.com/products/odseries/) Object Desktop Solution Series page at Stardock.

          -- * --

That's it for this month.  If you have a tip that you want followed up or a news item you think should be reported, don't hesitate to (feedback@os2ezine.com) let us know!

          -- * --

(dill@os2ezine.com) Ryan Dill is a student in Computer Science at Acadia University in Wolfville, NS and e-Zine! 's technical editor.   He is reported to be relieved that, with the advent of Warp 4, talking to your computer is no longer considered a sign of mental instability.

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OS/2 Gaming News	- by Colin Hildinger

While it was a bit of a slow month for OS/2 gaming news, I did manage to find a few interesting tidbits:

Entrepreneur Tournament

This month all the stir in the OS/2 gaming community has centered around Entrepreneur, Stardock's new real-time strategy game.  Stardock has announced at their (http://www.stardock.net/) Stardock.net web site that they will be holding an Entrepreneur tournament on November 21.  I look forward to finding a bevy of Entrepreneur players on-line that day and getting together some games with eight human players.  The way the tournament will work is that the high scores will be erased at the beginning of the day and all day on the 21st people will play games at Stardock.net.  The high scores will be saved at the end of the day and the top scorers will win prizes.  The first place prize is your choice of any two Stardock products and the second and third place prizes are any one product.  It will be required that all games have at least two human players and that no more than $5 million in starting money be used.

Also, expect an update for Entrepreneur to ship in the next month.  The update will contain some improvements to the graphics, bug fixes, and much harder AIs.  The current AIs cheat; that after a certain point in the game they begin to receive free money.  In the v1.1 release this should not be necessary, as Brad is putting in a lot of time trying to make the AIs as smart as possible.

Hopkins: FBI

In a surprise announcement (for most of you, but not me), PolyEx announced the upcoming release of a new game called (http://www.polyex.com/Hopkins.html) Hopkins: FBI.  Going for a truly cross-platform market, they've developed the game for OS/2, BeOS, MacOS, and Rhapsody for Intel and PPC and I believe they're porting the Wordup Graphics Toolkit to all of these platforms to assist users of the toolkit in developing true cross-platform games.  Hopkins will be an adventure game with hand drawn and scanned animation done by a well known cartoonist.  I believe the game was originally a French language release and is being ported and translated to English by PolyEx.  The web page says the game will be ready for Christmas release, so it looks like it could be a good Christmas for OS/2 gamers.

Stellar Frontier Beta .80

Also from (http://www.stardock.net/) Stardock.net is news that the next beta version of (http://www.stardock.com/products/sf/sf.html) Stellar Frontier (v0.80) will contain a Stardock.net interface called "the Nexus" which will allow you to see all the available Stellar Frontier star systems that you can warp to.  In my opinion any on-line game should include an interface like this and I'm glad to hear that Stardock is going all out.

Handy for OS/2 a No-Go

The author of Handy has not released his source code and has dropped the project so it's looking like Darrell Spice, Jr. won't be porting the Atari Lynx emulator after all.  He will, however, be taking over development of an NES simulator under OS/2 in the coming months, so expect to be able to play Zelda and Mario in OS/2 soon.

          -- * --

(http://www.ionet.net/~colin/) Colin Hildinger is an Aerospace Engineering senior at (http://www.okstate.edu/) Oklahoma State University and has been using OS/2 for the last 3 years.  In addition to being the Games Editor for OS/2 e-Zine!, he maintains (http://www.ionet.net/~colin/games.html) The Ultimate OS/2 Gaming Page and the (http://www.ionet.net/~colin/awe32.html) AWE32 and OS/2 Page in his "spare" time.

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Chris' Graphics PowerTips	- by Chris Wenham

Photo>Graphics Pro, REXX, and The Glass Effect

Tip works in Photo>Graphics Pro only (and regular Photo>Graphics with a bit of effort)

Don't panic if you're not a REXX programmer!  You don't actually have to know (or touch a single line of) REXX to still get something out of this column (you can just download the script and use it like a plug-in), although you may be surprised at how easy it is to tweak one a little bit to your liking.

While playing around with the scripting abilities of Photo>Graphics Pro I came up with a simple looking but hard-to-reproduce effect.  I was trying to make something along the lines of a regular, Plain-Jane Beveled Edge, but ended up with something that resembled more of a glassy cut out instead.  Now while it looked nice, it was a pain to keep reproducing in Photo>Graphics since it used a _lot_ of custom regions to get just right.  I could imagine where I'd want to use this effect in other projects, but messing around with all the steps would be overkill.

It was also around that time that I was trying to learn P>G Pro's REXX scripting interface.  With the API they supply, it's possible to run a REXX script inside of Photo>Graphics that can create and modify objects in your workspace.  This can be used to make both simple and outrageously complex 'Plug-in' effects.  It's harder to master, but fantastically more flexible than, say, the "Graphics States" of ColorWorks.  It also has a much lower barrier to entry than conventional, compiled plug-ins that are written in C or C++ since REXX is simple, easy to learn, and comes with OS/2.

Okay, let's start with our effect.  While the effect itself isn't all that great, the fact that we can automate the 8-step procedure is.  And that's really what this column is trying to do -- get you to see the power of REXX and maybe encourage you to try playing with it yourself.  

The script operates on the currently selected object, which can be of any region and effect combination you like.  In the example above I just used Headline text with a solid color.  From there it performs the following operations: (Remember that you don't have to follow or memorize these steps if you don't want to, you can just download the script and try it out.)

1. Make a duplicate, convert it into a custom region and set its effect to solid black color.  
2. Copy and paste the original object into the custom region, then set that to solid black color.
3. (Still working in the custom region) Put a rectangle with a blur effect (radius 2.5) over the object.  This blur thickens things out a bit as well as smoothing it over.
4. Go back to the original object and turn that into a custom region too.
5. Cut-n-paste the duplicate custom region from step 1 into that of the original object (so now we have a custom region within a custom region)
6. (Working within the original object's custom view) Duplicate the pasted object from step 5, but now set the effect of this new duplicate to emboss.  This emboss should create some nice thick lines, thanks to the blurring we did in step 3.
7. Layer a rectangle with a sharpening effect to give it that glassy look.
8. Done! (Close all custom views if you're working it out manually)

As you can see, 8 steps is a lot.  But when compiled into a REXX script it turns into nothing much more than one step that comprises of maybe three or four mouse clicks (Select object, press Ctrl-Z, select the script and click 'Run')

Okay? Seen enough? Then copy the script below into your X:/PGPro/Scripts directory (where 'X:' is the drive you installed Photo>Graphics Pro to.) If you'd like to examine an example of a .GDO file created with the plug-in, download the GDO file (http://www.os2ezine.com/v2n11/glass.zip - ZIP, 4.3k).

If you're inclined to dabble, open up the glass.cwx file and browse through it.  I've documented each step with a comment, so that combined with P>G Pro's on-line reference should help you make sense of it easily.  

As for how I learned? I cheated (sort of) by opening up the regshad.cwx sample script included with P>G Pro and slowly tweaking, experimenting, looking up and guessing until I had what I wanted.  Surprise, surprise, it's actually a good way to learn (if you're not some kind of purist ;-) 

Don't be afraid to use the editor window in Photo>Graphics itself either.  It's bare-bones and doesn't offer nearly half the features as a full-blown REXX editor, but it conveniently stays on top of the other windows while you play with and move objects around.  Plus it lets you run the script with a single click of a button.

In future columns I'll talk more about using scripting languages to automate repetitive and laborious tasks.  No less than three full-blown graphics packages for OS/2 can be scriptable.  These include Photo>Graphics Pro and Impos/2, which both use REXX, and SX Paint which has its own macro language.

By the way, if you've written any of your own REXX plug-ins, I'd love to hear about em! Send them to (chris@os2ezine.com) chris@os2ezine.com so I may feature them here.

News

If you're a user of Embellish 2.0 or 2.01 then you'll be pleased to know (http://www.dadaware.com/) dadaware has released the upgrade to 2.02.  This new version adds a .GIF animator and several bug fixes -- including a fix for that annoying 32-character limit in the Image Map editor and directory shortcuts.  

(http://www.modulardreams.com/) Modular Dreams Inc. have also shipped SX Paint II.  While we don't yet know everything that's new in this release, we hope to have more about it for you to read by next month.

          -- * --

(http://www.spectra.net/~fox/) Chris Wenham is a freelance web designer, writer and Englishman who now lives in Endicott, NY.  In the past he has written comedy, sci-fi, Pascal, REXX, HTML and Gibberish.  He has been using OS/2 exclusively for the past 2 years.

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/*

  glass.cwx

  Creates the effect of carving the selected object out of beveled glass. 
  Works for any region and effect.

 Written by Chris Wenham for the OS/2 e-Zine!
 http://www.os2ezine.com                                  

 This code is provided purely for demonstration purposes and is not  
 supported or under warranty.  Feel free to modify and examine this  
 example script for your own purposes.                               

*/



handle = CwGetSelectedObject()

/* no object selected */
if \CwIsHandleValid(handle) then do
	say "No object selected."
	exit
	end

/* Duplicate object */
FirstDup = CwDuplicateObject(handle)

/* Find its center and height */
Ycenter = CwGetProperty(FirstDup, "Position:Y Center")
Xcenter = CwGetProperty(FirstDup, "Position:X Center")
Height  = CwGetProperty(FirstDup, "Position:Height")
Width   = CwGetProperty(FirstDup, "Position:Width")

/* Calculate its width and height when increased 2% (to account for thicker lines) */
NewWidth = Width + Width * .02
NewHeight = Height + Height * .02

/* Turn duplicate into custom region w/solid color */
call CwSetRegion FirstDup, "Custom Region"
call CwSetPosition FirstDup, Xcenter, Ycenter, NewWidth, NewHeight, 0, 0
call CwSetTool FirstDup, "Solid Color"
DupTool =  CwGetTool(FirstDup)

/* Set color to black */
call CwSetProperty Duptool, "Color:Red", 0
call CwSetProperty Duptool, "Color:Green", 0
call CwSetProperty Duptool, "Color:Blue", 0

/* Now copy-n-paste original into our first custom region */

regview = CwGetRegion(FirstDup)
CustView = CwGetView(regview)

call CwCopy handle
call CwSelectView CustView
call CwPaste

/* Turn first object in custom-tool to black */
iv1 = CwFindFirstObject(CwGetCurrentView())
call CwSetPosition iv1, Xcenter, Ycenter, Width, Height, 0, 0
call CwSetTool iv1, "Solid Color"
iv1tool = CwGetTool(iv1)
call CwSetProperty iv1tool, "Color:Red", 0
call CwSetProperty iv1tool, "Color:Green", 0
call CwSetProperty iv1tool, "Color:Blue", 0

/* Duplicate it into a blur effect */
Blurring = CwDuplicateObject(iv1)
call CwSetPosition Blurring, Xcenter, Ycenter, NewWidth, NewHeight, 0, 0
call CwSetRegion Blurring, "Rectangle"
call CwSetTool Blurring, "Blur"

/* Set the blur radius to 2.5 */
BlurTool = CwGetTool( Blurring)
call CwSetProperty BlurTool, "Radius", 2.5

/* Finished making first custom region */


/* Turn original into a custom region */
call CwSetRegion handle, "Custom Region"

/* Make it 2% bigger to accommodate for the thickening of the edges */
call CwSetPosition handle, Xcenter, Ycenter, NewWidth, NewHeight, 0, 0

/* Paste our custom region into the Original object's view */
regview = CwGetRegion(handle)
CustView = CwGetView(regview)

call CwCut FirstDup
call CwSelectView CustView
call CwPaste

/* Create duplicate of our custom region */
FirstDup2 = CwFindFirstObject(CwGetCurrentView())
call CwSetPosition FirstDup2, Xcenter, Ycenter, NewWidth, NewHeight, 0, 0
Embosser = CwDuplicateObject(FirstDup2)

/* Set the second duplicate's effect to emboss */
call CwSetTool Embosser, "Emboss"

/* Duplicate it into a Sharpen effect */
Sharpener = CwDuplicateObject(Embosser)
call CwSetTool Sharpener, "Sharpen"

/* Done! */

***********************************

Networking with OS/2	- by Brian L.  Juergensmeyer

Hello, everyone.  I'd first like to thank Trevor for stepping in for me last month, as things were kind of busy for me, and the care and feeding of a new cable modem seemed to be right up the alley of a networking column.

This month, I'd like to discuss a few programs that are found in the \TCPIP\BIN directory of Warp 4 that, for this or that reason, haven't seemed to have received much publicity.  However, for someone that is connected to the Internet most of the time (like Trevor and his pet cable modem), they can be extraordinarily useful.  The first set of programs that we will be dealing with are a set of daemons that are, functionally at least, ports of common Unix programs.

FTP.EXE and FTPD.EXE are the text mode File Transfer Protocol program and the server daemon for File Transfer Protocol, respectively.  For instance, if Trevor had a file on his PC that he wanted all of his writers to have, but didn't want to e-mail it out to everyone, he could stick it into a separate directory and configure and start FTPD.  Then, when we need to access the file, we could just start a FTP session to his computer and retrieve it just like we would from one of the major OS/2 FTP sites.

