[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!		May 30, 1998		volume 3, number 7
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1998		Falcon Networking  	ISSN 1203-5696

         "Over Three Quarters of a Million Satisfied Visitors!"


         ****************************************
         Hot News: OS/2 e-Zine! goes bi-weekly --
              our next issue on May 30th!
         ****************************************


OPINIONS:

  Chris' Rant


DEPARTMENTS:

  Answers from e-Zine!
  The OS/2 Project


REVIEWS:

  FILE MANAGERS

  File Freedom v1.9b - Christopher B. Wright
  ZTreeBold v1.75 - Chris Wenham


  GAMES

  Angband 2.8.3 for OS/2 - Trevor Smith


  First Looks and Nifty Gadgets
    The OS/2 XFolder v0.61 Beta			Gismo for OS/2 v2.05


READER SURVEYS:

Results from our May 16th Survey
  Find out what your fellow readers told us last month! 

IBM's Support
  Answer these simple questions and find out how you compare to
  other OS/2 users.  Results will be printed next month!

The OS/2 e-Zine! Improvement Survey
  Help us improve.  You are in the driver's seat --
  tell us what you want!


ARTICLES:

Using that Hammer and Screwdriver - Rich Walsh
  No, it's not an instruction guide for communism, Rich Walsh,
  author of DragText, tells us how we can take an annoying WPS class
  and bend it to our will, creating a super-useful tool.


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 1998   -   Falcon Networking
ISSN 1203-5696

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

Chris' Rant	- by Chris Wenham

A Mainframe On Your Lap

Two events happened to me recently that would first mess up my work and schedule rather badly (thus messing up OS/2 e-Zine!'s schedule too) and secondly give me something to think and write about. The first is that I lost my personal computer (don't ask how, it's a long story that I'll explain some other week), and the second is that I borrowed a laptop from a friend here at OS/2 e-Zine! to replace it until I get my old one back. In the course of that chaotic week, two questions entered my mind: why did I keep all of my work on one, vulnerable machine? And why do I now have more computing power sitting on my lap than existed in the whole world on the day my father graduated from school?

All the Eggs, One Basket

Most of us at home or in small businesses know that our PCs represent a huge investment. If they were lost through fire or burglary, we may have a hard or even impossible time replacing it. A backup may be useless if the backup itself was also lost. This was my case; I didn't think of storing the backup disks elsewhere (and even if I did, none of the computer I was able to borrow have a Zip drive). A similar story happened to another company I once worked for -- a fire burned down their store and destroyed the tape backups they kept in the basement. The result was a total wipeout of everything they had ever done.

So you buy another computer if you can afford it, or if you can't afford it you file an insurance claim. If your computer wasn't insured, you try to borrow one. If you're lucky you might get another computer the next day. But more likely you'll be stuck without one for perhaps a week. For an e-zine that publishes every two weeks, that kind of delay can still be (and was) disaster -- with or without a full set of backups.

WOPR in your Briefcase

In the days that followed the loss I had to do a lot of last minute scrambling to get things in order. A computer was borrowed for the family business, and contributing editor, Dirk Terrell sent me one of his laptops with which to continue my work for OS/2 e-Zine!.

And so here I sit, with a sleek machine, the warmth of its hard drive making it uncomfortable to type on and the unfamiliar touchpad responding weakly to my mouse-accustomed fingers. Twenty years ago the same power that now rests on my knees was time-shared and used to serve hundreds of people, instead of just this one person -- me -- writing an editorial and checking e-mail. Yet were they less productive then than I am now when accomplishing the same tasks? No, they weren't.

In 20 years of Moore's Law (the stipulation that available computing power per dollar will double every 18 months), we've not had time to pause and take a breath. Everything has got smaller and faster and cheaper.  But ever since the change from mainframes to PCs 20 years ago, the way in which we use the hardware and software of computers has not really altered much. We all still have mainframes on our laps and under our desks and we're still stupidly making them the supporting pillars of our lives' work.

Backups and the Power Grid Scheme

In the world of electricity generation, where the product is (generally) manufactured the very second that it's consumed, there exists a unique method for storing energy; you simply sell it back to the utility company. Should you own a generator such as a solar panel or wind turbine for your house, you can feed your surplus Kilowatt hours back into the national grid and literally run the meter in reverse. Later, during calm weather or winter months when you're generating less, you pull electricity back off the grid as you normally would. The surplus you sold in the summer was instantly consumed of course, but the other power generators owned by the utility company are always running anyway and the meter keeps track of whatever your net consumption is. The result is like having a magic battery that never looses its charge and never gets full.

With computers we have something similar. Instead of the national grid there is the Internet, and instead of storing kilowatt hours in this grid we can store data and maybe also CPU time.

The concept is simple and is already being experimented with by some companies. Instead of keeping your backups on physical media at your location, which can be stolen, burned or seized, you upload it encrypted and compressed onto the 'net. An Internet backup service merely charges you a few dollars per month for space. The firm, one of many, tags and backs up its customers' data a second time with other, larger data warehouses.

Your computer's operating system may even be configured to use such a remote, encrypted backup as the default location for storing your work files -- so they never even touch your hard drive at all.

This approach steers us close to a Network Computing model, like that of Workspace on Demand. If all your data files are stored on the network, it won't matter what computer you use. That means it could be your own, or a borrowed one, or a replacement after a fire.

Yet it allows us to migrate towards the NC model at our own pace and perhaps decide to settle somewhere halfway on the journey; where our PCs are both independently powerful machines, but rely on the network for the rest of their strength. For as we get used to making the network our backup medium of choice, we may discover technologies that make it our CPU upgrade of choice too. A utility company selling processor time on its fast machines? Maybe. Buying a fast machine yourself and selling "Megahertz hours" of power back into the 'net? Maybe.

And this partial compromise will make computers even cheaper, if the hard drives don't need to be as big, nor the CPUs as fast. Then when a disaster does come it won't hurt so much to buy a replacement.

Computers as a True Commodity

Commodity status is what we should be seeking, to the point where one computer has little to differentiate it from another -- much like a telephone. The configuration and "personality" should be stored on the network and downloaded to the computer you're using as you log in.
 
From an engineering standpoint OS/2 and Unix are two of the best suited operating systems for this task. And despite what readers pointed out in my last column's talk-back forum about its bloatware trend, OS/2 can still be stripped down easily -- unlike Windows 98 with its Hide-IE-in-the-system-DLLs method of suicide.

So I apologize if this issue of OS/2 e-Zine! doesn't seem to be up to scratch.  The senior editor was learning some hard lessons about his, and the industry's own stupidity.  If you have anything else to teach me, let me know, in our (http://www.os2ezine.com/forums/get/forums/rant/May30-1998.html) Hypernews forum.

                         - * -

(chris@os2ezine.com) Chris Wenham is the Senior Editor of OS/2 e-Zine! -- a promotion from Assistant Editor which means his parking spot will now be wide enough to keep his bicycle and a trailer.

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

Answers from e-Zine!

Welcome back to "Answers from e-Zine!", your source for answers to all your OS/2 questions!  In each issue we bring you tips, tricks, questions and answers from our readers and contributors.  If you've got a question or tip you would like to share with us, (feedback@os2ezine.com) send it in!

                        - * -

TIP --  For those of you who use NcFTP, the great Unix port (http://www.os2ezine.com/v3n06/ncftp.htm) reviewed in the last issue of OS/2 e-Zine!, try this cmd file.  It's a guaranteed crowd pleaser. <g>  Just save the lines below as a file named NcFTP.cmd in the same directory where NcFTP.exe is located.

   @echo off

   REM Fire up NcFTP with a decent sized window

   mode co95,45

   x:\path\ncftp.exe

Substitute the drive letter and directory NcFTP is in for 'x:\path\' above.  For example, if NcFTP is in D:\TCPIP\BIN\, use:

   @echo off

   REM Fire up NcFTP with a decent sized window

   mode co95,45

   D:\TCPIP\BIN\ncftp.exe

This is useful on a monitor with 1024x768 resolution.  If your monitor is using a smaller resolution, try smaller values instead of '95,45'.  (They represent the height and width of the window that will be opened.)

 - (anewman@rna.bio.mq.edu.au) Alex Newman

                         - * -

Q --  I was looking around on my hard drive for stuff to delete, and I came across the "Personal Communications" software that seems to have been installed with Warp 4 and TCP/IP.  Now, I don't know about the rest of the list, but I do NOT have either an S390 or an AS400 sitting beside my desk at home, and I don't think I'll need the software any time soon.  The brutal thing is that this stuff takes up almost 9MB of space!

Are there any tips on removing it, or should I just toast the icons themselves, and then delete the PCOMOS2 subdirectory from the \TCPIP directory?  Is there a proper uninstaller?

I've tried just about any "Selective Install" or Uninstaller in the list.  Nothing will get rid of this (for me) useless software.

Help.

A --  Unfortunately, there is no uninstallation or selective uninstall for Personal Communications.  However, you can delete the PCOMOS2 directory and the appropriate icons if you find no use for them in your system.  (You will have to remove any references to the PCOMOS2 directory in your CONFIG.SYS and reboot to delete \TCPIP\PCOMOS2.)

Don't forget, though, if you dial in to your office from home using your TCPIP interface, you may need those programs to gain access and have terminal emulation.  If you are doing everything through your web browser, then you will not need them.

 - (os2doctor@yahoo.com) Randy Van Heusden

                         - * -

Q --  Some programs on some operating systems allow the menus to be highlighted just by moving the mouse pointer over them.  If you move the pointer over a menu item which produces a further list, the list pops up without requiring a mouse click.

Is there some way to make OS/2 programs behave this way?

