[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 or zipped for off-line reading.  For best reading of this ASCII version of OS/2 e-Zine!, use a text editor at full-screen width.]


OS/2 e-Zine!		December 1996			Christmas Special
----------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1996		Falcon Networking  		ISSN 1203-5696


TO START:

  From the Editor


REVIEWS:					

Trials of Battle v1.0
Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander v2.0
Process Commander v1.0
Impos/2 v2.0
Navigator 2.02 for OS/2
NeoN StoryBook v1.0


REPORT:

John Soyring Speaks on OS/2's Future


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 1996   -   Falcon Networking
ISSN 1203-5696

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

Happy Holidays from OS/2 e-Zine!

-----

Welcome faithful reader, to OS/2 e-Zine!'s first ever Christmas Special!

Why, you ask, a Christmas Special?  Well a few reasons:

First, and most importantly, you, our readers have been so supportive and loyal over our first 14 issues that we wanted to thank you.  This is our way of showing our gratitude.  From all our staff and contributors: Thanks.

Second, as usual, there is a great deal of activity in the OS/2 market with new products being released by Stardock Systems, Perez Computing Services, Netscape Communications and Team Computer.  Rather than wait until our next regularly scheduled issue we thought, "What better way to celebrate the holidays than to release a 'mini-issue'?"

Third, lately there have been a great many people worrying about the future of OS/2 journalism.  With the closure of OS/2 Magazine and the seeming break in publication of some online OS/2 publications, we wanted to reassure everyone in the OS/2 community that we remain firmly optimistic and committed to the future of OS/2.  Not only will we continue to publish our issues regularly, we are temporarily increasing our frequency by offering you this special issue!

And fourth, as of January, we will be shifting the date of our regular issues.  Throughout 1997, OS/2 e-Zine! will be published on the 16th of each month instead of the 1st.  Rather than have a whole month and a half between our December and January issues (how could you have handled the wait?), we decided that our Christmas Special was the perfect "stocking stuffer".

So sit back and relax in front of those yule logs and peruse our special issue.  As always, don't forget we value your feedback.

And have a great holiday season.

See you in the middle of January,
Trevor Smith
Editor, OS/2 e-Zine!

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

Corporate Sponsors of OS/2 e-Zine! :

----------

The support of these companies makes this issue possible.  Why not thank them?

(http://www.bestofos2.com/) Best of OS/2
Your complete OS/2 resource centre.  News, demos, catalog of over 150 software products, daily Hobbes Report and links to numerous sites.

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Your complete source for over 100 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.emtec.com/) EmTec Innovative Software
EmTec Innovative Software produces state-of-the-art OS/2 ISDN, modem
and telnet communications software.  OS/2 Magazine and Inside OS/2 1995
award winner.

(http://www.hotinc.com/) House of Technology, Inc.
Your Canadian Source For OS/2 Applications.

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

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

(http://www.kssystems.com/) K&S Systems
IBM BesTEAM, NT, and Vinca certified consultants provide HW/SW products, installation, configuration, staging, support, and Web Site Design.

(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://nick.secant.com/mr2ice.htm) MR/2 ICE Internet Email Client
Delivering the electronic mail features of the future, today.  A product of Knightware Software Company.

(http://www.Mount-Baker.com/) Mt. Baker Software
Developers of a full featured personal financial package for OS/2.

(http://prairie.lakes.com/~oberon/) Oberon Software, Inc.
Home of TE/2, TE/2 Pro and other fine OS/2 programs.  Specializing in telecommunications and the Internet.

(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.aescon.com/innoval/) Post Road Mailer
The Post Road Mailer is a high performance, 32-bit, email program with drag and drop filing, printing, shredding, word wrap and multiple MIME attachments.

(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.cfw.com/~shenan/) Shenandoah Equipment Co.
Providers of lifetime warrantied name brand simms, laptop and printer memory at competitive prices.

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

(http://www.aescon.com/innoval/) Surf'nRexx
Use REXX to build powerful Internet utilities using our DLLs.  Package also includes 10 utilities as samples.

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

Trials of Battle v1.0	- by Donovan Long

-----

From Shadowsoft Entertainment Software and Stardock Systems, comes a game that's sure to keep you glued to your screen for battle after battle.  It's called Trials of Battle and is described by its creators as a cross between Quake and Mech Warrior.

The plot is fairly simple.  You have been abducted by aliens, referred to as the "Intendants", who have taken you to their proving grounds on a far away planet.  There you will face combat in hovertanks in an arena, against other abducted aliens.  For every opponent vehicle you destroy, you gain kill points, used for repairs to your vehicle and for purchasing upgraded weapons, armour, and other assorted gadgets.

You must progress in rank, striving to become "Battle Master", and reflect well on the human race.  Besides that, increasing your rank results in more technology for your vehicle being available, and you'll need it, because one of the gee-whiz features in this game is that your opponents, as well as being computer controlled players, can be human players via the Internet, LAN, modem, or a combination of all three!

Installation

Installation could not have been any easier, using the standard IBM installer.  One wonders why this installation package is not a standard part of OS/2 given how often it is used for third party products.  The minimum installation is 8-10MB and the maximum (if you have a slow CD-ROM) is 35MB.

I noted that even with a full installation, you are still required to have the CD-ROM in the drive in order for the game to start (unless you are connecting to a networked game server that does have the CD present).  This is undoubtedly a copy protection issue and unfortunately requires you to dig out your TOB CD each time you wish to play.  As well, some folks like to play an audio CD in the background and turn off the game music, as one might do with Quake.  While you can use a separate stereo, the experience is more intense if you are using headphones (and all the sound is going through them).  A minor annoyance.

Under the heading of cool, the game's sound effects and the opening AVI are available in the installed directory.  I imagine it would be possible to substitute files of your own choosing by simply replacing the files.  Say, doesn't that twip.wav file sound familiar?  It's from OS/2 Warp 3.

Performance

My system is a P120 with 32MB of RAM.  While this would normally be sufficient, I wondered how well the game would perform given that I have a (circa 1991-92) Trident T8900C video card (256 colors).  Luckily, thanks to the usage of DIVE, game play is very smooth!  Amazingly enough, I was able to turn all the game options on and use hi-res mode without any detectable slow down!

While there is an options dialogue with various options that can be turned off to improve performance, there seemed to be no option for brightness control.  This is a big issue for myself, as my monitor is already cranked to its limits.  Most of the good DOS games (for example DOOM) have brightness controls and with them I have no trouble.  In TOB I have a lot of trouble seeing the darker items like the walls.  When you die, for example, there is a white flash and only during this flash did I notice that the walls are not solid black, but that they have patterns on them.  In some cases I can't see the walls at all until I hear the sound of my hovertank hitting them.