FTPD also logs users, enabling us to keep track of who is using our system and who isn't:

[C:\]ftpd
**********************************************
*             IBM TCP/IP for OS/2            *
*              FTP Server (FTPD)             *
*      Version: 22:16:09 on Jun 17 1996      *
*    (C) Copyright IBM Corp.  (1991, 1996)    *
**********************************************
FTPDC: spawnned with socket 65
connection from 199.240.130.80 at Sun Nov  9 21:26:37 1997

FTP LOGIN FROM 199.240.130.80, brianj
FTP LOGOFF from 199.240.130.80 at Sun Nov  9 21:27:05 1997

FTPDC: spawnned with socket 72
connection from 199.240.130.80 at Sun Nov  9 21:27:13 1997

FTP LOGIN FROM 199.240.130.80, brianj
FTP LOGOFF from 199.240.130.80 at Sun Nov  9 21:27:43 1997

TELNET.EXE and TELNETD.EXE are, of course, the text mode Telnet and Telnet daemon programs.  Using TELNETD, one can either remotely log in to one's own computer or allow others to do so.  Unfortunately (in my opinion), TELNETD does not actually emulate BASH, TCSH, ASH or any of the other common Unix shells.  It simply acts like a standard, command-line OS/2 shell, with one exception: When you install TCP/IP under Warp 4, it asks you for a host name (and defaults to MYHOSTNAME if a hostname isn't chosen).  When you telnet to an OS/2 Warp 4 computer that is running TELNETD, you will see the hostname as part of the command prompt, like so:

   [<MYHOSTNAME>-C:\]

Then, we have a whole host of printing/remote printing options.  An LPR daemon can be set up with some effort on your local machine, which will allow both Unix and Win32 operating systems to print to your local host.  The output from LPD when a print job is queued looks like this:

[C:\]lprd
**************************************
* Line Printer Daemon (LPD)          *
* (C) Copyright IBM Corp.  1991, 1996 *
* Version: 1.2.1                     *
**************************************
Print request from pc-user@pm4-mhk-35.kansas.net for file foo.txt received.
Print request from pc-user@pm4-mhk-35.kansas.net for file foo.txt printing.
Print request from pc-user@pm4-mhk-35.kansas.net for file bar.txt received.
Print request from pc-user@pm4-mhk-35.kansas.net for file bar.txt printing.

In addition, one must have the LPRPORD.EXE set up and running like so:

[C:\]lprportd
LPRPORTD Version 2.0.6 running (LPR Version 1.0).

Servicing 8 printer pipes.

And, of course, one must actually print a file.

[C:\]lpr -s 127.0.0.1 foo.txt
Trying LPD print server 127.0.0.1, device lpt1.
printing foo.txt
  5950 bytes.  The entire document was sent.

In addition to lpr, there is a whole suite of Unix-style printer management tools, including lprmon, lprm, and lpq.  While these utilities were (at least according to the literature) included primarily as a means of allowing Unix workstations to utilize services on an OS/2 system, there is nothing at all that prevents another OS/2 client from logging on and using these services as well.

However, ftpd, telnetd, and lprd all require some configuration before they will be usable.  This is accomplished by the TCPCFG.EXE program.  TCPCFG is actually a notebook that contains all of OS/2's network settings.  The settings that affect the above programs are entered on the "Security" page.  You can enter a telnet password that others can use to telnet into your machine (IMPORTANT NOTE: While the password is blacked out in the edit box in the notebook, it is stored in PLAIN TEXT in your config.sys (Hello, IBM: Was anybody thinking about security when this was implemented?).  While, in a networked environment, your config.sys should be kept secure as a matter of course, this is an additional reason to ensure that you keep your box locked up both physically and remotely).  You can also enter a list of users that may access your computer with FTP.  Adding an FTP user is somewhat confusing, however.  After entering a username and password, you must choose directories.  The checkboxes with the bizarre explanations actually reverse permission bitmaps.  When you enter a read directory in the first edit box, that will be the home directory for the user to log into when (s)he first logs in.  _Unless_ of course, you have the check box below the edit box checked.  In that case, you will be saying that the use does NOT have permission to read that directory.  The same for the write directory permissions.

Some of these settings require changes to your config.sys, so you will have to reboot before you can use them.  The TCP/IP settings notebook will also complain about a lack of a primary LAN card if you are using SL/IP or PPP, and it will complain about the fact that you (most probably) do not have settings configured for SENDMAIL (which is a port of yet another Unix program that you don't need, but is handy to have on occasion).  As far as I know, the only use for SENDMAIL on an OS/2 system is for those who still use Ultimail Lite (yes, all five of you).  Ultimail Lite, in theory, uses SENDMAIL to send your mail from your home PC to the POP server belonging to your Internet Service Provider).

TRACERTE is a command that allows you to "trace the route" of a given packet from host A to host B.  It will allow you to see the routes (and routers) involved, and, if you suspect a bottleneck at any given point, it will show you the bottleneck also.  Consider the following:

[C:\]tracerte www.microsoft.com
 0  * * 207.68.145.54 (207.68.145.54)  500 ms
 1  pm2-mhk (206.103.126.51)  172 ms  156 ms  156 ms
 2  cisco (206.103.126.53)  141 ms  157 ms  156 ms
 3  tpk5-s0-5.gi.net (204.233.111.209)  141 ms  218 ms  157 ms
 4  tpk1e0.gi.net (204.233.111.36)  172 ms  156 ms  156 ms
 5  lnk-h500.gi.net (199.240.138.169)  265 ms  250 ms  250 ms
 6  144.232.131.1 (144.232.131.1)  204 ms  219 ms  219 ms
 7  sl-bb2-kc-F0/0.sprintlink.net (144.224.20.2)  235 ms  250 ms  250 ms
 8  144.232.8.117 (144.232.8.117)  266 ms  219 ms  219 ms
 9  144.232.0.134 (144.232.0.134)  266 ms  282 ms  250 ms
10  144.228.10.61 (144.228.10.61)  360 ms  532 ms  562 ms
11  * 144.228.249.6 (144.228.249.6)  313 ms  313 ms
12  sl-mic-3-h0-T3.sprintlink.net (144.228.96.22)  485 ms  250 ms  281 ms
13  207.68.145.54 (207.68.145.54)  266 ms  343 ms  313 ms

It appears that Microsoft was having a problem this evening, since you can see that step 0 and step 13 are the same.  This means that my packet (and my trace) are going in circles.  There are, of course, other things that it could mean.

Well, that is about it for this month.  Next month, we'll look some at security of systems in general, and OS/2 as a networking client in particular.

          -- * --

(brianj@kansas.net) Brian L.  Juergensmeyer is a programmer at the VA hospital in Topeka, Kansas.   He annoys his IS manager by trying get him to convert from NT/WfW 3.11 to Warp Connect/Warp Server.

***********************************

the Rexx Files	- by Dr. Dirk Terrell

This month on the (http://mailer.falcon-net.net:8080/guest/RemoteListSummary/os2users) OS2USER mailing list someone asked about a Rexx program that would run a command multiple times on a list of files matching a wildcard.  The specific request was addressed to using Info-Zip's "-o" option which changes the date and timestamps on a zip file to match the date of the zip match those of the latest entry in the zip file.  For example,

zip -o backup.zip

would make the file backup.zip have the date and time of the newest file in the zip file.

Unfortunately, if you have many zip files you wish to change, you cannot use

zip -o *.zip

because Info-Zip doesn't support wildcards for the archive name.  This is a situation where a Rexx script will work nicely.  Using the REXXUTIL library, you can get a list of files matching the wildcard, then execute Info-Zip on each file.  Let's write a program called REPEAT.CMD that will perform this function for a specified program.

The calling form of the program will be

repeat command pre_options wildcard post_options

where _command_ is the command we want to execute multiple times, _pre_options_ and _post_options_ are the command line options for the command that come before and after the wildcard respectively, and _wildcard_ is the wildcard specification for the list of files we want to process.  Basically, all we have to do is make the command line that we would like to run be the input to the program.  For example, with the Info-Zip scenario above, it would be

repeat zip -o *.zip

where, in this case _post_options_ is blank.

To process the input, we have to find the word that has the wildcard (the asterisk) and then look on each side to get the pre and post options.  Finding the wildcard is easy.  We use the POS function on each blank-delimited word in the input.  (I should say that we will assume that the first appearance of the asterisk is the wildcard.) To loop through the words, we use the WORDS function to get the number of words, and then set up a DO loop to check each word using the WORD function to get each word.  The calling form for the WORD function is

WORD(String,i)

where _String_ is the string we are working on, and _i_ is the index of the word we want, with 1 being the first word, 2 being the second, and so on.  Here is the loop that finds which word in the string contains the wildcard:

/* Find the word that has the wildcard */
NWords=Words(Commandline)
Do i=1 to NWords
   If Pos("*",Word(Commandline,i))<>0 then Do
      WildcardIndex=i
      Leave
   end /* do */
end /* do */

We store the index of the word that contains the wildcard and exit the do loop with the LEAVE command when we find the wildcard.

Next we get the pre and post options as well as the wildcard itself by looping over all the words again.  (This could be done in the loop where we searched for the wildcard, but for the sake of clarity, I have chosen to use two separate loops.) All of the words up to (but not including) the word containing the wildcard should be stored as the pre options and those after the wildcard word should be stored as the post options.  We'll just initialize two variables as null (blank) strings and then append words to them as we go through the loop.  Here is the code to do this:

/* Set up the command line for the external command.  We need the 
   stuff before the wildcard and the stuff after it to prepend
   and append to the files that the wildcard search will produce.
*/
CommandPre=""
CommandPost=""
Do i=1 to NWords
   Select
      when i<WildcardIndex then
         CommandPre=CommandPre Word(Commandline,i) /* Will include the command itself */
      when i>WildcardIndex then
         CommandPost=CommandPost Word(Commandline,i)
   otherwise
      Wildcard=Word(Commandline,i) /* This word is the wildcard */
   end  /* select */
end /* do */

Now we need to get the list of files that match the wildcard.  With the SysFileTree function in the REXXUTIL library, this is a trivial matter.  The calling form is

rc=SysFileTree(wildcard,results_stem,options)

where _wildcard_ is the pattern to match, _results_stem_ is a Rexx stem variable that will hold the list of matching files, and _options_ are the options to use; of which we will use "FO" which means we want only filenames (no dates, times or file sizes) and only files (no directories) that match the search pattern.  See the Rexx online documentation for the other options.  Our call will look like this:

/* Now find the files that match the wildcard and execute 
   the external program.  First load the REXXUTIL library.
*/
call rxfuncadd 'SysLoadFuncs','RexxUtil','SysLoadFuncs'
call sysloadfuncs

/* Now get the list of files matching the wildcard spec */
rc=SysFileTree(WildCard,"File.","FO")

Finally, we need to loop over all of the files that matched the wildcard and execute the command.  In the loop we will form a string that concatenates the pre options, the filename, and the post options.  Then we will pass the string to the system for execution.  It is possible that no files will match the wildcard, and of course there is nothing for the external program to do.  The 0 index of the results stem will contain the number of files that match the wildcard.  If it is 0, then we print a message to the user that no matches were found, otherwise we loop that many times, calling the external program.  Here is the final bit of code that accomplishes this:

/* Loop over the list of files and run the external program */
If File.0=0 then Do
   Say " " 
   Say "No files matching the wildcard were found."
   End
Else Do
   Do i=1 to File.0
      Command=CommandPre File.i CommandPost /* Form the command */
      Command  /* Execute the command */
   end /* do */
End

This little program should work for any command that only has a single word with asterisks in it.  Commands with multiple words containing asterisks (_e.g._ foo -u *.zip *.gif) require a little more work if the REXX program is supposed to use the wildcards after the first one.  A modification that wouldn't be too difficult would be to add support for the "?" wildcard (match any letter in that position).  This month's sample code below contains the full REPEAT.CMD program.

          -- * --

(http://www.gnv.com/HTMLWizard/) Dr. Dirk Terrell is an astronomer at the University of Florida specializing in interacting binary stars.  His hobbies include cave diving, martial arts, painting and writing OS/2 software such as HTML Wizard.

