`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`
*** March 1993     San Diego OS/2 User Group    Newsletter    ***
`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`

March 1993 marks the release of the fourth issue of our monthly
newsletter.  We've noticed interest in it from people outside
of the San Diego area and would therefore like to provide a
newsletter for any and all interested OS/2 users and potential
users, including those outside of our area.

As we are an informal volunteer user group, we don't have fees or
charge subscriptions for the newsletter.  So far we've been
financing user group activities out of our own pockets.  But this
could get to be financially burdensome if many people outside of
the San Diego area would like to have the newsletter mailed to
them, so we've come up with a tentative plan to address this
issue in a way we feel will be fair and reasonable to all. Our
intent is to try this plan for a few months and then evaluate how
well it worked and make adjustements if necessary.

If you'd like a sample issue of the San Diego OS/2 Newsletter,
please send a self-addressed stamped envelope with enough postage
to about 3 ounces ($0.75 in the USA) to our address listed at the
bottom of this announcement.  If you'd like more than one issue,
send as many SASE envelopes as issues you'd like to receive.

Since the newsletter costs more than just postage, we also have
to
get funding from people who are interested in it to help pay for
duplicating costs, the post office box, and other newsletter
related expenses.  After some discussion, we've decided that for
now the best way to be fair to all concerned is to ask for a
donation to help cover newsletter expenses.  We'll leave the
amount up to you, suggesting that you are the best judge of what
you feel is appropriate after you've seen an issue of the
newsletter. Personal checks are completely OK as these are
donations, notsubscriptions.  You can make out any donation check
to "Dave Sichak" who is the editor of the newsletter.  We'll use
any donations we receive for covering newsletter expenses.

If you'd like to contribute an article to the newsletter, we
welcome your contribution in that regard also.  If we use it, you
would be entitled to a complimentary copy of the newsletter in
which we used your material.  We have an idea list and some hints
at what we'd like your articles to include.  Let us know if you
are interested in contributing articles and would like a copy of
this list.  You can submit material via US Mail or via electronic
mail at the addresses listed below.

Here's our mailing address:

  San Diego OS/2 User Group
  P.O. Box 13346
  La Jolla, CA 92039-3346

If you'd like to get in touch with somebody via electronic mail,
you can contact the following people:

EDITOR
======
Dave Sichak     Fidonet:  1:202/354
                Internet: Dave_Sichak@f354.n202.z1.fidonet.org


SAN DIEGO OS/2 USER GROUP ORGANIZER
===================================
Craig Swanson   Fidonet:  1:202/354
                Internet: Craig_Swanson@f354.n202.z1.fidonet.org


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|  SAN DIEGO OS/2 USER GROUP NEWSLETTER ----- MARCH 1993    |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Inside This Issue >>>
1.     Lotus Products Review
2.     Letters to the Editor
3.     DOS Settings - Idle Seconds
4.     Ring a Bell...New Way to Format
5      OS/2 Awards
6      Next OS/2 PDK Available
7      Xtree for OS/2?
8      Appreciation for the Power of OS/2
9      OS/2 Reading
10.    OS/2 & Telecommunications
11.    DPMI vs XMS vs EMS
12.    Using REXX - Delete a Directory
13.    Visual Programming with REXX
14.    OS/2 Day at Egghead
15.    Introduction to REXX
16.    VCALC.LST (companion article to Introduction to REXX)
17.    Philippe Kahn - San Diego
18.    IBM's OS/2 INI Files Questioned
19.    CD ROMS - Texel & Toshiba
20.    OS/2 User Groups
21.    Coast 2 Coast User Group Interview
22.    Stolen Taglines
23.    Run OS/2 With No WPS?
24.    Who's Who Doing OS/2
25.    WPS Tip:  Add to the Pop-Up Menu
26.    Phoenix OS/2 Developer's Conference
27.    Shareware Review - Henk Kelder's Tools
28.    Henk Kelder's Tools - New Versions Released
29.    April Meeting Announcement
30.    Directions
31.    How to Contact Us...

+--------------------------------------------------------+
|   Lotus 1-2-3 & Freelance Graphics for OS/2 Reviewed   |
+--------------------------------------------------------+
Robert Freund
February 12, 1993
Fidonet OS2
Origin:  OS/2 Shareware BBS (1:109/347)

(The following review of the 32-bit Lotus 1-2-3 for OS/2 and
Freelance Graphics for OS/2 is a compilation of two reviews posted
by Mr. Freund on Fidonet and on the IBM NSCBBS during February
1993.)

Standard Disclaimer

I am not associated with the Lotus Corporation.  The following
review reflects my perception of the performance of the new Lotus
products and is anything but infallible.

32-Bit Lotus Products for OS/2 2.X

I ordered the new 32-bit Lotus 1-2-3 and Freelance Graphics for
OS/2 2.x early this month.  Due to the miracles of overnight
shipping, I received them on Tuesday, February 9.  I have spent a
good deal of the last three weeks playing with them and wanted to
share my impressions.

I would like to begin with a bit about myself so that the readers
can put my comments into perspective.  I am a Ph.D. student in
Operations Management / Research at Cornell University.  I have
spent a fair amount of time using Excel 4.0 and Powerpoint for
Windows in mostly TECHNICAL applications.  I have had relatively
little experience using any spreadsheet product for BUSINESS
applications.  I don't know if there is any real difference between
the two, but, if so, I wanted to point out my areas of relative
experience.

That being said, I suppose we should start out with the following
warning, pertinent to all OS/2 2.1 beta testers.

WARNING: THE NEW 32-BIT LOTUS 1-2-3 DOES NOT WORK WELL WITH THE
OS/2 2.1 BETA WITHOUT INSTALLING A KERNEL FIX AVAILABLE FROM IBM.

This fix is available from many BBS's, including the IBM NSCBBS and
Peter Norloff's OS/2 Shareware BBS.  It is usually called

21krnl.zip      804171      2-15-93

and comes with detailed instructions on how to install the fix.
The symptoms of the problem are:

1.     warning message during install that SP is not installed.

(2)    VERY LONG (2-5 minute) delays in starting the program once the
       icon has been double-clicked.  The hourglass appears during
       the startup screen, then all disk activity stops and the
       system is completely inoperative until some sort of timeout
       occurs, approximately 2-5 minutes later.  WEIRD, since after
       the timeout the program window is running and active.

(3)    intermittent (complete system) HANGS while actually running
       the program.  This is especially true when attempting to
       edit/change the SmartIcon menus.
(4)    slow performance of features that use dlls.

IBM responded very quickly to the loading problems on the 2.1 beta.
A kernel fix was available within 3 days and it apparently solves
the problem.  I say "apparently" because there are occasionally
conditions under which the load takes significantly longer than
normal.  For example, the "normal" load time on my 486/33 with 16MB
is 15-20 seconds.  Before the fix, the load time would be 3-5
minutes.  Occasionally, after the fix, the load time can be 45-60
seconds.  I have experienced none of these problems when running
1-2-3 under my other partition, which is GASP using generic
640x480x16 VGA.

GENERAL IMPRESSIONS

The default interface to both programs is CRISP, FAST, and GOOD
LOOKING in generic 640x480x16 VGA mode.  However, I usually run my
system at 1024x768x256 and the default modes for 1-2-3 had to be
changed a bit before they looked as good.  Overall, I find myself
very satisfied with both programs, although it has taken a bit
longer to grow fond of 1-2-3 than Freelance Graphics.  Excel 4.0 is
really a very good program and, in the absence of a native OS/2 2.x
program, I would have had little desire to switch to a competitive
product.  In hindsight, I am quite glad that I did - which I
explain in greater detail below.

As was noted in the Byte review, 1-2-3 and Freelance Graphics (FG)
are very well integrated together.  The same charting,
dictionary,and printing subsystems are used for both 1-2-3 and FG.
Hence, when loaded together the total install is approximately 11MB
as opposed to the 15+MB when installed separately.  You also save
the overhead involved in learning yet another piece of software.

Another nice feature is that when you start either program, the
other program is available through the pull-down menus.  This does
not start up a whole new PM Window but rather causes the new app to
run "seamlessly" inside the already existing desktop.  The icons
and pull-down menus at the top of the Lotus desktop reflect the
actions applicable to whichever window has the focus.  This feature
is really quite handy since many presentations depend on charts and
data in accompanying spreadsheets.

FREELANCE GRAPHICS for OS/2

This is really a much easier review to write than the one for
1-2-3.  The 32-bit Freelance Graphics (FG) for OS/2 is pretty much
SUPERIOR in every way to POWERPOINT FOR WINDOWS.  It is faster,
better looking,and easier to use.  There are many well-designed
templates available.  Some are optimized for color, others for
black & white.  Furthermore, FG comes with 12 attractive Adobe
fonts geared towards presentations.

FG reminds me a whole lot of a faster version of Harvard Graphics
for Windows.  In each of the templates there are "sub-templates"
for the various kinds of overheads you might want to do.  For
example, suppose you select the "Colored Cityscape" motif as your
basic template.  You can then create an entire presentation with
this as your background.  There are sub-templates for the title
chart, a single column of bullets, a chart and bullets, two columns
of bullets, two charts, four charts, etc.  In each sub-template
there are "click here to enter text" regions that, when you click
on them, start up a little editor complete with tab positions and
ruler.  Likewise, there are "put graphics here" regions that you
just drag a graphics image to and it will be sized and formatted.

Lots of attractive drawings come with FG -like a stylized computer
system or a train or whatever.  You just drag them to the "put
graphics here" regions of the presentation and size them to your
liking.  If you don't want to use the templates, you can create
your own and still use the "click here for text" and "put graphics
here" macros.  FG includes a drawing toolbox that can be used to
create custom graphics.  I wouldn't call it a full-featured drawing
program,but it will do for most jobs.

About the only real complaint that I have is the lack of an
equation editor.  Most, if not all, of my presentations are geared
towards a mathematically oriented audience.  I can create much of
what I need by manually selecting characters from the Symbol and
Fences fonts.  However, this is far less efficient than a true
equation editor.  I suspect that the 32-bit Ami Pro for OS/2 will
integrate with 1-2-3 and FG and alleviate this problem.  However,
until Ami Pro for OS/2 is released, the lack of an equation editor
could prove to be a burden to some users.

All in all, a very good job.  You can't go wrong with Freelance
Graphics for OS/2.

LOTUS 1-2-3 for OS/2

To be honest, I really like Excel 4.0 for Windows and consider it
to be an excellent program.  Hence, it is hardly surprising that it
has taken me some time to unlearn Excel and get up to speed on
1-2-3.  It is still true that I miss certain "convenience" features
of Excel,but I FIND MYSELF GROWING QUITE FOND OF 1-2-3.

Don't stop reading the review here and conclude that 1-2-3 is
inferior to Excel! IT IS CLEARLY NOT.  However, there are trade-
offs between the two programs and personal preferences will dictate
the "winner" on an individual basis.  Some of my comments reflect
the fact that I learned spreadsheets on Excel.  "Why the heck
doesn't 1-2-3 do this like I am used to?" was a not uncommon
refrain heard around my computer these past few weeks.  Several
times I had to remind myself to separate the concepts of "better"
and "worse" from the concept of "different."

I guess the two biggest complaints levelled at prior OS/2 and
Windows versions of 1-2-3 were:

(a)    a lack of key formatting/printing features
(b)    a somewhat "clunky" user interface

I go into greater detail on (a) later in this review, but the
bottom line is that the new 1-2-3 is pretty much FEATURE COMPLETE.
As with any "mature" product type, 1-2-3 is better in some areas
whereas the competition is better in others.  Overall, I feel that
1-2-3 AT LEAST HOLDS ITS OWN IN OVERALL AVAILABILITY OF FEATURES.

Lotus has made great strides in (b), but it is still a bit "clunky"
in certain areas.  I guess a perfect example of this statement is
1-2-3's way of dealing with fonts.  Instead of the logical,
intuitive method used by Excel wherein you select a cell and then
"pull-down" separate lists for "font" and "size", 1-2-3 uses a
different approach.  You select a cell (or range) and then change
the fonts by selecting from a configurable list of font/size
combinations.  I guess Lotus chose to do it this way so that users
could make global changes to fonts - it is kind of like "styles" in
WinWord.  Unfortunately, the font/size assignment is a
combinatorial problem - the list gets HUGE for even moderate
numbers of fonts and sizes.  The only recourse is to add to the
list only when you have a need for a particular font/size
combination.  Unfortunately,this method still does not avoid the
need to search for your choice from among a large list.

...  like I said earlier, a bit "clunky" ...

I would like to balance this complaint with some positive comments
about the user interface.  When it comes to selecting large
ranges,or creating long columns of linear, power, or geometric
series,1-2-3 REALLY SHINES.  It beats the "drag-handle" method
hands down.  Have you ever tried to "drag" 1000 data points? I hate
doing this in Excel whereas it is a snap in 1-2-3.  Judicious use
of cell and range names makes maneuvering in 1-2-3 even easier.  I
also like the way that 1-2-3 allows for copying cell formats from
one cell to any collection of cells.  It is easy to use, logical,
and a real time-saver for creating nice-looking documents.

Some more detailed observations

(1)    1-2-3 relies on user-configurable "Smart Icons" in place of
       Excel's right-mouse-button pop-up menu.  I STILL PREFER POP-UP
       MENU's.  They are significantly faster.  Lotus should
       definitely include them in all future releases of 1-2-3.

       That being said, the context sensitive "Smart Icons" are still
       OK.  After you decide which functions you use the most, it is
       easy enough to configure the toolbar.  You can also write your
       own macro, create a new .bmp, and add a custom Smart Icon to
       your menu.  Perhaps not quite as handy as pop-up menus, but
       decidedly better than pulling down several title-bar menus.

(2)    The loss of the "drag-handle" available in Excel is less of a
       problem than I anticipated.  Yes, it does save some time in
       small to medium worksheets, but I have found that 1-2-3's
       "Range-Select" and "List" commands are actually much faster
       for large spreadsheets.  For me, these trade-offs balance out
       in the long-run.