A --  Probably the best solution for this task is the fantastic NPS WPS Enhancer by TAKASUGI Shinji (his surname is written first here, in the Japanese fashion).  NPS WPS has so many great features that you will end up playing with it for hours, and it is almost invisible to your system -- it takes very little RAM and is practically conflict-free with other programs.  One of NPS WPS's features is "Automatic Menu Selection" (found in the "Pointer 2" page).  Just click the check box and almost all OS/2 pop-up menus and menu bar items will behave as "fly out menus".

One notable exception to this, however, is the WarpCenter.  It will not be affected by NPS WPS's magic.  If you want to have the WarpCenter's menus fly out, just follow these simple instructions provided by (http://www.os2ss.com/news/) Loren Bandiera:

There's a not-so-well-known feature which seems to have been added to Warp 4 since Warp 4 FixPak 5, so anyone using FP5 or above should be able to use it. If you add the following line to your config.sys file:

   SET MENUSFOLLOWPOINTER=ON

and then reboot, the WarpCenter will now work like the Windows 95/98/NT4 taskbar does.

With both NPS WPS and this FixPak enhancement, you should have most OS/2 menus covered.

 - (feedback@os2ezine.com) OS/2 e-Zine! Staff

                         - * -

That's it for this month.  If you have a tip or question that you don't see covered here, don't forget to (feedback@os2ezine.com) send it in!

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

The OS/2 Project

If you're looking for interesting and innovative ways to take advantage of OS/2's power, or if you just want a neat trick to impress you're friends, this is the place to look!  "The OS/2 Project" chronicles small endeavours intended to improve our systems, make us more productive and just generally make our lives easier.

A few issues ago, we answered a question in "(http://www.os2ezine.com/v3n05/answers.htm) Answers from e-Zine! " about setting a default boot partition in Boot Manager.  Our somewhat cumbersome solution prompted many readers to suggest we try the incredibly useful "SETBOOT" utility instead.  We did, and we found that SETBOOT is good for a lot more than just setting a default boot partition.

In this issue, we take a look at how to create Desktop objects to automatically shutdown and reboot to different partitions.

                         - * -

Purpose

Many OS/2 users are adventurous souls and we often have many operating systems on our computers.  While some people seek out more robust multi-OS management tools such as (http://www.blueskyinnovations.com/) Power Boot, many install Boot Manager by default.  After all, it's free and OS/2's installation does it practically automatically.

When we want to leave OS/2 (temporarily, of course) for a quick round of the latest Win95 gee-whiz game, or to tinker with Linux, we just shut down OS/2, hit Ctrl-Alt-Del, wait for Boot Manager to pop-up, highlight our desired OS and press Enter.  It couldn't be easier, right?

Actually, it could be a lot easier.  Win95 has a few options on its shutdown menu, including "Reboot", which bypasses the Ctrl-Alt-Del and Boot Manager selection stages, immediately rebooting to Windows.  Since we are somewhat more intelligent than Microsoft's engineers, we realize that we may want to automatically reboot to an OS other than the one we are using.  Our Desktop objects will allow us, with a single selection, to shut down OS/2 and reboot to any other partition on our system, bypassing Boot Manager.

What You Will Need

As an added bonus this month, you do not need to download anything.  Everything required for this project comes included with OS/2, so you're already almost finished!  We will be using the program "SETBOOT.EXE", some command files, a few program objects and optionally, the WarpCenter (for those using Warp 4).

Setting It Up

First we should explain what SETBOOT does.  SETBOOT can be used to query and set various properties of OS/2's Boot Manager.  Opening an OS/2 Command window and typing SETBOOT without any options will give a terse list of available switches.  Typing:

   Help SETBOOT

will provide all the details you want, and probably more.  (Note: all command line entries are case insensitive.  Typing 'SETBOOT' is equivalent to typing 'setboot'.)  To summarize, SETBOOT can query the current settings of Boot Manager; it can set or remove Boot Manager defaults; and it can be used to shut down and reboot OS/2, either using or bypassing the Boot Manager selection process.

The option we are interested in is:

   SETBOOT /IBA:n

Here 'n' refers to a partition name which has been set in Boot Manager.  (FDISK requires you to enter names for partitions when you add them to the Boot Manager menu.  If you want to be able to autoboot to a partition not already listed in your Boot Manager menu, you must add it to Boot Manager with FDISK before following the rest of these instructions.)

Assuming you have a partition named "Warp 4" in Boot Manager, the command:

   SETBOOT /IBA:"Warp 4"

will perform a shutdown of the WPS, flush the file-system buffers and caches and then restart your computer, booting automatically to the partition named "Warp 4" without ever pausing at the Boot Manager menu.  Note that if there are spaces in the name of your partition, the quotation marks above are required.  If you have partitions named Win95, Linux, DOS, and WinNT, the respective commands to reboot to each of them would be:

   SETBOOT /IBA:"Win95"
   SETBOOT /IBA:"Linux"
   SETBOOT /IBA:"DOS"
   SETBOOT /IBA:"WinNT"

Since the above partition names do not have spaces in them, the quotation marks are not required, but I've included them here just to be consistent.  Remember to substitute the names you gave the partitions on your hard drives, if they differ.

In reality, that is the guts of our project this month.  However, rather than remember a command line to be typed every time we want to reboot, we'll add a touch of elegance to this project.

Let's assume we want to reboot to a version of Linux which is on a partition labelled as "Linux" in Boot Manager.  Start by creating a plain text file called LINUX.CMD with any OS/2 text editor.  The file should contain only one line:

   SETBOOT /IBA:"Linux"


Save this command file and place it wherever is convenient for you -- it does not have to reside in your path.

Next, create a new program object by opening your "Templates" folder (found in your "OS/2 System" folder, which is on the OS/2 Desktop by default) and dragging the "Program" template object to the Desktop.  Enter the path and file name of your OS/2 command file in the "Path and file name" entry field on the "Program" tab.  Close the Properties notebook.

Leave the new object on your Desktop and whenever you want to reboot to Linux, just double click on it.  OS/2 will shut itself down and reboot directly to Linux, bypassing the Boot Manager menu.  Naturally, you will want to make a separate object for each operating system you have listed in Boot Manager.  You can leave all these objects on your Desktop or stick them in a folder to keep them organized.

Optional Steps for WarpCenter Users

If you use the WarpCenter, you can add your folder containing the "reboot objects" to a WarpCenter tray.  What I did is:

1. create a folder and name it "Reboot to..."
2 .put the objects to reboot to my various OSs in that folder
3. put the folder in a folder that is shadowed on my WarpCenter

Now I have a handy menu from which I can reboot to different OSs.

Some Other Customizations

You can also add your "reboot objects" to the pop-up menu you get by
right-clicking on the Desktop.  To do this:

1. Right-click on the Desktop and select "Properties" to bring up its Properties notebook.

2. Click on the "Menu" tab.

3. Click on the "Create Another..." button next to the "Available menus" list to bring up the "Menu Properties" dialog.

4. Type "Reboot to..." in the "Menu Name" entry field and leave the "Menu type" selection as "Cascade menu".  Click "Ok" to save.

5. Now make sure that your "Reboot to..." menu item is highlighted in the "Available menus" list.  Look below the "Available menus" list and you should see "Actions on menu:  Reboot to..." with a blank window below it.  Click on the "Create another..." button next to this blank window to bring up the "Menu item properties" dialog.

6. In the "Menu item name" field, type the name of the operating system that this menu item will boot when selected. For the sake of illustration, let's say it will be Linux.

7. Assuming you have already created a script called E:\Scripts\Linux.cmd with the proper SETBOOT command in it, in the "Program" section's "Name" entry field type the full path to your script, e.g. E:\Scripts\Linux.cmd.  Press "Ok".

8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for each operating system in your Boot Manager menu.  When complete, your Desktop Properties notebook should look something like this:

9. Close the Desktop Properties window.

Now when you right-click on the Desktop, you will see a "Reboot To..." entry in the menu near the bottom.  Click on the arrow to the right of this entry and you will see your list of operating systems.  Selecting one of those will cause the "reboot object" to be executed.

Also, you may want to make your rebooting scripts, use REXX to ask if you really want to reboot.  Instead of the one line reboot commands above, use:

   /* Reboot to Warp */
   Say "Do you want to reboot to Warp?"
   Say
   Pull A
   If A="Y" then 'SETBOOT /IBA:"Warp 4"'

This way, errant clicks can be caught to avoid accident shutdowns.

Things to Remember

If you don't use the REXX tip above, be careful where you place your "reboot objects".  You will not want to activate them accidentally.  SETBOOT does flush your system's buffers and perform an "orderly reboot".  However, just as with the normal "Shutdown" function of OS/2, programs you have open may be closed without saving your data.

On the positive side of things, you may find these "reboot objects" useful in some situations where OS/2 will not shut down.  Occasionally, OS/2 will attempt to shut down but not complete the task.  Repeated attempts to shut down the Desktop will have no effect.  In these cases, I have found that SETBOOT sometimes is able to shut down the system.  In reality, this is really no different than using Ctrl-Alt-Del when the Desktop refuses to shut down.  SETBOOT is not a substitute for a good program killing utility.

That's it.  Enjoy!

                         - * -

If you have questions or suggestions for improvements to this project, (feedback@os2ezine.com) let us know.  Until then, enjoy!

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

File Freedom v1.9b	- by Christopher B. Wright

In the world of file management, there are two basic trends of utilities.

The first trend focuses on features.  These programs will give you every conceivable file management tool under the sun, a veritable Swiss Army Knife of utilities.  A program like FM/2 is a great example of this trend -- it even has add-ons!

The second trend focuses on speed.  These applications are generally smaller in scope, having fewer, more basic tools, and concentrating on the basics -- managing your files.