***********************************

/* REPEAT.CMD
   REXX program to peatedly call another program that cannot handle
   the "*" wildcard.
*/

Parse Arg Commandline
Say Commandline
If Commandline="" then Do
   Say " "
   Say "You must supply a program commandline..."
   Say " "
   Exit
end /* do */

/* Parse the commandline, assume for now that only one "*"
   will be processed. 
 */

NWords=Words(Commandline)

/* Find the word that has the wildcard */
Command=""
Do i=1 to NWords
   If Pos("*",Word(Commandline,i))<>0 then Do
      WildcardIndex=i
      Leave
   end /* do */
end /* do */

/* Set up the commandline for the external command. We need the 
   stuff before the wildcard and the stuff after it to prepend
   and append to the files that the wildcard search will produce.
*/
CommandPre=""
CommandPost=""
Do i=1 to NWords
   Select
      when i<WildcardIndex then
         CommandPre=CommandPre Word(Commandline,i) 
      when i>WildcardIndex then
         CommandPost=CommandPost Word(Commandline,i)
   otherwise
      Wildcard=Word(Commandline,i) /* This word is the wildcard */
   end  /* select */
end /* do */

/* Now find the files that match the wildcard and execute 
   the external program. First load the REXXUTIL library.
*/
call rxfuncadd 'SysLoadFuncs','RexxUtil','SysLoadFuncs'
call sysloadfuncs

/* Now get the list of files matching the wildcard spec */
rc=SysFileTree(WildCard,"File.","FO")

/* Loop over the list of files and run the external program */
If File.0=0 then Do
   Say " " 
   Say "No files matching the wildcard were found."
   End
Else Do
   Do i=1 to File.0
      Command=CommandPre File.i CommandPost
      Command
   end /* do */
End

Exit

***********************************

How Do I?	- by Eric Slaats

Hello.  I had a number of reactions on the Win NT 4.0 server adventures I told last month.  In the mean time I solved a number of these problems.  A number of them due to reactions of you, the readers.  I know, I know, this is about OS/2, but since a lot of choices in my environment are made for NT, it pays to have your favorite client connect in a satisfactory way.  I haven't solved all the problems, especially the browsing of the NT machine keeps getting updated badly, but most of it is working.  Here are two pointers that solved a lot for me.

1) NT allows upper and lower case characters in the login ID and the password.  Warp uses basically UPPERCASE.  To login, in NT the case isn't that important.  However, to Browse it must match exactly.  For this I created an ID in UPPERCASE with and UPPERCASE password.  I experimented with this by logging in with lowercase.  I could enter NT, but could not browse it!

2) You must allow OS/2 clients to browse explicitly.  Use the Network settings-> services->Server->select the Make Browser Broadcasts to LAN Manager 2.x clients at the bottom of the dialog page.  

After this it still wouldn't work, but after the following questionable action the browser saw it all.  I took a directory with a small name and content (DOS) created a share on it in NT and Warp saw it.  After deleting this share, the C-DRIVE share became visible.

Luckily, this month I hadn't too much to do with NT and had some time to spend on OS/2 programming.  I'm in the process of doing the Smalled 2.0 beta and again running into all kinds of interesting trouble.  For example: I wanted to create a possibility to add a timestamp into a file or print one in the header.  I found that simply using the country info didn't get the wanted results.  Why, well you can make changes in the country notebook that are different from the default country settings.  OS/2 will honour your settings!  Of course I also wanted that.  Nobody seemed to know how this worked.  So I did a little hunting and discovered a wealth of information in the OS2.INI.  I knew it was there, but didn't realize its full potential until now.  So it will be very likely that I'll do a 'How do I' on this in the nearby future.

So what are we going to look at this month?  Well, I think it's time to take a look at controls and how we can handle them.  In the last year only one control, the button, was used.  I guess the time is right for some deeper stuff.  This might mean you have to read some of the older columns in order to understand the stuff I'm talking about this month.  Anyway we'll take a global look at some controls and we'll revitalize our knowledge about some of the more global messages.

What is a control?  The answer to this is essentially simple; it's a window.  So all the stuff you usually see in a dialog like buttons, spin buttons, sliders, entry fields etc.  are windows.  This might come as a surprise, but when you think about it, it will have some logic.  We know about a window that it's perfectly fitted for the event paradigm (see the first (http://www.os2ezine.com/v1n12/howdoi.htm) How Do I of Oct. 96).  It will have a window procedure in which it can handle messages sent to it.  So when clicking on a button, some messages are sent to this button's window procedure which will make it behave as a button.  It will click down as you hold the mouse button and up if you release it.  Besides that, we can make it generate other messages such as WM_COMMAND and send them to the main window procedure so that the button acts as a menu item.  You might have guessed that a control will have its own set of messages that it can handle in its window procedure.  We will see in a "How do I" in the very nearby future how we can modify the window procedures of controls and change them to fit personal taste (this technique is called subclassing).  

For now we will not dive deep into control specific messages, but take a look at one that has to do with all controls;  the WM_CONTROL message.  This is a signaling message.  A control will send a WM_CONTROL message to its owner that will notify the owner of a particular event.  Hmm, what can we do with this?  Well, we could modify the control or other controls based on that message.  Some examples:

o  Generate a message in a status bar based on a WM_CONTROL change message from the MLE control.  For example the line and column numbers.
o  Disable some controls when a particular check box is set
o  Autosave some settings based on a change message
o  Perform some checks.  (does item exist etc.)
o  Handle an error message

The nice thing about it is that we can do this in the window procedure of the owner.  This means we don't have to break into the control's own window procedure to do this!  We'll look at some code in a minute, but let us first dissect the WM_CONTROL message.

When a control sends a message to its owner, the two message parameters mp1 and mp2 will contain the following information:
 
mp1
   USHORT id            // Control-window identity.
   USHORT usnotifycode  // Notify code.  specific for the control
 
mp2
   ULONG  ulcontrolspec // Control-specific information defined per control
 
The id.  We saw when we were building menus that every menu item has its own id.  This is the same for every control in a dialog or a window.  Even every part of a window like the title bar, the max-min-close buttons etc.  have ids.  This is simply a short number by which the control is identified.  It's advisable to give every control in a window its own id so that it's identifiable.  With every dialog editor you can easily attach an id to a control.  We can also hard code controls in a window with the WinCreateWindow function.  In that case it's the id provided for this function.

The usnotifycode: This is a short that contains the notification a control wants to send.  Every control has a set of shorts predefined which specify the notification.  For example, when a change occurs in an MLE this code will contain the MLM_CHANGE value.  When a spin button up arrow is clicked, this short will contain the SPBN_UPARROW value.

The ulcontrolspec: This value contains some specific information in relation to the usnotifycode.  For example, what is the slider position.  

The values attached to constant names as MLM_CHANGE and SPBN_UPARROW are predefined in the header files that come with your compiler or with the OS/2 toolkit.

One question may have popped up now.  How the hell can I put two values in one message parameter?  A message parameter is a long, so it will claim 4 bytes or 32 bits of memory space.  This means we can store up to 32 1-bit pieces of information.  Along this line, we should also be able to store 2 16-bit information pieces.  A short is 16 bits, so we can store 2 shorts in one long.  There are some handy macros defined to store information like this in a message parameter, or to get it from a parameter.  To get a short from a long we can use the SHORT1FROMMP or SHORT2FROMMP macros.  This will return the first or the second short from a message parameter.  For example:

SHORT2FROMMP(mp1) will return the second short from mp1.  

To fill message parameters we can use: MPFROM2SHORT.  This will have the form MPFROM2SHORT(short1,short2).  

Armed with this basic knowledge we can create a very simple dialog to see when WM_CONTROL messages are sent.  To do this, we'll use the program of last month and modify it.  I changed the menu so that it only contains an exit option.  This will enable you to leave the application.  Besides that, 3 controls are placed on the client area; two entry fields and an MLE control.  The entry fields are grouped so that you can change between them by using the arrow buttons.

The idea behind this is to capture the WM_CONTROL messages that are generated by the entry fields and display some information about this in the MLE control.  This way we might get some insight into what's happening.  The choice fell for the entry field control because this one doesn't need a setup and has a relatively simple WM_CONTROL structure.

How do we handle this?  Well, first we've got to intercept the WM_CONTROL message in  the dialog's window procedure.  This is easy enough, simply add a case statement for the WM_CONTROL message.  Inside the handler for WM_CONTROL we like to build a text string that holds the wanted information to display in the MLE.  For the handling of the string we'll use a standard C function; sprintf.  To enable your compiler to use this function you must include the <stdio.h> file (see the header of the sample program).

First we'll capture which entry field sends the WM_CONTROL.  This information is held in the first short of the WM_CONTROL message parameter1.  With the following piece of code we can fill the string achControl with the text "Entry1" of "Entry2".  

//------------------------------------------------------------------
// Determine which entry field send the control message  (short 1)
//------------------------------------------------------------------
switch (SHORT1FROMMP(mp1))
	{
	case ENTRYFIELD1: sprintf(achControl,"Entry1 "); break;
	case ENTRYFIELD2: sprintf(achControl,"Entry2 "); break;
	}

next we want to find out which notification message was sent.  This can be done by looking at the second short from mp1.  The following piece of code takes care of business.

//------------------------------------------------------------------
// Determine which notification was given  (short 2)
//------------------------------------------------------------------
switch (SHORT2FROMMP(mp1))
	{
	case EN_CHANGE:    sprintf(achNotify, "EN_CHANGE \n");    break;
	case EN_KILLFOCUS: sprintf(achNotify, "EN_KILLFOCUS \n"); break;
	case EN_MEMERROR:  sprintf(achNotify, "EN_MEMERROR \n");  break;
	case EN_OVERFLOW:  sprintf(achNotify, "EN_OVERFLOW \n");  break;
	case EN_SCROLL:    sprintf(achNotify, "EN_SCROLL \n");    break;
	case EN_SETFOCUS:  sprintf(achNotify, "EN_SETFOCUS \n");  break;
	//-------------------------------------------------------------
	// For undocumented stuff like EN_INSERTMODETOGGLE, EN_UPDATE etc.
	//-------------------------------------------------------------
	default: sprintf(achNotify, "%x \n", SHORT2FROMMP(mp1));  break;
	}

The first piece of code was easy enough.  This one however, needs some explanation.  This piece of code prints the notification message into a string called achNotify with a carriage return.  I took all six documented notification messages for the entry field.  These are:

EN_CHANGE: The content of the entry field control has changed, and the change is already showing.  

EN_KILLFOCUS: The entry field control is losing the focus.  This happens when you switch to the other entry field.

EN_MEMERROR: The entry field control cannot allocate the storage necessary to accommodate window text.  Normally this message shouldn't occur.  The size of the memory needed is, in our case, the default of 16 bytes.  We'll look at a method to enlarge this space in the future.  

EN_OVERFLOW: The entry field control cannot insert more text than the current text limit.  In the case of the sample program this is 16 chars.

EN_SCROLL: The entry field control is about to scroll horizontally.  You can try this by completely filling the entry field in the sample and walking through it with the arrow-keys.

EN_SETFOCUS: The entry field control is receiving the focus.  
  
When I had implemented this, I found that sometimes there are notification messages that weren't part of the six I defined.  So I added the last default line in the case statement.  This line will be executed if the SHORT2FROMMP(mp1) isn't in the earlier defined 6 cases.  We can conclude here that the Entry field is using some notification that isn't documented!  So I started a search through the header files and indeed found some of the non-documented EN_ notification messages for the Entry field in PMWIN.H and some other header files.  Among those are EN_INSERTMODETOGGLE and EN_UPDATE.  For EN_UPDATE I can guess what it does.  It's a sort of EN_CHANGE, but before the change is made on the screen.  I haven't got the slightest clue what EN_INSERTMODETOGGLE does.  Maybe someone can enlighten me?

Well, what's next?  We've got to place the text in the MLE.  As I mentioned before, It's possible to send a message to a control and to let it perform an action.  We can use the WinSendMsg call for this, but then we've got to know the windowhandle of the control we're targeting.  This is a problem, we don't know the handle of the MLE, only its id.  There are several ways to get a grip on this.  I prefer a macro that handles it.  We can get the handle of a window if we know its id and the Parent.  This is the WinWindowFromID function.  This function is used by the WinSendDlgItemMsg macro, so I prefer that one.  The following calls are equal:

1)	WinSendMsg(WinWindowFromID(hwndParent, id), ulMsg, mp1, mp2);
2)	WinSendDlgItemMsg(hwndDlg, id, ulMsg, mp1, mp2);

What message can we use to display text in an MLE?  There are again several alternatives, but I like to use the MLM_INSERT in this case.  For the MLM_INSERT, the mp2 is empty and the mp1 contains a null terminated string.  So the text obtained earlier can be displayed in the MLE by the following code:

   WinSendDlgItemMsg(hwndDlg, MLE1, MLM_INSERT, achControl, 0l);
   WinSendDlgItemMsg(hwndDlg, MLE1, MLM_INSERT, achNotify, 0l);

One thing has to be taken care of.  We don't want to display this text if it's triggered by an MLE WM_CONTROL message.  (This would lead to a endless loop).  So we check if it isn't generated by the MLE by checking mp1.  

   if (SHORT1FROMMP(mp1) != MLE1)

Well, it was somewhat difficult this month, but we need to know about WM_CONTROL before we can do some serious stuff.  Feel free to grab the complete sample program and code (http://www.os2ezine.com/v2n11/sample13.zip - ZIP, 19.2k) from this month's column.  Next month we'll dive into one control specifically to work our way to a first small application.  I've got some ideas already, but anyone having an idea for a small easy applet is encouraged to mail me.  I might change my original idea :-)  For now, have a fruitful month.

          -- * --

(eric.slaats@pi.net) Eric Slaats holds a degree in Computer Science and teaches computer technology in Eindhoven.  He is the creator of the (http://www.bmtmicro.com/catalog/smalled/) Smalled utilities.