(3)    At first glance, the lack of enough built-in Statistics
       functions really concerned me.  Admittedly, my particular
       profession makes these functions more important to me than
       normal.  However, it turns out that this inconvenience is
       hugely outweighed by the ability to attach custom @Functions
       and macros to 1-2-3 through DLLs.

ATTACH CUSTOM @FUNCTIONS THROUGH C/C++ DLLs - AN ABSOLUTELY
INCREDIBLE FEATURE!!!

I can write code that is better than the statistics functions built
into Excel, and thus adding dlls to 1-2-3 is ideal.  Anyone with
IBM's C/C++ beta can create these dlls.  I was not familiar with
the process of creating dlls when I began, and so was a bit
worried.  However, after reading the CDROM on-line documentation
and the Lotus documentation, I was able to do EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED
with custom @Functions.  Don't let it scare you off if you have
never created dlls - anyone even moderately comfortable with C/C++
can eventually figure it out.  It takes a bit of work because the
1-2-3 manual assumes that you are already familiar with writing and
compiling dlls.  However, Lotus includes sample files
(.c,.def,.mak) that basically show you how to create a dll.  This
is a very nice feature for people who are willing to be "technical
users" of 1-2-3.  Basically, you can do anything inside 1-2-3
through an @Function that you can/would do in a C/C++ program.  I
believe that you can do a similar thing with Excel, but only if you
purchase the Excel developer's toolkit.  Otherwise, you are
restricted to Excel macros.

(4)    I was asked by several people how good the printing features
       were under 1-2-3.  Honestly, I find them a bit confusing at
       times -definitely less "intuitive" than the equivalent Excel
       functions.  They all seem to be there, like "fitting" to a
       page and centering horizontally and vertically.  You can have
       headers and footers.  Cell shading and border outlining is
       available, and I even like 1-2-3's method better than Excel's.
       I just find the actual sequence of commands confusing
       sometimes.  For example, the print dialog box requires you
       click on "GO" and then "QUIT".  Nothing happens after you
       click on "GO" by itself, and so you think that it didn't work.
       Well, it did.

       GO's job is to send a request to the print queue, but the
       queue doesn't seem to be activated until you "QUIT".  I
       managed to generate a whole bunch of print requests in the
       queue before I finally realized what was happening.  I can
       only speak for myself,but this seems extremely counter-
       intuitive.  One really NICE feature is that printing is spun
       off as a separate thread.  You get the mouse back IMMEDIATELY,
       and there is little (if any) noticeable degradation due to the
       spooling process.

(5)    One other item worthy of mention is the 3-dimensional
       worksheet concept built into 1-2-3.  Each 1-2-3 "file" is
       really a collection of 256 sheets stacked one atop another.
       Normally you only see one of these sheets, and it looks like
       any other column/row spreadsheet.  In a sense, it is like
       ALWAYS opening an Excel workbook.  Suppose you had 10 distinct
       sales regions, several different graphs, and a FG
       presentation.  They could all be dynamically linked and saved
       on different sheets in the same file.  That is about as far as
       I have gotten so far on this feature.  It *seems* useful.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, I am VERY SATISFIED with both of the two programs,
although 1-2-3 has taken a bit longer to grow fond of than
Freelance.  Now,three weeks later, I am very glad that I made the
effort.  1-2-3 is a quick, visually attractive spreadsheet program
that does virtually everything I need and is readily extensible
through dlls.  The ability to attach C/C++ programs to my
spreadsheets is exactly what I needed,even though I never realized
it before.  1-2-3 for OS/2 2.x may be a bit rougher around the
edges than Excel 4.0, but virtually all of the same functionality
is available.  Many features are arguably better in 1-2-3, such as
the cell formatting commands, the graphing commands, and the
generation of long columns of linear, power, and geometric series.
Furthermore, OS/2 is just so much better at multitasking NATIVE
OS/2 programs.  When I am running Excel 4.0 under Win-OS/2 3.1, it
can be annoying trying to simultaneously run a simulation and the
C/C++ compiler.  I am not knocking OS/2's well-deserved reputation
for great DOS multitasking.  However, there is only so much that
can be done with code not written specifically for a multitasking
environment.  On the other hand, there is no similar problem when
running 1-2-3 for OS/2.  I notice little, if any, performance
degradation.

THE "SPEED" OF 1-2-3 vs EXCEL 4.0

I have read comments on various nets and in PC Week that the 32-bit
1-2-3 is significantly slower than its Windows and DOS
counterparts.  I FOUND THIS COMPLETELY AT ODDS WITH MY EXPERIENCE,
and so I decided to do some benchmarking.  This post is already too
long, and so I forgo the details of the test.  Anyone interested in
more details can contact me in the OS2 area of FidoNET or on the
IBM NSCBBS.  I believe these basic results are repeatable for any
large spreadsheet with lots of floating point calculations.

A summary of the results are as follows -
1-2-3 and Excel perform their recalculations in different ways.
Which way is "better" depends on how you use your spreadsheets.

The time for 1-2-3 to recalculate large spreadsheets is essentially
constant, regardless of whether it is the first time or the 10th.

The time for Excel to recalculate large spreadsheets is EXTREMELY
dependent on whether or not it is the first time since the document
has been opened last.

I created 2 large, identical spreadsheets in both 1-2-3 and Excel
4.0.  These spreadsheets contained extensive floating point
calculations and required graphing 2,000+ points.  Case A involved
the generation of several thousand random numbers and then
performing trigonometric functions on the results.  Case B involved
no random number generation.  I turned calculations on "manual" and
clocked the following results,based on repeating the test six
times.

SPREADSHEET A

Lotus: 1st time recalc = 6.5 sec's subsequent time = 6.5 sec's
(avg)

Excel:  1st time recalc = 40 sec's subsequent time = 2.5 sec's
(avg)


SPREADSHEET B

Lotus:  1st time recalc = 14 sec's subsequent time = 13.7 sec's
(avg)

Excel:  1st time recalc = 100 sec's subsequent time = 3.5 sec's
(avg)

Excel appears to load the functions into some kind of cache memory
the first time that a spreadsheet is loaded and a recalculation is
performed.  You pay a tremendous penalty in the beginning and are
rewarded with quick subsequent recalculations.  Lotus is completely
consistent in how long it takes.  If you have a small or medium
document, the difference is lost in the "noise" of overall system
performance (which greatly favors Lotus 1-2-3 for OS/2).  If you
have a large worksheet where you update some input figures "every
so often" and want to see the output, then 1-2-3's method is
clearly superior.  On the other hand, if you have a large worksheet
that requires constantly changing the parameters, then Excel's
method is superior.  I should note that the "1st time recalc"
results for Excel occur every time the spreadsheet is closed and
then opened again.

The point is, TAKE BENCHMARK CLAIMS WITH A LARGE GRAIN OF SALT.

From the results above, I could claim the "Lotus 1-2-3 is at least
7 times as fast as Excel".  I could also claim that "Excel is at
least 3 times as fast as Lotus".  Both are correct...  and both are
wrong.  It depends on what you are doing.

Based on my experience, I will make the following claim:

LOTUS 1-2-3 FOR OS/2 2.x "FEELS" FASTER THAN EXCEL 4.0.

This includes subsystem performance such as graphing, file
saving,file retrieval, and switching between applications.
However, I readily acknowledge that this depends on the specifics
of what you are using the spreadsheet for.

SOME PARTING COMMENTS

I hope you found this interesting and not just a waste of modem
connect-time.  Both of these products are available through a
competitive upgrade for $129.  Based on my response, I think Lotus
has done a good job with these products - they should help make
OS/2 more successful.  I would, once again, caution Excel users
that there will be a learning curve associated with 1-2-3.  Some of
the things you have gotten used to will seem "wrong" or "missing".
However, be careful to separate the concepts of "better/worse" from
the concept of "different".

Clearly, the benefit of a modern 32-bit OS shows itself in the
performance of the Lotus apps with respect to similar windows apps.
This is noticeable in both speed AND the slower rate of performance
degradation when multitasking.  Furthermore, IMHO the OS/2 GUI just
looks so much cleaner and more attractive than the Windows GUI.

Finally, be sure to pass on to other OS/2 users that there is a
problem running these products under the 2.1 beta.  It would be
very unfortunate if someone denigrated two very nice products
because they didn't work well on their system, only to find that it
was a bug in 2.1b.  According to the net (basically unsubstantiated
rumors), this may well have been the reason for the negative tone
in the recent PC Week review of the 32-bit 1-2-3.


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|         DOS  SETTINGS:  IDLE  SECONDS                     |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Jim Gilliland
Fidonet OS2
February 11, 1993
Origin:  Cousin Jimmie's OS/2 Version 2.1 PetitPoint (1:157/200.34)

Jim wrote a response to Lane Lester's inquiry about the different
notes on this DOS setting you will find when you open the settings
notebook and selection "session" then "DOS Settings".

JH> 2. Set IDLE Seconds to the maximum
JH> setting

LL> I'm seeing conflicting advice about
LL> this setting when used for DOS comm
LL> programs.  Maybe a little discussion
LL> is in order?

The Idle Seconds parameter determines how long OS/2 allows the DOS
app to engage in seemingly idle behavior before it gets preempted.
If you set it to a very high setting, then OS/2 will allow the DOS
app to have the CPU even though it appears idle for a long time.

The Idle Sensitivity parameter determines how OS/2 detects that the
application is idle in the first place.  If you set it to 100, OS/2
will not make any attempt to perform idle detection, and will never
preempt the DOS app on that basis.  So if the Idle Sensitivity
parameter is set to 100, the Idle Seconds parameter becomes
completely meaningless -the system will behave identically whether
you set it to 0 seconds or 24 hours.

OS/2 detects an idle DOS app by watching how often the application
polls the keyboard in a given period of time.  If the application
polls more frequently than a given threshold, then OS/2 decides
that it is idle.  That threshold is controlled by the Idle
Sensitivity setting.  OS/2 then waits until the application has
been seemingly idle for the length of time specified by the Idle
Seconds parameter, and then preempts the application and dispatches
the next available thread.

My own approach to managing DOS apps is to vary the Idle
Sensitivity parameter until I have it set so that the application
runs well, but does not prevent other apps from running well.  I've
never found an instance where tinkering with the Idle Seconds
parameter was necessary, but it may be useful under some special
circumstances.  Keep in mind, though, I don't run many DOS apps
<G>.


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|           More  On:  Idle  Sensitivity                    |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
John Steffes
Fidonet OS2
February 11, 1993
Origin:  PC-OHIO (1:157/200)

(John wrote in response to Jim's approach to Idle Sensitivity.)

I've found that for some DOS games that are processor intensive
(Lemmings,  MS FS), it's best to set Idle Sensitivity=100. Also, my
mouse action is a little erratic for WinOS2, so I've also set Idle
Sensitivity up for that.  That's been my experience.


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|        Ring  A  Bell:  New  Way  To  Format               |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Jim Flannery
Fidonet OS2
March 5, 1993
Origin:  Interconnect - Littleton, CO  (1:104/60)

I had made a comment that I wanted a means to have FORMAT ding me
when it was done with a disk.  JEROME YUZYK suggested making a CMD
file which I just call FA.CMD

@echo off
format a:/once/v:"X"
@echo on
^G^G^G^G

He suggested running it in the background:

DETACH FA

Another idea:  If you want to simply click on an icon, have a disk
formatted, then be notified, WITHOUT having to watch a window,
then:

MIGRATE it ADJUST the settings, to OPEN MINIMISED CLOSE on exit.

You don't have to detach it, and it'll ding you when done.  The
icon will sit quietly in a corner of your screen whilst it is
running, then disappear.  (Editor's Note:  I've tried this and it
works; the only quirk is an error message that comes up saying not
a recognized command or something, but the disk gets formatted and
the bell goes "ding".


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|       Letters  To  The  Editor                            |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Time to reach into the ole mailbag or our network mail.

Dear Editor,
My name is Mat Kramer.  I am working on pulling together a
newsletter for the Minnesota OS/2 User Group.  One of the guys from
the UG was recently at the Phoenix conference, where he got a copy
of your latest online newsletter.  I was wondering if it would be
possible for us to use any of your material.  If so, what kind of
statements do we need to print to give credit to the proper person?
We would be interested in swapping articles, but at this time we
have nothing to offer in return.  We're hoping to have our first
issue out by March 25.

I'm also curious how you go about IPF tagging your newsletter.  Do
you have any tools or macros to help you do this?  Is it a pretty
time-consuming task?  Thanks for any help you can offer!

Mat Kramer
MNOS2 (1:202/723)

      You and other user groups may use our articles if you wish.
       I would say that normal credit should be given.  This would be
       the author's name (if listed) as well as the source, i.e., San
       Diego OS/2 User Group Newsletter, Fidonet, etc and possibly
       the date of the issue you took it from.  I believe APCUG has
       some guidelines on this.  And yes, we'd like to exchange
       articles with other groups.  Perhaps we could establish a
       mailing list for OS/2 user groups to send their newsletters
       for such purposes or their INF versions.  We can discuss this
       in the Fidonet TEAMOS2 echo.

       Now, as for the IPF tagging.  I'm looking for a decent tool.
       I've got something called "HELPEDIT" or something to that
       effect, but I haven't tried it yet.  The March issue will be
       the first try.  I've used EPM for the most part, using the
       "cut and paste" facility quite a bit.  It is a bit of a pain.
       I freely admit I'm a novice at it.  For the first issue, I
       learned IPFC tagging and compiling in one weekend.  I'll post
       an example to show you some of the fun you'll have.


Dear Craig,
What's the procedure for joining the users group and when is the
next meeting??

Jalal Husseini
San Diego, CA

      There is no formal procedure as we are informal group with no
       dues or official membership list.  This may change in the
       future.  For now, you're a member if you show up at a meeting.
       Our meetings are held on the third Thursday each month with
       the next one on March 18 at the IBM building in La Jolla.
       Look for meeting announcements in this message area or on the
       log on bulletins on the OS/2 Connection BBS.