I did not realize that there is a brightness, or gamma correction, feature until after speaking with the game's developers.  Although I had the final production version of the CD to test, I did not have the final documentation.  To my knowledge, this earlier version of the documentation did not mention this feature and, more importantly, the game does not list the keys (+ and - while in combat) in its "Cockpit Controls" when Help is displayed.

This game fully exploits new OS/2 features such as DART (Direct Audio Real Time) and DIVE (Direct In Video Extensions) which is why it has such good performance overall.

Appearance

When you are not duking it out in the arena, you are in the hangar.  Here you can repair your particular model of hovertank, set options, view/purchase/sell amour/weapons/add-ons, view information on or send a message to other players, and so on.  On my screen, the large X (quit) and ? (help) colors do not appear to come through properly for some reason.

For the most part, the graphics are very slick, however there are a few odd problems that occur that probably could have been easily fixed.  The first one is that the designers of the game choose a really small font for most of the text.  Second, in almost every dialogue box that displays scrollable information the text does not fit properly.  In this example, about 6 characters on the right side get cut off and you have to scroll over to see the repair costs, something which should not be necessary given the tons of screen real estate remaining (this problem occurred in both 640x480 and 800x600 video resolutions).

Multi-Player Galore!

I am sad to report that I did not get a chance to test the multiplayer abilities of TOB, which is a shame since these features will probably be the game's biggest asset.  My editor erroneously informed me that since we had only one copy of the TOB CD, we would not be able to load the game simultaneously and go "head to head" over modem, network or otherwise.  In his defence, due to the prerelease documentation mentioned above, neither of us found any reference to the truth, which is that if you purchase one TOB CD and one of your friends does a complete install to his or her hard drive, that person can join a networked game being served from your machine (you would, of course, need to have the TOB CD in your CD-ROM).  You won't be able to give TOB away to all your friends to play by themselves but if you are looking for live human competition, the developers have allowed this simple and generous solution.

One thing I did note was that if you selected any of the options such as LAN, Modem, or TCPIP by setting it to one player or higher, it is not possible to set it back to zero without going to the previous screen and returning--a small bug.

As well, while a game can normally have 12 players, once Modem is selected, the total number of players can only be 6.

One of the game's beta testers informed me (and I can confirm this by checking the Stardock TOB tips page) that the server has to be on an ISDN or better connection to the Internet for proper multiplayer (more than 2) game play due to the amount of information that has to be sent out continuously to each player.  Ideally the server machine would not be used to play, just to act as the server.  In any case, if you are connecting with a couple of friends, make sure that the person with the best bandwidth (and then CPU) is running the server.   Stardock is offering to list people with ISDN connections or better on their web page that are willing to be servers.

Game Play

Game play itself is quite entertaining.  Playing TOB at the "easy" level may be a little less than challenging (when playing against the computer) but it is still fun.  And the more advanced levels are anything but easy.  The combination of fast action, 3D motion (you can fly, aim and shoot in all 3 dimensions), great sound effects and cool weapons (and explosions!) makes for some entertaining mindless violence.  Using a slower processor will necessitate turning off many of the video details when in combat but if you have the CPU horsepower, the overall effect is quite convincing.  You might find yourself ducking when opponents' lasers come a little too close.

And if you're playing against real humans, strap in and prepare for a great game.

Closing Comments

My initial impression of TOB was that it was confusing to understand, especially without online help.  In fact, there appears to be absolutely no online help available via the F1 key.  There is limited help available via the big question mark in the Hangar View, but not the kind of context sensitive help we are used to in OS/2.  Once I took a good half hour to read through the manual however, I soon figured out what to do and found myself playing almost continuously.

The game is quite stable, but it is a CPU hog (it is a game, so that goes without saying).  However I did find one way to consistently crash it (albeit accidentally).  I was double clicking on a hovertank part near the top of the "repair" list in order to repair it, and I accidentally double clicked on the line underneath "Description".  This consistently brings the game down with a SYS 3175 error.  The moral: watch where you click.  Other than this glitch, the game seems to be rock solid.

Bottom Line

Despite all my harpings about "this 'n that" not being absolutely perfect, the fact is that this is simply a great game.  It is more of what we have come to expect from Stardock's offerings.  Hopefully we will see more in the future from Shadowsoft, as this one's a winner.  Order your copy of this great game today and help support OS/2 gaming!

-----

Minimum Requirements:
486DX2/66
12MB RAM for Warp 3.0 (16MB for Warp Connect or Warp v4)
DIVE @ 256 colors
DART (to play with sound)
14.4 modem for multiplayer games.

Suggested Hardware:
Pentium 75 or better
16MB RAM (20MB? for Warp Connect or Warp V4)
28.8 modem for multiplayer games
OS/2 compatible joystick.

-----

*Trials of Battle v1.0
by Shadowsoft Entertainment Software
published by (http://www.stardock.com/) Stardock Systems
MSRP:US$49.95

-----

(tsst@isisnet.com) Donovan Long is an avid Team OS/2 member in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.  He is presently expecting to win the lottery and take over management of OS/2 from those that are too far removed from the real world.  He has run versions of OS/2 dating back to v2.0.

	---Our Sponsor: Best of OS/2 (http://www.bestofos2.com/)---
	---Our Sponsor: BMT Micro (http://www.bmtmicro.com/)---
***********************************

Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander v2.0	- by Doug Hicken

-----

IBM for years has touted OS/2's "crash protection" as one of the major reasons why you should buy and run OS/2.  They claim that if one program has problems, it will not affect any other running applications and you can continue on with your work.  Those of us who have used OS/2 know that this isn't always true.  OS/2 does not have multiple input queues and if one program doesn't follow the rules for being a good OS/2 program, it could hang the queue and essentially render OS/2 useless.

Control-Alt-Delete Commander v2.0 helps remedy this problem.  Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander (CAD Commander) takes control of the boot services of OS/2 Warp, preventing accidental rebooting of OS/2 from within any type of OS/2, DOS, or Windows session.  Restarting the Desktop can be accomplished without shutting down or affecting any running applications.  It gives you complete command over all applications' status (including their priorities), and allows selective shutdown of errant applications which can not normally be shutdown via OS/2's Ctrl-Esc key sequence.  It also provides a handy status line and enhanced task list to let you control applications from your PM Desktop.  Even programs previously thought "unkillable", such as network daemons can be stopped.

Operation

When I get a new OS/2 program, I want it to install easily.  The installation of CAD Commander went flawlessly; the program takes up about one megabyte of disk space. The install program puts a folder on the Desktop that contains a readme, a control panel, link to the PCS web site, user's guide, FAQ, and a status line icon.  A simple rexx file will recreate the folder on your Desktop if it becomes corrupt.