Each trend has its advantages.  The feature-laden tools allow you to perform tasks other than simply moving your files around; you can also edit files, run diagnostics on files, even (with some applications) search for duplicates of files.  These applications let you do a lot without having to open up other programs, and can be more efficient in some situations.

If you don't have much use for the extras, however, they can get in the way.  Some people want a file manager that does just that -- manages files -- and little else.  If you're one of those people, you're looking for a simple, fast program that does what it's supposed to and doesn't get in the way.

File Freedom is almost such a program .  It's small, it's fast, it's efficient, and for the most part it's very simple.  Unfortunately, there are times when it breaks from this simplicity and requires you to go through a few extra steps that don't seem necessary.

Installation and Performance

Installing File Freedom is simple with the provided installation program, but not required.  For those in a hurry, File Freedom can be run just by double clicking its .EXE file.

As promised, File Freedom is small and fast.  It showed no bugs during my testing and the performance was quite good.  Even those with extremely slow machines will find File Freedom a quick file manager.

Basic Functions

File Freedom's basic layout is modeled after Windows 3.1's old File Manager -- directory structure on the left-hand side, file information on the right-hand side.  The file list in the right hand window can be displayed in either icon, flowed or list styles.

Unlike the File Manager, however, it has a toolbar at the top of the screen (which can be moved to the right-hand side of the screen) that makes accessing many of its commands a lot simpler.   From the toolbar, you can choose to rename a file, copy a file, move a file, search for files, change file attributes, launch a file editor that you can specify from the settings menu, even print files directly from the file manager window.

File Freedom also makes use of Drag and Drop between its windows, so instead of using the menu items or tool bar buttons, you can simply drag files to new directories to move or copy them.

Configurability

In File Freedom's settings notebook there's space to tie in external programs.  With it you can associate various file extensions with different programs, so those programs will launch when a file with the particular extension is double-clicked.  For example, you can associate a .bmp file with PMView to view all of your bitmaps in that program.  There are 12 default file extensions and it's possible to add more if you wish.  You can configure up to four additional programs which can be launched from the Options menu.  As far as I can tell, these programs can be anything you wish -- for example, you could configure File Freedom to link to Word Pro when you wanted to edit a word processing document, or to launch Netscape to read an HTML file.

File Freedom also allows you to compress and uncompress files by including the file names of your zip and unzip programs in the "Archiver" tab of the settings notebook.  This is a nice feature, because once this is done you can simply select the files you want to compress, click the appropriate button, then choose a name for the archive.

The Downside

Unfortunately, File Freedom has a few limitations.  First, it's not integrated with the Workplace Shell.  It's not possible to move a file between File Freedom and the "outside world", so you couldn't open up a folder on your Desktop and drag a file from the File Freedom window to the folder -- all activities are confined to within File Freedom.  This can be awkward at times, especially when you're moving a file from one hard drive to another.  File Freedom will not let you view any more than one hard drive directory at a time (you can't view two file trees side-by-side, for example). Also, File Freedom has no right-click awareness, which is disconcerting given that so many OS/2 programs do.  And finally, as mentioned above, drag-and-drop from within the program itself is somewhat limited -- while you can do it, a dialog box always appears to confirm the move, which is an extra step I don't need in every situation.

Conclusions

All things considered, File Freedom is a solid and useful program that doesn't sacrifice speed with extra features -- though it does let you add those features yourself, if you wish.  I like a lot of the things it does, but I find it a bit awkward to use in many situations because of the limitations in viewing multiple directories and the awkward way it handles drag-and-drop. However, I suggest you try experimenting with it yourself before you decide how awkward it really is -- these things all depend on the very subjective likes and dislikes of each individual, and not everyone will find them annoying.

File Freedom does what it does very well.  I see room for improvement, and hope the author keeps developing it (adding multiple views, WPS integration) even though it is perfectly serviceable right now.

                         - * -

File Freedom v1.9b
     by (http://www.kw.igs.net/~brhenry/) Red Paint Software
     download from the (http://www.os2ss.com/archives/hobbes/os2/util/browser/filef19b.zip) OS/2 Supersite (ZIP, 136k)
     Registration: US$20.00 (or Cdn$20.00 + applicable taxes)

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

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

ZTreeBold v1.75	- by Chris Wenham

Legends were born in the DOS era. We knew they were legends when they were still alive and for a while we didn't believe they'd ever go away. WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, dBase, and XTree Gold. If God ever used a PC, XTree Gold would have been his file manager. At its peak, XTree Gold was matched by nothing and stood peerless on almost every DOS and Win 3.x PC in existence. You know you had a copy, be it a legitimate one or one 'accidentally' left in your bag as you went home from work one night. Your fingers knew its keystrokes better than your eyes knew the sight of your mother. You could almost survive with XTree alone, without the need for word processors or spreadsheets, just copying and moving files around all day long the way Nature intended it.

And then you got OS/2 and XTree busted up all your Extended Attributes. Ah shucks!

So as it happens, someone -- who shall probably earn a sainthood from the XTree loving OS/2 community -- went ahead and wrote a clone for OS/2; one that matches it flawlessly right down to the most obscure CTRL/ALT keystroke and the cute little way it asks you to type "PRUNE" before annihilating a directory tree. That someone is Kim G. Henkel, and the name of the clone is ZTreeBold.

Installation

ZTreeBold is, of course, a character mode application rather than a Presentation Manager (GUI) one, that may be run either in a window or full-screen as you please. To install it you simply unzip it into a directory of your choice and create a program object for it on your Desktop. No automated installation scripts anywhere. The documentation is available as both a competent online help file or text file.

Interface and Functionality

The interface is pretty much what it's all about, as the author didn't faithfully copy XTreeGold's look and feel just to be a wise guy. As previously mentioned, every keystroke, every ASCII-character carved directory pane is identical to the classic DOS XTreeGold. Copies are accomplished with CTRL-C, toggling the tag on a file is done with a tap of the 'T' key, and as you hold down the CTRL or ALT keys the menu at the bottom of the screen changes to show what new functions are available.

ZTreeBold, even though being a fully multithreaded 32-bit app with the ability to handle EAs and long filenames, is definitely keyboard driven all the way through and will ignore whatever mouse movements or clicks you try to make.

The main window is split into three main segments as far as file listings go. The first and largest is the directory tree where the attention of the cursor keys is initially directed. At the bottom is a short listing of files in the currently highlighted directory -- changing instantly the moment you move the cursor to a new directory on the tree. To the right is the file and selection statistics area, where the file sizes, dates and attributes of the currently selected files or directory is shown.

Tap Enter while a directory is highlighted and the view changes, eliminating the directory tree and showing an enlarged file listing of the directory the cursor last rested on. 

Obviously, if you're new to the program, it might be unappealing to work with something so keyboard oriented and ungraphical. But it's XTreeGold/ZTreeBold's interface which gives it the unrivaled power that made it so popular in the first place. You don't highlight-drag-n-drop, you tag-point-n-move. A difference that shows its strengths best when managing large numbers of files in multiple directories. You see, ZTreeBold doesn't care if the files you tag aren't in the same directory, and with a single keystroke you can have it show ALL of the files in ALL of the directories in one big pane -- a task beyond the Workplace shell and most other drag-n-drop oriented file managers.

ZTreeBold is often the tool of choice if one wishes to perform mass attribute or name changes on dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of files in scattered directories.

In this way ZTreeBold is also extremely efficient at copying or moving entire directory structures intact, with the flexibility of omitting any file or files nested as deeply into the tree as you want. Deleting whole trees is also as easy, with a quaint way of confirming the kill (typing "PRUNE" at the prompt, to be sure you really, really know what you're doing).

When it comes to viewing, ZTreeBold doesn't match up quite as elegantly as the original XTreeGold did with its miriad of custom written graphic and word processor viewing modules. Instead, ZTreeBold defers the task to other programs, launching them whenever you highlight a file and press 'O' for 'Open.' To change what programs get launched and add support for any file extension ad infinitum, you need to create or modify the "*.CMD" files found in ZTreeBold's directory, where the '*' represents the extension of the file type being dealt with. So, for example, creating a file called "INF.CMD" with instructions inside to launch VIEW.EXE will let ZTreeBold automatically pick the INF file viewer to open any files ending with .INF.

ZTreeBold does, however, have a basic text viewer like that of classic XTreeGold, which can be used to view a file (ASCII or Binary) in hex, masked or unmasked. This viewer can search though a file, plus mark lines to be copied and appended to another named file. In addition to that, ZTreeBold also supports management of archives like ZIP, letting you look at the files inside the archive, extracting and manipulating them as desired.

A Lawsuit in the Making?

Is ZTreeBold really, such a good clone of XTreeGold as to warrant a lawsuit for trademark "look and feel" infringement? Maybe, maybe not. However, the makers of the original XTreeGold Gold aren't developing the program anymore and the clone is not perfect in every regard so legal proceedings are very unlikely. There are a few features missing from ZTreeBold that show up as grayed out options in the keyboard menus, such as Autoview, merge tags and the drop-down style menus. But for the bulk of XTreeGold's power in an OS/2 friendly package, one may find it easy to overlook these flaws.

                         - * -

ZTreeBold v1.75
     by (http://www.gate.net/~khenkel/) Kim G. Henkel
     download from the (http://www.os2ss.com/archives/hobbes/os2/util/browser/ztb175.zip) OS/2 Supersite (ZIP, 211k)
     Registration: US$35.00

(chris@os2ezine.com) Chris Wenham is the Senior Editor of OS/2 e-Zine! -- a promotion from Assistant Editor which means his parking spot will now be wide enough to keep his bicycle and a trailer.