***********************************

OS/2 Essentials v2	- by Christopher B. Wright

OS/2 Essentials version 2.0, now available from Stardock Systems, is a set of utilities Stardock is hoping you won't want to live without.  While not all of the features will be useful for all people, there is something for everyone in this suite and most people who buy it should find it worth the purchase.

OS/2 Essentials is a utility suite for OS/2 versions 2.11, Warp 3.0, and Warp 4.0.  The main part of the package consists of 5 programs:  a file manager (DirMaster Pro), a disk file size manager (File Graph/PM Pro), a screen saver (Screen Saver Pro, in both English and German versions), a benchmarking program (SDS Bench) and a Mac-like TrashCan object (WPS TrashCan).

Some of the applications available in the first release are no longer included.  FileBar, a windowing manager for OS/2, was dropped because it was redundant in light of Object Desktop's smashing success.  The arcade game was dropped because, according to Stardock's web site, it made the package less attractive to businesses (apparently, they didn't want games on their business machines.  Fascists.)

DirMaster Pro

I was surprised that DirMaster Pro was still included in this version of OS/2 Essentials.  Stardock had dropped FileBar because Object Desktop did the same thing (among other things).  Similarly, Object Desktop also comes with a WPS-integrated file manager.  So why did they keep DirMaster Pro?

Well, if you look at the application you might get an idea or two.  DirMaster Pro is a fairly complicated program with a large amount of functionality.  It gives you a two-column directory view (and each column can be configured separately) and a large array of tools that require nothing more than a single mouse click to activate.  Someone very familiar with DirMaster Pro's workings could easily use this program to do a lot of heavy-duty file maintenance.  It's even integrated with the Workplace shell.  Although it's not a graphic-intensive program (files and directories are represented by their names, not by icons and folders) you can drag and drop objects from DirMaster Pro onto the desktop and vice-versa.

Unfortunately, I found DirMaster Pro very difficult to work with.  It is not an intuitive program -- I found to my consternation that both columns would spontaneously revert to the root level of my C: drive, whether I wanted it to or not. Plus I found that the command buttons on the bottom of the screen were difficult to use quickly.  DirMaster Pro is not for those of us who do light-to-moderate disk management, it is for people willing to sit down in front of it for a few hours in order to learn to use it correctly.

If you are a person who is willing to do that, I suspect DirMaster Pro will be worth your time.  If you aren't, there are more intuitive programs out there that will probably do what you need them to do.

File Graph/PM Pro

This is an interesting program that will probably be more useful to administrators than end users, but it's neat nonetheless.  Think of File Graph/PM Pro as a "directory manager".  It does for directories what file managers do for individual files -- it tells you how much is being used in each directory on your hard drive.  

For example, I keep all of my graphics, documents, and other creations in a file called (creatively enough) "files".  "Files" is broken down into five subcategories:  Docs, Graphics, MMedia, Projects, and all the web sites I've bookmarked in the Stardock Internet Shell.

With File Graph/PM Pro, I am able to determine how much space on my hard drive is being taken up by each of these directories:

	Files:		60mb
	Docs:		3.31mb
	Graphics:	43mb
	MMedia:	13mb
	Projects:	939k
	SDIS:		13k

This application is enormously useful for people maintaining networks, but it's also useful if, for example, you're working on a project that uses more than one file, and you're trying to see if it can be squeezed onto a floppy disk, removable disk, CD-ROM, etc.

Screen Saver Pro

If you're tired of OS/2's lockup function and have been longing for real screen savers similar in form and scope to AfterDark, you're not alone.  At first I was a bit surprised by Stardock's decision to include a screen saver program, considering their decision to take out the arcade game from the previous version.  Aren't screen savers just a bunch of fluff, after all?  Most monitors nowadays don't suffer from "burn in", at least not as severely as they used to, so screen savers have become somewhat ornamental.

Apparently, this is not entirely the case.  First of all, screen savers are useful in securing your machine while you are away from them.  This is essentially what the lockup feature that comes with OS/2 does, but according to Stardock's web site, this feature has a slight problem:

   It is not commonly known but OS/2's Lockup feature has
   a serious bug in that when it activates, it resets the priorities
   on all threads running on the system.  While this isn't very
   noticeable on many systems, a system that is running programs
   that run at "idle" priority (such as system monitoring tools,
   network messaging, etc.) are suddenly reset to "normal" priority
   which can cause performance loss and instability in some
   systems.

Screen Saver Pro not only eliminates this problem, it also provides better security features than the standard lockup feature does.

The best part of this program, however, is that it has some very nice looking screen savers -- especially the 3d ones that use OpenGL.  I have not tested the OpenGL screen savers with the OpenGL 1.1 update (mainly because I can't figure out how to install the update), but they work fine with version 1.0.

Screen Saver Pro comes in an English and German version.  It also comes with an option to install Dos support - so your dos and windows sessions can use this feature as well.

I have noticed a potential problem with the program, however.  Occasionally my Startup folder will not be able to start everything, and SSPro seems to be the culprit.  When I remove SSPro from the startup folder, everything will load normally.  This is an intermittent problem and I'm not certain if SSPro really is at fault or if it's another application.

SDS Bench

Stardock has included a basic benchmarking program with this suite of tools.  SDS Bench 1.0 measures CPU speed (Integer and Floating Point, then an average of the two), Memory (Read and Write, then an average of the two), an average of your video speed, then an overall average of all three categories.  It can also measure your hard disk's read and write times.

While this is a potentially useful program, I've not had much luck getting it to work completely.  At the moment, the program will measure everything except my CPU Integer speed -- I don't get a CPU Average score or an Overall Average score.  I haven't found a way to change this configuration:  There don't seem to be any settings to modify, and there doesn't seem to be any online help for this program either.

WPS TrashCan

My favorite of all the items in this suite, WPS TrashCan gives your OS/2 Workplace Shell desktop a TrashCan object just like the ones found on a Macintosh (or on that 16 bit video game they sell in Seattle).  You just drag what you want to delete into the TrashCan object, and if you change your mind you drag it back out again.  Right clicking on the object will give you an option to empty it, which summarily dispatches the offending files.

The TrashCan functions as any other WPS object.  You can copy it and shadow it at your leisure.  Its settings notebook comes with a few other functions  that make sure you remember to empty it from time to time -- for example, you can give it a maximum storage capacity, forcing you to empty the TrashCan when the limit is exceeded, and you can force it to purge itself after certain periods of time.

My only complaint with the application is that it doesn't install with other programs from the main install program.  Instead, the main installation program installs another installation program, which will in turn install the WPS TrashCan.  There may be valid technical reasons for doing this, but it seems needlessly redundant.

The WPS TrashCan is a _great_ application, and one that is sadly lacking in OS/2.   In fact, I'd like to see Stardock provide more tools that emulate other aspects of the Mac environment in the future (for example, it would be neat if Stardock created a folder object that automatically opened when a file was placed on top of it, a la OS8).

Other Goodies

Stardock did more than simply give you a five utility suite for less than $50 (US).  They also stuffed the rest of the CD with a lot of useful "extras" that would take hours, even days, to download otherwise.

For starters, FixPak 26 (for OS/2 Warp 3) and FixPak 1 (for OS/2 Warp 4) are included on the CD, along with instructions on how to install straight from the CD, without making diskettes, if you so desire.  Warp 3 is now on FixPak 32 or 33, and Warp 4 is now on FixPak 4, so this may seem a bit dated.  It is worth noting, however, that Stardock has stated in the past they will not support any Warp 4 machines updated with any FixPak after FP1.

Stardock also include FixPaks for Galactic Civilizations, Object Desktop 1.0, 1.5, and Object Desktop Professional.  They also include demo versions of Avarice, Galactic Civilizations, and Trials of Battle and a wealth of third party applications, including:

o  Adobe Acrobat Reader
o  DragText
o  FontFolder
o  SpellGuard
o  PMMail
o  MR/2 ICE
o  InJoy
o  Zap-O-Com
o  The entire David Barnes bitmaps collection

o  and a lot more.

Final Evaluation

SDS OS/2 Essentials is a useful collection of tools, and the extras that come with it make it a killer deal.  Some of the programs are weaker in terms of intuitiveness and usefulness than others, but all in all this is a good product.  Recommended.

          -- * --

OS/2 Essentials v2
     by (http://www.stardock.com/) Stardock Systems
     MSRP: US$49.95 ($19.95 to upgrade from 1.x)

(wrightc@dtcweb.com) Christopher B. Wright is a technical writer in the Northern Virginia/D.C.  area, and has been using OS/2 Warp since January 95.  He is also a member of Team OS/2.

***********************************

Entrepreneur	- by Colin Hildinger

After a few years' wait, Stardock's second completely in-house game has been released.  (Galactic Civilizations was the first, all their other games were games which they published but did not develop.)  Can Brad Wardell's second creation live up to expectations?  Will it be a game played predominantly by OS/2 users or will it be a hit with Win32 players as well?  Was the extra time (a year or so) worth it to create a cross-platform version?  The answer to all the above questions is a qualified "yes."

Installation

The demo version of Entrepreneur shipped as a self-extracting and installing Win32 executable, which miffed a few OS/2 users, but by using InfoZip or PKWare's unzip programs it was a simple task to unzip the demo and run the OS/2 install program.  With the GA version, there is a setup.exe program for the Win32 version and an install.exe for the OS/2 version.  It's a simple matter to get things up and running since the installer is the standard IBM installer.

First Impressions

Unfortunately for Stardock, it appears that the game suffers a bit in the "first impressions" department.  I'm not sure why, but it seems that people have a bit of trouble getting into the game.  With most games I can pick everything up without touching the manual.  I mean, seriously folks, who needed a manual for Doom or Quake?  Who even picked up the manual for SimCity or Civilization?  With Entrepreneur, though, it's absolutely necessary to read the manual to understand how things work, and I fear that this is something that may hurt the game if it doesn't pick up some momentum in the market.

The question you're probably asking is, "Is the game REALLY that complicated?"  The answer is, no it's not complicated at all, but it may be a little unintuitive at first, and that's really a shame, since it's absolutely addictive once you get started -- in fact, it's the first game in a long time to keep me up all night several times after the first week of playing it.

Gameplay

In my opinion gameplay is the single most important aspect of a game.  Graphics and sound are nice, but eye candy alone doesn't make a game.  When it comes down to it, the thing that keeps me coming back and playing for weeks or months is how much fun the game is to play -- something which seems to be suffering a little in today's "gee whiz" 3D graphics game market.

Entrepreneur is fun to play.  It's fun to play against a computer and it's even more fun to play against four or five people on the Internet.

The game starts you off in a market (the computer market is the only market that ships with the game, but others such as the automobile industry will be added in the future) with a small site in a garage, building PC's.  You are pretty much like the other upstarts (you can play against up to seven opponents) all over the world at this point.  You can specialize in either production, engineering, or marketing, with your employees' capabilities being doubled over the standard capabilities for whatever aspect you choose to specialize in.  You only have marketing information for the region you start in and you start with one salesman with which to push your product.  You must spend money to research other regions in order to expand the areas to which you can sell your product.

As your territory expands you will have to hire more and more employees to keep up with demand and you will make enough money to build new sites and expand the capabilities of these sites.  Each site can have several types of buildings: factories, sales offices, R & D centers, marketing centers, and recreation centers.  Each building type has several levels which expand your site's effectiveness and the number of employees you can hire.

As you expand your knowledge of the world in which you're playing you'll need to expand your distribution.  This is the area which really seems to cause some trouble for people when they first start playing the game.  In order to sell your product, you have to get it on the shelves.  Your salesmen are responsible for getting your product on the shelves in regions in which you place them and in regions surrounding those regions.  If, for example, you don't have a salesman or site in Europe, you can't sell any product in Europe.  If you move a salesman into Europe he will make your product available and people may start buying it.  There are a number of factors which will effect whether or not people in a given territory purchase your product.  Availability is the first important factor.  After that there is demand, which is determined by price, attractiveness to the given market and miscellaneous bonuses, another area which seems to escape new players.

Much of your product demand depends on market momentum.  As an example, why does Gateway sell so many computers?  Are their computers that much better or cheaper than the competition?  Of course not, but Gateway has market momentum.  People buy their product because they are familiar with it, and for another product to make a dent in Gateway's market share it has to not only be better than Gateway's, it has to be significantly better.  It also has to have some marketing to give it a boost and probably a better price.

The same thing is true in Entrepreneur.  If you move your salesman into Europe and IBM already controls Europe, you're going to have to really work to make a dent in the market, even if your product is just as good or even better than IBM's.  There are strategies for entering into established areas, and probably the best one is to attack the point of least resistance: the fringe regions with lower product availability and lower bonuses (bonuses for a territory are increased for each territory controlled by a given player which is adjacent to the territory).  Controlling territory, and thus achieving high demand bonuses from market momentum, is absolutely key to having a winning strategy.  It also lets you make good use of your direct action cards.