Dear Dave,
What's a CPA Dave?  (Apart from me - Colin Paul Adams).

I just read the San Diego INF newsletter -it was GREAT.
Congratulations to you and Craig et al.

Grizzly
Colin Paul Adams
Ursus Fremens Rexx - Preston UK
(2:250/121)

      Gee, wait til we really start doing a newsletter.  We're still
       considering ourselves "beta" testing right now.  In other
       words, we're not satisfied yet.  But keep those comments
       coming, it helps our egos.


Dear Editor,
I picked up the *.inf version of your newsletter, and it's GREAT.
I'll be dragging it on diskette to our next meeting this Friday.

Since you'll have a pretty large distribution electronically, why
not a short blurb on teh "care and feeding"  (and starting) a local
OS/2 users group?

My experience is that people seem to be having various levels of
"luck" in starting / maintaining users' groups.  I called someone
at IBM and was essentially brushed off.  I netmailed his number to
someone else, who mailed me back saying that he had gotten his
group on a mailing list and was really helpful!

It might be useful to outline the steps in starting a users group,
e.g., contacting a local IBM office, how to get company reps to
demo software, how to advertise, maybe even how to start a
newsletter.

Of course, since every area is different, the tips would have to be
pretty general, but might be useful to both existing groups and
wannabe groups.  Another approach might be to solicit tips from
successful user groups, so you (or whomever) won't have to spend as
much time writing it. :)

Keep up the good work!  (And dang, I've got to remind myself to
send you guys a check when my next payday comes along -- the
electronic version alone is worth it!)
Melissa Woo
Champaign, Illinois
(1:233/4.100)

      A few things have happened since I first originally replied to
       your note.  For OS/2 user groups, check out the TEAMOS2 echo
       on Fidonet.  Yours truly is a co-moderator and we're going to
       use it to help user groups "network" and share ideas and
       experiences.  Check out our Coast 2 Coast article this issue,
       seems you were reading my mind this month.  Sometimes a story
       will write itself.  And there's another possible surprise down
       the line, but we'll let you wait for that one.  And thanks a
       bunch!


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|                  O S / 2    A W A R D S !                 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Mario Semo
Fidonet OS/2
February 21, 1993
Origin:  DevNet (8:888/44)
(From IBM US 051 - 2/17/93)

Datamation Magazine Adds to OS/2 Awards!

SOMERS, N.Y., Feb.  17, 1993 - OS/2, the advanced operating system
for personal computers keeps on gaining international acclaim from
the computer industry's leading publications.  OS/2 has won three
additional industry awards, one praising its technical excellence
and two naming it product of the year, bringing the total number of
awards for the easy-to-use, powerful, 32-bit operating environment
in the last three months to eight.

The February 15, 1993 issue of Datamation named IBM OS/2 2.0
"Product of the Year" in the PC software category.  In Europe,
Italy's PC Magazine**, a monthly data processing publication, gave
OS/2 2.0 its PC Technology award for 1992.  In addition, Czechia's
Software noviny named IBM OS/2 2.0 "Product of the Year" in its
February 1993 issue.

Since November, 1992, IBM OS/2 2.0 has won awards from the computer
industry's leading U.S trade publications: PC Magazine, PC
Computing, PC World, Information Week, and Corporate Computing -
honoring OS/2 2.0 in categories such as technical excellence, most
promising new product and best operating system/environment.

"These industry awards prove that IBM OS/2 2.0 has clearly achieved
significant market momentum as the preeminent 32-bit operating
platform for today's high-performance personal computers," said
John Patrick, vice president of sales and marketing, IBM Personal
Software Products.  "The introduction of OS/2-specific, 32-bit
mainstream business applications from Lotus, WordPerfect and
Borland will help make OS/2 the obvious choice for desktop,
workgroup and enterprise users who want to operate at a higher
level."

**     Not affiliated with US magazine of the same name.

Specific honors and awards presented to IBM OS/2 2.0 to date are:

      PC Magazine - December 22, 1992  "Technical Excellence" Award
       Winner, "Operating Systems and Software Standards"

      Information Week - December 22, 1992  "1992 Top Products --
       The 10 Most Likely to Succeed"

      PC World - December 1992  "PC Industry Achievement" Award for
       "Most Promising Newcomer, Software"

      PC/Computing -- December 1992  "Most Valuable Product" (MVP)
       Award for "Operating  System / Environment"

      Corporate Computing -- January 1993 "Best Buy for 1993"

      Datamation -- February 15, 1993  "Product of the Year," PC
       Software category

      PC Magazine (Italy) -- February 3, 1993  PC Technology Award

      Software noviny (Czechia) -- February, 1993  "Product of the
       Year 1992"


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|           Next OS/2 PDK Beta Available                    |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Albert Shan  (1:202/502)
February 26, 1993
Fidonet OS2
Origin:  (The Idle Task -- Richmond, BC 1:153/905)

The next beta release of the Professional Developers Kit  will be
available in March 1993.  The Professional Developers Kit contains
beta level tools and  beta products that will assist the
professional developer in developing OS/2 applications.  Orders for
this program will be accepted starting immediately. Orders can be
placed through 1-800-3IBM-OS2 and will be filled starting in March
1993.

This beta program is being made available to customer software
developers and independent software vendors to test the
Professional Developer Kit and provide development feedback. See
section 12,'Developers CDROM' in the OS2DF2 forum on CompuServe.

I believe the PDK does not include the next 2.1 beta code.  Will
have more details in the coming days...


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|                Xtree  for  OS/2 ????                      |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Timothy Ma
Fidonet OS2
March 13, 1993
Origin:  Bear Garden, Langley, BC (Canada) (1:153/920)

I saw a bulletin from Xtree about a month ago.  They were
interested in learning what features OS/2 users desired if they
were to write an OS/2 version of Xtree.  This is my favorite file
manager and I would gladly part with my cash for an OS/2 version.
BTW:  I use the DOS version - but it doesn't recognize the longer
file names allowed in OS/2.  Xtree sounds like a vendor who's
listening for some input from us.  Contact Xtree at 4330 Santa Fe
Road; San Luis Obispo, CA  93401; (805) 541-0604.


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|          Appreciation for the Power of OS/2               |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Warren Postma
February 13, 1993
Fidonet OS2
Origin:  Shadowlands BBS London, Ontario  Canada (1:221/105)

I had thrown my hands up in despair trying to figure out the
problems I had with OS/2 when I tried to give it a real workout.
I began to think OS/2 like a pig, and thought wistfully of how they
packed a complete GUI, word processor, and paint package into a 64k
machine with a 170k disk drive in the days of the Commodore 64.
Does anyone remember GEOS?

How quickly I forget what working with those first generation
operating environments was like.   GEOS now looks pathetic since
I'm used to 640x480x32k and 1024x768x256 graphics resolutions on my
PC. The screens use up sixteen times as much RAM as was in the
whole C=64 ( a 1984 vintage c=64 was my first love.).

How about the Atari ST and its GEM interface?  I have just finished
spending 50 hours on an assignment for one of my CompSci courses,
programming IO device code on an Atari 1040 ST, and working  with
its GEM interface and it's single task (plus desktop accessory)
capabilities.  No command line when you want it.  No memory
protection.  I crashed it about once every ten minutes.  I don't
have enough fingers and toes to count all the features  I now find
other environments lacking.  All because I'm used to the
capabilities of my OS/2 2.0 + SP (Service Pack) equipped  486/33.
I have to write code and use applications on DOS, Windows, Unix/X-
Station systems, and many other kinds of  machines.  None provide
a fraction of the utility and grace that OS/2 does.

Of course, OS/2 isn't perfect, but I know that some of its faults
are inherited, not learned.  Backward compatibility with DOS  apps
and dealing with the inferior ISA-Clone architectures aggravate
problems like deadlock and user response time degradation.
I crashed the system far more often under DOS, pushing it harder
than it felt like going.  Just mentioning "TSR" is enough to give
DOS the shakes.  I had forgotten what it is to sit around and wait
for your PC to finish some simple CPU or disk intensive task.  I
had forgotten how much fun it was playing with Windows PIFs and
DesqView DVPs trying to get a program that didn't want to share the
machine long enough to get anything done.

With OS/2 - without even thinking about LDTs, virtual machines, and
memory protection - I can switch away from the disk or CPU bound
apps and do something else for a while. (Solitaire, anyone?)  What
an incredible productivity benefit. It takes a lot of work to
manage a computer's resources and dole them all out fairly to an
arbitrary number of unpredictable applications, but OS/2 does a
beautiful job of it.

That's why I'm somewhat of a zealot.  I'm in the DAP.  I'm writing
an OS/2 PM GUI-based BBS package, and also working on converting
manufacturing process control, public sector and environmental
monitoring projects, and heavy power management projects over to
OS/2 based systems for my employer.  DOS based projects at this
level are ludicrous.

We have a monitoring station installed at a major manufacturer
running on a PS/2 Model 95xp (486dx/50) with 12 megs of RAM and a
300 meg SCSI hard drive. It makes me drool looking at the machine,
but it has DOS AND QEMM installed. It has Performance Problems
because the DOS BASED package they run is based on a timeslice
multitasking executive with EMS-based task swapping, and a suite of
hundreds of tiny executables to fit it all these little 64k slots.


I'm pretty pro-OS/2 at this point, but I'm not a fanatic.  If NT
could do everything OS/2 could do, and offered improvements I'd
feel a moral duty to jump ship right away.  But at this point many
things worry me about NT, like the lack of bulletproof DOS
compatibility, and surprisingly, reports that DOS-Windows apps run
better under OS/2 than under NT.  And I'm curious about NeXT/486
and maybe Solaris.

I'm an extremely happy OS/2 camper.  OS/2 has completely renewed my
joy in computing as a hobby -- writing software and running a BBS
under OS/2 is a pure joy, but also it has potential to turn the
industry I work in (Dedicated and embedded software systems
development, specifically SCADA nodes -Supervisory Control and Data
Acquisition.).

IBM has an exciting vision, one that inspires thoughts of more and
more great strides forward for PCs.  I believe the next wave will
be hardware optimized to run OS/2 3.0, local bus hardware-
accelerated video slots, and SCSI/2 device connections on the
motherboard, sound input and output capabilities, RAM cheap enough
so that 32megs RAM is a starting point, and every system  using a
500+ meg hard drive and a CD-ROM drive that holds most of our
applications programs.

Computers are getting more exciting every year, and I'm very happy
with the career I've chosen.  PCs were beginning to get  into a
rather distressing rut.  DOS needed a whole host of utilities to
prop it up enough to even run many major apps.  DOS plus a 386 is
still an XT as far as I am concerned.  How fast an XT do we really
need?  The sad lack of market acceptance of new architectures (MCA,
PS/2) is going to change once people adopt multitasking apps and
multitasking operating systems.  One day they are going to realize
the techno-babble about "bus saturation", "multiple masters", and
"IO bottlenecks" might have meant something after all.

I appreciate the billion things that OS/2 does a little more each
day, letting me enjoy some  serious fun instead of having to work
with the crazy quilt patchwork of mismatched and misbehaved DOS
utilities.


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|          OS/2 Reading:  Today & Yesterday                 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Just when I think I might not find any reading material about OS/2,
something new crops up or I stumble across an old treasure.  If you
see any we haven't mentioned yet, let us know.  -- Dave

OS/2 2.1 Unleashed
By Ed Miller, David Moskowitz, David Kerr, John Campbell, Chris
Corry, Terrance Crow, Stephen Gutknecht, Bob Kerser, Chris Parson,
Mike Perks, Stan Spots, Bill Wolff.  ISBN:  0-672-30240-1.  Sams
Publishing.  1,134 pages.  Rated Intermediate to Advanced.
Includes 3.5" diskette.  List prices:  US $34.95; CAN $43.95.

Recognize an author's name?  Check out page 633 for a famous local
OS/2 BBS name and page 638 for it's phone number.  Over 60 years of
combined OS/2 experience, the contributing authors use their
expertise to explore the potential of OS/2 2.1 and show you how to
become a power user.  The companion disk includes:  TE/2 -
communications program;  4OS2 - Alternate OS/2 command interpreter;
INIMaint - OS2.INI file maintenance program; GALLERIA - a graphics
viewing and conversion utility; Disk Stat - a graphical display of
system information; PM Scrapbook - 32bit PM app for organizing
files and information; DeskMan/2 - a utility that backs up folders
and objects in the WPS; and, LH2 - an archive and compression
utility.

You learn how to make Windows, DOS and the WPS and the OS/2 command
line work together efficiently.  The detailed discussion of the
OS/2 video sub-system shows you how to expertly install display
drivers, use the 32-bit graphics engine and select color and fonts
that get your message across.  Plus, with the help of senior
developers and architects from IBM's REXX Development organization,
you can customize your operating system using the REXX programming
language.  Discover undocumented short cuts and features.

***

OS/2 2.0 Presentation Manager Graphics Programming Guide
IBM OS/2 Technical Library.  (Que)  ISBN:  1-56529-156-5.  Priced
at US $29.95; CAN $37.95; UK 27.45.  (1992)

Specific topics covered include:  Presentation spaces and device
contexts; Drawing primitives:  lines and areas, markers, areas and
polygons, character strings; Color and mix; Bitmaps and metafiles;
Paths and regions, paths and regions; Retained graphics, graphic
segments, and correlation; Coordinate spaces and transformation;
and, print job submission and manipulation.

***

OS/2 Application Design Guide
IBM OS/2 Technical Library.  (Que)  ISBN:  1-56520-157-3.  Priced
at US $29.95; CAN $37.95; UK 27.45.  (1992)

Topics covered include:  Intel 80386 architecture and memory
addressing; programming models for pure and mixed 16-bit and 32-bit
applications; dynamic linking; enhanced DOS sessions; overriding
methods for inheritance and Polymorphism in the IBM System Object
Model (SOM); the Workplace Programming Interface; cross reference
for sample programs in the Developer's Toolkit for OS/2 2.0.