CAD Commander is easy to use: pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del while using CAD Commander does not reboot your computer.  Instead, it takes you to an "Easy Information Window".  From this window you can access additional functions, switch to another program, get more information on the current application, escape back to the Desktop, kill the current application, or get additional help.  If the Desktop is the focus application, you can restart it from this window.  Best of all, when CAD Commander isn't active, it uses virtually no CPU resources.

When you click on the additional function option from the "Easy Window" you are shown all currently running processes and a set of options that includes shutting down, switching to, or changing the priority of individual applications, or restarting the Desktop.  Pressing Enter while any of the processes are highlighted gives more information about that process such as its priority and the number of threads it is using.

I love the switch to feature.  On my Warp 3 machine, if I switch from one Full Screen DOS application to another, I have to first return to the Desktop.  On this particular machine, it doesn't always return to the Desktop properly.  I've found that using the "switch to" command of CAD Commander gets around this problem for me.  I simply activate CAD Commander and use the switch to function to switch from one DOS Full Screen program to another.  It is also much quicker than going back to the Desktop.

Features

I've briefly mentioned above how CAD Commander is activated and how you can use it from the Full Screen.  Many of these same features can also be activated from the Desktop.  Below is a brief overview of the remaining features.

Control Panel

CAD Commander uses a notebook called the Control Panel to configure itself.  From the Control Panel you can change all of CAD Commander's settings.  If you are running FixPak 17 or later the "enhanced kill" feature is activated by default and lets you kill almost any running program.

Hotkeys

The Control Panel also allows you to add programs to the "Hotkey Applications" list by dragging and dropping programs' WPS objects onto CAD Commander's Control Panel icon.

Moving the mouse to the bottom left corner of the screen will display the "CAD Commander Hotkey Application and Command Center".  This lets you start applications, shut down OS/2, switch to different virtual Desktops, etc.  The "CAD Commander Hotkey Application and Command Center" can also be activated using a Win95 compatible keyboard, or by using Ctrl-Alt-Down Arrow.

Status Line
 
CAD Commander has a status line that gives you vital information about your system.  It includes fully configurable sections for time, date, swapper size, process information, drive space information, a second timer, an alarm clock, window list and shutdown buttons, support for virtual Desktops, a units conversion tool, and an applications list.  Drag and drop is fully supported on the status line allowing you to change the font and color for each section individually.
    
Window List

CAD commander gives you the option of using a new window list.  You can accomplish most of the tasks that are available from the Full Screen session directly from the window list, even restarting the Desktop!  The window list can be activated by mouse, Win95 keyboard, or Ctrl-Alt-Left Arrow.  You can also right click on items in the window list to "clean" apps that are no longer running but still in the task list. 

Shutdown

CAD Commander enhances OS/2's shutdown.  A "smart" shutdown message is displayed showing a list of all running applications.  You can switch to any of them by double left clicking on the entry in the list or continue shutdown.  You can also have your system automatically reboot after shutdown completes.    

Command Line Utilities

Command Line Utilities have been added to let you perform many common CAD Commander tasks from an OS/2 prompt.  This is handy if you are telnet-ing into a system running OS/2.  You can kill Programs, change program priorities, view a list of running processes, reboot your PC, or delete a directory and all its subdirectories.

Finally, CAD Commander includes a game Boost option for DOS and Windows Full Screen games to enhance their performance under OS/2.

Is there a downside?

I'm not saying that this product is perfect--I've had times when it couldn't get me out of a bind--but it is a great improvement over IBM's Ctrl-Esc: "Enter" - "Cancel" solution.  I would like to see the ability to use more than four virtual Desktops, but that is a minor complaint.

Would I recommend it?

Yes.  In fact, while typing this review my Desktop froze and I had to reboot my machine.  Had I not been using CAD Commander, I would have lost this review (and I really didn't want to start over).  Programs that used to freeze my machine like IBM's "Dial Other Internet Providers" no longer worry me.  I simply use CAD Commander to kill them and go on my way.  CAD Commander v2.0 does just about everything I could hope for and does it very well.

-----

* Ctrl-Alt-Del Commander v2.0
by (http://www.pcs-soft.com/) Perez Computing Services
MSRP:  US$39

-----

(doug@uwin.com) Doug Hicken is a Team OS/2 member that has used OS/2 since OS/2 for Windows.  He owns and operates a Pheasant Hunting Preserve in Utah.  He welcomes your comments and insights.

	---Our Sponsor: ChipChat (http://www.ChipChat.com/home00.html)---
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	---Our Sponsor: House of Technology (http://www.hotinc.com/)---
***********************************

Process Commander	- by Dr. Dirk Terrell

-----

Process Commander from Stardock Systems, Inc. is a collection of tools that Stardock calls a "process manager."  All of us have probably experienced the situation where the OS/2 input queue has stopped responding to user input because of a rogue application.  Most of the time pressing Ctrl-Esc will allow you to kill the errant process, but not always.  Sometimes a warm reboot (Ctrl-Alt-Del) is the only alternative.  Process Commander was designed to rescue your system from such a locked input queue.

I was very much looking forward to using Process Commander because the Netscape Navigator beta was consistently lock up my system's input queue.  The package arrived with one floppy disk and a 73 page manual, and I set out to install it.

Installation

Installation was a no-brainer, with the installation program asking where to put the files.  After a couple minutes, it was finished and I rebooted so that Process Commander could be activated.  Upon rebooting, I could see that the Process Commander device driver was loaded and the program was active.

Hung Processes

By default the key sequence to activate Process Commander is Ctrl-Alt-Del, but this can be changed (I chose Ctrl-Alt-Enter).  Pressing Ctrl-Alt-Enter brought up the full-screen Process Commander session with its plethora of information about all the processes running on my system such as threads, dynamic link libraries, semaphores, open files, etc.  To start I asked Process Commander to kill an OS/2 window, which it did without incident.  Now for the real test: I attempted to get Navigator to hang and see how Process Commander did.

Still in the Process Commander session, I pressed Esc to get back to the Desktop and what I saw was not pretty.  It appeared that the screen tried to switch into a different mode but didn't quite make it because the screen was still in "text" mode but filled with odd characters in all sorts of colors, some of them flashing.  Then it got really ugly.  I pressed Ctrl-Alt-Enter again, hoping to bring Process Commander back.  Nothing happened.  Then I tried Ctrl-Esc to see if I could get to the OS/2 Window List.  Nothing happened.  Now I was desperate: Ctrl-Alt-Del.  And nothing happened.  This was something I had never experienced under OS/2, a hang that even Ctrl-Alt-Del couldn't break through.  All that was left was the power switch.

After waiting several minutes for CHKDSK to clean up my rather large HPFS partitions, I decided to try hanging the input queue first and then activating Process Commander.  Navigator dutifully locked the queue, and Ctrl-Alt-Enter brought up Process Commander.  I was able to kill the Navigator process, but pressing Esc to get back to the Desktop brought the screen of death again.