Direct Action Cards

Probably the best idea in the entire game is the addition of direct action cards (DACs).  At the end of each game year, each player is given resource points for each region he controls that contains one of five resource types.  Each player also receives one randomly selected DAC at the end of each year.  After you've collected enough resource points, you can make use of the DACs and wreak havoc on your opponents or increase your market demand or help the guy who's doing really badly.  DACs range from trivial, such as _Government Grant #1_ which gives you $2,000,000, to all-powerful, such as _Dark Continent_ which bans sales of a competitor's product from a continent for a full year.  Of course, the really powerful cards don't show up until late in the game and take a ton of resource points to use, but something like _Paying the Piper_, which takes away $50,000,000 from an opponent, can be devastating if played at the right time.

Graphics and Sound

Graphics and sound in Entrepreneur are good, but not great.  The graphics are clean and well thought out, but the game could probably use some extra animations and detail shots.  This extra eye candy would probably help hold people's attention while they learn the game.  Entrepreneur is probably the most well laid out game I've seen under OS/2, but it's probably par for the course for full-screen games.  It does a good job of looking like you're inside a game and not inside an OS/2 program window.  The sound is all digital and isn't bad, but it doesn't sound like you've got the London Philharmonic in your computer either.

Stardock.Net

With the creation of their first multiplayer game Stardock has introduced (http://www.stardock.net/) STARDOCK.NET.  With your Internet connection active you can use an interface built into the game to find other Entrepreneur players and start multiplayer games.  The interface supports multiple rooms, including rooms designed strictly to chat.  Every Internet capable game should have an interface like this one.

Conclusions

Stardock has created a fun and addictive game that I've really enjoyed playing.  The computer players are challenging and the multiplayer support is more than acceptable (I've played quite a few games over the Internet with players as far away as Australia).  Overall I think it's one of the most enjoyable games I've played in some time, and I look forward to continual updates and improvements from Stardock.

          -- * --

Entrepreneur
   by (http://www.stardock.com/) Stardock Systems
   MSRP: US$49.95

(http://www.ionet.net/~colin/) Colin Hildinger is an Aerospace Engineering senior at (http://www.okstate.edu/) Oklahoma State University and has been using OS/2 for the last 3 years.  In addition to being the Games Editor for OS/2 e-Zine!, he maintains (http://www.ionet.net/~colin/games.html) The Ultimate OS/2 Gaming Page and the (http://www.ionet.net/~colin/awe32.html) AWE32 and OS/2 Page in his "spare" time.

***********************************

First Looks and Nifty Gadgets_

First Looks and Nifty Gadgets_ brings you reviews of the new and novel.  Each month 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. 

This month we look at: Lookout for OS/2 | OS/2 World Tour |mp123 v0.59m | PM2Web v1.0

Lookout for OS/2

Fed up with going through a long list of "favorite" bookmarks every time you start your browser, yet only finding one or two have changed since you last visited them?  Lookout helps solve this problem by monitoring your favorite sites and letting you know which ones have or have not changed, saving you the trouble of checking manually.

Lookout can be configured to monitor Web, FTP or Gopher sites at any interval you please.  With each site being individually configurable, you can tell Lookout to ignore certain files on an FTP site and signal you any way you want when a file changes.  Lookout can either simply mark the site as changed in its main window, or pop up a message box, or play any .WAV file you choose.

So in addition to keeping you apprised of changes at your favorite web sites, Lookout can also be configured to keep an eye out for specific files to appear on FTP sites, saving you a lot of hassle and time when it comes to upgrading your software.

Lookout for OS/2
     by (http://www.primenet.com/~ckennedy/software/lookout/) Frugal Software
     download from the (http://www.os2ss.com/archives/hobbes/os2/apps/internet/misc/look100.zip) OS/2 Supersite (ZIP, 600k)
     Registration: US$15

          -- * --

OS/2 Warp 4 World Tour

In what seems to be a bizarre move considering IBM's current focus on the business market, Big Blue has produced what is a fairly good demo CD for OS/2 Warp 4.  The "OS/2 Warp 4 World Tour" CD was actually produced late in 1996 -- but still advertised as recently as July of this year -- and if you didn't know better, you'd swear it was attempting to get desktop users interested in OS/2.

Part of the BESTeam Software Program, the World Tour is actually labeled "training CD" on the disc itself, but it's more accurate to call it an interactive, animated OS/2 love-in.  The "hosts" of this multimedia adventure are international rock star, "Chip Ramsey", and his road manager, "Roxanne Rolls".  The main setting for the tour is Chip's living room.  Clicking on various objects will launch you into intentionally cheesy commercials for OS/2 and the BonusPak ("It does everything but julienne fries!"; "More versatile than ginsu knives!"), OS/2 reference materials, customer testimonials and awards lists, and the tour itself.  You can even join Chip's fan club if you sit through the entire tour and collect all the required ticket stubs -- be warned though, this will take some time.

You might wonder exactly why IBM is using cartoon rock stars, catchy tunes and humorous commercials to promote an operating system which is supposed to be targeted at Fortune 500 companies.  I know I did.  While this is probably just more evidence of the schizophrenic nature of IBM, this CD is still a cool toy and a good way to show people the impressive benefits of OS/2.  You might have some trouble tracking down a copy but for those who don't mind a little diligence, I highly recommend it.

OS/2 Warp 4 World Tour
     by (http://www.ibm.com/) IBM
     MSRP: Cdn$70.00

          -- * --

mp123 v0.59m

Lately there's been a lot of buzz on the Internet about a new audio format which can compress a five minute, CD quality song into "only" 4-5 megabytes.  The same quality music stored in regular .WAV format would have taken up 40-50 megabytes, meaning this new format gets an unprecedented 10:1 compression ratio on music without sacrificing any noticeable quality.  This new format is called audio MPEG Layer 3, or MP3 for short.  MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) Layer 3 audio achieves its amazing compression by discarding data that the human ear cannot hear anyway.  For example, you cannot hear a conversation between two people while an airplane is taking off overhead, and neither can you hear the notes of a soft instrument in an orchestra that's playing fortissimo.  But even though your ear can't pick up these sounds, a flat medium, like tape, will record them anyway.  MP3 throws this out and thus conserves a great deal of space.

mp123 is the, "official port of the fast MPEG Audio Player 'mpg123'," which was originally written for Unix.  Another OS/2 port happens to exist too, so Niclas Lindstrom, author of mp123, shortened the name of his port (removing the "g") to help avoid confusion.  mp123 is a command-line program that will play audio MPEG files encoded with layers 1 through 3.

What's unique about mp123 is that it can be set up as a Netscape helper application and actually play streaming audio over the web!  With some sacrifice in quality, audio MPEG streams can be compressed small enough to be playable over a dialup Internet connection, giving you something roughly akin to RealAudio's technique.  If you have a high speed connection such as ISDN, a T1 or a cable modem, you'll be able to receive higher quality (in fact, near-CD quality) broadcasts in real time too.  While not as popular yet as the RealAudio format, there is a growing market of .MP3 audio sources on the 'net so this may be something to look into.  For a few samples of web sites offering .MP3 audio, check out (http://www.audioactive.com/listen/listen_prv.html) AudioActive.

mp123 v0.59m
     by (http://www.users.wineasy.se/nil/mpg123/) Niclas Lindstrom
     download from (http://www.users.wineasy.se/nil/mpg123/mp123v059m.zip) Niclas' Web Site (ZIP, 100k)
     Registration: Free

          -- * --

PM2Web v1.0

Remote control of a computer may have traditionally been the concern of network administrators, but Ridax programutveckling is doing their best to change that.  Their new PM2Web program carries on the tradition of their more robust PM2You (and Win2You) remote control programs -- but with a twist.  PM2Web allows anyone with access to a WWW browser to control an OS/2 Desktop from anywhere in the world, via the Internet.

This is actually a lot simpler than it sounds, although there are some limitations due to the nature of the WWW.  Basically, the person who wants his or her Desktop to be available for control connects to the Internet and starts the PM2Web program.  This program acts as an HTTP server and when anyone tries to log into that person's IP address (or domain name if one has been set for the IP), they receive a graphic snapshot of the Desktop.  This graphic is an image map; below it are a few options to control what you will be able to do to that image.  For example, if you select "Double Left" in the "Mouse" field and click a spot on the graphic, the corresponding spot on the real Desktop will act just as if it had been double clicked with the left mouse button.  Through this method you can open folders, start programs, drag objects and do many other basic tasks.

PM2Web works more or less as advertised, though with Netscape Navigator for OS/2 you will be limited to using JPEGs as your "window on the Desktop".  The other graphic formats supported by PM2Web (PNG and BMP) are not supported by Navigator 2.02 although bitmaps are supported by WebExplorer v1.2.

I also had some trouble getting the program set up.  The documentation included in the file I downloaded was just the raw, uncompiled help file so reading through it was cumbersome, and the install utility didn't seem to install a working program object.

Still, despite these rough edges, PM2Web will serve the casual user when he or she needs to control his OS/2 Desktop from somewhere else.  While you wouldn't want to try to work on a spreadsheet remotely with this program, it could be very handy in some situations.

PM2Web v1.0
     by (mail@ridax.se) Ridax programutveckling
     download from  (ftp://ftp.bmtmicro.com/bmtmicro/pm2web10.zip) BMT Micro (ZIP, 155k)
     Registration: US$67.00

          -- * --

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

***********************************

October '97 Reader Survey Results_

It seems the whole OS/2 world is buzzing about web browsers lately.  One group is fervently demanding that IBM/Netscape release the 128 bit encryption version of (http://www.internet.ibm.com/browsers/netscape/warp/) Netscape Navigator for OS/2 (which IBM has available but refuses to release).  Another group is equally loudly asking what the delay with Netscape Communicator is (the estimated release date keeps getting pushed back).  And then there is the group that wants to wash their hands of Netscape altogether in favour of what they hope is a simpler, more compact web browsing solution: (http://www.operasoftware.com/alt_os.html) Opera.  (Not to mention the group who is happy using Internet Adventurer or other web browsers!)

Among all these competing voices, one person wrote in last month to ask us to try to clear up some of this confusion.  Thom Davis, maintainer of (http://pages.sssnet.com/Confed2/) The Confederate BBs and (http://pages.sssnet.com/Confed2/os2books.html) The OS/2 BookStore, suggested we find out exactly what OS/2ers really want in a browser, so we did just that.  Last month we asked, "What do you think about web browsers?"

Answers to our survey were accepted from October 16th until November 13th.  We had a total of 1,968 replies to our questionnaire with 59 "spoiled" entries (replies were considered "spoiled" if they did not contain an e-mail address, if they were incomplete or if they were duplicates).  This left 1,909 valid replies.  The results were as follows:

Should web browsers have news & mail functions?

Thom's real curiosity on the subject of web browsers was whether or not users wanted Usenet news and e-mail clients built into the web browser they used.  It seems that OS/2 users in general prefer the established strategy of Netscape and the other giants of the industry.  More than one in three (34.2%) readers surveyed reported that they prefer their web browser with news and mail reading capabilities built in.  Another 27.3% said that news and mail should be add-on applications to the browser, preferring a more modular approach.

However, the "no" forces should not be dismissed.  A significant amount of our readers (17.9%) felt that news and mail abilities had no place whatsoever in a web browser.  Clearly there are real numbers of OS/2 users who are tired of "bloatware" and prefer to choose individual tools for each task.

Do you want Communicator for OS/2?

As a slight variation on our first question, we also asked whether OS/2 users wanted the new Netscape Communicator suite at all.  Not surprisingly, given many people's natural desire for the latest and greatest products -- and considering the less than stellar performance of the current Netscape Navigator for OS/2 -- nearly all our readers (93.1%) told us that they want all or part of the new Communicator suite.  The largest segment of that group (at 42.4%) wants the entire suite but 30.9% went the other way, wanting only the new web browser.

Even more convincing than the number of people who _wanted_ an upgrade though, were the number who _didn't_.  Scarcely a soul could be found who didn't want at least some sort of an upgrade, with only 3.7% of our readers reporting they were happy with whatever browser they were currently using.

Does OS/2 need more than one web browser?

Our final question last month turned out to be a no brainer.  While Netscape may bemoan the competition from Microsoft in the "browser wars" on other platforms, it seems that OS/2ers feel similar competition here would be a good thing.  Only 5.5% of our readers didn't think competition would benefit them (or didn't care), while a whopping 94.5% either thought it would, or that it might.

This could be good news for the folks at Opera Software and their "(http://www.operasoftware.com/alt_os.html) Project Magic" campaign which is centered around trying to generate enough interest in alternate platform versions of their WWW browser.

          -- * --

That's it for this month.  Don't forget to fill out this month's questionnaire and check back in November for complete results!

 


          Complete October '97 Survey Results

Should web browsers have news & mail functions?
	
Category					Count	Percentage
News and Mail should be built in		652	34.2%
News and Mail should be plug-ins		296	15.5%
News and Mail should be add-on apps		522	27.3%
News and Mail should NOT be included	341	17.9%
I don't understand the question		1	0.1%
I'm undecided				97	5.1%

TOTAL					1,909	100.1%

Note: the extra 0.1% in the above table is due to rounding errors.


Do you want Communicator for OS/2?

