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## News Page 3

April 20

WarpIN package of Python 2.2.1, with HTML docs

This is a WarpIN package of Python 2.2 for the EMX runtime. Included are interpreter, library, and documentation in HTML format.

Program URL: http://www.andymac.org/python.html
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/python-2.2.1-emx-020420.wpi
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=python-2.2.1-emx-020420.wpi

April 20

Freeware WPS classes to integrate MP3 and OGG files

Freeware WPS classes for seemless integration of MP3 and OGG files into the WPS. Standard WPS audio menues like any other audio file. Information page in the settings notebook about audio characteristics. ID3 page for MP3 files for viewing and setting. Audio and ID3 information shown in details view. Media-Folder class to play any known audio file. Use it as your favorite MP3-player.

Program URL: http://www.os2world.com/cdwriting
English:
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/cw-mmclasses-0_2_1-eng.zip
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=cw-mmclasses-0_2_1-eng.zip
German:
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/cw-mmclasses-0_2_1-ger.zip
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=cw-mmclasses-0_2_1-ger.zip

April 20

File Commander/2 v2.20

File Commander is a 32 bit text mode file manager and shell that allows you to locate, copy, move, delete, view, edit and execute your files in a quick, convenient and customizable manner.

It's main display provides dual directory view panels that may serve as source and destination of a copy or move operation or just two different views of your files. A panel may also be used to view a directory tree, drive statistics or may be turned off altogether, making visible the output of previously executed commands.

A command line is also provided and operates in conjuction with the directory panels to make it much more powerful than a regular CLI including pasting file names from the panel, a command history recall window and command completion from history.
Main Features
* Built in archive support including archives inside archives to any depth, with ZIP, ARJ, RAR, LZH, ACE, HA, TAR and GZip types currently supported.
* Text mode for speed and other advantages
* Mouse support.
* Long file name support
* Full support for volumes larger than 4GB.
* Online help.
* Many configuration options.
* Colourization of file and directory names by boolean expression.
* Built in file viewer with hex view mode.
* Built in editor with undo/redo and cut/copy/paste ability using the global clipboard.
* Code page translation function in viewer and editor.
* File Find facility combining wildcard file name filters with file contents scanning.
* Calculation of the total disk usage of a directory tree.
* Tree views for quick and easy directory changes.
* Intelligent execution of the different types of executables supported by OS/2 or Windows 95/NT.
* User definable menu including powerful operators such as
o Run a command once for every tagged file.
o Automatically create a file containing a list of tagged files.
o Get input value from the user.
o List all tagged files in the parameter list, automatically running the command multiple times if the command line gets too long.
* Directory history for changing back to recently viewed directories.
* Easy creation of desktop objects.
* Enhanced wildcard handling including boolean operators (and, or, not, brackets) for combining multiple file name masks.
* Flexible file name filtering.
* Support for 4DOS/4OS2 descriptions
* Supports any number of display columns (minimum 80).
* Start DOS programs with session settings (OS/2 only)

Program URL: http://silk.apana.org.au/fc.html
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/fc2_220.zip
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=fc2_220.zip

April 20

Free generic preprocessor (html/rexx/ipf/inf/ipfc)

Generic preprocessor with specific support for HTML and rexx. Includes external files and supplies usual #define, #include, #if, #ifdef etc as well as many others such as #import to import data from databases. Can import SQL. Text to HTML. Its syntax is very simple yet the tool is very powerful. It is extendable using rexx, for example "#if GetEnv("FRED") == substr(Var, 2)". Macros support parameters and conditional logic. Create FTP like pages from dir trees (or WPS URL objects), validate generated HTML or rexx, automatically create thumbnails, photo albums. Spell check. HTML example inclusion from file with automatic tagging. As this tool is basically a "Super SSI" there is a "SSI" add-available which simplifies migration to PPWIZARD. "OL_DOC.DH" header for creation of IPF/HTML from common source. Looks to be handy as a XML, XSL and DTD preprocessor. Also runs in Windows, DOS, Unix and Mac OS X.

Program URL: http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~dbareis/ppwizard.htm
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/ppwizard.zip
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=ppwizard.zip

April 20

cdrtools2-1.11a21

Enhanced OS/2 port of well known unix CD writing tools.
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/cdrtools2-1.11a21.zip
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=cdrtools2-1.11a21.zip

April 19

DragText v3.5

A distinctly different Desktop enhancement that lets you do what others can't: handle text as an object, access WPS objects from any program, and more. v3.5 adds two new freeware features: support for Windows apps running under Odin, and Moving Targets, an OS/2 first that surfaces windows as you drag over them. DragText's Basic features are free, and its Extended features cost only $20(US) after a 6-week free trial.

Program URL: http://www.e-vertise.com/dragtext/
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/drgtxt35.zip
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=drgtxt35.zip

April 19

REXX scripts to handle error NET3101 in Lan Server.