It was obvious that something in my video setup was not cooperating with Process Commander, so I reset my system to VGA mode.  It's been a long time since I looked at a computer running in VGA mode, and it was almost as bad as sitting in front of a machine and watching Program Manager come up.  Once past the initial repulsion, I opened Navigator to lock up the queue.  However, try as I might, Navigator refused to do its dirty deed.  So, I pressed Ctrl-Alt-Enter and brought up Process Commander.  Finger shaking and eyes closed, I pressed Esc to get back to the Desktop.  When I opened my eyes, there was the ugly, but fully functional, VGA version of my Desktop.  My problems were clearly caused by a buggy video driver and not Process Commander.  The driver for my Number Nine ViRGE card dates from August, and I suspect that it needs some tweaking to work properly under Warp 4.

Other Features

Process Commander is more than just a process killer though.  It consists of several utilities for monitoring and tuning your system.  Process Commander PM is a Presentation Manager version of the process manager.  This version is obviously not very useful if the PM input queue is hung (which is why the full-screen version is necessary for recovering from hangs) but it gives you the same detailed information on running processes as the full-screen version.

Process Commander Server is a very handy program that allows you to Telnet to a remote machine and perform operations such as killing processes, rebooting, etc.  Obviously security is important with a tool like this, and Stardock has implemented fully configurable security options that allow you to specify which users from which machines have the power to perform various actions.  Network administrators will find this utility extremely useful.

Process Commander also enhances the OS/2 shutdown procedure.  One thing that has always  annoyed me is the lack of a Shutdown folder, the counterpart of the Startup folder.  Process Commander adds this feature to your OS/2 system.  The Shutdown procedure itself is also more flexible than the standard OS/2 shutdown.  In the full-screen Process Commander session (or by pressing Ctrl-Alt-F12) you can choose to perform what Stardock calls an Immediate Shutdown.  In this case, OS/2 flushes file system buffers, but does not inform running tasks that a shutdown is in progress.  Although you wouldn't normally want to use this shutdown method, it could be necessary at times.  I suspect this method is like pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del in standard OS/2.  Quick Shutdown terminates running processes but tries to save any changes that have been made to the Workplace Shell.  Enhanced Shutdown closes OS/2 sessions that are not running programs, automatically closes any programs in a list that you specify, executes the contents of the Shutdown folder, and then performs a normal OS/2 shutdown.

Until Process Commander came along I had no use for the "Windows 95" keys on my machine.  But now I can configure them to perform various functions such as opening the Window List.  You can also configure hot-key sequences to perform various functions.

Finally, Process Commander ships with a variety of command line tools that ReXX junkies like myself will love.  Many of the functions of Process Commander can be accessed with these tools.  You can kill processes, change process and thread priorities, get system information, and shut down your system.

Conclusions

Process Commander lists for $69 US and is certainly worth every penny of it as added protection against system hangs.  There are some well-known freeware and shareware applications that perform similar functions when the system queue is hung, but none of them provide such a comprehensive collection of utilities.  If you can not afford lost data in the event of a system hang, want to finely tune your system or application, or need to remotely administer an OS/2 system, Process Commander will return its cost many times over.

-----

* Process Commander v1.0
by (http://www.stardock.com/) Stardock Systems
MSRP:  US$69.95

-----

(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.

	---Our Sponsor: Indelible Blue (http://www.indelible-blue.com/ib/)---
	---Our Sponsor: K&S Systems (http://www.kssystems.com/)---
***********************************

Impos/2 v2.0	- by Chris Wenham

-----

Impos/2 by Compart Systems is a general purpose 32-bit image processing package with a highly customizable but occasionally annoying interface.  Its main strength is its built-in support for a wide range of popular scanners, both flatbed and handheld.  It's also unhindered from many of the restrictions found in its major competitor--ColorWorks 2.0.

Installation

Impos/2 comes on CD-ROM with both English and German language versions included.  To install, one just needs to select the right directory for the language of choice (\CDINST\GR for German or \CDINST\US for English) and run the install program.  You have the option of choosing which image file formats to install support for, as well as an option to copy a sampling of images to the hard disk.  The program files take about 2MB of disk space, the sample images another 900k.

Manual

The paperback 130-page manual starts by giving you a short tutorial on the basics of image processing, explaining the difference between bitmap and vector based images, image file formats, color schemes and color conversion.  The rest of the manual explains the features of the program, supplying B&W screenshots and illustrations.

User Interface

I have a love/hate relationship with Impos/2.  The user interface is wonderfully configurable with the ability to re-size tool palettes, drag-n-drop, delete or add tool icons anywhere and create new user-defined floating tool palettes with custom tools.  It has an extensive REXX interface, with which you can design custom tools and batch processes assignable to buttons that you can add to existing or custom tool palettes.  These palettes are also free-floating, not confined to any parent window and therefore easily distributable across your desktop.

But it can also be a real pain to use.  A glance at the painting tools palette will not tell you what tool is in use, because the buttons don't "stay down" after you select them.  Each separate canvas window can have a different tool in effect, which may be convenient for some, but still leaves me clicking back and forth like mad whenever I'm working on more than one image.  The screenshot feature is infuriating; click on the icon and the mouse cursor changes to a camera for a split second, then suddenly switches off while Impos/2 beeps at you with some unidentified error.  You must click on the screenshot button and then flick your mouse away quickly before the program expresses complaint, and even that doesn't always work.  (Despite this annoying idiosyncrasy, all of the screenshots I made for this review are "self portraits" so to speak.)

Painting Tools

Some of the painting tools are wonderful.  Smooth and anti-aliased brushes (only one shape however--round), an airbrush that builds up if you hold it in one spot, all fast and responsive too.  One can set the size, the hardness of the brush, the covering (aka opacity--how much of the original image it lets show through), or even the loss factor so that your brushes 'run out of paint.'  By adjusting the step size you can either get a smooth flowing line or a 'string of pearls' effect from the brushes.

Impos/2 doesn't have any "natural media" style painting tools like charcoal sticks or textured canvases though, which I felt the program would benefit from enormously.

Impos/2 has two gradient tools which work more like the ones in PhotoShop than in ColorWorks.  With the linear gradient you draw a line that defines the angle of the gradient as well as the thickness of the 'transition area' between the background and foreground colors.  Radial gradients are drawn much the same way, but here you're drawing an ellipse.  With Impos/2 you can draw elliptical gradients as well as circular ones, a plus over ColorWorks.  And by holding down the Alt key as you draw you can invert the gradient.

