VOICE Home Page: http://www.os2voice.org | April 2003 [Newsletter Index] [Previous Page] [Next Page] [News Index] submit@os2voice.org

## News Page 2

March 07

SHISEN-SHO and MAHJONGG for PM Version 1.14

Hello,
Version 1.14 of Shisen-sho for OS/2 and Mahjongg for OS/2 add:
1- 9 new tile sets
2- Important feature: Now, you can design and play with your own tile sets, exchange them with others ...

New tile sets are added in the application directory and the menu "File>Manage tile sets" allows you to add them to the external tile sets list. There is no limit to you imagination ...

Have fun.

March 07

20030306 testcase kernels available

I put up new kernels, primarily to give people a chance to give feedback on yet another attempt to save stack space when doing program loads. Please try the kernels with LDRSTACKOPT=TRUE and FALSE, if you're interested. Basically, the problem is that OS/2 was designed with the hard-to-change assumption that there would only ever be 4k of ring 0 stack for each thread. All work by kernel, device drivers, and filesystems gets done on this stack. Fair enough However, the kernel takes a fair chunk of this space to save local stuff (because recursion is possible). Where we see the worst behavior is trying to demand-load an EXE or DLL from a LAN drive where we're using TCPBEUI (instead of netbeui). Also, SMP is worse than UNI in terms of stack usage. The net result is a ring 0 trap 0008 under some circumstances. On the other hand, making this go away requires some overhead in execution time. So, people who don't have these problems may want to turn off the changes with LDRSTACKOPT=FALSE
Well, let me know. Thanks!!
-scott

URL: ftp://testcase.boulder.ibm.com/ps/fromibm/os2/

[Moderator's note: As always these are not officially supported by IBM unless they tell you to use them. Please send any followup to comp.os.os2.bugs on usenet. Also note that files are only on IBM's testcase for 2-3 days, so if you want to try these get them now. Make certain you back up any files replaced and don't try these on a production system. Read any readme file before applying any changes. If your system is working well, and you have no problems addressed by these updates, do yourself a favour and don't mess with this. You have been warned.

From the readme.txt acompanying these kernel files, changes since the last testcase kernels(20030213):
20030303 14.093f
- backed out the file closing change in 0213, as it seems to be causing problems on some systems. the underlying problem will be investigated later in individual drivers.
- change to fix from JR17862 in 0213 kernel due to possible regression that would result in a semaphore not timing out properly PJ29066 possible fix for a rare trap in _qsSem running pstat JR17842 various dump formatter rc:5 problems (fixed in df_ret/df_deb)
20030306 14.093g
- w_dup fix back in
- another shot at fixing the trap 8 problems while running an ISS or using tcpbeui. If you're using tcpbeui (*especially *under SMP), you should not use this. If you're using an ISS, we ignore this. For others, you may get some speed improvement in loading apps by adding LDRSTACKOPT=FALSE to config.sys (the default being true).]

March 06

Pronews 1.53 now available

I am pleased to announce the immediate availability of Pronews/2 1.53.

Pronews/2 is an internet newsgroup client for OS/2.
You can download the new version from one of the following locations:
ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/pn2v153.zip
ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/apps/internet/news/reader/pn2v153.zip
http://www.bmtmicro.com/BMTCatalog/os2/pronews2.html
Pronews/2 can be registered from the BMT Micro site listed above. All proceeds from the sale of Pronews/2 are donated to "Save the Children" -
http://savethechildren.org/

This release contains support for decoding yEnc encoded binaries, much improved speed and reduced CPU usage. It includes over 100 fixes (some of which are for things that I broke while fixing other things!). There are too many fixes to list in a newsgroup posting but some of the major ones are:
1) Many many speed improvements
2) Mozilla can now be started using a SET BEGINLIBPATH prior to invoking Pronews
3) Online servers did not stay online when tasks completed
4) New %G variable in the reply and forward template messages to insert the groupname
5) Google Groups search URL's had changed
6) New article threading code allows groups to be opened more quickly
7) User interface lockouts eliminated (I hope)
8) Groups list was corrupted occasionally
9) Popup menu from posts window exceeded size of screen
10) Articles in Sent folder had incorrect timestamps
11) Issue warning message if replying to an article with a Followup-To header that does not include this group
12) Pronews reply address was not in RFC format
13) Multiline References: headers were truncated after first line
14) Status bar now contains number of posts waiting (if any)
15) Pronews.dll had a huge shared memory requirement that caused "SYS0008" memory problems when co-existing with other applications that also need large amounts. Problems were reported with the Polarbar mailer and with Netscape.
16) Filter files could cause a crash if corrupted
17) Articles saved via drag'n'drop did not go through codepage translation
18) UUencoded articles could be corrupted on download if an encoded line started with "."

Trevor Hemsley, Brighton, UK.

March 06

NewView 2.2.19

http://homepages.visp.co.nz/~aaronlawrence/NewView.html

NewView now completely* replaces the OS/2 help system, including application online help (helpmgr.dll). When you press F1 in an application, you will now get NewView and you can as usual, select and copy from the window.

If you have problems with the online help mode, please supply the hlpmgr2.log from your boot drive (e.g. c:\hlpmgr2.log). There are known problems with the OS/2 master help index and tutorial (see readme.txt).

NewView is a free replacement for the original OS/2 or eComStation online help system.

If you find NewView helpful, please email me and/or make a donation to support further development. It's nice to hear from you! See my web page for donation suggestions.