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

Angband 2.8.3 for OS/2	- by Trevor Smith

Back in the dim recesses of computer history, there was a program originally developed on mainframes called Rogue.  Because of the capabilities of machines at that time, Rogue was a completely text based game, but for some it was extremely addictive.  Later, a man named Robert Alan Koeneke, while working at the University of Oklahoma, created a Rogue-like game on the VAX VMS called Moria.  Moria spawned a virtual gaggle of games, one of which was Angband (and Angband itself has mutated into many forms since its origin too).  Through the years, Angband has evolved, improved and been ported to numerous operating systems and hardwares.  At least five main developers have worked on the main Angband project over at least ten years, and hordes of others have tinkered with the code or offered ideas for enhancements.

The end result of all this development time is one of the most addictive -- although in some cases "ugly" -- games ever produced.  I say ugly because for OS/2, Angband is still a text-mode only game.  But as I mentioned, Angband is available on many other platforms, some of which support rudimentary graphics.  See the (http://www.math.ucla.edu/~fischman/duncam/) "Dungeon Cam" web site for screen shots of some of the "prettier" versions on other platforms.

Installation

Angband is a text mode game which is displayed in an OS/2 command window.  Unzipping the archive is about all there is to installation.  If you want a Desktop object, you will need to create it yourself.  Running angband.exe starts the program.  Note, however, that you will need (http://www.os2ss.com/archives/hobbes/os2/dev/emx/v0.9c/emxrt.zip) the EMX runtime files (ZIP, 538k) installed before you can run Angband for OS/2.

Angband also features the ability to have some game information displayed in separate command windows.  To facilitate this, a command script comes with the game which supposedly will open a few different windows and then start Angband.  You can then specify which info you want displayed in "remote windows" from within the game.  In practice, I have been unable to get the supplied command script to work properly.  It appears that to operate properly, the remote windows must be created before Angband is started.  However, some windows do not get created until after Angband is started by this script.  Because there is no "official" tech support for Angband (although there is a reasonably good FAQ at (http://www.phial.com/angband/) the Official Angband Home Page), I decided to create a short work-around: I modified the script to only open the "remote windows" and only after these are all open do I start Angband myself.

Other than this quirk, I have never had a problem with running Angband.  Since it is a text mode program, even if you have been playing for some time (and therefore have a great deal of data in your save file), you should never see any noticeable slowness in this game, regardless of the OS/2 system you are running it on.

What It's All About

You don't have to be the programming wizards at id Software to figure out the fundamental truth of computer gaming (at least some gamers consider it the fundamental truth): hacking up monsters is fun.  This has been a common theme of computer games since at least the early '80s, and probably even before that.  Angband and its ancestors are part of this proud tradition; basically, Angband is about delving ever deeper in a strange and dangerous dungeon, collecting treasure, weapons and magical items... and killing everything in site.  There are some Angband players who will claim that there are better ways to play (and win) Angband, such as using stealth, intelligent retreats, and other less direct methods.  However, we all know that when we leave a dungeon level, we really want to be the only one able to leave.

You start by generating a "character" which is your alter-ego in the game.  This character is created in the traditional "Dungeons and Dragons" fashion, with statistics for characteristics such as strength, dexterity, intelligence, "hit points" (how much "life" you have), etc.  You also choose a race (Human, Elf, Dwarf, etc.) and class (Warrior, Mage, Priest, etc.).  Once you have a character created, you appear in the "town" with a few gold pieces in your pouch.  Your character is represented on screen by an "@" symbol, other characters in the town (and the monsters, treasure, weapons and armour you will later meet in the dungeon) are represented by other keyboard symbols.  Everything, including the walls and floor is draw with text symbols.  As I said, not very pretty. 

Once you have visited the various stores in town and purchased equipment you think you will need, you plunge down into the dungeons of Angband.  There are 100 levels of dungeons and, naturally, the deeper levels are more difficult.  This means you will meet nastier monsters the deeper you go, and you will require better equipment.  This equipment can initially be purchased in the town's stores or found in the dungeon itself.  Eventually you will need weapons so powerful that it is unlikely you will ever find them for sale, and you will need to either find them in the very deep levels or -- more likely -- take them from the corpses of your enemies.

Your character will also need to be more powerful to reach the deeper levels.  As you play the game and kill other creatures you gain experience which will mean more hit points, more spell casting skills, (if you are a Mage or other spell casting character) and better abilities.

The goal, of course, is to get to level 100, find the Lord of Darkness himself called Morgoth, and kill him.  Needless to say, this is difficult.

Game Play

Unlike games such as Doom or Duke Nukem, Angband is not a real time adventure.  It is played in "turns", meaning that while you sit and stare at your screen there is nothing happening.  Only when you press a key to do something (activate an item, cast a spell, move or attack a monster, eat, etc.) does time pass.  Movement is achieved with the numeric keypad in the expected manner.  Most other commands are also entered by typing one-key commands, and occasionally selecting alternatives from a menu of options.

There is a reasonably extensive, but sometimes less than helpful "help" system built into Angband.  It is accessible from within the game by typing the '?' key, but the help files are just plain ASCII text and can be found in the lib\help\ directory in the Angband archive if you prefer to read them with a text editor.

Also, there are various "spoilers" that can be added to the help system.  These are files which contain detailed information on many features of the game including monsters you will meet, treasures you may find, and how dungeons and characters interact.  You can download them separately from the game archive from the official development FTP site in the Help-Info directory.  Save them in your lib\help\ directory and the game will automatically display them when you use its help functions.  (Make sure you grab the relevant .spo and .hlp files for the topics you want.)

Angband is meant to be a game that is played with a character until it dies, and then the game ends.  There are no three lives to squander, no second chances, no resurrections.  You can save your progress at any time, and you will want to do so because to gain enough experience to reach level 100 and kill Morgoth can take some people months -- but if you die (as opposed to just exiting the game), that's it.  Game over.

With the current OS/2 version, however, I have found that to "cheat death" all that is really required is to close the command window that Angband is running in if you die, but before Angband saves the fact of your death.  This is obviously cheating, but it will probably save you frustration when starting out, because you will die frequently.

An Addiction by Any Other Name...

Despite its archaic interface and turn based play, Angband is extremely addictive. If you can get past the first few minutes/hours of GUI withdrawal, you will soon find yourself wasting days, if not weeks searching for special magical artifacts or looking for a rematch with "Glaurung, Father of the Dragons".

There have been generations of Angband addicts, proved by the fact that there are news groups devoted to the game and its cousins where people post reports of their characters' stupid deaths, great finds, won games, etc.

And there is no end in site to the development and evolution of this game.  A multiplayer version of Angband, "Mangband", for OS/2 is already (http://www.os2ss.com/archives/hobbes/os2/games/rogue/mangband-052.os2.zip) available at the OS/2 Supersite (ZIP, 758k), and work continues on the original single player version too.

Conclusions

Angband is a great game not because of flashy graphics, sound effects, and other peripheral silliness.  It is addictive because it offers the pleasure of exploring an exciting and sometimes surprising world of monsters, magical items and demonic creatures. And also because it allows us to use our imaginations to fill in the details of that world.  If adventure games are your pleasure, Angband is sure to please.

                         - * -

Angband 2.8.3 for OS/2
     by Ben Harrison (and many others)
     OS/2 port by (silasd@psyber.com) Silas Dunsmore and (whiz@iol.it) Marco G. Salvagno
     download from the (http://www.os2ss.com/archives/hobbes/os2/games/rogue/angband-283-os2.zip) OS/2 Supersite (ZIP, 516k)
     Registration: FREEWARE

(editor@os2ezine.com) Trevor Smith is the Editor-in-Chief of OS/2 e-Zine!.  His current projects include renovating his house and building bookshelves, but he would prefer to spend his time hacking Great Hell Wyrms into fish bait or banishing Nightwalkers from existence.

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

First Looks and Nifty Gadgets

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

   In this issue we look at: The OS/2 XFolder v0.61 Beta | Gismo for OS/2 v2.05

The OS/2 XFolder v0.61 Beta

One of OS/2's strong points has always been its incredible flexibility and many developers have used this feature to improve an already great operating system.  Few have ever done so much or done it so well as Ulrich Mller with XFolder though.  XFolder is a slew of WPS enhancements and additions that will improve anyone's OS/2 system if they use the WPS.

XFolder is simple to install, easy to set up and incredibly well explained and documented.  It is currently available in both English and German (from the same archive file) and since the English dialogs and manual are so nearly perfect, I can only assume that the German is even better.

XFolder does many useful things (assuming you want it to) to your system.  With it you can add very configurable menus to any folder's or object's pop-up menu.  You can also configure hot keys for menu items.  Or you can set XFolder to display the full path of a folder in its title bar.

There are two other nifty features that really caught my eye when I first played with XFolder because I've been wishing for them for a long time.  First, imagine you have a folder open and you suddenly realize that working from a command line would be more efficient.  Normally you would open an OS/2 command window and type "CD x:\path\to\the\folder" to get to the appropriate directory.  With XFolder a "Command lines" menu is added to all folders' pop-up menu.  Opening an OS/2 or DOS command window from this menu will automatically place you in the directory of the window you were working in.

The second neat feature that really pleased me is an enhanced shutdown ability (and a WPS restart ability).  With XFolder, you can easily restart the WPS or shut down OS/2 completely without needing to press Ctrl-Alt-Del (this feature is optional).

This is just a fraction of what XFolder will do for you and it's only at v0.61 so the future probably holds even more surprises.  The documentation currently lists some conflicts that may exist between XFolder and other software, but in my (limited) testing, I wasn't able to actually find any problems.  Overall, this is a well thought out, useful, attractive and solid product.