***

OS/2 2.0 Presentation Manager Programming Guide
IBM OS/2 Technical Library.  (Que)  ISBN:  1-56529-155-7.  Priced
at US $29.95; CAN $37.95; UK 27.45.  (1992)

Subjects in this reference include:  window classes and window
procedures; messages and message queues; control windows:  Menus,
buttons, scroll bars, list boxes, container, notebook, value set,
slider, dialogs;  window input and output:  keyboard accelerators,
mouse pointer, cursion, painting and drawing; hook; the system
clipboard; dynamic data exchange (DDE); direct manipulation;
initialization files; atoms.


***

OS/2 2.0 Control Program Programming Guide
IBM OS/2 Technical Library (Que)  ISBN:  1-56529-154-9.  Priced at
US $29.95; CAN $37.95; UK 27.45.  (1992)

Specifics covered include:  The OS/2 file system including FAT &
HPFS; extended attribute conventions for data types; file naming
and meta characters.  Standard methods for program execution and
control-thread, processes and sessions; Event, Mutex, and Muxwait
semaphores; Device I/O support and solutions; and, National
language support and debugging.

***

Object Oriented Interface Design
IBM Technical Library.  (Que)  ISBN:  1-56529-170-0.  708 pages.
List price:  US $29.95; CAN $37.95; UK 27.45.  (1992)

Learn about:  1)  User interface and object oriented environments;
2) Goals and design principles of the CUA interface;  3) Designing
a product with a CUA user interface;  4)  The CUA advanced
interface; 5)  Components of the CUA interface.  Discover the
critical aspects of interface design.  This official guide
describes the fundamental concepts of the CUA so that you can
develop and produce consistent, polished programs.

***

OS/2 Database Manager (A Developer's Guide)
By Howard Fosdick; (John Wiley & Sons)  ISBN:  0-471-50803-9; 378
pages; Priced at US $24.95. (1989)

Among the techniques and functions the author describes are: 1)
complete coverage of programming in the Database Manager, from
establishing the environment to testing the databases; 2) in depth
coverage of SQL;  3) Detailed explanations of utilities,
application development alternatives, locking and concurrency
issues; and, database performance.  There is also helpful
information on the design of the Database Manager, configuring the
Database Manager to meet your needs and future trends in the OS/2
environment.


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|               O S / 2   &   Telecommunications            |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Rollin White
Huntington Beach, CA

A common use for multitasking is to transfer files with a
communication program in the background while performing another
task in the foreground.  While OS/2 is perfectly capable of running
your current DOS communications program, it is not without cost.

Because DOS communications require a second device driver
(VCOM.SYS), they may generate up to 1,000 additional interrupts per
second for a high speed modem.  This degrades system performance
and increases the likelihood of errors during your file transfers.
An alternative is to use an OS/2 based communications program which
deals directly with the OS/2 driver (COM.SYS) and can make more
efficient use of your systems resources.

There are two different types of OS/2 programs, character / text
based and Presentation Manager based.  Text based programs look
exactly like traditional DOS programs. Presentation Manager (PM)
programs, make use of OS/2's Graphical User Interface (GUI).  GUI
based programs are seen to provide an easier to use interface, but
as we will see, this is not without cost.

TE/2 is a shareware text based communications program written by
Brady Flowers and Oberon Software.  It's multi-threaded, utilizing
one of OS/2's most powerful features, provides support for five
different terminal emulations, and six different transfer protocols
including Zmodem.  The documentation is very thorough and the
program's online documentation is complemented by a help menu that
can be easily turned on or off.

The major shortcoming in TE/2 is its method of maintaining a
configuration.  Instead of a menu containing the different options,
it uses a plain text file and keywords to define its parameters.
For example, if your modem is set for your second serial port, your
TE2.INI file would contain the line "Device COM2".

Pmcomm is a PM based shareware communications program by Multi-Net
Communications.  Pmcomm features the same terminal emulations and
protocols as TE/2 except ZModem is disabled in the shareware
version.  Pmcomm has no printed documentation, instead it makes use
of OS/2's interactive help facilities.  On the other hand, many of
the references in the manual are to features of previous versions
of OS/2, instead of version 2.0. Since Pmcomm is a PM application,
it uses the familiar GUI with the menu bar across the top of the
window.  For many, this will be easier to setup since all of the
options and sub-menus are immediately visible.  Personally, I found
it cumbersome to open a sub-menu, close it and repeat the procedure
for the other half dozen sub-menus.

Both programs have their scripting language disabled in the
shareware versions, and both appear equally powerful.  One drawback
of a PM application such as Pmcomm is the speed at which text is
displayed.  A graphical program such as Pmcomm will display text
slower than a text based program such as TE/2. If you plan on more
interactive communications rather than file transfers, display
speed should be a factor in your decision.

TE/2 can be found as TE_120.ZIP and PmComm can be found as
PMCOM110.ZIP on most BBS's.


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|               DPMI   vs   XMS   vs   EMS                  |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Eric Larson
Fidonet OS2
February 13 & 19, 1993
Origin:  Point-device Point Under OS/2 (1:233/4.1)

> I would like to see some discussion of this.
> I have a pretty good feel
> for XMS and EMS, but no knowledge at all
> of DPMI.  Your recommendation is particularly
> puzzling.  Is it for all OS/2 sessions, all DOS
> sessions, or just WINOS2 sessions?  Who can
> afford 4 megs, us po' folks with just 8
> total, or just you rich people with 16+?

DPMI memory is the native memory for Windows.  You can set the DPMI
setting for as much as you want -- I have mine set for 64
megabytes.  OS/2 allows its DOS sessions to ask for scads of
memory, without actually committing physical memory until the
session uses it.  I believe the same applies for EMS and XMS memory
so you can be somewhat free in allocating memory to DOS sessions.
However, if a program will go out and use as much memory as
available, but will run fine with less, then it's prudent to trim
to the actual needs of the session.

This rule does not hold for 'boot image' sessions where a user copy
of DOS is started from an image file.  In this case, memory asked
for initially is allocated immediately and becomes unavailable for
use by anything else in the system (from what I understand).  In
this case, a session should be pretty closely scrutinized for
memory requirements, else the entire system can be dramatically
slowed.

EL>> OS/2 allows its DOS sessions to ask for
EL>> scads of memory, without actually
EL>> committing physical memory until the session
EL>> uses it.

LL> That's very helpful.  I had gotten the impression
LL> that OS/2 will set aside whatever you have
LL> for those three settings.  I seem to recall
LL> some people saying that it was important
LL> to zero out any that are not used by a DOS
LL> program.  Maybe not, huh?

If you make a Virtual Boot Machine (boot image), then yes, you do
need to carefully scope the XMS, EMS, and DPMI settings.  Whatever
is allocated for a VBM, gets used up front.  This probably enhances
compatibility, but was necessary since OS/2 couldn't "guess" at
expanded memory usage with any version  of DOS but its own.

I've not gone around limiting my DOS sessions to less than 640K of
ram and now that I think about, this was foolish.  I suffer
slowdowns on my 16 MHz machine that might be helped by limiting the
ram in DOS sessions.


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|       Using REXX  --  Delete a Directory                  |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Bill McDonald
Fidonet OS2
February 28, 1993
Origin:  Dawg*Star System's (1:116/29.1)

I copied this from the RIME OS/2 conference.  It is a REXX program
that purges all files and subdirectories from a given directory.
I would name this XDEL.CMD.

/* Prune subdirectory [\q] [\n]   *
 * \q = quiet (no output)
 * \n = noconfirm on initial directory   *
 * REXX procedure to remove a subdirectory tree
 * by David Kunz
 */

call RxFuncAdd SysLoadFuncs,RexxUtil,SysLoadFuncs
call SysLoadFuncs

parse arg PruneDir switches
if PruneDir='' then do
  say 'Must specify the subdirectory'
  exit
end
parse upper var switches switches
if pos('/Q',switches)\=0 then notquiet=0; else notquiet=1
HomeDir=directory()
PruneDir=directory(PruneDir)

if pos('/N',switches)=0 then do
    say 'Hit Y to remove' PruneDir
    answ=SysGetKey()
    if answ\='Y' & answ\='y' then exit
    say ' '
end

/* 'del *.* /s' */
rc=SysFileTree('*.*','wh.','FOS')
do i=1 to wh.0
  if notquiet then say 'deleting' wh.i
  rc=SysFileDelete(wh.i)
  if rc\=0 then do
    say 'Unable to delete' wh.i
    exit
  end
end
if notquiet then say ' '

/* remove directory tree */  next=directory(PruneDir)
level=0
do until next=PruneDir
  call descend
end
rc=directory('..')
if notquiet then say 'removing' PruneDir  rc=SysRmDir(PruneDir)
if rc\=0 then say 'Unable to remove' PruneDir
rc=directory(HomeDir)
exit

descend:
  level=level+1
  back.level=directory(next)
  rc=SysFileTree('*.*','wh.',"DO")
  do while wh.0=0
    level=level-1
    rc=directory(back.level)
    if next=PruneDir then return
    if notquiet then say 'removing' next
    rc=SysRmDir(next)
    if rc\=0 then do
      say 'Unable to remove' next
      exit
    end
    next=back.level
    rc=SysFileTree('*.*','wh.',"DO")
  end
  next=wh.1
  return

This works great!  Just type XDEL <directory name>  and it will
delete all files, subdirectories, and even  remove the <directory
name>.  Enjoy.  Bill J. McDonald, Hermitage, TN, USA, North,
America, Earth, Milky Way


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|         Visual Programming with REXX                      |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Steve Gallagher
Triangle OS/2 User Group
Durham, North Carolina
March 2, 1993
Fidonet OS2REXX
Origin:  Psychotronic BBS (1:3641/1)

At a recent meeting of the Triangle OS/2 User Group, we had a guest
demo'er.  The company is called UCANDU Software (pronounced U Can
Do), and the product is called "Visual Programming With REXX".

The sounds of slobbering and moaning in the audience attested to
the high level of excitement this app generated.  Their brochure
has a quote from Robert Cringely's column in the 1/25/93 issue of
Infoworld that sums up this app's potential:

"OS/2's time may be here, thanks to a tool called Visual
Programming With REXX, which brought down the house at a recent
OS/2 conference in Colorado...it is to REXX and OS/2 what Visual
BASIC is to Windows and DOS."

The application is totally object-oriented, drag-drop, and very
intuitive.  You create objects, drop attributes and controls on the
object, establish links between objects, do a couple of mouse
clicks to setup a WHEN clause so that a certain action takes place
if a certain action is taken on a certain object. Each type of
object has a whole slew of canned 'usual' actions you can double
click on to attach to the object, or you can drop into an edit
window for a minute and add your own REXX code.

Our guest created one simple app in 5 minutes. It consisted of a
container object that when opened displayed all the files in a
directory.  Mind you, it displayed them as OBJECTS, not as a list
of files.  In other words, a data file shows as a little folded
piece of paper, etc.  Totally CUA compliant and supporting ALL the
OS/2 controls (notebooks, sliders,etc).

He created another app in about ten minutes that contained a slider
and a scrollable text window. With a few clicks, he set the app so
that as the user dragged the slider with the mouse, the text in the
scrollable window scrolled in tandem with the slider!  This is true
VISUAL programming....and the beauty is that it generates REXX
code, so you can avoid losing all your hair like I did learning the
PM 'C' API!!   No run-time or weird proprietary files; the final
output for the app you create is a single *.EXE file.  VERY sweet
technology!

UCANDU is planning to ship in April. For more information: Sales:
919-387-7391; Fax: 919-380-0757
Price: $299


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|               OS/2  Day  at  Egghead !!!!                 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Steve Gallagher
Fidonet TEAMOS2
March 12, 1993
Origin:  Psychotronic BBS - Durham, NC (1:3641/1)

On Saturday, March 20 from 12 Noon to 4pm, Egghead at the
Crossroads Mall in Cary, North Carolina will celebrate the opening
of their OS/2 section.  Team OS/2 will be having an OS/2 Day at the
store.  Visitors will be able to test drive the OS/2 2.1 beta.
Drawings will be held for many prizes including a free copy of
OS/2.  And members of Team OS/2 will be on hand to answer any
questions one may have about OS/2.


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|           An  Introduction  To  REXX                      |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Craig Swanson
San Diego OS/2 Users Group
March 13, 1993
Origin:  OS/2 Connection BBS (1:202/354)

Computer users often perform repetitive tasks on their machines.
Wouldn't it be nice to have a way to automate these jobs so you'd
have fewer commands to give to the computer?  As you probably
already know, OS/2 batch files (*.CMD files) can save time by
providing a convenient way to use a single command to do certain
types of work that would normally require typing a long series of
commands to perform.  Unfortunately, batch files are also extremely
limiting as they lack most of the abilities a programmer would
expect to find in a useful language.  Fortunately for us, in OS/2
2.0 IBM has provided REXX, a much more powerful cousin of batch
files.

What is REXX?

REXX, which stands for Restructed Extended Executor, was developed
by Mike Cowlishaw of IBM United Kingdom in 1979 as a scripting
language for the IBM VM/CMS mainframe operating system.  Since then
REXX has been implemented on many operating systems, including
OS/2, DOS, Unix, AmigaDOS, and more.  IBM has included the language
with all versions of OS/2 since version 1.3.  REXX provides a much
more powerful alternative to regular OS/2 batch files by giving the
user a language with the features of a complete yet relatively easy
to learn programming language somewhat like BASIC.