In addition to the regular painting tools, Impos/2 features a collection of image filters, some of them quite fun.  There are the usual 'standard' filters like blur, sharpen, emboss etc. (including a good Gaussian blur).  But there are also a range of plug-in filters such as wave, whirlpool, oil-painting, ripples, radial blur and motion blur.

These filters can be conveniently aborted before they finish by clicking on the black-square button that pops up in the progress bar. 

Selection tools

Impos/2 has rectangular, circular (elliptical), freehand and Magic Wand tools for selecting an area.  It also has a 'feather' feature for softening the edges of a selection.  Impos/2 has no explicit tools for drawing ellipses or rectangles though, rather you have to use the selection tools and then fill them with whatever color you prefer.  What I found annoying was that I couldn't draw ellipses by radius (pick center and drag out), only by diameter (pick top left, then bottom right).  There also did not seem to be a constrain feature that would have made it easier to draw a perfect circle or square.

Masks

Impos/2 has limited but functional support for 8-bit protection masks.  You can view the canvas in mask mode, which displays only the mask, or image-and-mask mode which displays the mask in red over a grayscale copy of the image.  Impos/2 does not allow the use of the Text tool while in mask mode (the manual suggests an awkward work-around instead).

I was unable to test the masking feature properly however, as the program crashed whenever I tried to work with this feature.

Scanner Support

Built right into the base package, without the need to purchase third party add-ons, is a very wide support for both handheld and flatbed scanners.  These include but are not limited to: The Mustek CG 6000, Epson GT 8000, HP ScanJet Plus, IIp, 3p, 3c and 4c, the IBM PageScanner 3119, Microtek ScanMaker II, Mustek MFS 6000 and others.

Scanners aren't installed at the same time the program is.  Rather, the user must go the "Scanner" tab of the program's configuration notebook and add the drivers needed.

Summary

Impos/2 avoids many of the limits to ColorWorks V2 like the 100x100 pixel minimum image size.  Plus it can edit images in several color-depth modes such as the 256-color palette of .GIF images which, although it loses color info when compared to a "truecolor" image, is still very handy for web page designers who know what they're doing.  Impos/2 still falls short on raw image processing power though and its user interface has caused a few teeth-grinding sessions with me.

The Rexx integration sounds enormously powerful, but there's little mention of it in the manual and the online .INF documentation doesn't explain enough about how to use it.  But if you can learn to work with it you can achieve powerful batch and macro processing.

-----

* Impos/2 v2.0
by Compart
MSRP:  US$199

-----

(http://www.spectra.net/~fox/) Chris Wenham is a Team OS/2er in Binghamton, NY with a catchy-titled company--(http://www.spectra.net/~pendulum/webworks/) Wenham's Web Works. He has written comedy, sci-fi, HTML, Pascal, C++ and now writes software reviews.

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Navigator/2 Unleashed	- by Edward Stangler

-----

OS/2 users who checked the Netscape web site on Monday, December 16th, received a delightful surprise.  IBM and Netscape had announced the final release of Netscape Navigator 2.02 for OS/2 Warp (dubbed "Navigator/2" by many users).  With this release, IBM and Netscape fulfilled their promise to deliver a high-quality, robust browser to OS/2 Warp users.

The install documentation says that "this release of Netscape Navigator offers you all the robustness of Netscape Navigator 2.02 and more."  They aren't kidding.  Not only do you get all the features of Navigator 2.02 you have come to love on other platforms, but you also get some nice Navigator 3.0 features, such as a working "Back" button on frames, and support for background colors on table cells.  The browser also offers drag-and-drop support for URL objects, and you can use Voice Navigation to surf the 'net.

This release comes with the Java for OS/2 1.0.2 beta runtime environment.  Java is supported on both Warp 3 and 4. It replaces the Java for OS/2 1.0.1 runtime environment found in OS/2 Warp 4.

In addition to the main Navigator/2 package, IBM has released an OS/2 Plug-In Pack which includes native OS/2 multimedia plug-ins (to play files such as .WAV, .VOC, and .AU), support for Windows 3.1 plug-ins (such as Shockwave Director), and software MPEG movie support.

Installation

Any beta versions of Navigator/2 should be removed before installing this final release, plain and simple.  Not doing so can result in .INI problems or problems with the multimedia plug-ins.  You have been forewarned.

Beyond that issue though, installation is fast, simple, and painless.  Netscape Navigator for OS/2 Warp uses the standard installation program found in many of today's OS/2 applications.  Uninstalling Navigator is just as easy.

I installed Navigator 2.02 for OS/2 on a 486/66 MHz machine, running OS/2 Warp 4 at a resolution of 640x480x64k.  Internet access was through a dialup PPP account, using a 28.8k modem.

Browsing

The final release of Navigator/2 is quick and responsive.  While not quite as light on its toes as WebExplorer 1.2 (shipped with Warp 4), it's definitely not the sluggish interface we saw in early betas.  Redraws are kept to a minimum, and scrolling is very fast.

Apart from a few phantom scrollbars on the left side of the screen, web page rendering under Navigator/2 is also great.  It lays out pages in a clean, attractive way.  In fact, some pages look even better in Navigator for OS/2 than in its Windows or Macintosh counterparts.

The "Back" button is amazingly quick, as is the frames support.  On many platforms, loading frames is asking for trouble, but on Navigator/2, the frames support is very stable and optimized.

Java

The Java support in this release is phenomenal.  Loading and running Java applets is fast.  In fact, it's noticeably faster than the Navigator/2 betas, even with the same version of the Java for OS/2 runtime environment (1.0.2).

After running a few applets, one begins to really get a feel for the integration of Java and Netscape Navigator for OS/2.  It wasn't too long ago that we had to suffer through the WebExplorer Java Technology Demo.  What users on other platforms have taken for granted, we have finally received.

The inclusion of the Java for OS/2 1.0.2 runtime environment dramatically eases the installation of Java support for users, especially those with Warp 3.  While the extra packaging does increase the size of the Navigator/2 distribution archive, it is much preferable to the "upgrade kit" that IBM stated would be available for Warp 3 users.  The "upgrade kit" they spoke of would have involved some hacking with a package called JEmpower.  Netscape/2 takes care of all of that.

Native Multimedia Plug-ins (plus MPEG)

The OS/2 Plug-In Pack must be IBM and Netscape's Christmas gift to OS/2 users.  The highlights of the package are the native multimedia plug-ins and the software MPEG support.

The first time you play a WAV or AU file, you'll be surprised.  A progress bar, fully integrated into the frame or browser window, appears when you start downloading the sound file.  In addition to the bar, you find mute, rewind, stop, and play buttons.  After a few seconds, you can start playing portions of the sound file, even before you're finished downloading it all!

This level of sound support is amazing.  Not only do you get tight integration with the browser, but offline, you can browse the sound clips you downloaded, via the Multimedia Internet Manager.  This awkwardly named applet, found in the System Setup folder under Warp 4, lets you select and play back clips using the same interface as the Compact Disc player.