The OS/2 XFolder v0.61 Beta
     by (http://www2.rz.hu-berlin.de/~h0444vnd/) Ulrich Mller
     download from the (http://www2.rz.hu-berlin.de/~h0444vnd/xfld061b.zip) XFolder home page (ZIP, 500k)
     Registration: FREEWARE

                         - * -

Gismo for OS/2 v2.05

Gismo is an appropriate name for a nifty little program that you might want to keep open on your Desktop all the time if you do any amount of web page design.  If you do, you will know from experience that selecting colours for your web page text and backgrounds is sometimes quite time consuming.

Gismo for OS/2 attempts to fix that by providing you with a few quick and handy ways to find just the right colour and then transfer the needed codes into your web page.  The program provides a fairly self-explanatory window with a list of colour names for use as foreground or background colours.  This list can be sorted by name, hue, saturation, or value.  As you select a colour name, its hexadecimal value (or decimal, if you prefer) is displayed beneath the list.  If you want a custom colour, three sliders (Red, Green and Blue) are provided to tweak those settings exactly.  Or if you prefer a more visual approach, a colour grid containing samples of all the standard colours can be made to pop up for quick selections.

Once you've chosen a colour, you can quickly copy the name ('darkgoldenrod', for example) or hex value ('#B8860B') to the clipboard and you're ready to paste it into your favourite text editor.  Or, even simpler, you can choose "Always copy" and skip the step of clicking the copy button each time you change the selected colour -- the info is updated to the clipboard in real time!

And if you want to get really fancy, you can enter an HTML tag into which the selected colour name or value will be placed.  Then the whole tag is copied to the clipboard in preparation for inserting into your web page.

This program has a few drawbacks.  It requires VROBJ.DLL, which you can get from (http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/dev/rexx/vrobj21d.zip) Hobbes (ZIP, 393k) which will make it a bit slow for very low end machines.  Also, the 'manual' is less than perfect, and some of the window sizes and positions are not quite right (especially at 640x480 resolution).  But for a tool this simple, these concerns shouldn't pose much of a problem.

For the price (US$5.00), this nifty gismo should be a bargain for anyone.  It's definitely worth checking out.

Gismo for OS/2 v2.05
     by (http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~qw6k-knst/) Ken Kinoshita
     download from the (http://www.os2ss.com/archives/hobbes/os2/apps/internet/www/util/gsm205r.zip) OS/2 Supersite (ZIP, 82k)
     Registration: US$5.00

                         - * -

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

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

May 16, 1998 Reader Survey Results

In (http://www.os2ezine.com/v2n3/survey.htm) our very first OS/2 e-Zine! Reader Survey, we asked our readers what type of machine they used to run OS/2.  Over a year has passed since then and we though it was time to update our survey results.  Have OS/2ers updated their equipment to take advantage of newer and faster Intel processors?  Have they moved on to alternative suppliers such as AMD or Cyrix?  To find out, last issue we asked about "You Hardware and Software".

Answers to our survey were accepted from May 16th until May 29th.  We had a total of 1,704 replies to our questionnaire with 90 "spoiled" entries (replies were considered "spoiled" if they did not contain an e-mail address, if all questions were not answered or if they were duplicates).  This left 1,614 valid replies.  The results were as follows:

Type and Speed of CPU

Our first two questions last time asked readers to indicate their CPU type and speed.  For reasons of convenience and relevance, we combined these answers into one CPU/Speed rating (for example, Intel Pentium 166 Mhz).

There seems to have been a marked shift in CPU choices since our initial hardware survey.  At that time Intel had a clear lead (72.2% of all our readers chose an Intel CPU of some kind), but Cyrix seemed a strong contender to the throne with 12.7% of our readers choosing chips from that manufacturer.  There has been a radical shift in market share in the last year with Intel chips being used by just 40.0% of our readers now.  However, Cyrix has not made significant gains in that same time; their use was reported by only 12.8% of our readers -- a gain of only one tenth of a percent.

AMD is the big winner in this race.  Last year roughly 9.6% of OS/2ers were using AMD chips to run their machines.  Now 21.8% of you report that you have one in your system.  The bulk of these AMD users have purchased the popular K6 chips, notably the 200 Mhz (4.8%) and 233 Mhz (7.0%) versions.

While Intel did lose market share overall, they were, of course, still the leader in our poll.  And they also still had the largest single group of users -- those with a Pentium 133 Mhz CPU.  Also, the Pentium Pro did not show big gains in popularity in the past year, but it did increase from 7.2% use last time to 8.9% this time.  And naturally, there were as clear shift to the faster Pentium MMX and Pentium II machines this time.

No readers reported that their primary OS/2 machines were running on PowerPC chips.

Number of CPUs

Last year, as expected, the vast majority of readers (97.3%) were using machines with only one CPU.  This year results were essentially similar, but with a slight decrease (97.0%) of single-chip machines.  The difference seems to have been made up by a slight increase in users with 2 CPUs in their machines; last time 1.9%, this time 2.4%.  Since we offered a fill in the blank space this time around, users were able to indicate exactly how many CPUs they have, and remarkably, two lucky souls out there have 200 and 250 CPUs, respectively.  Now those are machines that could be used to crack encryption!

Amount of RAM

As with the Number of CPUs, we offered a fill in the blank style answer space for the amount of RAM our readers have this time (as opposed to a multiple choice list last time).  The results, not surprisingly considering the nosedive in RAM prices over the past year, show most people moving to more and more memory.  While last year revealed the majority of our readers (57.3%) had 32 Meg or less, things have shifted greatly now, with 61.0% of OS/2ers reporting 64 Meg or more.

  The single largest group (39.2%) reports 64 Meg exactly, and 10.6% of readers have 128 Meg, two amounts common for obvious reasons.  However, there are still significant numbers of OS/2ers with only 32 Meg in their machines -- 22.2%, to be exact.

Total Hard Disk Size

The results from our question on hard disk size were a nightmare to calculate.  Despite the fact that we offered a blank where readers were meant to enter the number of Megabytes of hard disk they had available, we were overwhelmed by the variety of capacities, and the variety of ways people chose to indicate those capacities.  We saw everything from "2" (clearly meaning 2 Gigabytes, since 2 Megabytes is not enough hard drive room to install DOS 6.0, let alone OS/2) to 10,000,000 (which we assumed was meant to be 10 Gigabytes, not 10,000,000 Megabytes -- at least we don't think anyone out there has 10 Terabytes in their machines!).  And we also received every variation you can imagine in between: 3.2; 3,2; 3.0 G; 3Gig; 5Gb; etc.  Needless to say, manual sorting was required.

Next year when we repeat this survey, we will use a less imprecise form, possibly something like:

Hard Disk Size:  ___.___ 

(x) Kilobytes  ( ) Megabytes  ( ) Gigabytes  ( ) Terabytes

So keep in mind that the results for this question, as all results from our surveys, should not be viewed as 100% accurate.

Having said that, we can say that the "bigger is better" trend is also working in the hard drive market.  No significant numbers of our readers (only 5.6%) are using anything less than 1 Gigabyte drives.  Over half (50.1%) had drives between 2.0 and 4.5 Gig.  Astoundingly, unless we misinterpreted the results of our survey, there are people out there with 60, 62 and 83.5 Gigabyte hard drives!

Hard Disk Type(s)

While the expected majority of users (59.4%) have exclusively IDE/EIDE hard drives in their systems, we found from our survey that a reasonably large group (39.3%) have only SCSI or both SCSI and IDE/EIDE.  Probably these people chose SCSI devices for their superior performance with a true multitasking OS.

Base OS/2 Version

Finally we asked our readers what version of OS/2 they are using.  Last year we found that the majority of OS/2ers (76.8%) had moved on to Warp 4 without much hesitation.  This year we find that that number has grown even more.  Now 88.0% of our readers say they are using Warp 4, while only a handful (10.0%) are still using Warp 3.

                         - * -

That's it for this month.  Don't forget to fill out this month's questionnaire and check back on June 13th for complete results.




                         Complete May 16, 1998 Survey Results

Type and Speed of CPU

Category						Count	Percentage
AMD Am486 (50 Mhz)			1		0.1%
AMD Am486 (66 Mhz)			3	0.2%
AMD Am486 (80 Mhz)			4	0.2%
AMD Am486 (100 Mhz)			19	1.2%
AMD Am486 (120 Mhz)			4	0.2%
AMD Am486 (133 Mhz)			1	0.1%
AMD Am5x86 (90 Mhz)			1	0.1%
AMD Am5x86 (100 Mhz)			3	0.2%
AMD Am5x86 (120 Mhz)			1	0.1%
AMD Am5x86 (133 Mhz)			28	1.7%
AMD Am5x86 (150 Mhz)			2	0.1%
AMD Am5x86 (160 Mhz)			6	0.4%
AMD Am5x86 (167 Mhz)			1	0.1%
AMD Am5x86 (200 Mhz)			1	0.1%
AMD-K5 (75 Mhz)				2	0.1%
AMD-K5 (100 Mhz)				2	0.1%
AMD-K5 (120 Mhz)				1	0.1%
AMD-K5 (133 Mhz)				11	0.7%
AMD-K5 (166 Mhz)				9	0.6%
AMD-K5 (200 Mhz)				1	0.1%
AMD-K6 (120 Mhz)				1	0.1%
AMD-K6 (133 Mhz)				1	0.1%
AMD-K6 (166 Mhz)				20	1.2%
AMD-K6 (188 Mhz)				1	0.1%
AMD-K6 (200 Mhz)				78	4.8%
AMD-K6 (207.5 Mhz)			1	0.1%
AMD-K6 (210 Mhz)				1	0.1%
AMD-K6 (225 Mhz)				6	0.4%
AMD-K6 (230 Mhz)				1	0.1%
AMD-K6 (233 Mhz)				113	7.0%
AMD-K6 (262.5 Mhz)			1	0.1%
AMD-K6 (266 Mhz)				7	0.4%
AMD-K6 (300 Mhz)				3	0.2%
AMD-K6 (337.5 Mhz)			1	0.1%
AMD / NexGen Nx586 (90 Mhz)	1	0.1%
AMD / NexGen Nx586 (100 Mhz)	1	0.1%
AMD / NexGen Nx586 (110 Mhz)	1	0.1%