REXX programs can be used to replace regular batch files, but they
can also go far beyond the abilities of even the most sophisticated
batch files.  This is because REXX is a system-wide scripting
language, meaning that it can make multiple REXX-aware programs
interact in a controlled fashion.  For example, with REXX-aware
applications for OS/2, you might be able to write a REXX program
that at the double-click of an icon on the Workplace Shell would
start your telecommunications program, dial up a remote service
like CompuServe or Dow Jones, retrieve stock prices and any news
regarding your stock portfolio, and then take that information and
send it to a spreadsheet to create new stock trend graphs and
update the current value of your personal stocks.  Even more
interesting is that by using the freeware VREXX add-on, your REXX
programs can have a Presentation Manager user interface with
windows and dialog boxes without having to learn the intricacies of
writing PM programs in C or C++ programming languages.

How can I learn about REXX?

If you've ever written a batch file or program in a more commonly
used language, you've got a head start on learning REXX.  I've
spent only a handful of hours learning REXX and already feel like
I can write a useful program.  The best way to learn REXX is by
experimenting with small programs to understand what each part of
the language does.  Start with simple REXX programs and get them to
work, then add more functionality.  Take advantage of the OS/2 REXX
Information program in the Information folder on your OS/2 system.
It has a great deal of information on REXX and is particularly
useful as a reference once you have started writing REXX programs.


Since getting started with a new language is always the hardest
part, this article will present an overview of the most basic
elements of REXX programming using simple examples and then tie
them together with a PM calculator utility written using VREXX, the
freeware graphical REXX extensions put out by REXX fan and IBM
employee Richard Lam.  Because of space limitations, we have to
cram a lot of information into little space, so if you don't feel
comfortable with an explanation, try typing in the REXX program
using a text editor (like the E or EPM editors included with OS/2),
run it to make sure it works, and then try variations of the
program until you are satisfied you understand.

REXX Similarities to Batch Files

REXX programs on OS/2 are stored in files ending with extension of
".CMD" just like batch files.  REXX programs, however, must start
with a REXX comment.  The OS/2 command line interpreter (CMD.EXE)
needs the REXX comment to be the first thing in the file in order
to determine that the REXX interpreter should run the program
instead of trying to run it like a regular batch file.  For
example, here is a simple REXX program to print "Hello world!" on
your screen:

/* A simple REXX program */
SAY "Hello world!"
EXIT

As you can see, comments are delimited by /* and */ brackets, much
like in C and C++.  The SAY instruction simply prints a string of
characters enclosed in either single or double quotes (' or ") to
standard output which in most cases is sent to the screen, but
could also be sent to a file or another program.  The EXIT
instruction ends the REXX program.

REXX programs can issue regular OS/2 command lines by enclosing
them in single or double quotes.  For example, this REXX program
will change the current directory to "\os2tools" and then start the
program "sysinfo" and finally exit by closing the current session:

/* Issue OS/2 command lines */
"CD \OS2TOOLS"
"SYSINFO"
"EXIT"
EXIT

The last EXIT in the program isn't strictly needed, but it is good
style to be sure to end all REXX programs with an EXIT instruction.
Although I've so far used all uppercase for REXX instructions, they
are not case sensitive so you can use upper or lower case as you
like.

Like batch files, REXX programs can also get arguments from the
command line.  There are several different ways to do this,
however.  The simplest of these is the ARG instruction which simply
gets arguments, converts them to upper case, and places them in
REXX variables.  Here's an example of this:

/* Print command line arguments */
ARG one two three .
SAY "Argument #1 is " one
SAY "Argument #2 is " two
SAY "Argument #3 is " three
EXIT

This program will get only the first three arguments  from the
command line and tell us what they were.  If we left off the final
period from the ARG instruction, instead of getting only the first
three arguments,
variable three would have the third argument and all following
arguments.  The ARG instruction is actually short for PARSE UPPER
ARG which, as you can probably guess, parses out the arguments
using spaces to be the break between arguments and converts them to
uppercase letters.  If we didn't want to have the uppercase
conversion done, we could simply replace ARG in the above program
with PARSE ARG and then no case conversion would occur.

REXX Arithmetic and Variables

So far it probably seems like REXX is about as useful as batch
files but takes more typing.  What you've seen of REXX just
illustrates that you can do the regular batch files operations in
a REXX program.  REXX goes far beyond batch files, however, as the
rest of this introduction will show.  For starters, REXX has a full
complement of arithmetic operators and can freely use variables.
This means you can do math, something that is not possible in batch
files without having additional utility programs.  Here's an
example program that will do some math and show us the results:

/* Simple math program */
a = 1.5
b = 10
c = 3.5
SAY  a "+" b "=" a+b
SAY  "c - a = " c-a
SAY  "a + b * c = " a + b * c
EXIT

When I run this program, the computer prints out the following
results illustrating that REXX handles integers and floating point
numbers and also, as the last result indicates, uses the regular
rules of precedence such that multiplication and division are done
before addition and subtraction:

1.5 + 10 = 11.5
c - a =  2.0
a + b * c =  36.5

REXX has the most common arithmetic operators built in to it.
Here's a quick list:

+      addition
-      subtraction
*      multiplication
/      division
%      divide and return whole number
**     exponentiation

Now it would be a pain in the neck if you had to write a new REXX
program every time you wanted to do a simple calculation, wouldn't
it?  Here's a program that uses one of the most unique features of
REXX, the INTERPRET instruction that evaluates the contents of a
variable as if it was REXX instructions written into the program:

       /* Command line calculator */
       PARSE ARG math
       INTERPRET "SAY "|| math
       EXIT

If you type in the above program and give it a name such as
CALC.CMD, here's a sample of what you'll be able to do:

       [E:\rexx]calc 34 - 54
       -20

       [E:\rexx]calc 3.1415926 * 45 ** 2
       6361.72502

As you can see, in four lines this program implements a simple
command line calculator utility.  The way the programs works is
that it places all the command line arguments into the variable
math and then constructs a new instruction made up of the SAY
instruction followed by a space followed by the contents of math.
The "||" operator acts to join the "SAY " string constant and the
math string variable.  Then the INTERPRET instruction executes the
combined string as if it was REXX instructions in your program.
The INTERPRET instruction can do far more than evaluate math
expressions typed on the command line, but I'll leave it up to you
to try to find other uses for it in your own REXX programs.

Making Decisions

Often times a program will need to be able to make a decision based
on some calculation or the input given by the user.  REXX provides
the ability to make decisions using the IF-THEN-ELSE set of
instructions.  Here's an example of this:

/* If-then-else */
SAY "What operating system do you use?"
PARSE UPPER PULL os

IF os = "OS/2" THEN
 SAY "That's great!"
ELSE
 IF os = "DOS" THEN
  SAY "DOS!  Yuck!  Stay away from me!"
 ELSE
  SAY "Oh, I use OS/2.  Does your operating system include REXX?"
EXIT

The above REXX program will ask the user what operating system he
or she uses and then respond differently depending on what the user
typed.  The PARSE PULL instruction is used to pull input from the
keyboard into variables much like PARSE ARG is used to put command
line arguments into variables.  As you can see, IF-THEN-ELSE
instructions can be layered several layers deep if this is required
to make some particularly complicated decision as illustrated when
the program decides what to say about the choice of operating
systems.  Alternately, if you don't want the REXX program to do
anything if a test like os = "DOS" fails to be true, you can simply
omit the ELSE clause.

Jumping Around

If you've written batch files or programs in BASIC in the past,
you've probably run into the GOTO instruction.  REXX has its own
instruction called SIGNAL which is somewhat like GOTO with added
features.  Here's a program that uses the SIGNAL instruction to
continue to ask for input and respond to it until the user types
"EXIT":

(Editor's Note:  I've numbered the lines and the comments as the
original format would not allow me to place them both on the same
line without severe eyestrain.  The INF version will allow you to
view this better.

/* Simple file display program */
1>GetInput:
2>  SAY "What file would you like to see? (Type QUIT to quit)"
3>  PARSE UPPER PULL file .
4>  IF file \= "QUIT" THEN DO
5>    "MORE < " file
6>    SIGNAL GetInput
7>  END
8>  EXIT

Craig's Comments:
1>/* Label used by SIGNAL instruction */
2>/* Tell user to type a file name */
3>/* Get the user input */
4>/* If not, display the file */
5>/* and go back to ask the user for another */
6>/* Otherwise terminate the program */

The first line of the program is the required REXX comment and the
next is called a label.  A label lets the programmer name a
location in the program so that the program can later jump to that
location using the SIGNAL instruction or other instructions that
use labels.  Next the program asks the user to type in a file name
or QUIT, then it gets the input from the keyboard and converts it
to upper case.  The IF statement is used to test the input that was
stored into the variable named "file".  The \= operator in the IF
statement stands for "not equal" so if the filename the user typed
does not equal "QUIT" then the program does whatever is listed in
the THEN clause.  By using a DO instruction, we can list several
instruction where normally only one would be allowed.  We then
terminate the sequence of instructions started with DO by using the
END statement.  Inside the block of instructions enclosed by DO and
END is a MORE command (just like the one you can use on the command
line or in a batch file) to type out the file pausing as each
screen is filled and the SIGNAL instruction which will make the
program jump to the program location named with label GetInput and
thereby allow the user to type another file name.   If the user
typed QUIT, the THEN clause would not execute and instead the
program would run the EXIT instruction which ends the program.

Repetitive Actions

Many programs need to do a certain operation a repeated number of
times.  One way to do this would be to copy the instruction several
times in your program.  But if you have to do some action hundreds
of times, this would result in a very large program.  Worse, if you
have to do the action a variable number of times depending on the
input from the user, it would become difficult or impossible to do
this by simply copying the instructions.  In REXX, the DO
instruction not only provides a way to group together related
instructions as seen the previous example, it also provides a way
to repeatedly perform an action.  Usually this is referred to as a
"DO loop" because the process of repeatedly performing an action is
somewhat like an airplane circling in a loop until it can land at
the airport.  The DO instruction allows you specify a starting
value, and ending value, and increment (the number by which to
count) and a variable to hold the current counter value.  Here is
a simple program to illustrate the use of a DO loop to print the
squares of the numbers from 0 to 100 in steps of five:

/* DO loop */
DO n = 0 to 100 by 5
SAY n "squared is" n ** 2
END
EXIT

Stem Variables

REXX has a feature called "stem variables" that is roughly similar
to the concept of arrays in other languages.  If you are not
familiar with arrays, envision a stem variable as a bag containing
many pieces of data and each piece of data (usually called an
element) can be referred to by a number.  Typically stem variables
are used by placing the number of elements in the stem variable in
the 0th element and using the remaining elements to store the
actual data.

When using stem variables, it is often helpful to use DO loops to
repetitively process the data in each element of a stem variable.
This is especially true if you will have a variable or large number
of elements.  Here's an example of a program that will parse all of
the arguments on a command line into a stem variable and set the
0th element to indicate the number of arguments on the command
line:

/* Parse command line */
PARSE ARG rest

i = 1

DO UNTIL rest = ""
  PARSE VAR rest word rest
  param.i = word
  SAY "param #" i " = " param.i
  i = i + 1
END

param.0 = i - 1
SAY param.0 " parameters found."
EXIT

Tieing It All Together -
An Introduction to VREXX

VREXX (short for Visual REXX) is a freeware add-on package that can
be found on the OS/2 Connection bulletin board (619-558-9436) and
many other bulletin boards as VREXX2.ZIP.  An IBM employee wrote
this package and arranged for it to be distributed under the
Employee Written Software program that permits programs to be
released free but without any guarantee of product support from
IBM.  VREXX allows REXX programs to display Presentation Manager
dialog boxes, windows, text (even in different fonts and colors),
and draw graphics.  Here we'll examine a short VREXX program to
show you the essentials of how to use the package along with using
some of the basics of REXX introduced earlier in this article.
Take a look at the program listing labelled VCALC.CMD.  We've
numbered the lines of the program to make it easier to point out
the interesting parts.  When you type in this program, don't type
in the line numbers as they are not a part of the program.

The first six lines of the program are comments.  Recall that every
REXX program must start with a comment.  We added a few others to
note what the program is supposed to do and when it was written.
Line 7 is the first that  does any real work.  The CALL instruction
transfers control of the program to a subroutine provided by REXX
for OS/2.  This subroutine is named RxFundAdd and will add a new
function to the REXX environment called VInit.  The VInit function
is found in the VREXX.DLL file and inside that file has the name
VINIT.  Then on line 8, the VInit function is called to add all the
other VREXX functions to the REXX environment.  If it fails, the
value "ERROR" is stored in the variable "initcode" and the SIGNAL
VREXXCleanup instruction is run, thus transferring control of the
program to code that will shut down VREXX and terminate the
program.

Normally the VInit call should not fail, so in this case lines 10
and 11 tell the program to jump to the VREXXCleanup label if the
programs fails for some reason or if the program is asked to end
for some reason.  Through experimentation, I found that line 15 is
required to handle cases where the user types in a bad expression
like "5 / 0" which causes a divide by zero error.  REXX considers
this a syntax error, so when something like this happens this
program assumes it is because the user made a mistake and then
jumps to a block of code that will tell the user a bad expression
was entered.

So far the program has set up the REXX environment to permit the
use of VREXX.  Lines 21 to 23 specify the title for the input
window, its width in characters, and the type of buttons it should
have.  For some reason numbers must be used for button types and
the numbers are not very well documented (possibly because VREXX is
freeware?), so I figured out which number to use by examining
sample programs that came with VREXX2.ZIP.  Lines 28 and 29 set up
the set of strings that will be used to prompt the user for input.
Stem variables are used for this and the variable ending in ".0"
tells VREXX how many prompt strings to expect starting with the one
ending in ".1".  The variable ending in ".vstring" is used to
specify the initial string displayed in the input box entry field.
For our program, we don't want there to be any text in the entry
field at first, so we've used two adjacent double quote marks to
indicate an empty string.  Line 33 finally displays the input
dialog box and waits for the user to press OK or CANCEL.  The name
of the button that was pressed is stored in a variable named
"button" and the user's input is stored back into "prompt.vstring"
which then on line 35 is saved into the variable expr.