This integration extends to video, as well, but the Plug-In Pack leaves much to be desired in that area.  First of all, it does not ship with a QuickTime codec, the code which allows playback of popular .MOV files.  As for the remaining half of videos on the Internet, the AVI support is also sorely lacking.  The documentation says that "some" AVI's may need an extra codec, available by searching the 'net.  In my experience, just about all AVI's will need this codec.  IBM should have packaged it directly with the Plug-In Pack.

The Plug-In Pack is redeemed by its MPEG support, however, called OpenMPEG Video.  Even on a 486/66, a soundless MPEG video will play back at decent speed and quality.  (Just don't expect any background processes to breathe while you play the videos.)  Since this is software MPEG we're talking about, the documentation does recommend at least a Pentium to run those videos smoothly.

Windows 3.1 Plug-ins

It is certainly easier to install a 16-bit Windows plug-in into Navigator/2 than into WebExplorer.  However, it's still not a piece of cake.

The README in the Plug-In Pack says that RealAudio and Shockwave Director have both been tested inside Navigator for OS/2.  If you install RealAudio after installing Navigator/2, you should not have too many problems.  You will have to manually tell Navigator which .EXE to use, and there may be some Win-OS/2 issues to wrestle with.

Mail and News

Netscape Navigator for OS/2 is not only a browser, but it also moonlights as mail and news clients.

The mail features in Navigator/2 make it a decent client.  It's a little bulky, but it's more than adequate for sending and receiving normal e-mail.  The news reader section is a sore spot though.  The interface is bulky and quite non-intuitive--even more so than on other platforms.

Overall

Netscape Navigator 2.02 for OS/2 Warp is a great browser.  It's fast, reliable, and finally brings the best of the web to the OS/2 Desktop.  The Plug-In Pack is a must for audio buffs.  If you have a faster machine and want to search for the AVI codec, you'll find the Plug-In Pack even more valuable.  Read your mail with Navigator/2, but skip the news.

The guys and gals at Boulder have really outdone themselves with the final release of Navigator/2.  They have done a superb job porting the world's most popular browser--and helping IBM to fulfill an important promise.

-----

* Netscape Navigator 2.02 for OS/2 Warp
by (http://www.ibm.com/) IBM & (http://www.netscape.com/) Netscape Communications
download (http://www.internet.ibm.com/browsers/netscape/warp/) Netscape Navigator/2 from IBM's site
MSRP:  FREE for Warp 3 and Warp 4 users.

-----

(mred@neosoft.com) Edward Stangler is a programming consultant who has worked with OS/2, UNIX, the TI 99/4A, and regrettably, Windows.  Drop by his home page at (http://www.neosoft.com/~mred/os2links.html) http://www.neosoft.com/~mred/os2links.html.

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NeoN StoryBook	- by Christopher B. Wright

-----

Multimedia Authoring collides with OS/2 at Warp Speed!

OS/2's promise of multimedia functionality has always, in my view, come up a little short.  Sure, it can play AVI's, MIDI files and sound files, but where's the integration?  Multimedia support in Warp 3 always seemed a little haphazardly constructed to me, and it's only slightly better integrated in Warp 4.

What really bugs me, though, is that multimedia is one of Warp's selling points when there seems to be so little of it out there specifically for Warp.  Stardock has released a few games (good games, mind you, but only a few so far) and there seem to be more on the way, but so far the pickings are slim.  So what are we, as OS/2 enthusiasts, to do?

Answer:  make our own damn applications.

This answer is not as frivolous as it appears.  Now, for less than the cost of your typical Windows 95 word processor, you can easily create and distribute your own fully integrated, customized multimedia applications.

Without programming a single line of code.

Repeat:  without programming a single line of code.

"How is this possible?" I hear you ask.  Easy.  The folks at Compo Software, who have already released an impressive 3D rendering tool called NeoN Grafix, have now released NeoN StoryBook: an easy-to-use multimedia authoring tool that makes multimedia design as easy as pasteboarding and drag-and-drop.

Multimedia Authoring

Let me clarify: it's not that OS/2 has never had multimedia authoring software, it's just that multimedia authoring software has never been this accessible (read: inexpensive).  IconAuthor, a venerable multimedia design product, is available for OS/2 (versions 6 and 7).  IconAuthor is a powerful, high-end product that costs, literally, thousands of dollars.  IBM also has a product called Ultimedia/2 which is (so the legends say) a full featured multimedia authoring program for OS/2, but I've only talked to one person who has actually used it (and he claims it stopped working on all versions of OS/2 past 2.0).

And you could always go the programming route--if you are a programmer and you have the time to debug your programming, which I am not and I don't.  What I and most people need is an affordable application that lets me concentrate on multimedia design rather than implementation.  This is where NeoN StoryBook comes in.

StoryBook has all the tools you need to make a respectable kiosk, demo, even training application.  StoryBook runs the gamut, from simple PowerPoint slide presentations, to moderately sophisticated "point and click" interactive interfaces.  StoryBook's predefined tools allow you to set regions on your application's display for text and graphics, animation and sound.  In StoryBook you can define what video resolution your presentation will be using, how long or short it will be... in effect, it gives you a large number of possibilities with only a minimum amount of time spent trying to figure it out.

Installation

NeoN StoryBook comes in either a Windows or OS/2 version.  It ships on three 3 1/2" diskettes (frankly, I expected the program to be bigger than that).  The disks include the authoring program and runtime module for OS/2 or Windows, depending on the version of the software your using.  Both the OS/2 and Windows versions are identical (except for one function, which I'll get to later), and anything you create on either platform can be run on the other.

Installation is simple and quick.  You can begin using StoryBook immediately, but I suggest running through the included demo application included with the program first: it will give you a good picture of what you can do with the software.  After watching the demo, I opened up StoryBook and began working immediately.

The manual is sparse in the way of tutorials: it's more of a command and tool reference guide.  While I would have liked more elaborate documentation (I'm a tech writer after all) you really don't need any more than you get.  The manual is useful for looking up specific functions of specific tools--the rest is fairly intuitive.

Working in StoryBook

StoryBook's UI looks more like a drawing program than anything else.  You design an application in much the same way as you would storyboard it, by putting all the pieces you want on the screen the way you want it to look, then assigning actions to the pieces you want to be interactive.

First, you define the size of your pages (you can choose from preset 640x480, 800x600, etc., or you can set an "irregular" size) then you add "stuff" to it.  This "stuff" (buttons, animations, videos, music, etc.) is added by choosing an item from a floating toolbar, then placing it on the screen and resizing it until it meets your approval.  You can add text, graphics, just about anything you'd expect from a multimedia application.