Cyrix 486DX2 (66 Mhz)			2	0.1%
Cyrix 486DX2 (80 Mhz)			3	0.2%
Cyrix 5x86 (100 Mhz)			5	0.3%
Cyrix 5x86 (120 Mhz)			3	0.2%
Cyrix 5x86 (133 Mhz)			4	0.2%
Cyrix 5x86 (150 Mhz)			2	0.1%
Cyrix 5x86 (166 Mhz)			4	0.2%
Cyrix 5x86 (200 Mhz)			1	0.1%
Cyrix / IBM 6x86 (100 Mhz)		3	0.2%
Cyrix / IBM 6x86 (110 Mhz)		1	0.1%
Cyrix / IBM 6x86 (120 Mhz)		9	0.6%
Cyrix / IBM 6x86 (133 Mhz)		22	1.4%
Cyrix / IBM 6x86 (166 Mhz)		29	1.8%
Cyrix / IBM 6x86 (150 Mhz)		20	1.2%
Cyrix / IBM 6x86 (153 Mhz)		1	0.1%
Cyrix / IBM 6x86 (150/200 Mhz)	1	0.1%
Cyrix / IBM 6x86 (200 Mhz)		5	0.3%
Cyrix / IBM 6x86L (133 Mhz)	6	0.4%
Cyrix / IBM 6x86L (150 Mhz)	6	0.4%
Cyrix / IBM 6x86L (166 Mhz)	6	0.4%
Cyrix / IBM 6x86L (200 Mhz)	19	1.2%
Cyrix / IBM 6x86MX (120 Mhz)	1	0.1%
Cyrix / IBM 6x86MX (150 Mhz)	1	0.1%
Cyrix / IBM 6x86MX (166 Mhz)	4	0.2%
Cyrix / IBM 6x86MX (200 Mhz)	21	1.3%
Cyrix / IBM 6x86MX (233 Mhz)	12	0.7%
Cyrix / IBM 6x86MX (266 Mhz)	1	0.1%
Cyrix M II (150 Mhz)			1	0.1%
Cyrix M II (166 Mhz)			1	0.1%
Cyrix M II (200 Mhz)			1	0.1%

IBM Blue Lightning (66 Mhz)	2	0.1%
IBM Blue Lightning (75 Mhz)	1	0.1%

Intel 386 (20 Mhz)			1	0.1%
Intel 486 (25 Mhz)			4	0.2%
Intel 486 (33 Mhz)			7	0.4%
Intel 486 (40 Mhz)			1	0.1%
Intel 486 (50 Mhz)			13	0.8%
Intel 486 (66 Mhz)			33	2.0%
Intel 486 (75 Mhz)			4	0.2%
Intel 486 (80 Mhz)			2	0.1%
Intel 486 (100 Mhz)			18	1.1%
Intel 486 (120 Mhz)			1	0.1%
Intel Pentium (60 Mhz)			6	0.4%
Intel Pentium (66 Mhz)			2	0.1%
Intel Pentium (70 Mhz)			1	0.1%
Intel Pentium (75 Mhz)			28	1.7%
Intel Pentium (83 Mhz)			3	0.2%
Intel Pentium (90 Mhz)			50	3.1%
Intel Pentium (100 Mhz)		58	3.6%
Intel Pentium (120 Mhz)		37	2.3%
Intel Pentium (122 Mhz)		1	0.1%
Intel Pentium (133 Mhz)		148	9.2%
Intel Pentium (150 Mhz)		21	1.3%
Intel Pentium (160 Mhz)		2	0.1%
Intel Pentium (166 Mhz)		93	5.8%
Intel Pentium (180 Mhz)		2	0.1%
Intel Pentium (200 Mhz)		55	3.4%
Intel Pentium (225 Mhz)		1	0.1%
Intel Pentium (233 Mhz)		5	0.3%
Intel Pentium MMX (133 Mhz)	1	0.1%
Intel Pentium MMX (150 Mhz)	4	0.2%
Intel Pentium MMX (166 Mhz)	50	3.1%
Intel Pentium MMX (180 Mhz)	1	0.1%
Intel Pentium MMX (200 Mhz)	94	5.8%
Intel Pentium MMX (220 Mhz)	1	0.1%
Intel Pentium MMX (225 Mhz)	3	0.2%
Intel Pentium MMX (233 Mhz)	44	2.7%
Intel Pentium MMX (250 Mhz)	2	0.1%
Intel Pentium MMX (262 Mhz)	1	0.1%
Intel Pentium MMX (266 Mhz)	2	0.1%
Intel Pentium MMX (290 Mhz)	1	0.1%
Intel Pentium Pro (180 Mhz)	15	0.9%
Intel Pentium Pro (150 Mhz)	6	0.4%
Intel Pentium Pro (166 Mhz)	2	0.1%
Intel Pentium Pro (200 Mhz)	109	6.8%
Intel Pentium Pro (233 Mhz)	8	0.5%
Intel Pentium Pro (266 Mhz)	1	0.1%
Intel Pentium Pro (300 Mhz)	1	0.1%
Intel Pentium II (180 Mhz)		1	0.1%
Intel Pentium II (200 Mhz)		2	0.1%
Intel Pentium II (233 Mhz)		33	2.0%
Intel Pentium II (266 Mhz)		35	2.2%
Intel Pentium II (300 Mhz)		30	1.9%
Intel Pentium II (330 Mhz)		1	0.1%
Intel Pentium II (333 Mhz)		4	0.2%
Intel Pentium II (338 Mhz)		1	0.1%
Intel Pentium II (350 Mhz)		2	0.1%
Intel Pentium II (400 Mhz)		4	0.2%
Intel Pentium II (466 Mhz)		1	0.1%
Intel Pentium II (500 Mhz)		1	0.1%

Other AMD (133 Mhz)			2	0.1%
Other AMD (200 Mhz)			1	0.1%
Other Cyrix (50 Mhz)			1	0.1%
Other Cyrix (100 Mhz)			1	0.1%
Other Cyrix (133 Mhz)			1	0.1%
Other Cyrix (166 Mhz)			1	0.1%
Other IBM (50 Mhz)			1	0.1%
Other IBM (100 Mhz)			2	0.1%
Other IBM (200 Mhz)			1	0.1%
Other Intel (83 Mhz)			1	0.1%
Other Unspecified (50 Mhz)		1	0.1%
Other Unspecified (89 Mhz)		1	0.1%
Other Unspecified (100 Mhz)	1	0.1%
Other Unspecified (110 Mhz)	1	0.1%
Other Unspecified (133 Mhz)	1	0.1%
Other Unspecified (180 Mhz)	1	0.1%

TOTAL					1,614	101.6%


Number of CPUs

Category		Count	Percentage
1			1,566	97.0%
2			39		2.4%
3			1		0.1%
4			1		0.1%
5			1		0.1%
10			2		0.1%
200			1		0.1%
250			1		0.1%
TOTAL		1,614	100.0%


Amount of RAM

Category		Count	Percentage
8 Meg		3		0.2%
10 Meg		1		0.1%
11 Meg		1		0.1%
12 Meg		2		0.1%
16 Meg		33		2.0%
20 Meg		16		1.0%
24 Meg		35		2.2%
28 Meg		3		0.2%
29 Meg		1		0.1%
32 Meg		359		22.2%
36 Meg		5		0.3%
38 Meg		1		0.1%
40 Meg		55		3.4%
44 Meg		1		0.1%
47 Meg		1		0.1%
48 Meg		111		6.9%
54 Meg		1		0.1%
56 Meg		1		0.1%
60 Meg		1		0.1%
64 Meg		633		39.2%
65 Meg		3		0.2%
72 Meg		6		0.4%
73 Meg		1		0.1%
74 Meg		1		0.1%
80 Meg		45		2.8%
90 Meg		3		0.2%
95 Meg		1		0.1%
96 Meg		75		4.6%
97 Meg		2		0.1%
98 Meg		9		0.6%
104 Meg		2		0.1%
108 Meg		1		0.1%
128 Meg		171		10.6%
131 Meg		1		0.1%
132 Meg		2		0.1%
160 Meg		2		0.1%
166 Meg		1		0.1%
192 Meg		4		0.2%
196 Meg		3		0.2%
224 Meg		1		0.1%
256 Meg		12		0.7%
384 Meg		2		0.1%
2047 Meg		1		0.1%
TOTAL		1,614	100.4%
	