Line 37 checks to see if the OK button was pressed.  If it was,
then lines 38 to 47 evaluate the expression using the INTERPRET
instruction, store the answer in the variable named "result", and
finally display the answer on the screen in a message box that will
be displayed until the user clicks on the OK button.  Then the
program jumps back to the InputLoop label to get the next
expression from the user.

If line 37 decided that the OK button had not been pressed, the
THEN clause would not have been run and instead the next
instruction run would have been on line 53.  The "CALL VExit"
instruction tells the VREXX code to shut itself down.  Finally,
line 54 terminates the REXX program.  If you do not do a "CALL
VExit" before ending a VREXX program, there is a program file named
VREXX.EXE that is left running and until that program is
terminated, other VREXX programs will not be runnable.  Since
sometimes things go wrong when writing a VREXX program (after all,
programmers do make mistakes!), I'd recommend that you download a
pair of files from OS/2 Connection called PROCS21.ZIP and
KILLEM21.ZIP.  These programs will let you list running processes
to find the process ID number of VREXX (using the "procs" program)
and then let you kill the VREXX program using "killem" followed by
the process ID number of VREXX.

You are probably wondering that if line 54 terminated the REXX
program, why are there lines after it?  I decided to put the block
of code to handle errors after the EXIT instruction.  Since this
block of code is jumped to because of the SIGNAL ON instruction on
line 15, it is OK for it to be after the EXIT instruction.  Lines
57 to 69 merely display a message box telling the user that the
expression typed was bad.  After the uses clicks on the OK button
in the message box, then the SIGNAL InputLoop instruction causes
the program to loop back to get more input.

So that was it for the introduction to VREXX.  VREXX has a lot of
other abilities that we haven't covered here, but this program
illustrates the basics of calling VREXX functions that you'll need
to do anything more complicated.  Just how useful VCALC.CMD may be
to you, I don't know, but it was useful to me as it helped to learn
the basics of VREXX by writing a program to use its features.  Type
in the program and try it out, or if you hate typing, find the
electronic version of the March 1993 newsletter named SDIN9303.ZIP
that will be available about two weeks after the printed version is
released.  VCALC.CMD will be included inside the ZIP archive file
so you don't have to retype it.

Learning More About Rexx

As you have seen in this introduction, REXX goes far beyond the
capabilities of a regular OS/2 batch file and in fact is a full-
fledged language.  In this short article we have been able to just
brush the surface of REXX and hopefully show you that it is an area
worth more investigation if you are at all interested in
programming or better automating your OS/2 system.  Other sources
of information on REXX are numerous books and the OS2REXX forum on
Fidonet where you can ask questions and exchange information with
other REXX programmers.  In San Diego, we're lucky enough to have
the annual REXX Symposium in La Jolla during May.  If you're
interested in attending this, please see the announcement elsewhere
in this issue.

Besides the VREXX extensions to REXX for OS/2, there are other
extensions available for free.  For example, check out RXMATH.ZIP
if you want to have trigonometric functions to use in your REXX
programs.  If you are using APPC or NetBIOS on networks, take a
look at RXAPPC.ZIP and RXNETB that will let you access network
functions from REXX programs.  Or take a look at the many other
utilities available on OS/2 bulletins boards that were written in
REXX to get ideas of what you can do.

REXX will become more important as OS/2 becomes more popular.
Already several OS/2 programs are REXX-aware which means they let
you write scripts for them in REXX.  Among them are the EPM text
editor, PMComm and TE/2 communications programs, and Borland
ObjectVision.  The VREXX extensions for OS/2 already allow REXX
programs to interact with the user via the Presentation Manager
graphical user interface.  Coming soon from Ucandu Software is a
program called Visual Programming with REXX that will provide a
drag-and-drop programming environment for REXX and OS/2 roughly
like what Visual BASIC provides for BASIC and Microsoft Windows.
IBM also has object-oriented REXX versions in the works, so REXX
for OS/2 appears to have a bright future.  Give it a try with the
example programs presented in this article and you'll be on your
way to making REXX a part of your future.

+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|      VCALC.LST  --- Refer to "Introduction to REXX        |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Note:  To make sure you get this printed out right without the word
wrap you might now see, set your left and right margins to "zero"
and it should eliminate that problem.

 1: /* VREXX simple calculator program  */
 2: /* San Diego OS/2 Newsletter        */
 3: /* March 1993 edition               */
 4:
 5: /* Program Initialization */
 6:
 7:   CALL RxFuncAdd "VInit", "VREXX", "VINIT"          /* Add VInit function to attach to VREXX */
 8:   initcode = VInit()                                /* Initialize VREXX */
 9:   IF initcode = "ERROR" THEN SIGNAL VREXXCleanup    /* Exit program if VInit() failed */
10:
11:   SIGNAL ON FAILURE NAME VREXXCleanup               /* If the program fails or stops for any    */
12:   SIGNAL ON HALT NAME VREXXCleanup                  /* reason, the VREXX cleanup must be done   */
13:                                                     /* in order to leave VREXX in a known state */
14:
15:   SIGNAL ON SYNTAX NAME SyntaxError     /* Syntax errors should only be triggered by bad  */
16:                                         /* user input, so when one happens, tell the user */
17:                                         /* the math expression was bad.                   */
18:
19: /* Main Program */
20:
21:   windowTitle = "VREXX Calculator 1.0"  /* Title of input window */
22:   dialogWidth = 50                      /* Input dialog should be 50 characters wide */
23:   buttonType = 3                        /* type 3 means use OK and CANCEL buttons */
24:
25:
26: InputLoop:                              /* Label used for looping back to get more input */
27:
28:   prompt.0 = 1                          /* Only one prompt string */
29:   prompt.1 = CENTER( "Enter a math expression:", dialogWidth )   /* This is the prompt string. */
30:   prompt.vstring = ""                   /* No default expression */
31:
32:   /* Get input from user */
33:   button = VInputBox( windowTitle, prompt, dialogWidth, buttonType )
34:
35:   expr = prompt.vstring                 /* Store the expression the user typed */
36:
37:   IF button = "OK" THEN DO              /* If the OK button was pressed */
38:       INTERPRET "result =" || expr      /* evaluate the expression */
39:
40:       text.0 = 1                        /* and then show a one-line result */
41:       text.1 = result                   /* in a message box on the screen */
42:
43:       /* Show the message box */
44:       CALL VMsgBox "Result of <" || expr || ">", text, 1
45:
46:       SIGNAL InputLoop                  /* Go get the next expression */
47:   END
48:
49:   /* The OK button wasn't pressed, so exit the program. */
50:
51: /* Program Exit */
52: VREXXCleanup:
53:    CALL VExit                           /* Clean up the VREXX resources */
54:    EXIT                                 /* Terminate the program        */
55:
56:
57: /***** ERROR HANDLER *****/
58:
59: /* Display an error message */
60: SyntaxError:
61:   SIGNAL ON SYNTAX NAME SyntaxError     /* Reinstall error handler */
62:
63:   text.0 = 2                            /* Show a two line display */
64:   text.1 = "Bad expression:"            /* of the mistake */
65:   text.2 = "  " || expr
66:
67:   CALL VMsgBox "Error", text, 1         /* Show the message box with just an OK button */
68:
69:   SIGNAL InputLoop                      /* Go back and get more input */



+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|             Philippe  Kahn  **  San Diego                 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Andrew McHorney
San Diego OS/2 User Group
OS/2 Connection BBS - SD_Os2ug
March 11, 1993
Origin:  OS/2 Connection (1:202/514)

Borland's Philippe Kahn made a promo stop for Quattro Pro and
Paradox for Windows in San Diego.  About ten copies of Paradox for
Windows were given away.  The crowd size was about 300 people,
probably more.  It was announced here that Borland C++ for OS/2 was
shipping as of March 1st.  A promo price of $149 would be available
for the first 90 days.  Asking about Paradox for OS/2, I was told
that Paradox for Windows runs under Win-OS2.  Asking again, I was
told that they were evaluating the costs and whether to do one.
Earliest guess if it happened would be 1994.



+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|          IBM's OS/2 INI Files Questioned                  |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
John Faughnan for Henk Kelder
Fidonet OS2
February 14, 1993
Origin:  * Lighthouse * with a HST Dual Standard (1:139/930.0)

Henk Kelder is the author of the outstanding utilities: COPYINI and
CHECKINI, as well as workplace shell backup tools.  Recently he
posted a CRITICAL message on FidoNet outlining the very serious
problem lying at the heart of OS/2: system instability arising from
a very poor design decision.  This decision MUST be a top priority
for IBM to fix.

Here are his comments, with some minimal editorial fixes (Henk's
first language is Dutch):

I doubt if I am the 'leading expert' on INI-matters.  But what I do
think based upon my own experience (I now work almost 10 year for
the biggest software company in the Netherlands) is that the INI
solution is bad news.

INI files were apparently developed in the past (pre os/2 2.0) for
simple storage and retrieval of information, probably as an
alternative to the MS-WINDOWS plain text ini-files.  Performance is
bad.  Efficiency is poor.

OS2.INI and OS2SYS.INI were originally intended as a generally
available pool for various settings.

When OS/2 2.0 was being built somebody at IBM maybe thought they
could save some time (and money) if the already existing INI-file
mechanism was used.  As a result, very specific data is being put
inside a general purpose mechanis.  This leads to problems, for
one, the information is available to all applications, but also a
LOT of programs use the same ini-files and ANY program could
potentially corrupt them.

A better approach (in my opinion) would have been to design a
(relative simples) database specific for the WPS.

An alternative could be that all abstract objects for each folder
folder placed in a holdfile.  The WPS could when opening a folder
read this file the get the abstract objects.  This solution will
eliminate the need for various lumps of information in the ini-
files as well as several extended attributes in WPS folders.  A big
advantage of the latter method would be that abstract objects could
be shared over a network!!

So, if IBM would ask me, I would say: find an alternative to the
WPS storing stuff inside of the INI's.  (my estimate: round 2 man-
months work including a autoconvert mechanism, but then I do not
know the inside of SOM/WPS)

But if that isn't possible, a rewrite of the Prf-Api calls is a
absolute MUST.  If this isn't done the INI problems will continue
to be a TIME-BOMB ticking within every OS/2 2.0 installation.  Only
'experienced users' will be able to develop/understand/use tools
like CheckIni effectively.  IBM must come up with a solution for
INI-growth and stability.

Reply from:
Doug Azzarito
Fidonet OS2
February 17, 1993
Origin:  Silicon Beach (1:369/68)

You can tell Henk that the .INI handling has been re-engineered for
2.1.  I don't know if it will satisfy all of his concerns, but it
should fix the big .INI corruption problems.  Of course, that also
means that many .INI maintenance programs will no longer work! -


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|          CD  ROMS  ***  TEXEL  &  TOSHIBA                 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Lynn Nash
Fidonet OS2HW
February 23, 1993
# Origin: "The 'PC' Spectrum" (tm) RBBS-PC  Home of RBBS-Net
(8:8/8)  * Origin: Gateway System to/from RBBS-NET (RBBS-PC 1:10/8)


AM> as the Texel supports SCSI burst mode
AM> of up to 1024KBs, while the Toshiba
AM> (another good drive) supports only
AM> standard 300KBs.  Well, at least I
AM> know what I should do now, but thanx
AM> anyway,

CS> Which Toshiba drive?  The Toshiba
CS> 3401 has a 256KB buffer, but I don't
CS> know how fast a SCSI transfer rate
CS> it supports.  No CD-ROM drive does
CS> 1024KByte/sec transfer rates, but the
CS> Toshiba is supposed to be 330KByte/sec
CS> transfer rates. The Texel is supposed
CS> to be 300KByte/sec.

Hi Craig, judging from the tail end of all these threads it looks
like I have missed quite a lot of interesting things.  My feed for
this echo and the C echo has been totally erratic for the last week
or so, lots of dups and grunged packets.

Anyway I picked up a Toshiba 3401b internal this past week end.  A
company in Brea, Ca.  Media Resources is flooding the L.A. area
with them.  Manufacture dates of Jan 93 and a little pamphlet dated
Feb 93.  It comes packed with a ROMless Future Domain 850.
Although the card is sans ROM, all of FD's doc's for the 850 with
rom are included.  Go figure.

Media resources user's guide lists the following specs for Mode-1.
Block size 2048 bytes, sustained block transfer rate 165
blocks/sec, sustained data transfer 330kb/sec, 256kb buffer size,
Data Transfer rate BURST 1.5mb/sec (ASYNC) and 4.2mb/sec(SYNC),
Random access 200ms Full Stroke 330ms, rotational speed 440 to 1170
RPM.  I know virtually nothing about CD-Roms but there is also
something called Mode-2 which says DTR of 376kb/sec.  If the poster
is referring to SCSI burst rate of the Texel it seems the new
Toshiba 3401 is king of the hill.

I left the FD850 in the box and hooked it to my Adaptec 1542a as ID
4 which also has my Maxtor 1.2gig drive.  As a quick test of the
hard disk and the CD interacting, I copied the OS2INST directory
from the Nov 92 PDK with the following results in a DOS window;
total files copied 17, total bytes copied 22,716,199; 64.4 seconds;
352,736 bytes/sec or 344.5kbytes/sec.  It installed like a dream as
G drive, OS2, DOS, win-OS2.  It is a much nicer drive than the
Creative Labs Sony/Soundblaster combo in the system across the
room.  Fully cast aluminum case only the resistors and jumpers
show, toaster oven flip down door, CD is pulled in like a VCR and
the drive object does a software eject. I'm glad I waited for it.


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|                   OS/2  User Groups                       |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+

We're beginning to learn of more OS/2 user groups across the
country and even around the world.  It's been slow, but we have
made some contacts and may be able to exchange information and
articles in the future.  If you're travelling and have some free
time, stop in on one these meetings.  If you know of another OS/2
user group, drop us a line and we'll mention them.  Remember, we'll
list them all in the INF file each time.  And thanks!