Category					Count	Percentage
Yes, I want the whole suite		829	43.4%
I want parts of the Communicator suite	358	18.8%
I only want the new version of Navigator	590	30.9%
No, I'm happy with Navigator/2 v2.02	55	2.9%
No, I use a non-Netscape browser		16	0.8%
I'm confused, what's Communicator?		40	2.1%
I don't have any opinion			21	1.1%

TOTAL					1,909	100.0%


Does OS/2 need more than one web browser?

Category					Count	Percentage
Definitely, competition breeds efficiency	1,285	67.3%
Maybe, it couldn't hurt			519	27.2%
No, that won't help anyone			104	5.4%
I don't care about web browsers		1	0.1%

TOTAL					1,909	100.0%

***********************************

November '97 Reader Survey

Have you ever wondered what your fellow OS/2 users are doing with their computers and how they're doing it?

Each month, OS/2 e-Zine! takes the pulse of the OS/2 community on a different topic and presents you with the results.

Just fill in the form at http://www.os2ezine.com/v2n11/survey2.htm and check back next month to find out how "normal" you really are!

This month's topic: The Lotus Position


Do you have an idea that you think would make a good survey question?  Send it in!

Don't forget to check out the complete results of last month's survey, in this issue!

***********************************

Celebrity Corner	- by Christopher B. Wright

Warpstock '97 -- The Wrap Up

Since those of us who weren't able to attend (http://www.warpstock.org/) Warpstock are dying to know how it went, last month I interviewed spokespeople from many of the vendors and organizers who participated in the event -- a sort of "Super Celebrity Corner".  Overall, it seems Warpstock was a smashing success -- and there are already discussions and speculations on what the next event will be like (and where it will be held).  Here's a sample of what they had to say.

          -- * --

Mark Abramowitz (Warpstock Steering Committee, member and Exhibit Chairman)

Mark Abramowitz was one of the members of the committee that organized Warpstock.  In his own words, he was "Overwhelmed at the success of the event."

"No one anticipated the response Warpstock received," he told me Tuesday afternoon in a telephone interview.  "When we were planning this event, we didn't do a whole lot of marketing from an organizational standpoint.  Most of the information on the event was limited to some CompuServe Forums and a few OS/2 mailing lists.  The only press we contacted were the two OS/2 web magazines.  Our estimates of the number of people who attended were vastly exceeded."

According to Mr. Abramowitz, there were developers and vendors who had a new feeling as to where OS/2 is going.  "Some vendors and developers told me they were going to redouble their efforts in this market, rather than cut back," he reported.  "And people who had been discouraged with OS/2's current situation, who had been planning to move to another platform, have changed their minds."

This rush of enthusiasm was evidenced by the, "phenomenal participation of the Warpstock volunteers."  Volunteers at the event, identified by their blue Warpstock T-shirts (the organizers wore red ones), were, "enthusiastic and ready to work.  All we had to do was mention that we needed help, and almost immediately someone would be on hand," Mr. Abramowitz recalled.

After the event, the facility was cleaned up in 2 hours, mostly with the help of SCOUG (the Southern California OS/2 Users Group).

There has not been an official attendance count as of yet, but according to Mr. Abramowitz, "the question is now, 'Did we exceed 400 people?'  We know we're close -- we don't know if we've gone over that mark yet."  This question is significant when you take into account that, "originally, we were planning to market the event and get somewhere between 300-600 people to come.  It wound up not being marketed so we expected much less -- and 400 people came anyway."

The sheer number of attendees did create a few technical problems.  "When we were organizing the event, we'd planned to give out an OS/2 Warp bag filled with stuff for everyone who attended.  We ran out of those pretty quickly.  We then found some old OS/2 2.1 bags, which we used instead -- and we ran out of those too."

Eventually, he said they had to, "just give people envelopes with the information stuffed in it."

Another interesting challenge was that the organizers ran out of registration forms.  They wound up having to create new forms on the fly as more and more people kept arriving.

"All things considered, this was a 'good' problem to be having!"  Mr. Abramowitz noted.

Vendors attending the conference were having similar 'good' problems.  "Most didn't really expect to sell too many things," he explained, "and just about everyone ran out of stock.  Even Sundial Systems, which is a meticulous company that tries to over-prepare for everything, ran out of stock on the first day."  That didn't deter the attendees, however.  "They wound up having to give out yellow slips to people who wanted to purchase software anyway."

A vendor that was demoing a new label creation software product ("SMACK") currently in beta,  was apparently, "deluged with requests to accept pre-orders."

Indelible Blue "brought a ton of catalogs -- more than they thought they'd need.  They planned to give the rest to SCOUG and some of the other user groups that were there."  By Sunday morning, they had run out completely.

Many vendors told Abramowitz that, "they would have brought more hardware had they known how many people would attend.  We were able to scrounge up some more monitors and other items for some vendors in need, but others had to go without."

There were many, many digital cameras at the event and many people were taking pictures.  Some are available on the Warpstock web site ((http://www.warpstock.org/) http://www.warpstock.org/), and, "Others will make their way to the Internet in time, I'm sure of it," said Abramowitz.

As well as cameras, some of the larger sessions were videotaped.  There aren't any plans to make these videotapes available to the public yet, but according to Mr. Abramowitz, "this hasn't been ruled out."

The evening of the first night had an evening social.  The food was sponsored by F/X Communications -- who unfortunately could not attend the event -- and the music was sponsored by Hethmon Brothers.  "The band was a blues band -- all OS/2 users -- that use OS/2 in their setup."

Mr. Abramowitz admits that he was surprised by the success of the event.  "Everyone thought it would be a great idea, but no one really thought it would be magic.  But that's what it was.  It was magical.  Vendors were giddy."

It seemed to fly against the notion that the OS/2 end-user market is listless and uninterested.  "Give OS/2 users half a chance, and the wallets are out."

People are already talking about the next Warpstock.  "On the Warpstock mailing list, people are already talking about the next event.  There's talk of a Warpstock Europe, perhaps in Germany.  Or maybe a Warpstock in Austin, Texas."

Though the event was very exciting and fulfilling, Mr. Abramowitz says he is "very tired" from the weekend and is looking forward to resting up and getting back to everyday life.

          -- * --

Indelible Blue

Buck Bohac of Indelible Blue, OS/2's oldest on-line and mail order software retailer, was very pleased with how Warpstock went.

"The conference was very upbeat and positive -- very little whining about IBM, which was good."  Furthermore, he said that the, "turnout was greater than we'd expected.  We ran out of catalogs on the second day."

Indelible Blue provided access to their secure server, which allowed people attending the event, "to get a lot information on what kinds of OS/2 products are available right now."

Mr. Bohac feels that Warpstock underscored an important point.  "Whether or not IBM continues to see the OS/2 end-user market as viable, as long as they advance OS/2 in a way that is useful to the end user, there will always be an end-user niche market for OS/2."

"That's a niche I like," he went on to say.  "They're very technically savvy people."

          -- * --

MSR Development

Dudley Westlake, president of MSR Development, participated in the conference both as a vendor and an attendee.  He was enthusiastic about the success of Warpstock's first conference.

"This conference substantially exceeded our expectations," he said.

According to Mr. Westlake, more people attended the event than anyone had anticipated.  "Attendance was high, and the general tone of the event was very enthusiastic.  The conference represented a very broad, and I would say a true mix of OS/2 users."

Mr. Westlake hopes that this event may alter a lot people's perceptions of OS/2's viability in the SOHO market.  "During the IBM workshops and sessions, people were able to let them know that there is interest in using OS/2 in more than just the mid-to-large corporate environment."

In his opinion, Warpstock was a, "tremendous success.  Warpstock was a purely voluntary effort, which makes its success even more impressive."

          -- * --

PowerQuest

Gene Barlow represented PowerQuest as both a vendor and a presenter at two OS/2-related forums during the Warpstock event.

"This was a very good event for the first time out," Mr. Barlow commented during a short telephone interview.  "When I was working for IBM, I proposed a similar idea, but it never got through the budget."

He was "very impressed that OS/2 enthusiasts -- all volunteers -- were able to do such an outstanding job.  The facilities were great, the organization was very good, and it was a great way for vendors to reach OS/2 customers."

While he was happy to see such enthusiasm from OS/2 users, he's not sure that the event will actually influence IBM's decisions concerning the future of the OS/2 market.  "IBM Corporation has decided to target OS/2 at the mid-to-large corporate level," he explained, "and I don't know that this event will necessarily change their minds about that."  Nonetheless, he felt that this event definitely proved there are strong alternatives to the Windows 95 platform.

          -- * --

SofTouch Systems

Felix Cruz was able to shed more light not only on the events during Warpstock, but the expectations of organizers and participants _before_ Warpstock.

"When the event was being organized, we didn't know what the response would be," he told me via telephone Tuesday.  "The location was chosen because there was a strong center of OS/2 users in that area -- SCOUG -- and everyone thought that most of the attendees would be from within that area.  No-one knew how many people would be willing to spend a great deal of money to travel to the event from out-of-state."

Mr. Cruz was very, "surprised and pleased -- overjoyed -- by the response."  Although he didn't have official numbers, he thought that, "at least half of the attendees were from out-of-state."

Mr. Cruz feels, "this event has the potential to change the way people view OS/2.  The enthusiasm of the attendees was very encouraging, and it's created a good bit of momentum, and it's _possible_ that this could be the start of a new trend in the OS/2 community."  However, he cautions that, "for this momentum to be used effectively, the OS/2 community needs something else to happen.  I don't know what -- but it needs something else.  And this can't just be a one-time affair.  We also need a Warpstock East Coast, or a Warpstock Europe sometime in the future.

"Warpstock '97 could be the last hurrah for OS/2 users -- or it could be the catalyst for a resurgence in OS/2's popularity.  It all depends on what the average OS/2 user is willing to do to ensure a bright future for OS/2."

          -- * --

Stardock Systems

Brad Wardell, president of Stardock Systems, told me he was, "stunned and in shock," with the success of Warpstock.

"It was a total hit," he told me Tuesday afternoon.  "We were completely taken off guard at the amount of people who showed up."  Originally, the estimate for attendance was 200 people, but according to Mr. Wardell it was closer to 400.

"Warpstock was the most positive event I have ever seen since I first started using OS/2," Mr. Wardell reported.  "There were more OS/2 users at Warpstock than there were at any of the IBM-sponsored Technical Interchanges that I can remember."  This is interesting, especially in light of the fact that Warpstock focused on the end user and SOHO user -- a market IBM is focusing less on these days.

Any vendor that wasn't able to attend the event missed out, Mr. Wardell went on to say.  "The author of Internet Adventurer sold about 50 copies of his software," he told me, "and Sundial Systems sold out of their demo software."  Stardock had copies of free software to give away, but Mr. Wardell hadn't thought to bring any copies to sell.  "I'm kicking myself for not doing that," he admitted good-naturedly.

One of the best parts of the event was meeting the attendees, he went on to say.  "Too often all you see are the technical people, and the interactions in the newsgroups.  It was great to see the people who attended -- these are the true users, the real advocates of the OS/2 operating system."

          -- * --

Sundial Systems

According to Randel Flint, the vendors were overwhelmed with the positive response (and interest in sales!).  Attendance was well over the projected expectations, with a slew of last minute registrations on both days.

"It was extremely encouraging," he told me in a Monday morning interview.  "We were very pleasantly surprised at the turnout.  No one expected the response that Warpstock generated."

Carla Hanzlik, another Sundial Systems employee, expanded on this.  "The Warpstock Committee gave away a bag filled with flyers, information, and a schedule of the event to every person who had preregistered.  They had actually made more bags than what they projected attendance would be.  They had run out of these early Saturday morning!"

The best part of the event, according to Ms. Hanzlik, was that, "you knew the people attending were there to support the vendors.  They made it very clear that they appreciated what you were doing."

One person attending Warpstock even went so far as to buy a copy of every piece of software being sold at the event.

Ms. Hanzlik also told me that there was a wealth of technical information to be found at the event as well.  "One representative of IBM had a conference that explained the intricacies of creating device drivers for OS/2.  From what I heard afterward, it was explained very clearly and simply, so the end user as well as the programmer could understand it."

While Ms. Hanzlik didn't agree with Brad Wardell's assertion that there were more OS/2 users attending Warpstock than at the various IBM Technical Interchanges, she did believe that the biggest difference between the two conferences was, "the enthusiasm of Warpstock.  At a lot of the Technical Interchanges, the attendees have a 'ho hum' attitude.  At Warpstock, everyone was excited to be there."

          -- * --

SCOUG (The Southern California OS/2 User's Group)

Carla Hanzlik was also a member of the Southern California OS/2 User's Group, which was involved in creating some entertaining -- and educational -- displays for the Warpstock attendees.

SCOUG took over a 35 ft x 12 ft room -- the biggest room in the building they were allowed to rearrange furniture in -- and converted it into "The OS/2 Museum".  Among other things, this museum had a series of machines running every version of OS/2 that IBM had ever released, from 1.0 to Warp 4.0 -- including a machine running OS/2 for the PowerPC.  (Some pictures of this museum are available from the (http://www.warpstock.org/) Warpstock web site).