Total Hard Disk Size

Category	Count	Percentage
100 Meg	2		0.1%
116 Meg	1		0.1%
120 Meg	1		0.1%
250 Meg	3		0.2%
258 Meg	1		0.1%
260 Meg	2		0.1%
295 Meg	1		0.1%
300 Meg	1		0.1%
302 Meg	1		0.1%
320 Meg	1		0.1%
400 Meg	1		0.1%
420 Meg	1		0.1%
440 Meg	1		0.1%
500 Meg	4		0.2%
512 Meg	2		0.1%
520 Meg	1		0.1%
540 Meg	7		0.4%
551 Meg	1		0.1%
560 Meg	1		0.1%
600 Meg	4		0.2%
611 Meg	1		0.1%
650 Meg	2		0.1%
660 Meg	1		0.1%
680 Meg	1		0.1%
695 Meg	1		0.1%
700 Meg	1		0.1%
730 Meg	1		0.1%
740 Meg	1		0.1%
780 Meg	1		0.1%
800 Meg	10		0.6%
820 Meg	1		0.1%
840 Meg	2		0.1%
850 Meg	9		0.6%
853 Meg	1		0.1%
860 Meg	1		0.1%
880 Meg	3		0.2%
900 Meg	4		0.2%
940 Meg	1		0.1%
1.0 Gig	44		2.7%
1.1 Gig	6		0.4%
1.2 Gig	46		2.9%
1.3 Gig	19		1.2%
1.4 Gig	7		0.4%
1.5 Gig	15		0.9%
1.6 Gig	31		1.9%
1.7 Gig	16		1.0%
1.8 Gig	7		0.4%
1.9 Gig	2		0.1%
2.0 Gig	100		6.2%
2.1 Gig	60		3.7%
2.2 Gig	13		0.8%
2.3 Gig	8		0.5%
2.4 Gig	9		0.6%
2.5 Gig	63		3.9%
2.6 Gig	10		0.6%
2.7 Gig	5		0.3%
2.8 Gig	9		0.6%
2.9 Gig	4		0.2%
3.0 Gig	92		5.7%
3.1 Gig	24		1.5%
3.2 Gig	64		4.0%
3.3 Gig	16		1.0%
3.4 Gig	11		0.7%
3.5 Gig	25		1.5%
3.6 Gig	8		0.5%
3.7 Gig	12		0.7%
3.8 Gig	6		0.4%
4.0 Gig	109		6.8%
4.1 Gig	27		1.7%
4.2 Gig	17		1.1%
4.3 Gig	73		4.5%
4.4 Gig	6		0.4%
4.5 Gig	35		2.2%
4.6 Gig	8		0.5%
4.7 Gig	2		0.1%
4.8 Gig	9		0.6%
5.0 Gig	54		3.3%
5.1 Gig	10		0.6%
5.2 Gig	8		0.5%
5.3 Gig	7		0.4%
5.4 Gig	3		0.2%
5.5 Gig	14		0.9%
5.6 Gig	5		0.3%
5.7 Gig	4		0.2%
5.8 Gig	3		0.2%
5.9 Gig	2		0.1%
6.0 Gig	57		3.5%
6.1 Gig	4		0.2%
6.2 Gig	10		0.6%
6.3 Gig	9		0.6%
6.4 Gig	39		2.4%
6.5 Gig	17		1.1%
6.6 Gig	1		0.1%
6.7 Gig	3		0.2%
6.8 Gig	5		0.3%
7.0 Gig	29		1.8%
7.1 Gig	2		0.1%
7.2 Gig	1		0.1%
7.4 Gig	4		0.2%
7.5 Gig	7		0.4%
7.6 Gig	4		0.2%
7.8 Gig	1		0.1%
7.9 Gig	1		0.1%
8.0 Gig	39		2.4%
8.1 Gig	3		0.2%
8.2 Gig	6		0.4%
8.4 Gig	10		0.6%
8.5 Gig	4		0.2%
8.6 Gig	2		0.1%
8.9 Gig	3		0.2%
9.0 Gig	24		1.5%
9.1 Gig	4		0.2%
9.2 Gig	1		0.1%
9.3 Gig	1		0.1%
9.4 Gig	1		0.1%
9.5 Gig	4		0.2%
9.6 Gig	5		0.3%
9.7 Gig	2		0.1%
10.0 Gig	22		1.4%
10.1 Gig	1		0.1%
10.2 Gig	2		0.1%
10.4 Gig	1		0.1%
10.5 Gig	1		0.1%
10.7 Gig	1		0.1%
11.0 Gig	5		0.3%
11.2 Gig	2		0.1%
11.3 Gig	1		0.1%
11.6 Gig	1		0.1%
12.0 Gig	17		1.1%
12.6 Gig	1		0.1%
12.8 Gig	2		0.1%
12.0 Gig	1		0.1%
13.0 Gig	4		0.2%
13.4 Gig	1		0.1%
14.0 Gig	4		0.2%
14.8 Gig	1		0.1%
15.0 Gig	6		0.4%
15.3 Gig	1		0.1%
16.0 Gig	6		0.4%
16.4 Gig	1		0.1%
16.8 Gig	1		0.1%
17.0 Gig	1		0.1%
18.0 Gig	2		0.1%
19.0 Gig	1		0.1%
20.0 Gig	2		0.1%
22.0 Gig	2		0.1%
25.0 Gig	1		0.1%
31.0 Gig	1		0.1%
32.0 Gig	1		0.1%
33.4 Gig	1		0.1%
44.0 Gig	3		0.2%
47.0 Gig	1		0.1%
51.0 Gig	1		0.1%
54.0 Gig	1		0.1%
60.0 Gig	1		0.1%
62.0 Gig	1		0.1%
83.5 Gig	1		0.1%
TOTAL	1614		101.5%


Hard Disk Type(s)

Category		Count	Percentage
IDE/EIDE		959		59.4%
SCSI			435		27.0%
Both			198		12.3%
I don't know	1		0.1%
TOTAL		1,614	98.8%


Base OS/2 Version

Category				Count	Percentage
OS/2 				1.x	0	0.0%
OS/2 				2.x	0	0.0%
OS/2	2.x SMP			2		0.1%
OS/2 for the PowerPC	0		0.0%
OS/2 Warp Server		19		1.2%
OS/2 Warp 3			161		10.0%
OS/2 Warp 4			1,421	88.0%
Other				10		0.6%
TOTAL				1,614	99.9%

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

May 30/98 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/v3n07/survey2.htm and check our next issue to find out how "normal" you really are!

                         - * -

Special thanks go to Jason Malstrom for this issue's survey questions.

Do you have an idea that you think would make a good survey question?  Let us know!  (feedback@os2ezine.com)

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

Notes:
1. Only one entry per reader will be counted.
2. All questions must be answered to be counted.
3. Information must be received on or before June 11, 1998.

Complete results of this survey will be printed in our next issue (June 13, 1998).

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

How Can We Improve?

As always, we want to continue making OS/2 e-Zine! as interactive as possible, so we decided to repeat last month's "improvement survey" and collect reader opinions on more ideas we've had.

Fill in the form on this page and let us know what you want to see in the future.  And, as always, if you have comments or suggestions that can't be expressed with this form, please use our "feedback" button at the bottom of the page to contact us.  We want to hear from you!

Note: Only one submission per e-mail address will be counted.  If multiple submissions are received, we will only count the latest submission.

                         - * -

Questions in this issue include:

Would you like a print version of OS/2 e-Zine! delivered to you via postal mail?

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

Using that Hammer and Screwdriver	- by R. L. Walsh

A Guide to WPObjData

Most people consider the WPObjData class a nuisance, but it is actually one of the handiest WPS utilities available.  With it, you can create "settings objects" that will set the properties of other WPS objects dropped on them.  It's easy to use and far more powerful than the REXX SysSetObjectData function because it works with any class of object.

As supplied with the WPS Feature Installer (used to install, e.g., Java 1.1.x.), WPObjData is a nuisance because it hijacks your data files.  They acquire its "hammer and screwdriver" icon and open their notebooks when double-clicked.  Many users eliminate this annoyance by simply deregistering the class, then rebooting. Everything, including the Feature Installer, continues to work properly.

However, you can fix this bug in WPObjData and put it to work for you by making a simple change in the dll containing the class (x:\OS2\DLL\OBJDATA.DLL).  This change will associate the class with files whose .TYPE is "ObjectData", rather than "Plain Text".

1. deregister the class, if necessary (use the "dereg.cmd" REXX script below)
2. make a backup copy of OBJDATA.DLL
3. load the original file into a binary (hex) editor
4. search for the phrase "Plain Text" (it should occur only once)
5. replace it with "ObjectData"
6. save the file
7. reregister the class (use the "rereg.cmd" REXX script, if necessary)

To create a WPObjData object, open your Templates folder and look for the one with the "hammer and screwdriver" icon.  It is probably titled "Data File:1".  Drag a copy to the Desktop to create a new object that is actually an empty file of .TYPE "ObjectData". Associate your favorite text editor with this type to make it the default editor.

To set up a WPObjData object, open it in a text editor.  Enter WPS setup strings, one per line, then save the file.  For example, this sets a folder's default view to Icon and causes it to show all objects in Tree view:

  DEFAULTVIEW=1
  SHOWALLINTREEVIEW=YES

See "wpsetup.txt" below for a complete listing of setup strings for common object classes, along with a list of the values used to select an object's default view.

To use a WPObjData object, drop another object on it.  The setup strings that are recognized by the dropped object's class will be used and those properties set.  Strings that are meaningless to the object will be ignored.

When using WPObjData, there are a few things you should be aware of:

1. New properties for files and folders aren't saved automatically. You will have to open and close the object's notebook to do so. Include this setup string to have the object open its notebook when you set its properties:  OPEN=DEFAULT
2. In most cases, you cannot use a shadow to set the properties of an object -- you must use the original.
3. If you use the WPS to copy one of these objects, the icons on all of your other WPObjData objects will disappear until you reboot.  This is a bug in the WPS.

The information contained in this article is largely the result of experimentation.  There may be some inaccuracies, and future releases of the Feature Installer may change WPObjData's operation. Readers' corrections and updates will be appreciated.

                         - * -

(rlwalsh@packet.net) Rich Walsh is a freelance programmer and author of the several utilities, including (http://www.usacomputers.net/personal/rlwalsh/) DragText.