Minnesota OS/2 User Group
Contact:  Marcus Krumpholz
IBM Building
650 Third Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN
Last Thursday each month
7:00pm - 10:00pm
Voice:  (612) 869-7956
BBS: (612) 379-8272

ISV's wishing to do a presentation can contact Marcus Krumpholz at
(612) 869-7956.  Registrations for meetings are requested and can
be done by calling (612) 397-6444 and then asking for course code
"OS2".  The IBM building is shared with First Bank on Third Avenue
south between South Sixth Street and South Seventh Street.  Parking
is recommended at Northstar Center (1 block west), Pillsbury Center
(1.5 blocks north), Hennepin County Government Center (diagonally
across street) and Court Park (2 blocks north).

Topics scheduled:

Feb 25         Describe 4.0 / Mary Serock
Mar 25         OS/2 System Management (CID, SPM, etc.) / IBM
Apr 29         Lan Server 3.0 / IBM (tentative)
May 27         Netware for OS/2 / Novell
Jun 24         OS/2 Development / IBM (tentative)



Montreal OS/2 Users Group
Contact:  Gilbert Lefebvre
IBM Tower
10214 Peloquin Avenue
Montreal, QC
H2C 2J8
Canada
Meets:  7:00pm, 3rd Wednesday
Phone:  Voice -- (514) 382-9858 (evenings)
Netmail:  Programmer's Quest 1:167/110

The Montreal OS/2 Users Group held their first meeting on February
17.  Gilbert reported that their first meeting had over 70 persons
in attendance.  They're real happy to see the interest in OS/2.
Please note that this group does not expect to meet during June,
July and August.



Fresno OS/2 SIG
(Fresno PC Users Group)
Contact:  Sandeleh Francis (209) 229-0473
Contact:  Rod Jessen (209) 323-9849
Meetings at:
1425 Shirley Circle
Clovis, CA  93611
Meets:  7:30pm, last Monday
Phone BBS -- Wild Side BBS (209) 226-3476
Phone BBS -- Clovis Connection  (209) 229-3476

Sandeleh Francis reports that their very first meeting will be held
March 29.  They are a part of the Fresno PC Users group which meets
the first Monday of the month at the Ramada Inn at Hwy 41 and Shaw
Avenue in Fresno at 7:30pm.



Boston Area OS/2 User's Group
(BCS)
Contact:  Marcia Gulesian (508) 369-3918
Meetings at:
IBM Boston Computer Center
One Copley Place
Boston, MA
Meets:  7:00pm, first Tuesday

Meeting location is near Back Bay and Copley train stations.  From
the Mass. Turnpike East, exit 22 (Copley Square Lane) - first left
onto Dartmouth St.  Next left onto Huntington Ave.  Enter COPLEY
PLACE PARKING on left.  Parking is free when you spend $5 and have
your parking ticket validated in any restaurant or store at Copley
Place and enter the garage after 5:00pm.

Upcoming events:

April 6        High Performance Word Processing with OS/2 -- WordPerfect
               and AmiPro for OS/2  will be the subjects of the meeting.
               The technical profile and end-user features of these two
               new word processors will be discussed and illustrated
               through live demonstrations.  Compatibility with E-mail
               and FAX's will also be examined.

May 4          NETWARE for OS/2 - Meeting will include live demo and in-
               depth look at new features such as NetWare Directory
               Services (NDS), which is a global-naming scheme and
               distributed directory of users.



Westchester OS/2 Users Group
Contact:  Craig Smith (914) 686-9828
Meetings at:
IBM
2000 Purchase Street
Purchase, NY
Meets:  7:00pm, second Tuesday
INFO:  Phone:  (914) 697-6000

Westchester was instrumental in getting IBM's OS/2 featured on the
PBS Computer Chronicles show in March.  They have also designed a
series of special OS/2 weekend seminars on OS/2 software
development that begins in Mid-March at IBM in Harrison, NY.   In
January, Stacker for OS/2 was premiered to the public.  Corel
Systems also demonstrated their full line of products for OS/2 and
hints at upcoming projects.



Northern New Jersey OS/2 Users Group
Contact:  Jason H. Perlow (201) 224-7605
Meetings at:  IBM
300 Executive Drive
West Orange, NJ
Meets:  7:00pm, second Tuesday
INFO:  Phone:  (201) 325-5600

First meeting will be held March 9.  This group is affiliated with
the Westchester OS/2 Users Group.



+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|          Coast 2 Coast  User Group Interview              |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Dave Sichak
San Diego OS/2 User Group
Fidonet OS2
February 22, 1993
Origin:  OS2 Connection BBS  (1:202/514)

Jason Perlow, Westchester
 OS/2 User Group Interview

I decided to take Jason up on his offer to call him for more
information about the Westchester OS/2 User Group.  It turned into
an interesting "interview" that I'd thought belonged in the next
issue.

The Westchester group meets in a facility that most of us would
like to kill for -- an auditorium that could seat upwards of 250
people.  Their recent meetings included a CorelDraw for OS/2 2.5
presentation. Their users learned that the next version of
CorelDraw for OS/2 will be version 4.0; not even stopping to be
"equal" to its version 3.0 for Windows.  In another event, Lotus
demonstrated Ami Pro for OS/2 for the first time along with
Freelance Graphics for OS/2.

Dedicated Group in Westchester?

Are there dedicated OS/2-ites in Westchester?  Listen to this story
I got from Jason.  One recent meeting there was one of those bad,
bad winter storms.  You know the type -- blowing wind, drifts,
impassable roads.  The kind you should stay home and snuggle up in
front of the fireplace.  Driving conditions were the pits to say
the least.  Below freezing, too.  Now how many people do you think
showed up for their meeting?  One?  Two?  Ten?  Try 50!  Now
*that's* dedication.

Fidonet Ideas

We agreed that Fidonet should have a user group conference to post
announcements, exchange ideas about membership, presentations, etc.
and other issues related to user groups.  I spoke with our exalted
leader, Craig Swanson, and he said he'd ask Jim Gilliland about
creating one.  Guess what -- TEAMOS2 now handles user group
activity and discussions!

Westchester OS/2 Group Gets Award!

Westchester is also the proud recipient of an award from IBM for
their work on the Computer Chronicles show on PBS in March.
Sometimes good things happen from the grass roots.  Let your local
PBS station know you appreciate their efforts.

And here's an idea for the user groups.  Contact your local PBS
station and see if you can get a mention at the end of the program
or even during it along the line of "If you want more information
about OS/2, attend the next OS/2 user group meeting on <date>."

Increase Attendance at Meetings?

Seems to me that many OS/2 user groups are made up of people who
have not been a part of other groups before.  They're becoming
activist out of their own interest.  We exchanged ideas to increase
meeting attendance.

Jason said that since IBM sponsors "OS/2 Road Shows" in various
major markets, it makes sense for your group to attend.  Try to
make yourself visible as a user group at these seminars.  If you
have a newsletter, distribute them to the attendees.  Or, prepare
a one-page flyer to let them when and where you hold your meetings.
Get your group announced at the meeting.  These people were
interested enough to attend this demonstration -- capitalize on
that interest and make them aware of your user group. Jason
indicated that they got many attendees from this.

In San Diego, we put on a one-day OS/2 seminar in May 1992 under
the sponsorship of our local San Diego Computer Society.  A ten
dollar fee  was charged.  The seminar started at 8 or 9am one
Saturday and we didn't leave there til almost after 7pm!  About 50
or 60 people showed up.  Imagine having that many people give up a
Saturday!  Or maybe we didn't give up anything.  I recall shaking
my head at how much I learned and the discussions I had with
everyone I met.  We had an excellent 40 or 50 page handout that
included a detailed explanation of OS/2's CONFIG.SYS.  Think about
it -- an excellent way to generate interest.

In San Diego, we are also finding that our newsletter is having
some effect on increasing our attendance.  After I published our
December issue, I decided to drop off several copies at about 4
software, hardware or technical book stores.  In January, we had
people standing  out in the halls - we ran short of handouts on our
REXX presentation!  We've even got one of the superstores in town,
Computer City, carrying our copies right next to the OS/2 demo
machine after we helped them out with a problem (got to save
something for the newsletter...).  The stores seem to appreciate
the newsletter.

It gives them a chance to tell tehcustomers that there is a local
source to go to for questions.  Putting your meeting announcements,
local OS/2 BBS phone numbers, etc. could lead to some increased
attendance.

I even had an employee at the local copy store ask about OS/2 --
wondering if you needed OS/2 software or whether DOS/Windows apps
could run.  Yes, some folks are still unaware of OS/2's
capabilities. I gave him a copy of course -- think we have a new
attendee next month?

Speaking of newsletters, seems that Westchester has planted some
seeds with IBM along this route.  Nothing formal yet, but IBM seems
to be looking for ways to be more available to the user groups.

I think the phenomenon of OS/2 is interesting.  It's got people
involved, getting together to share information and experiences
that otherwise might never have happened.
And how can you find fault with something that brings such
creativity, ideas and sharing together?  It may not be tangible,
but I think this is one reason OS/2 2.x and beyond will be a
success.  The future hinted at in the past -- it's here -- NOW.

User Group Challenge

I'll close this essay with a challenge.  Is it possible for us to
dream of an annual OS/2 User Group conference?  Shall be try for
fall COMDEX in 1993?  Think about it.....


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|                   STOLEN   TAGLINES                       |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Never ceases to amaze me how clever some folks can get with one
line at the end of a message.  Anyone know how taglines got
started?  -- Dave

File not Found.  Should I fake it?
Revenge...is a dish best served cold.
Don't ask me, I'm only visiting this planet.
Success comes before work only in the dictionary.
If this were an actual tagline, it would be funny.
...some go disk way & some go data way...
Boycott shampoo...Demand REAL poo.
Mental floss prevents moral decay.
SENILE.COM found.  Out of memory.
Press any key to continue or any other key to quit.
The future is not what it used to be.
Consultant:  Someone who takes your watch away to tell you what
time it is.
(tagline isFunny) ifTrue: [tagline insert];
The Buck stops here; the Doe just visits.
Cogito Egro...I get into a lot of arguments.
Physicists have their quarks.
World ends today at 3pm.  Details at 5pm.
Psychic Convention -- you know where & when.
Couldn't love have picked a better place to die?
I don't normally drink, but I'm not normally normal.
If you can't be good, be careful.
Love is a hole in the heart.
Adventure is hardship aesthetically considered.
Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.
I program like a MAN.  I use COPY CON PROGRAM.EXE
Eagles soar, but weasles don't get sucked into jet engines.

Of course, for those who like the OS/2 versus Windows one-line
jabs.

C:\Windows  C:\Windows\Run  C:\Program\Crawl
Windows:  A virus that failed to work.
Windows:  Point, Click and...Pray.
2,000,000 OS/2 users don't need helmet laws.
If a plane was run by Windows, would you fly it?
I'm an OS/2 Developer...I don't NEED a life.
Thou Shalt Not covet MICROSOFT's operating systems.


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|        Run OS/2 With NO WPS?  Try  RXMENU!                |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Jack Gillis
Fidonet OS2
February 18, 1993
Origin:  Rainbow's End, Williamsburg, VA (1:271/225)

Anybody want to try a Workplace Shell-less text based OS/2?  I
found a file called RXMNU2.ZIP that is interesting.  I believe I
got my copy from CIS (CompuServe Information Service).

It allows you to set up a text menu to launch OS/2 and DOS apps.
You can also switch between them using ALT-ESC or the window list
via CTRL-ESC.  Launching DOS applications is much nicer with STARTD
which is used with RXMENU.

My menu is named MENU.CMD and is in its own directory.
RUNWORKPLACE=MENU.CMD and PROTSHELL rem'ed out.  I never see the
pesky Desktop unless I select it from the menu.  I haven't selected
it in so long I probably will remove it from the menu choices.


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|         Who's  Who  Using  OS/2                           |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Fidonet OS2
February 10, 1993
Origin:  Bloom Beacon-Picayune

Those of us who get a feeling of loneliness might enjoy reading
about major adoptions of OS/ 2.

In "T.H.E. Journal" (Technological Horizons in Education) is a
report of the installation of 320 IBM PS/2's running OS/2 and
networked at the School of Journalism of the University of
Missouri.  Associate Professor Phillips Brooks is the force behind
this, doing a fair amount of programming to provide special-need
programs.  They adopted OS/2 over Unix because they wanted their
students to be able to run off-the-shelf programs like 1-2-3 and
dBase, which weren't available in Unix when they made the decision.


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|     Workplace Shell Tip:  Add to Desktop Pop-up Menu      |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
John Morris
Fidonet OS2
February 22, 1993
Origin:  Journey To The Abandoned Land ((8:919/1)

In response to a message from Howard Brazee, John Morris wrote:
HB> I want enhanced abilities to add my HB> items to drop down
menus.  I haven't
HB> been able to figure out how to make
HB> my item have a hot key in a menu.

For example, if you wish to add an OS/2 command shell to the
desktop popup menu:

1)     Bring up the pop up menu (click on the right mouse button in
       an empty area of the WPS).

2)     Open settings and go to the menu page of the settings
       notebook.

3)     Go to the 'Actions on menu' and then the create another menu
       item.

4)     Type in the Menu item name:  OS/~2 Command Shell

5)     Enter the Program name: C:\OS2\CMD.EXE

6)     Then select OK.

After this, when you popup the desktop menu, you can hit the '2'
key to bring up a copy of the command processor (or use your mouse
to select the menu item).


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|        Phoenix OS/2 Developer's Conference                |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
(Note:  Along with yours truly, a trio of others also visited the
recent OS/2 Conference.)

Dave Sichak
San Diego OS/2 Users Group
Fidonet OS2
March 7, 1993
Origin:  OS/2 Connection BBS (1:202/514)

Hey y'all...Jerry Fyffe and I got to spend a fast paced day at the
Phoenix IBM OS/2 Lan Developer's Conference.  I thought I'd pass
along some tidbits.