Despite the size of the room it couldn't hold everything.  "We had two display cases and a few crates of books that we couldn't fit into the room," Ms. Hanzlik reported.

Another innovative -- even interactive -- display was an OS/2 Trivia contest.  OS/2 Trivia contest questions would be posted on the wall, and as they were answered, the answers would be posted beside them (along with the name of the people who answered them correctly.)  By the end of the conference, large parts of the wall were covered with questions and answers.

According to Ms. Hanzlik, a few of the trivia questions were even answered correctly. ;-)

          -- * --

(wrightc@dtcweb.com) Christopher B.  Wright is a technical writer in the Northern Virginia/D.C.  area, and has been using OS/2 Warp since January 95.  He is also a member of Team OS/2.

***********************************

1997 Readers' Choice Award Nominations

Voting Instructions

To enter your nomination(s) for the OS/2 e-Zine! 1997 Readers' Choice Awards, you must use the on-line form provided at http://www.os2ezine.com/v2n11/nominate.htm.  No hard copy, e-mail or other forms of nomination will be considered.

To use the on-line form:

1. enter your name and e-mail address (these are required to authenticate the uniqueness of your nomination)

2. in the appropriate category, enter the company, individual or product that you believe was the best of its kind in 1997

3. repeat step #2 for every category you wish to nominate in

4. if you have no opinion in a category, leave the field blank

5. when you have entered all your nominations, click the "Send It!" button at the bottom of the form one time only

Note: Only one nomination per category per person will be accepted.

Readers may enter nominations in as few as one category or as many as all categories.  Please remember though, only one nomination per category per person.  Duplicate nominations made by the same person in one category will be discarded.

To be eligible for the OS/2 e-Zine! 1997 Readers' Choice Awards, products must have been publicly available on or before December 31, 1997.

Voting Deadline

Nominations must be received on or before midnight December 13th, 1997, Atlantic Standard Time.  Due to the nature of the Internet, we recommend you submit your nomination as early as possible.  We are not responsible for lost or incompletely transmitted nominations.  Nominations received after midnight December 13th, 1997 (AST) will be discarded.

Results of the OS/2 e-Zine! 1997 Readers' Choice Award Nominations will be calculated and the top nominees in each category will be reported in our December 16th, 1997 issue.  At that point, we will begin "official" voting for the 1997 Readers' Choice Awards.  Only the top nominees in each category will be eligible for voting.

***********************************

Warp 4 Optimization and More	- by Ted Waldron III

In Warp 4, programs launched from the Desktop can take significantly longer than the same applications on Warp 3.  Many have noted this difference and some have even uninstalled Warp 4 or reverted to Warp 3.  I must admit that I was reluctant to use Warp 4 for the very same reason.  However, I have made a number of changes to my machine's configuration, and system responses have been greatly improved.  Perhaps there is something that you can gleam out of the things that I found by reconfiguring.  The following article is divided into sections to allow you pick and choose which changes are most relevant to you.

    1  Non-Network or SOHO (Small Office, Home Office)

The LAN associated files that are automatically installed when loading Warp 4 can be overhead that you don't need if you are not on or not using a LAN.  Check the x:\MPTN\BIN directory to see if you use any of the executables in there, since they contain a few Internet programs.  If you don't need them, then you can remove them.

I removed all of them and then installed the IBM Internet Access Kit from the Warp 3 BonusPak.  Before you remove any of the files, back up all your Internet access information.  I used (http://www.bmtmicro.com/pmview/) PMView or PMJPEG to screen capture the settings for the IBM Internet Dialer and the settings for (http://www.fx.dk/injoy/) InJoy and stored them in a directory structure that represented the names of the settings.

This is actually very easy to do and well worth the little effort required.
     
1. Open the OS/2 System Icon.
2. Select System Setup.
3. Select MPTS Network Adapters and Protocol Services.
4. Select OK.
5. Select Remove.
6. Select Yes.
7. Select Exit.
(Some files will be removed after you reboot.)

You may have included other features like DDNS Configuration, DHCP Monitor, or UPM services when you installed too.  Remove any of these that you are not using by clicking on the icon and selecting the uninstall option.

You can remove them all at once by selecting the Install/Remove icon from the System Setup folder.  In there is an icon to remove all LAN associated files.  Select it and uninstall.

After rebooting, install the IBM Internet Access Kit from the Warp 3 BonusPak and enter the settings you need to use the IBM Dialer or InJoy.  This is a good time to start using Netscape Navigator too if you are not already doing so.  I find that by starting InJoy and then starting Navigator, both load at the same time and I can be on the Internet in less than six seconds.

You need to create a Program Object for Navigator.  Simply copy a Program Template from the Templates folder (found in the System Folder) to the Desktop and modify the copy.  Set the Path and Filename to the location of netscape.exe (for example, G:/NETSCAPE/NETSCAPE.EXE).  Now, very important, enter -3 in the Parameters section to make web pages think that you are using Navigator v3.  All this does is avoid using LINKUP.EXE which the standard icon uses to start Netscape.  Now you can use the IBM Information Highway to get the latest TCP/IP updates (and Internet Dialer if you are still using it).

While you are at it, remove anything else that you are not using.  For example, the Tutorial is a very nice application.  However, many people rarely read it a second time and it is rather large in terms of disk space.  It also makes your OS2.INI and OS2SYS.INI file larger which, in turn, takes just a little longer to boot the system.  So, if you are not using it, uninstall it.

   2  Speech

This one can be a killer.  After installing several times, I found that a minor mistake here can lead to enormous load times when launching programs from the Desktop.  Shortly after Warp 4 is loaded, a speech training session is requested.  This is a notebook-like page with a yellow cartoon looking description at the top.  The first time I installed Warp 4, I started but did not finish the training session.  Launching applications from the Desktop was many times slower than Warp 3.  With subsequent reinstallations though, I did not even go near the Speech notebook page and applications loaded instantly.  Opening folders was also instantaneous.  If you do not use the speech feature, you will get a big improvement by uninstalling it as follows:

1. Select OS/2 System.
2. Select System Setup.
3. Select Install/Remove
4. Select Selective Uninstall.
5. Select Optional System Components.
6. Select More.
7. Make sure that there is a check mark on the Speech selection and press OK.
8. Select Uninstall.
9. Select Cancel.
10. Close the open folders.
11. Reboot.

Now try to open some programs from the Desktop.  If you see a vast improvement, the speech was probably not fully initialized.  If you want to use the speech capabilities, simply reinstall and use the training session as soon as possible.  Make sure that you complete the session.

   3  CONFIG.SYS Changes

Just a quick note of caution.  If you make a mistake editing your CONFIG.SYS file, your system may not start.  Therefore, you should make sure you have the four Warp 4 Utility Diskettes before you start or that you have another system that you can boot to if you need to edit your CONFIG.SYS file.

The first item to check is the type(s) of file system(s) that you are using.  HPFS is generally preferred because of its ability to handle large partitions and its relative avoidance of file fragmentation.  There are three scenarios: all FAT, all HPFS, and a mix of both.  If you are using all FAT drives, then check the DISKCACHE statement.  The default is:

  DISKCACHE=D,LW

However, this should be changed to:

  DISKCACHE=D,128,LW

This is because the default is a 4KB read.  Any read larger than 4KB is ignored.  By specifying the 128 value, reads up to 128KB will be cached.  This makes a big difference on how the Desktop performs when opening programs and objects.

However, if all of your drives are HPFS, remove the line by inserting the characters "REM" in front of the DISKCACHE statement so it looks like:

  REM DISKCACHE=D,LW

This will recover resident or "pinned" memory that would be absorbed by the FAT file system.  Since you are not using FAT you certainly do not want memory wasted by FAT cache buffers.

If you are using HPFS, the default value is:

    IFS=D:\OS2\HPFS.IFS /CACHE:64  /CRECL:4

Which is of course terrible.  Change this to:

    IFS=D:\OS2\HPFS.IFS /CACHE:2048  /CRECL:64 /AUTOCHECK:CDEFGH
    RUN=D:\OS2\cache.exe /maxage:600000 /diskidle:5000 /bufferidle:5000 /-Lazy:3

And you will get much better performance.  Note the /AUTOCHECK: has C,D,E,F,G, and H.  Replace the drive letters with your actual HPFS drive letters.  The second line allows data to stay in your cache for 600 seconds maximum and writes the data from the cache to the disk when the disk is idle or the buffer is idle for 5 seconds.  Use larger values if your system is very stable and smaller values if you can not lose any data in the event of a crash or critical activity (i.e. a bank transaction).

Just a quick note to Warp 3 HPFS386 users.  If you have 64MB of memory or more, then change your IBM386FS/HPFS386.INI file as follows:

  useallmem  = NO
  cachesize=8192
  maxheap=1024
  lazy       = *: ON
  maxage     = *: 120000
  bufferidle = *: 5000

Also, remove the DISKCACHE statement if you are using all HPFS drives.

Back to the CONFIG.SYS changes.  The default for the MAXWAIT statement is:

   MAXWAIT=3

This means that a ready-to-run program waits up to 3 seconds before it is given a starvation priority boost.  Change this to:

   MAXWAIT=1

Unless you are running a transaction server or have over 100 threads running at one time, this is better.

   4  Motherboard BIOS Changes

An optimized BIOS setup can give up to a 50% performance increase.  However, I have noticed that very few people attempt to alter their settings.  Some types of BIOSes do not allow much in the way of optimization, while others allow a wide range of settings.  Do not overlook this; it is one of the first things you should do when you get a new machine.  And if you haven't done it yet, you should at least look into it.  A word of caution: I have made extensive changes to my BIOS and found it to be similar to hooking up complex stereo equipment.  If it is not correctly hooked up, it just does not work.  Reconnecting in the opposite manner usually works, though.  Similarly, changing the BIOS settings may produce a machine that does not boot or partially boots and dies.  I have not found this to cause any harm or inconvenience other than waiting for CHKDSK to complete.

If you are using an AC desktop, then your first task is turn off all of the power saving settings typical of the "green" boards.  Shutdown and use CTRL+ALT+DEL or power off.  Entering the hardware setup is specific to each machine, but most use the DEL or the F1 key at boot time to enter the setup screens.  Consult the documentation that came with your machine if these keys don't take you into your own BIOS settings.

Look for the Power settings.  This may be a menu or simply a list of options on the left and right side of your machine.  Turn them all OFF.  Some settings have many values that are selectable, so use the buttons for "change" and view all of the selections for each field.  Sometimes these are the up and down arrows but they may be the Page Up / Page Down or F7 / F8 keys.

Next, make sure that cache settings are set for both System BIOS and Video BIOS.  This is normally the default.  There is usually a set of address ranges with the video at the top of the list.  I have found that nothing uses the other address, so I recommend turning all the other addresses off except for the video.

Most BIOSes also have support for cache types.  There are two types: asynchronous and pipeline burst.  These are usually referred to as Write Through (W/T) and Write Back (W/B).  Generally, the W/B (pipeline burst) gives a little better performance.  If you have an option, use the W/B only if you know that pipeline burst cache is installed.  Otherwise, use W/T.  Also, some advanced BIOS's allow you to set the wait states.  Depending on the speed of your cache, you may want to decrease the default values.  This looks something like a selection between 3 2 2 2, 3 1 1 1 and similar values.  Try decreasing the value or selecting an entry which has fewer wait states (smaller numbers).  Other cache settings have entries for 'fast', 'faster', and 'fastest'.  I have found them to be set on 'faster' by default, but obtained better results when set to 'fastest'.  Reboot each time and be prepared to change the value back if the system does not boot.

Turn off unused options.  For example, if there is a selection for IDE PREFETCH and your drives do not support prefetch, then turn the option off.  By the way, if you installed the BonusPak System Information Tool, it tells you if your drives support prefetch logic.

If your machine has more than 64MB of memory installed, check to see of there is an option for greater than 64MB support.  Usually, there is a selection with two entries: OS/2 and non-OS2.  Select OS/2 if using more than 64MB of memory.

Finally, some BIOSes allow you to program the keyboard rate.  This affects how fast the cursor gets to the end of a line.  The default is usually 6 interrupts per second, and will go as high as 30.  Select 30 and the cursor will go much faster.

          -- * --

(webmaster@prioritymaster.com) Ted Waldron III has 10 years of application and operating systems development for real-time super minicomputers with strong emphasis on CPU scheduling.  He is the sole owner of the OS/2 2.0, 2.1 and SMP 2.11 schedulers.  Ted is the author or coauthor of 5 US software patents and internationally published articles.  He is also the president of (http://www.prioritymaster.com/) ScheduPerformace, Inc. which markets the Priority Master II OS/2 applications.

***********************************

What YOU Can Do To Support OS/2	- by Colin Hildinger

What's all this about?

This is a short list of ways you personally can support OS/2.  It has become apparent in recent months that IBM will continue developing OS/2 for some time (at least another 10 years), as they have large customers which depend on OS/2 solutions.  What does not seem to be apparent is the future of OS/2 support from IBM for us, the consumers.  Will IBM ever run another OS/2 advertisement aimed at the consumer market?  Will OS/2 Warp v5 be available in your local computer software stores when it is released in early 1998?  IBM has not given us a commitment on issues such as these.  For this reason, it is up to US, OS/2 users, to insure that our platform of choice continues to grow and succeed.