Each basic screen (for example, a starting "splash screen", or a screen of menu items) can be thought of as a page in your building process.  Multiple screens mean multiple pages.  The pages themselves can be static and unchanging (like a basic PowerPoint presentation) or they can be interactive (have audio and video files, scrolling text).

Double-clicking on any object brings up a properties toolbox that allows you to assign its functions.  For example, double clicking on a button object allows you to decide whether or not the button is a text button (simple button with text on it), graphic button (a button you design--this means you need to design what it looks like normally, and what it looks like pressed in), or an icon (you can use normal OS/2 icons as buttons in your applications!).  You also decide what that button does (does it take you to another page, exit the program, display copyright information, etc.) and, if you're using text on the button, what font the text is (and what color).

StoryBook uses whatever fonts are on the system running the application, so if you're using an uncommon font in your application it may be swapped out and replaced by something less suitable when running on a system that doesn't have it.  For this reason, most of the time you'll want to avoid using anything but the most basic fonts (Helvetica and Times Roman), or import your text as a graphic (.bmp, .gif, .tif, .tga) which will increase the size of your application, but allow you a little more flexibility when trying to tinker with your layout.  This is probably one of the most limiting of StoryBook's functions; I'd like to see the ability to actually embed a font in an application (so you don't need it installed on the target system) in a future release.

When you've finished with the application, you can create a runtime file to be included with your runtime module for distribution.  Once you've done that, your job is done!

Limitations

Since the release of FixPak 17, OS/2 has had a memory leak where multimedia applications are concerned, and Compo Software says this can seriously affect StoryBook's performance.  Basically, this leak occurs when OS/2 is opening and closing a lot of multimedia files (which StoryBook does), and can increase the swap file to such a degree that it grinds the system to a halt.  This bug has been corrected in FixPak 26, so if you're going to run this app in Warp 3, make sure you have either no FixPak installed on your machine, or FixPak 26 installed.  Unfortunately, Warp 4 has the same bug (and IBM has released no FP for Warp 4 yet).  I discovered this when, after working in a StoryBook session for about half an hour, my swap file grew to about 130 mb.

Because of this limitation, one feature on the Windows side of the application is not available under OS/2.  This feature is called "MediaSelect", and it allows Windows developers to examine a large "pool" of multimedia files at once.  Hopefully, after this problem is resolved, we'll see it included in a later version.

There are also some annoying quirks in the UI.  For example, starting a StoryBook session causes it to open the same way every time--window not maximized but taking up most of the screen, toolbar floating at the bottom of the window.  And resizing your application window can cause your toolbar to jump around the screen (or even offscreen).

Evaluation

I was floored by this product.  I never imagined that creating multimedia applications could actually be as easy as--excuse the cliche--point-and-click.  NeoN StoryBook probably cannot compete, feature for feature, with high-end multi-thousand dollar products like IconAuthor, but it can create rich and engaging multimedia for US$199 (which is significantly cheaper than anything else I've seen out there).  NeoN StoryBook is a great tool that can bring multimedia development that much closer to the rest of us.  Heartily recommended.

-----

* NeoN StoryBook
by (http://www.neongrafix.com/) Team Computer
MSRP:  US$199

-----

(cwbrenn@ibm.net) 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.

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OS/2 Warp in Network Computing: John Soyring Speaks	- by Chris Wenham

-----

In a recently released video about the future of OS/2 Warp in a Network Computing world, John Soyring reaffirms IBM's commitment to OS/2 and explains in detail what their strategy is.

Soyring begins with a recap of the Internet's rapid growth, the phenomena which excited the company into forming their new "Network Computing" strategy.  With the number of Internet users increasing by 10% per month (up to 200% in countries like Italy) and a new network coming online every ten minutes, Soyring shows that it's clear how important networks are in computing.

He further explains one of the chief problems companies face with computers today: cost of ownership.  For a large company, putting a PC on every desktop is an extremely expensive deal.

Compare this with the first generation of computing, where in the 70's and 80's the world was dominated by large mainframes powering many 'dumb terminals'.  This solution was cheap, because even though the mainframes were costly, each terminal was inexpensive and so simple that it had little or no maintenance costs tied to it.  IBM had perfected what was called "lights out operations"--where the mainframes were so well built they could be run in the back room with the "lights out" and nobody needed to stay and keep things going.

The problem with mainframes was that it took the IT department of a company ages to add new applications.  The solution found in the late 80s and early 90s was to use PCs instead and to buy shrink-wrapped software "off the shelf".  At that time companies were doing real work with their computers, but the cost of running those systems had gone up astronomically.  Those thousands of PCs were not only expensive to buy but they were expensive to support.  They were more complex and therefore more prone to failure.  Thousands of copies of software had to be installed separately and with each came the cost of technical support.  Then came upgrade costs and depreciation.

For the average corporation the "cost of ownership" comes to about US$8,000 per PC per year.  Soyring cites one company in Germany with tens of thousands of computers where cost of ownership took over $400 million out of their IT budget annually.

So now, IBM and John Soyring claim, we have come to the "third generation" of computing.  Already companies are using Intranets--private networks that use the same protocols as the Internet--to cut costs.  This means that employees who go home and read their e-mail with one e-mail client, can come to work and use the same e-mail client, or web browser or whatever, thus saving the company a fortune in training costs.  Soyring explains that IBM's strategy is to encourage this, heralding a new era of computing they call Network Computing.  The idea is to move more and more of the computing work back into the network and simplify the client, making the system cheaper and reducing the cost of ownership for each desktop machine.

Java

It's should be clear how important Java is to IBM.  Warp 4 is the first commercial operating system in the world to have Java fully integrated into it (see the review of Warp 4's Java in (http://www.os2ezine.com/v1n13/) November's issue), and as Soyring says, "Java is where it's at."

But Java isn't mature, many argue.  True, there are many holes in Sun's language but Soyring says that IBM is working hard to fill these holes.  Among the projects in development at IBM are:

o  JavaEnterprise - for database connectivity.
o  JavaSecurity
o  JavaBeans - for connecting Java to component software architectures such as OpenDoc and ActiveX.
o  JavaCommerce

Soyring says he expects to see most if not all of today's major operating systems incorporate the Java Virtual Machine, including all of IBM's major operating systems, for PCs, minis and mainframes.

But Soyring raises an important question: "Why should I buy OS/2 Warp [to get] Java support?"  He lists several reasons why:

o  IBM's commitment to the standard.  IBM is dedicated to Java as a standard agreed upon by the major Java investors.  This is unlike Microsoft's proprietary approach to Java.
o  Performance.  IBM has its top engineers and scientists working on improving the performance of Java, as evidenced by the "Just In Time" compiler shipped with the release version of Netscape Navigator for OS/2.
o  Reliability, Availability, Serviceability.  OS/2's time tested design has been deployed widely in "mission critical" environments such as the banking industry, which use it heavily not only in their desktop systems but for ATM machines.
o  IBM Service.  OS/2 has consistently ranked the highest in customer satisfaction ratings.