First, this conference was sold out to the max for seminars --
oversold was what I heard one person say.  And  demographically,
advertisers on TV would kill for it.  We didn't get to attend any
of the meetings, primarily went for the exhibits and visiting the
user group hospitality suite.

The exhibits were in a giant white tent, lots of room to roam
around, unlike the jam in Comdex.  Lucky us, we timed our visits
there in between a couple of seminar sessions, so we had many
vendors to ourselves.  Lotus and Wordperfect were there.  Freelance
Graphics for OS/2 was a giveaway to full blown registrees.
DeScribe was there.  Heard of a product called "Legato"?  I've seen
it mentioned that this is a hot product in the European community.

Well, the guy at the booth (from a Canadian company, if I recall
correctly) said his company has the marketing rights to it for
North America and they're getting ready to introduce it here.  I
believe it's a combination package similar to PFS:Works, etc. only
better.

Saw a product from UCANDU -- a visual REXX command file developer
that I drooled over and asked for an evaluation copy.

Conspicuously absent from the tent was Borland, which was giving
out Brief for OS/2 to all full blown registrees.   Symantec was
there demonstrating Norton Commander for OS/2...

At the retail sales table, many new OS/2 books were being displayed
and orders taken.  One we heard about at our last meeting - OS/2
2.1 Unleashed.  VNR is taking over the OS/2 Notebook - a
compilation of the best articles from OS/2 Developer magazine.  I
like the new T-shirt I got - an "OS/2" baseball on its way into a
"windows"...<G>

Got to meet some great folks at the user group hospitality suite --
Bill Wyatt, Vicci Conway, and Esther Schindling (?).  So  we put
our trial copy of the February INF edition of our newsletter up to
the screen and folks got a kick out of that.  But we also got some
requests I'll pass along to you - we're going to make the user
group listing a "cumulative" one and permanent feature in each
edition.  If you've got a regular meeting date, point of contact,
address, phone number, bbs, future meeting topics, etc. - pass them
along and we'll include them.  This way folks travelling might give
you an unexpected boost in attendance.

The same goes for our listing of OS/2 -specific BBS's - I was
rather shocked that I could not list at least two OS/2 bbs's from
each of our 50 states.  Hey sysops -- get the hint?

And just as we were about to leave, ran into a guy named Joel
Siragher.  Sound familiar?  Why, of course, none other than the
publisher of "OS/2 Monthly" - I guess "reporters" flock together.
Joel was interested in our INF version - he's had an idea to put
his magazine in that format, too.  Interesting and outspoken guy.
Enjoys what he does and the PC industry in general.  Who knows what
surprises you might see down the road.

And met some other folks from Minnesota's user group and elsewhere
too.  Now if I had only had my camera when Bill, Vicci and Esther
were all there together.  Aw heck.  Can't think of everything.

Anybody thinking the interest isn't there for OS/2 would've been
for a teeny weeny in your face shock at this conference.  And I
didn't even get to talk about the food.....


Bill Peckham
Fidonet Comp.Os.Os2.
Origin:  Orphan Board West (1:202/723)

In response to an inquiry by Eric Giguere, Bill writes...

I attended the OS/2 Technical Interchange in Phoenix.  Some of the
sessions were very informative and others were just downright
boring.  Some were all substance and some were all fluff.  Almost
none of them went deep enough to be of any real help:  If you
already knew what you were doing, you didn't need to attend the
session.  If you didn't know what you were doing, the session
didn't go deep enough to get you started.

All in all, I'd say the time and money would have been better spent
on documentation and experimenting.  The best sessions were the
device driver sessions (I also attended a good session on
multithreading).  The worst sessions were the product showcases
because those were just big commercials.

I didn't hear any announcements that I hadn't already heard through
the Internet.

Orville R. Weyrich
Fidonet Comp.Os.Os2.
March 6, 1993
Origin:  Orphan Board West (1:202/723)

Yes, there were about 1900 attendees, with about 300 turned away
because Fire Marshals can be such a pain :-).

There are at least two more conferences scheduled (Toronto in June
and Orlando in Aug/Sept). Due to the impressive demand, IBM is
looking for a larger facility than they previously had planned to
use, and is extending the number  of days. I feel optimistic about
the future of OS/2.

Internet tech support will be added as soon as the details are
worked out. The OS/2 forums on CI$ are said to be the biggest that
CI$ has.

I was impressed by the plans for SOM and distributed SOM, as well
as the DCE facilities that IBM plans to make available and
interoperable on OS/2, AIX, other flavors of UNIX, and MS-Windows
(and I think Apple Macs -- not sure).

The C++ compiler has nice class libraries and execution profiler --
I couldn't get into all the C++ sessions -- the rooms were filled
to capacity. IBM has taken the hint -- there will be more sessions
probably at future conferences.

There are a couple of Visual REXX products in beta testing now,
plus CA-Realizer (which I understand is a superset of Visual
Basic).

Mike Cipriani
Fidonet OS2
March 10, 1993
Origin:  OS/2 is alive and well in Texafornia (1:106/202)

In a message to Art Fellner, Mike wrote:
AF> While checking about CDs could you AF> check on the
availability of the
AF> DB2/2 Beta CD that was distributed
AF> in Phoenix?  I was too late trying to
AF> register and most of my efforts now
AF> are in that direction.

Sure, will do... FYI, I also found this in case you want to hit the
next one.

OS/2 TECHNICAL INTERCHANGE CONFERENCE SOLD OUT; IBM SETS OS/2 AND
LAN SYSTEMS CONFERENCE FOR AUG. 29-SEPT. 2 IN ORLANDO

PHOENIX, Arizona - February 28, 1993 -The OS/2 Technical
Interchange, a hands-on conference for software developers
sponsored by the IBM Personal Software Products (PSP) division, has
sold out.  More than 1,800 persons are attending the February 28
through March 3 meeting at the Pointe Hilton at South Mountain in
Phoenix.

As a result, for its next OS/2 and LAN Systems Conference slated
for August 29-September 2 in Orlando, Florida, IBM is giving first
priority to software developers who could not be accommodated at
the Phoenix meeting.  Those wishing to pre-register now for the
Orlando conference should call IBM at 1-800-438-6720.


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|       Software Review:  Henk Kelder's Tools               |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
John Faughnan
Fidonet OS2
January 7, 1993
Origin:  The * Lighthouse * with a HST Dual Standard (1:139/930.0)


Henk Kelder is the guru of the INI files and  a prolific author of
freeware utilities.  He has 'hacked' much on the internal structure
on the INI files to produce four widely used utilities.  I've had
no problems using these utilities - they've saved my hide a few
times.  Only residual concerns about messing with these vital
structures prevents me from giving them a full five star rating.

OS/2 Users know that the binary INI files are OS/2's achilles heel.
The forced melange of OS/2's character mode, PM mode, WorkPlace
Shell object mode, and DOS modes strains the limited capacities of
the INI management tools built into OS/2.

INI files swell to massive proportions (1-2MB or more) stuffed full
of antiquated data, or INI corruption leads to bizarre WPS behavior
(undeletable objects, etc).  Icon manipulation is somewhat awkward,
and it's easy to create an undesirable and forgettable object
association.  These utilities address each of these issues.

COPYINI
This utility can be run from the OS/2 command line.  It allows one
to easily copy the INI files while also eliminating much  garbage
during the copy process.  The new INI files can be copied over the
old versions by booting off a boot disk.

CHECKINI
This can also be run from the OS/2 command line.  It works with
present INI files.  CHECKINI interactively filters out garbage,
corrects incorrect object references, fixes WPS corruption.  No
need to use a boot disk, but it's good advice to use COPYINI first
to back up your files.

ICON
This is a WPS utility that implements drag and drop icon
manipulation.  It also allows setting changes and deletion of
undeletable objects.

ASSOEDIT
PM utility.  Allows one to display and edit all current system
associations.

Henk Kelder is a formidable programmer.  His FREEWARE offerings
place the entire OS/2 community in his debt.  If you know what
you're doing, you should not be without these tools.

Product Information:
Henk Kelder's Tools: COPYINI, CHECKINI, ASSOEDIT, ICON.

Author: Henk Kelder
Address: Dutch OS/2 User Group BBS as 'Henk Kelder' at
+31-75-314321  or as 'Henk Kelder' at 2:512/47@fidonet.org.

May be packaged as:
WPSTOOLS.ZIP or
ASSOE_01.ZIP
ICON_160.ZIP
CHECKINI.ZIP
COPYINI.ZIP

Cost:   Freeware!


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|        Henk Kelder's Tools:  New Versions Released        |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Henk Kelder
Fidonet OS2
February 25, 1993
Origin:  The Basement System (2:512/47.339)

I've just released and uploaded the latest version of WPTOOL06.ZIP.

This version contains all the programs the previous version did.
These programs are CHECKINI, COPYINI and WPSBKP & WPSREST.  A few
notes on these files are in order.

REPLINI
I have also added a new program called REPLINI (REPLace INI) into
the package.  This program allows you to replace your OS2.INI and
OS2SYS.INI with a copied version without booting from a diskette or
any other procedure to unlock these ini's. When you decide to use
this program do yourself a favour and - RTFM (Read the (oops)
manual - REPLINI.TXT).

CHECKINI
Some (small) enhancements were made to CHECKINI.  The most
important one is an effort to solve a problem that some users had
with CHECKINI that the program reported to be "incompatible with
the current version of the workplace shell".


+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|               APRIL   MEETING  !!!!                       |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+

DeScribe 4.0 Demonstration!

Manufacturing Process Controllers Using OS/2!

Happy 1st Birthday OS/2 2.0!

Thursday, April 15, 1993
7PM to 10PM

IBM Building
8845 University Center Lane
San Diego, CA 92122

Local OS/2 consultant Paul Moore will explain Topics:  the program
he is developing to run on an OS/2 computer that will control tube
mill and bending machines.  This is an example of where OS/2's
multitasking, multithreading, and memory protection make it very
suitable for mission-critical applications.

DeScribe Corporation will demonstrate DeScribe 4.0, their 32-bit
OS/2 graphical word processing program.  DeScribe uses
multithreading and Workplace Shell integration features to build
the leading word processor for the OS/2 platform.  DeScribe is not
only suitable for word processing, but also for many desktop
publishing jobs as it incorporates many file and graphic import
filters and extensive page layout and drawing features.

We'll have a birthday cake and some books and programs to give away
to celebrate OS/2 2.0's one-year birthday.  In its first year on
the market, OS/2 2.0 has sold well over 2 million copies,
surpassing industry expectations and rapidly establishing itself as
a leading-edge operating system for IBM compatible 386 and 486
personal computers.

Directions:  If you are coming from south of the UCSD area, take
the Interstate 5 north.  Get off at the Nobel Drive exit right
after the passing the Mormon temple.  The IBM building will be
immediately in front of you as you are stopped at the exit stop
light.

If you are coming from north of the UCSD area, take the Interstate
5 south and get off at the La Jolla Village Drive exit.  Then head
east until you reach Lebon.  Then take a right and continue until
you reach Nobel.  Take a right onto Nobel Drive and then continue
until you see the IBM building on your right just before reaching
the Interstate 5 again.


Parking:  Free, in the IBM parking lot.

Cost:  As usual, a free meeting open to anyone interested in
attending.

Other:  Our group typically meets every third Thursday of the
month.  If you'd like to get more information on our meetings, call
our voice information line at 619-587-5955 to find out about any
changes in meeting times, the topics for future meetings, and and
a list of some San Diego area bulletin boards you can call for more
OS/2 information.


+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| HOW TO GET A COPY OF THE SAN DIEGO OS/2 USER GROUP NEWSLETTER |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
March 1993 marks the release of the third issue of our monthly
newsletter.  We've noticed interest in it from people outside of
the San Diego area and would therefore like to provide a newsletter
for any and all interested OS/2 users and potential users,
including those outside of our area.

As we are an informal volunteer user group, we don't have fees or
charge subscriptions for the newsletter.  So far we've been
financing user group activities out of our own pockets.  But this
could get to be financially burdensome if many people outside of
the San Diego area would like to have the newsletter mailed to
them, so we've come up with a tentative plan to address this issue
in a way we feel will be fair and reasonable to all.  Our intent is
to try this plan for a few months and then evaluate how well it
worked and make adjustments if necessary.

If you'd like a sample issue of the San Diego OS/2 Newsletter,
please send a self-addressed stamped envelope with enough postage
to cover about three or four ounces (it cost $0.75 in the USA to
mail the March issue) to our address listed at the bottom of this
announcement.  If you'd like more than one issue, send as many SASE
envelopes as issues you'd like to receive.

After some discussion, we've decided that for now the best way for
us to recover our costs and to be fair is to ask for a donation to
help cover newsletter expenses.  We'll leave the amount up to you -
you are the best judge of what you feel is appropriate after
you've seen an issue of the newsletter.  Personal checks are
completely OK as these are donations, not subscriptions. You can
make out any donation check to "Dave Sichak" who is the editor of
the newsletter.  We'll use any donations we receive for covering
newsletter expenses.

If you'd like to contribute an article to the newsletter, we
welcome that, too.  If we use it, you would be entitled to a
complimentary copy of the newsletter in which we used your
material.  We have an idea list and some hints at what we'd like
your articles to include.  Let us know if you are are interested in
contributing articles and would like a copy of this list.  You can
submit material via US Mail or via electronic mail at the addresses
listed below.  Here's our mailing address:

San Diego OS/2 User Group
P.O. Box 13346
San Diego, CA 92039-3346

If you'd like to get in touch with somebody via electronic mail,
you can contact the following people:

EDITOR
Dave Sichak
Fidonet:  1:202/354
Internet: Dave_Sichak@f354.n202.z1.fidonet.org

SAN DIEGO OS/2 USER GROUP ORGANIZER
Craig Swanson
Fidonet:  1:202/354
Internet: Craig_Swanson@354.n202.z1.fidonet.org