For years, OS/2 users have been responsible for almost all growth in the OS/2 market.  As the userbase grew, we users have become less organized.  Once upon a time, (http://www.teamos2.org/) Team OS/2 was responsible for large amounts of effort that went on at major trade shows such as (http://www.comdex.com/) COMDEX.  The "Pink Ninjas," as they were called, were everywhere, helping
hardware vendors demonstrate their hardware's OS/2 capabilities by helping them get OS/2 systems up and running on the trade show floors.  Unfortunately Team OS/2 fell into disarray.  The membership was always loose at best, and the lack of organization finally caught up with it.  It's no longer the force it once was.

Fortunately, OS/2 is actually doing better now than ever.  "Really?" you say.  Sure.  There is more OS/2 software and hardware support right now than there has ever been.  It is up to OS/2 users to make sure that things continue to improve.

But what can I do?

There are TONS of things that you can do to support OS/2.  I will
divide this up into 3 categories:

1. Things you can do monetarily.
2. Things you can do with your time.
3. Things that don't take much money or time to do.

The first category: _Things you can do monetarily_

1. Buy OS/2 software
This is probably the most important thing you can do.  There is almost no category of software which doesn't have an OS/2 solution.  If you're using OS/2 to run DOS and Windows programs, consider investing in native OS/2 programs.  For example, many people run Word or WordPerfect in Win-OS/2 sessions as their word processor.  There are a variety of native OS/2 solutions which provide more features than the Windows 3.1 versions of these programs.

2. Give OS/2 and OS/2 software as a gift
If you're looking for a gift for a computer-owning friend, consider the gift of OS/2, Boot Manager, and an OS/2 software package.  I gave a copy of Galactic Civilizations II to my nephew last Christmas and he thoroughly enjoys it.  Remember, OS/2 alone contains all most people need a computer for, in the form of IBM Works.

3. Support OS/2 organizations/publications
Become a member of (http://www.os2voice.org/) VOICE and (http://www.teamos2.org/) Team OS/2.  Join your local (http://www.os2bbs.com/ug/) OS/2 Users Group.  Support OS/2 publications like (http://www.os2ezine.com/) OS/2 e-Zine!. Support OS/2 archives and web pages like (http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/) Hobbes and the (http://www.os2ss.com/) OS/2 Supersite.  A few hundred people spending $50 a year each would insure that these organizations are able to continue their work.  They all like to provide services to OS/2 users, but remember, web hosting, mailing lists, and time all cost money.  Even though most time in these organizations is volunteer or near volunteer, wouldn't you like to see that change?  How much more could these people do if they were able to justify devoting more time to their efforts?

4. Help advertise
That's right, just because IBM won't target the consumer market, it doesn't mean we can't.  An example of how you could help advertise OS/2 is (http://www.os2ss.com/Information/NewUsers/) Timur Tabi's excellent web page designed to convince people to switch to OS/2.  His page advertises using the (http://www.linkexchange.com/) Internet Link Exchange, which means that it displays banner ads for other web pages to earn the opportunity to advertise his web page.  His current ad is targeted at convincing Windows 3.1 users to switch to OS/2.  "OK," you ask, "That's neat and all, but how could I possibly help?"  Well, ILE also lets you purchase credits which allow you to get shows on other web pages.  Called the (http://www.linkexchange.com/members/howfriend.html) Friends Program, for $50 you get 4000 "shows." Currently about 1 in 100 shows is resulting in someone taking a look at Timur's page.  That means in 4000 shows about 40 people take the time to see that OS/2 is better than Windows.

I am thinking of starting a user-based advertising campaign, which may prove to be much more effective.  I have some ideas, so we'll see what we can do...

The second category: _Things you can do with your time_

1. Help out one of the many OS/2 web pages
Let's face it, there are plenty of OS/2 web pages, but not always enough time to keep them all up to date. If there's a certain web page or resource that you think is useful, and you think you might be able to add to it or lend a hand to keep it running, offer your services to its maintainer(s). You'll be helping scads of OS/2 users all at once.

2. Help your local OS/2 users group promote OS/2
If your UG doesn't already have an outreach program, maybe you can help start one.  Make up flyers before your next meeting and pass them out outside the local CompUSA or Computer City. Think about planning an OS/2 presentation at a local computer show.

3. Help other OS/2 users
Spend a little time helping other OS/2 users solve their problems in the comp.os.os2.* Usenet news groups.  You might just learn some things yourself. The more knowledge we as OS/2 users have about our operating system, the easier it is for us to tell other people good things about it. (At the same time, the more we'll be able to see where OS/2 could use improvement, thereby allowing us to do something about it)

The third category: _Things that don't take much money or time to do_

1. Run the RC5 client for (http://www.ionet.net/~colin/rc5.html) Team Warped
Every person who runs RC5 for OS/2 increases the chance of an OS/2 machine being the one that breaks RC5's encryption somewhere down the road. If an OS/2 user breaks the code, it means more publicity for OS/2, which might encourage people to want to know more about the OS and what it can do for them.

3. Try to mention OS/2 in a positive light around your Windows-using friends
You know, say things like, "In OS/2 you can just... and it does what you're trying to do."  Or maybe, "That never seems to happen in OS/2, must be a Windows thing..."  Eventually they'll either switch or admit that they should but they just don't feel like it.

This list is by no means all of the ways to support OS/2, but it's a start. If you have other good ideas about how OS/2 users can help their operating system thrive, (http://www.os2ezine.com/v2n11/contact.htm) let us know!

          -- * --

(http://www.ionet.net/~colin/) Colin Hildinger is an Aerospace Engineering senior at (http://www.okstate.edu/) Oklahoma State University and has been using OS/2 for the last 3 years.  In addition to being the Games Editor for OS/2 e-Zine!, he maintains (http://www.ionet.net/~colin/games.html) The Ultimate OS/2 Gaming Page and the (http://www.ionet.net/~colin/awe32.html) AWE32 and OS/2 Page in his "spare" time.

***********************************

October's Top Selling Apps from BMT Micro_

	
This Month	Last Month	Product		Developer
1		1		InJoy		F/X Communications
2		2		PMView		Peter Nielsen
3		3		PMMail		SouthSide Software
4		4		ZOC		EmTec Innovative Software
5		10		ScreenSaver	Siegfried Hanisch
6		--		OpenChat/2	Max Mikhanosha
7		--		MR/2 ICE		Nick Knight
8		--		MainActor	MainConcept
9		8		FC/2		Brian Havard
10		--		FTP Broswer	Jason Rushton

          -- * --

This list is compiled by (http://www.bmtmicro.com/) BMT Micro -- Your Source for Over 100 Quality Shareware Applications.

***********************************

October's Top Selling Apps from Indelible Blue_


This Month	Last Month	Product			Developer
1		9		Hobbes CD-ROM		Walnut Creek
2		1		IBM AntiVirus		IBM
3		7		BackAgain/2 Pro		Computer Data Strategies
4		3		BackMaster		MSR Development
5		--		Software Choice for OS/2 Warp	IBM
6		9		Unite CD Maker		Cirrus
7		10		Partition Magic		PowerQuest
8 (tie)		--		UniMaint			SofTouch Systems
8 (tie)		4		VisualAge Java Pro	IBM
9		--		McAfee VirusScan		McAfee
10		5		FaxWorks Pro v3		Keller Group Inc.
11		8		Process Commander		Stardock Systems
12 (tie)		12		Performance Plus		Clear & Simple
12 (tie)		15		Seagate Backup		Seagate
13 (tie)		6		Escape GL		Snowstorm Software
13 (tie)		15		ARCsolo			Cheyenne Software
14 (tie)		13		Remote Services Mgmt.	International Software Sols.
14 (tie)		--		Impos2			Compart GmbH
15 (tie)		2		OS/2 Essentials		Stardock Systems
15 (tie)		--		Entrepreneur		Stardock Systems

          -- * --

Compiled by (http://www.indelible-blue.com/) Indelible Blue, Inc. - Your Single Source for OS/2 Solutions.

***********************************

October's Top Selling Apps from J3_

This Month	Last Month	Product				Developer
1		1		ColorWorks V2			SPG
2		2		VisualAge for Java Professional	IBM
3		--		Warp v4 Upgrade			IBM
4		--		Hobbes				Walnut Creek
5		--		Word Pro/Freelance Graphics	Lotus
6		--		MD+F ISAD/SAD			Modular Dreams
7		7		FaxWorks Pro v3 UG		Keller Group
8		3		IBM Antivirus			IBM
9		--		Seagate Backup			Seagate
10		--		BitStream Font CD			BitStream

          -- * --

Compiled by (http://www.os2store.com/) J3 Computer Technologies - Serving the Global OS/2 Community, large and small!

***********************************
October's Top Selling Apps from Mensys_

This Month	Last Month	Product			Developer
1		--		Process Commander		Stardock Systems
2		--		DriveImage		PowerQuest
3		--		Hobbes			Walnut Creek
4		--		Partition Magic		PowerQuest
5		--		DriveImage Professional	PowerQuest
6		--		System Commander		V-Communications   
7		--		VisualAge for Java Professional	IBM
8		--		Object Desktop		Stardock Systems
9		--		Unite CD Maker		Cirrus
10		--		Entrepreneur		Stardock Systems

          -- * --

Compiled by (http://www.mensys.nl/indexuk.html) Mensys - The one place to go in Europe for all OS/2 Warp software.

***********************************

Top Sellers Lists Disclaimer

-----

Our "top sellers lists" represent sales figures compiled for OS/2 e-Zine! by BMT Micro, Inc., Indelible Blue, Inc. and J3 Computer Technologies.  Falcon Networking does not verify these lists and makes no guarantee of their authenticity.  All inquiries regarding products appearing or not appearing on these lists should be directed to the relevant retailer.

The publication of these lists is not meant to indicate an endorsement by Falcon Networking of any of these companies or of the products featured on the lists.

Readers should note that the rankings indicated in each of these lists represent only the sales of each individual retailer.  They do not, necessarily, represent sales across the entire OS/2 industry.

There are many different sales channels in the OS/2 industry and different software vendors rely heavily on some while other vendors rely more heavily on others.  Also, not all retailers carry all existing OS/2 products.  Readers should take these facts into consideration when interpreting the "top sellers lists".

The BMT Micro "top sellers list" represents only the top selling OS/2 shareware applications available through BMT Micro, Inc.  The BMT Micro CD is excluded from the figures to avoid distorting the results.

The Indelible Blue "top sellers list" represents only the top selling OS/2 applications sold by Indelible Blue, Inc.  OS/2 Warp and OS/2 Warp Connect are not included in these rankings.

The J3 Computer Technologies "top sellers list" represents only the top selling OS/2 applications sold by J3 Computer Technologies.

***********************************

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If you feel OS/2 e-Zine! is useful, entertaining or educational, please send what you feel a one year subscription is worth.  Even sponsorship of a few dollars is appreciated.  Individuals sponsoring US$15 or more will be listed in our Sponsors Page (with an optional link to their home page).

Just send your cash, cheque or money order (made payable to Falcon Networking) along with:

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Any amount is appreciated and whether you choose to sponsor or not, you will still be able to enjoy every issue of OS/2 e-Zine! on the WWW!

For more information or any other questions please (feedback@os2ezine.com) e-mail us or contact us at:

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4302 NW 25th Terrace
Gainesville FL, 32605
U.S.A.

(902) 461-2266

***********************************

Corporate Sponsors

(http://www.bmtmicro.com/) BMT Micro
Your complete source for over 175 of the best OS/2 shareware applications available.  Drop by today and check out our WWW catalog or download the .INF version.

(http://www.indelible-blue.com/) Indelible Blue
Indelible Blue, a mail order company, provides OS/2 software and hardware solutions to customers worldwide.

(http://www.kellergroup.com/) Keller Group Inc.
Developers of FaxWorks for OS/2 and PMfax, the fax and voice solution for OS/2, with versions for stand-alone, LAN and Internet Faxing.

(http://www.mensys.nl/indexuk.html) Mensys
The one place to go in Europe for all OS/2 Warp software.

(http://www.pcs-soft.com/) Perez Computing Services
Defend against desktop freezes with Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander and create online documents/help with the IPF Editor.

(http://www.prioritymaster.com/) ScheduPerformance, Inc.
Dramatically improve performance on your OS/2 system now with the patented priority scanning logic and visual priority identification of Priority Master II.

(http://www.softouch.com/) SofTouch Systems, Inc.
Home of the bestselling set of disk and desktop maintenance products for 
OS/2: GammaTech Utilities, UniMaint, and FileStar/2!  ---- _Your System's Safe and Sound with SofTouch Around_

(http://www.stardock.com/) Stardock Systems
Providing quality software for the home _and_ office.

(http://www.sundialsystems.com/) Sundial Systems Corporation
Productivity applications:  Relish - time management; Mesa 2 - spreadsheet; Clearlook - word processor; DBExpert - database.

***********************************
Copyright 1997   -   Falcon Networking
ISSN 1203-5696