What's all this got to do with Warp?

According to Soyring, IBM has seen several trends emerge in the industry.  Large corporations want to extend their private networks to the public and make their huge repositories of information available to their customers.  They're also eating up the new office suites, those mammoth bundles of software that gobble up 200 megabytes or more per installation.  Yet when asked, most companies say their employees are only using 5-10% of the functionality of these packages, hence the drive towards component software like OpenDoc, OLE and "JavaBeans".  Soyring claims that companies want to connect together their scattered LAN systems to form a big central network, and they want to do it using a hardware and OS neutral technology, with open standards.

So IBM has come up with a 3-tiered computing model.  Three classes of computer, all of which connect and operate together in harmony.  The first tier is the simplified client, the "Network Computer."  The second tier would be a PC or RISC based server, running Warp Server or a Power PC based operating system.  The third tier is where 80% of the world's data still resides; Big mainframes and minicomputers.

In this world painted by Soyring, a user would run a web browser on a 1st tier computer--such as a handheld network computer, laptop or common desktop PC running Warp client.  He'd access a web page being hosted on a 2nd tier server, running Warp Server with Lotus Notes and Domino.  Here the user may use the web page to request data, which the server translates into a DB2 query that is finally run on a third tier mainframe or minicomputer which is storing the real data.  "Move more of the computing load out of the client and into the network" IBM is saying.

Soyring illustrated with an example: IBM employees in New York are running Windows NT applications with their OS/2 systems, but the applications are actually running on a computer in Austin Texas.  Keystrokes and mouse commands are bundled up and sent down the network, then the server passes these to the application and generates a set of instructions which are fed back to the client in New York to update the screen. Bandwidth isn't a problem apparently, since both in the laboratory and in the real world these applications only send about 20 kilobits of information per second during normal operation - enough for a 28.8k dialup modem to handle.

The result of this thinking can be seen clearly in Warp 4 and the way IBM is marketing it.  It's a "Universal Client"--able to connect up to any network using the major protocols.  It has extensive Internet and intranet features, a bundled Lotus Notes mail client, FTP folders, Java of course, and the newest in TCP/IP technology which IBM themselves have developed.  IBM has built and is continuing to build many new "network centric" technologies into both the client and the server.

The 3-Phase Strategy for Warp

Near the end of the video Soyring covers IBM's 3-phase strategy for the future of OS/2.

Phase 1: Extend

o  Run existing applications (OS/2, Win16, Win32s, DOS)
o  Universal client equipped with industry standard browser (Netscape)
o  Java Support
o  Easy IP administration.
o  Security and Directory enhancements.

All this got rolling on September 25th, 1996 with the release of Warp 4. 

Phase 2: Transform

o  Universal access to any application over the Worldwide Web.
o  Open Java tools, partners and services.

This is what's planned for OS/2 beyond version 4.0.  Performance will be improved, features added, more network centric technologies will become part of Warp.

Phase 3: Freedom

o  Exploit network computing.
o  Platform neutral, open applications.
o  Central control (such as security, servicing etc.).

The most important detail that Soyring emphasized was that, contrary to what many journalists have speculated, IBM is NOT putting OS/2 into "maintenance mode."  He emphatically confirmed that IBM will continue to improve OS/2 with new technology and new releases.  They are also still interested in expanding the number of native applications for OS/2, although it seems that IBM considers Java to be the main key towards this goal.

Soyring begins this video presentation addressing a problem that many IBM customers have complained about; that different parts of the huge corporation told different stories about what their strategy is.  In this tape, Soyring tries to make it clear that all of IBM is now fully on track and behind their new strategy, pointed that way by their chairman, Lou Gerstner himself.

This video goes a long way towards convincing the viewer that IBM does not consider Warp "dead"; they consider it an arguably important cog in a very intricate machine.

-----

(http://www.spectra.net/~fox/) Chris Wenham is a Team OS/2er in Binghamton, NY with a catchy-titled company--(http://www.spectra.net/~pendulum/webworks/) Wenham's Web Works. He has written comedy, sci-fi, HTML, Pascal, C++ and now writes software reviews.

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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 (this listing is voluntary).

Please send:

o  cash, cheque or money order (payable to Falcon Networking),
o  a note stating that it is for OS/2 e-Zine! sponsorship,
o  your name,
o  address (city, state/province and country),
o  e-mail address, and
o  web url if applicable.

Alternatively, you may choose to sponsor OS/2 e-Zine! through BMT Micro by cash, cheque, money order, Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express or Diner's Club.  Just call:

o  (800) 414-4268 (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.

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 (editor@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 of OS/2 e-Zine! :

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The support of these companies makes this issue possible.  Why not thank them?

(http://www.bestofos2.com/) Best of OS/2
Your complete OS/2 resource centre.  News, demos, catalog of over 150 software products, daily Hobbes Report and links to numerous sites.

(http://www.bmtmicro.com/) BMT Micro
Your complete source for over 100 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.emtec.com/) EmTec Innovative Software
EmTec Innovative Software produces state-of-the-art OS/2 ISDN, modem
and telnet communications software.  OS/2 Magazine and Inside OS/2 1995
award winner.

(http://www.hotinc.com/) House of Technology, Inc.
Your Canadian Source For OS/2 Applications.

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

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

(http://www.kssystems.com/) K&S Systems
IBM BesTEAM, NT, and Vinca certified consultants provide HW/SW products, installation, configuration, staging, support, and Web Site Design.

(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://nick.secant.com/mr2ice.htm) MR/2 ICE Internet Email Client
Delivering the electronic mail features of the future, today.  A product of Knightware Software Company.

(http://www.Mount-Baker.com/) Mt. Baker Software
Developers of a full featured personal financial package for OS/2.

(http://prairie.lakes.com/~oberon/) Oberon Software, Inc.
Home of TE/2, TE/2 Pro and other fine OS/2 programs.  Specializing in telecommunications and the Internet.

(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.aescon.com/innoval/) Post Road Mailer
The Post Road Mailer is a high performance, 32-bit, email program with drag and drop filing, printing, shredding, word wrap and multiple MIME attachments.

(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.cfw.com/~shenan/) Shenandoah Equipment Co.
Providers of lifetime warrantied name brand simms, laptop and printer memory at competitive prices.

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

(http://www.aescon.com/innoval/) Surf'nRexx
Use REXX to build powerful Internet utilities using our DLLs.  Package also includes 10 utilities as samples.

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Copyright 1996   -   Falcon Networking
ISSN 1203-5696