Major enhancements are:
- New user interface (split window)
- Select and copy direct from window
- Easy to use global (all files) search
- Remembers size & position
- Most recently used files list
- Smooth scrolling display
- Current topic always highlighted in contents
- Can go forward as well as back in history
- Options for fonts, colors and more
- Annotate help files
- Bookmarks
- Fully resizeable
V2.2.19
- Installer
- Help Manager completed (helpmgr.dll)
- First time window is centered.
- Added a /pos command line parameter Specifies window position and size (see help)
- Center all dialogs
- Added URL in about box
- Show topic resource IDs in topic properties
- Default button and ESC in print dialog
- Fix crash after deleting bookmark
- Fix crash with certain menu fonts
- Fixed crash clicking in index!
- Fix crash after Save As (and other?) dialog!
- New icon courtesy Alessandro

* OK, Alessandro, so it doesn't properly replace viewdoc.exe ;)

March 05

Inexpensive Ethernet Adapters

I stumbled across this bargain: free (after rebate) Linksys LNE100TX PCI ethernet adapter. J&R Music World http://www.jandr.com has this adapter listed, along with a rebate coupon. (Shipping is $4.95.) Rebate ends March 30, 2003.
The January, 2002, VOICE newsletter has OS/2 Warp driver information for this adapter.
http://www.os2voice.org/VNL/past_issues/VNL0102H/vnewsft.htm

I have no affiliation with Linksys or J&R Music World. In fact, I rather hope your readers will purchase IBM ethernet adapters instead.
- - - - -
Timothy F. Sipples
IBM WebSphere Software (Chicago)

March 05

OS/2 Java Corner update!

http://home.hccnet.nl/rjj.troost/japp4os2.htm

Thanks to numerous contributions from visitors it now contains well over 160 entries, each with its version no., the Java version required, a short description and its url, sorted in the categories:
- Java for OS/2 and eCS*
- FAQs, tutorials and books
- Java resources and software sites
- Communication
- Development
- Games
- Graphic and image
- Multimedia
- Scientific
- Various

*Innotek's recent OS/2 Kit for Java (containing Java 1.4.1) has been added!

All applications have been reported to run well with IBM Java 1.1.8, 1.3.0, 1.3.1 or 1.4.x for OS/2 and eComStation. For your convenience, all new entries are in bold and red.

Please feel free to send me your additions, corrections, wishes or other comments!

Kind regards,
--
Roger Troost

March 04

Beta release of Labela

The long wait is over ;o)

Today I have released the first beta release of Labela.

You can download it form : http://www.os2world.com/labella.

Thanks for the overwhelming responce to this project.

--------

For those who don't know, Labela is a label and business card designer, closely related to my C-Side CD-label designer !

Kim Foder

March 04

Clipview 2.2 is released and is on hobbes

N.B. ClipView 2.1 was a limited release for Warpstock Europe

New features bug fixes etc:
- Added create URL option
- Added option to append clips into one clip

I don't know about you, but I always seem to want to paste what I clipped three operations back :-) So I wrote ClipView, based on the Unix program cutview.

The Clipview suite of programs consists of:

ClipView v2.2 - Gives multiple text clipboards. Clips may be printed, edited, saved to a buffer and locked. Optionally the entire set of clips and their state can be saved across invocations of ClipView.

ClipPrint v1.1 - Prints the current text contents of the clipboard.

PipeClip v2.0 - Used on the command line to pipe output to the clipboard. eg dir /w | pipeclip

ClipPipe v1.0 - Used on the command line to pipe input from the clipboard.

eg clippipe | someprogram

CV_Client_OS2 } These are alpha code. They allow clipboards to communicate CV_Server_OS2 } across machines. Eventually I hope to add other OSes.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/dave.saville/ClipView.html

Regards

Dave Saville

March 04

Night Vision 2.5 released (Astronomy Planetarium)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Announcing: Night Vision 2.5

Night Vision is a "planetarium" program for OS/2, and will display the heavens from any location on earth. Viewing options allow the user to control which sky objects to display, which font to use, and manipulation of various star parameters. Time may be set to run at multiple speeds, including backwards. Star charts may be printed.

* * New with version 2.5 * *

-> Zoom scrollbar

-> 16777216 colors

-> Different fonts for different object types

-> Can continue to identify objects when ID window is up

Note: Registered users of previous versions are entitled to a free Email upgrade to the 2.5 registered version. Just Email the author at: nightvision@bmtmicro.com
The Night Vision home page is at
http://home.att.net/~bsimpson/nvsn.html
Night Vision is available at http://home.att.net/~bsimpson/nvsn25.zip and
http://www.bmtmicro.com/BMTCatalog/os2/nightv.html
Also available at Hobbes at
ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/nvsn25.zip
or later at
ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/apps/science/astro/nvsn25.zip

March 03

EMT4PM (replaces DSK4PM) version 4.31

Hello,
EMT4PM (replaces DSK4PM) has been updated to version 4.31 IMG2ARDI EMT4WARP
Fix a potential problem in the Write retry routine and format. (DOS unpacker)
Also updated EMT4WIN, I2AWDZ, I2ADOS.

URL: http://dvalot.free.fr
Features of GUI version of EMT4PM (Available in English, French and German):
- build diskette images
- write diskettes from diskette images
- build ARDI self restorable images
- convert existing images to ARDI self restorable images
- graphical user interface version (GUI)
- command line version (VIO)

March 02

Java 1.4 refreshed
theres a new beta of java 1.4/2 @
http://www.innotek.de/products/javaos2

- Java Web Start 1.2.0_01 included in the distribution

- full support for existing OS/2 JNI modules written for the IBM JVM is now included

- InnoTek readme and license are now copied to the installation directory

- Installer now creates Workplace Shell objects

- numerous bugfixes

[News Index]
submit@os2voice.org
[Previous Page] [Newsletter Index] [Next Page]
VOICE Home Page: http://www.os2voice.org