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

/* dereg.cmd */
/* REXX script to deregister the WPObjData class */

call RxFuncAdd 'SysLoadFuncs', 'RexxUtil', 'SysLoadFuncs'
call SysLoadFuncs

if SysDeregisterObjectClass("WPObjData")
then
   say "Success"
else
   say "Failure"

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

/* rereg.cmd */
/* REXX script to reregister the WPObjData class */

call RxFuncAdd 'SysLoadFuncs', 'RexxUtil', 'SysLoadFuncs'
call SysLoadFuncs

if SysRegisterObjectClass("WPObjData","OBJDATA")
then
   say "Success"
else
   say "Failure"

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

___________________________________________________________________

WPS SETUP STRINGS and
OPEN VIEW ID NUMBERS

Below is a list of all documented setup strings for WPObject,
WPProgram, WPFolder, WPShadow, and WPLaunchPad.  Following
that is a listing of the numeric values assigned to WPS
objects' open views.

Additional information can be found in the _Workplace Shell
Programming Reference_  (WPS1.INF, WPS2.INF, and WPS3.INF).
___________________________________________________________________

WPObject
========

CCVIEW=
    DEFAULT | YES | NO
DEFAULTVIEW=
    SETTINGS | view id | DEFAULT
HELPLIBRARY=
    .hlp file
HELPPANEL=
    id
HIDEBUTTON=
    YES | NO
ICONFILE=
    .ico file
ICONPOS=
    x,y
ICONRESOURCE=
    id,module
LOCKEDINPLACE=
    YES | NO
MENUITEMSELECTED=
    menu-item-id
MENUS=
    SHORT
MINWIN=
    HIDE | VIEWER | DESKTOP
NOCOPY=
    YES | NO
NODELETE=
    YES | NO
NODRAG=
    YES | NO
NODROP=
    YES | NO
NOLINK=
    YES | NO
NOMOVE=
    YES | NO
NOPRINT=
    YES | NO
NORENAME=
    YES | NO
NOSETTINGS=
    YES | NO
NOSHADOW=
    YES | NO
NOTVISIBLE=
    YES | NO
OBJECTID=
    <name>
    [example:  OBJECTID=<WP_SYSED>]
OPEN=
    SETTINGS | DEFAULT
TEMPLATE=
    YES | NO
TITLE=
    name of object
___________________________________________________________________

WPProgram
=========

ASSOCFILTER=
    associated file extensions, separated by commas
ASSOCTYPE=
    associated file types, separated by commas
EXENAME=
    file
MAXIMIZED=
    YES |  NO
MINIMIZED=
    YES | NO
PROGTYPE=
    DOSMODE | FULLSCREEN | PM | PROG_30_STD | PROG_31_ENH |
    PROG_31_ENHSEAMLESSCOMMON | PROG_31_ENHSEAMLESSVDM |
    PROG_31_STD |  PROG_31_STDSEAMLESSCOMMON |
    PROG_31_STDSEAMLESSVDM | SEPARATEWIN | VDM | WIN |
    WINDOWABLEVIO | WINDOWEDVDM | WINDOWEDWIN
NOAUTOCLOSE=
    YES | NO
PARAMETERS=
    commandline parameters
SET
    name=value
    [example:  SET DPMI_MEMORY_LIMIT=64]
STARTUPDIR
    path
___________________________________________________________________

WPFolder
========

ALWAYSSORT=
    YES | NO
BACKGROUND=
    1,2,3,4,5
      1.  Image filename or "(none)"
      2.  N | T | S  [normal / tiled / scaled]
      3.  scaling factor
      4.  I | C  [image /color only]
      5.  rgb  [bkgnd color, eg:  0,128,256]
DEFAULTSORT=
    index
    [note:  -2 Name, -1 Type, 5 Real Name, 6 Size, etc.)
DETAILSCLASS=
    class name
DETAILSFONT=
    font name
DETAILSSHADOWCOLOR=
    rgb
    [example:  128,0,256]
DETAILSTEXTCOLOR=
    rgb
DETAILSTODISPLAY=
    column[,...]
    [note:  column is the column number in Details view]
DETAILSVIEW=
    NORMAL | MINI
ICONFONT=
    font name
ICONGRIDSIZE=
    x
ICONNFILE=
    1,iconfile
ICONNRESOURCE=
    1,id,modname
ICONSHADOWCOLOR=
    rgb
ICONTEXTBACKGROUNDCOLOR=
    rgb
ICONTEXTCOLOR=
    rgb
ICONTEXTVISIBLE=
    YES | NO
ICONVIEW=
    x[,y,...z]
    GRIDDED | NONGRID
    FLOWED  | NONFLOWED
    MINI | NORMAL | INVISIBLE
ICONVIEWPOS=
    x,y,cx,cy
MENUBAR=
    YES | NO
REMOVEFONTS=
    YES | NO
SHOWALLINTREEVIEW=
    YES | NO
SORTBYATTR=
    index[,...]
SORTCLASS=
    class name
TREEFONT=
    font name
TREESHADOWCOLOR=
    rgb
TREETEXTCOLOR=
    rgb
TREETEXTVISIBLE=
    YES | NO
TREEVIEW=
    x[,y]
    LINES | NOLINES
    INVISIBLE | MINI | NORMAL
WORKAREA=
    YES | NO
View Styles
    FLOWED | NONFLOWED | NONGRID
    NORMAL | MINI | INVISIBLE
    LINES | NOLINES
    [note:  these keywords are entered without an equal sign]
___________________________________________________________________

WPShadow
========

SHADOWID=
    <ObjectID> | filename
___________________________________________________________________

WPLaunchpad
===========

FPOBJECTS=
    obj1[,obj2,...objN]
    [objX is an <ObjectID> or path and file name
DRAWEROBJECTS=
    drawer-number,obj1[,obj2,...objN]
    [drawer-numbers:  0=Launchpad, 1=leftmost drawer, etc.)
LPCLOSEDRAWER=
    YES | NO
LPACTIONSTYLE=
    TEXT | OFF | MINI | NORMAL
LPVERTICAL=
    YES | NO
LPTEXT=
    YES | NO
LPDRAWERTEXT=
    YES | NO
LPSMALLICONS=
    YES | NO
LPHIDECTLS=
    YES | NO
LPFLOAT=
    YES | NO
___________________________________________________________________

Open View IDs
=============

   -1  UNKNOWN
    0  DEFAULT
    1  CONTENTS (icon view)
    2  SETTINGS
    3  HELP
    4  RUNNING (run pgm; for data files, run associated pgm)
  101  TREE (tree view)
  102  DETAILS (details view)
  120  AUTO (WPDisk objects only)
  121  PALETTE (color and font palettes, plus the LaunchPad)
 4096  the 1st pgm associated with a data file (usually 1st on its Open menu)
 4097  the 2nd pgm associated with a data file (usually 2nd on its Open menu)
  etc
 5000  the 1st pgm added to a data file's Open menu using the Menu page
 5001  the 2nd pgm added via the Menu page
  etc
25856  USER (proprietary view IDs start here;  USER+1 is most common)
42818  TextView (OD v1.0)
46914  TextView (OD v1.5)

___________________________________________________________________

Compiled from various sources on May 29, 1998 by Richard L. Walsh
(rlwalsh@packet.net) using an alpha version of DragText v3.0.
___________________________________________________________________

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

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If you have problems please (feedback@os2ezine.com) e-mail us or contact us at:

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

(902) 461-2266

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Sponsor OS/2 e-Zine!

* Corporate Sponsors

OS/2 e-Zine! has space for a limited number of corporate advertisers.  A variety of affordable advertising options are available including high impact, inline graphical advertising.  Arrangements are available for multiple issue insertions.

For more information please e-mail admin@os2ss.com or phone at (800) 595-1974 (Toll free - US & Canada) or (352) 335-9693 (Outside US & Canada).

* Readers Can Sponsor Too!

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:

o  a note stating that it is for OS/2 e-Zine! sponsorship
o  your name
o  your address (city, state/province and country)
o  your e-mail address
o  your web URL if applicable

Alternatively, you may choose to sponsor OS/2 e-Zine! by credit card through BMT Micro, Inc. (http://www.bmtmicro.com/).  BMT Micro acccepts Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, Diner's Club and many other credit cards.  Just call:

o (800) 414-4268 (Voice) 9:00am - 7:00pm EST
o (910) 791-7052 (Voice) 9:00am - 7:00pm EST
o (910) 350-2937 (Fax) 24 hours a day
o (910) 350-8061 (Modem) 10 lines, all 14.4K, or
o (910) 799-0923 (Modem) Direct 28.8K line

o Or, use BMT's (https://secure.falcon-net.net/BMT/order0261.html) Secure Order Form.  It's safe, fast and simple!

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:

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

(902) 461-2266

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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.ChipChat.com/os2ezine) ChipChat Technology Group
ChipChat produces excellent 32-bit OS/2 software for wireless text paging and state-of-the-art multimedia Sound Cards for Micro Channel PS/2 computers.

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

(http://www.prominic.com/) Prominic Technologies, Inc.
On-line sales & solutions for VisualAge, DB2, OS/2 Warp, Workspace on Demand, Notes/Domino, AIX Firewall, and Net.Commerce (design/hosting).  The best deals on IBM and Lotus software and hardware (PCs, Servers, and RS/6000s) -- with OS/2 preloads!

(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.stardock.com/) Stardock Systems
Providing quality software for the home and office.

(http://www.warpspeed.com.au/) WarpSpeed Computers
Developers of The Graham Utilities -- the largest, most comprehensive suite of disk, file and general utilities specifically written for OS/2.

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Copyright 1998   -   Falcon Networking
ISSN 1203-5696