REXX scripts to handle error NET3101 in Lan Server. A Windows 2000 client can use all the resources on a LAN server (this a bug in the redirector i w2k). We have received the following REXX scripts from IBM. The scripts will disconnect all w2k sessions that have been inactive for 10 min.
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/net3101.zip
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=net3101.zip

April 18

Mozilla 1.0 Release Candidate 1

Hi there,

Yes, this is it, "Mozilla 1.0 Release Candidate 1" is now available. Download it at:

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla/releases/mozilla1.0rc1/mozilla-os2-vacpp-1.0rc1.zip

Salut,

April 18

SciTech SNAP?, The Universal Device Driver Technology

SciTech SNAP? (System Neutral Access Protocol) will change the way you look at device support forever. The SciTech SNAP? architecture allows you to easily create a robust solution for even the most restrictive environments. Customize your SciTech SNAP? driver for a minimal footprint or maximum performance and features all with the performance and cross-platform support that only SciTech SNAP? can offer.
Available Now:
SciTech SNAP? for OS/2
SciTech SNAP? for QNX 4
SciTech SNAP? for DOS
SciTech SNAP? for SMX
SciTech SNAP? for Linux
Coming Soon!
SciTech SNAP? Audio
SciTech SNAP? for QNX 6
http://www.scitechsoft.com/products/embedded/snap_embedded_overview.html

April 17

Intelligent E, prevents the system editor from asking for a file type.

Script to wrap E.EXE so that it won't force you to assign a file type to an existing file. The original version by Carsten Wimmer had a bug. I have corrected it. This 2002-04-10 version corrects an error with filenames with spaces.
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/int_e2.zip
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=int_e2.zip

April 17

OS/2 work-alike of Multics Archive command version 1.0

The Multics 'archive'(ar) command is perhaps the "mother of all" file packaging systems, such as unix 'ar' and 'tar', and OS/2's 'zip'. This program is an OS/2 re-implementation of the archive command, allowing Multics archives to be created and maintained, and archive components to be extracted.

Program URL: http://home.nycap.rr.com/pflass/multics.htm
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/archive.zip
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=archive.zip

April 17

GOAT 0.03 released (frontend for GOCR)

GOAT is a graphical frontend/extension to the GNU OCR program. It can be downloaded publicly at Yahoo groups OS2-OCR. You do not need to be a list member or login (or even have a Yahoo ID for that matter) to Yahoo to download or read the list archives. You'll need to download both GOAT and GOCR to use this program.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OS2-OCR/files/

April 17

UPDATE new 0416 kernels available

The new OS2DUMP file was accidentally left out of the non-debug packages. These have all been repackageded and re-uploaded today. 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.

These testcase kernels contain fixes since xr_e002/xr_m015/mcp2/acp2. The UNI and SMP files are for WSeB/ACP/eCS Pro (SMP kernel) and the W4 files are for post FP15/MCP versions, including eComStation. Only use the SMP kernel on a machine with more then one CPU.

Here are the latest changes in this version, as posted in the readme file. (See the Readme for a complete listing):]
Bug Fixes:
04/16: Added test fix for trap 000e in _ldrSegFixAddIterRec
- *May* have fixed some strange program load behavior with the implementation of the latest JR15038 fix.
Fixes to problems that exist in released code:
0416 revision 14.089b
PJ28541 sys0008 trying to start up lots of huge DLLs
JR15038 new version: rather than slowing executable loads for everyone, I've gone back to using the faster stack-based buffer allocations most of the time. If you have loaded an ISS (security) or if you explicitly add "LDRSTACKOPT=TRUE" (No "SET ,,," please) to config.sys, we will try to minimize ring 0 stack usage by allocating buffers off the heap. This is slower, but prevents ring 0 trap 0008s in some cases. If you use TCPBEUI, particularly with the IBMTRP driver, you should probably add this parameter to config.sys.

April 17

new netscape drop on testcase

There is an April 16th drop of Netscape 4.6 on testcase.

ftp://testcase.boulder.ibm.com/netscape/fromibm/37922.zip

"about:bldlevel

Netscape Communicator 4.6 was created on 16 Apr 2002 at 16:51:07: Support for 128 bit encryption and mail encryption."
Regards,
Doug

[Moderator note: I have downloaded and installed this version as well. I have no idea what has been changed in it. "about:" shows the "Version 4.61 [en]-010615" in the title bar, so either this is just a recompile or they forgot to change that. As a warning, past versions on testcase were special debug builds for customers with specific problems. These tended to leave log files in the netscape directory or the root. I have not seen anything like that as yet, but such an instance can lead to partitions being filled up over time, so be careful.]

April 17

JMSN 0.9.5

An MSN Messenger compatible application written in Java is now available ! It works great on OS/2, but requires Java 1.3 runtime .

http://sourceforge.net/projects/jmsn

April 17

ZxMail updated to v1.1.17

Hi everyone I have updated zxmail to version 1.1.17

Release 1.1.17 Fixed: Bug in ZxSmtp correction on mail from command.

If you use the relaying to send out mail (relaying through an external smtp server) you should upgrade tot his version, otherwise you can skip it.

Here are some of the features of ZxMail Server.
ZxMail can pull email from other POP3 accounts and redistribute it to a domain by the username or to specific users on any domain. ZxMail supports an unlimited number of aliases.
ZxMail can forward mail to internal or external mailboxes.
ZxMail supports multiple forwards and chaining of those forwards (meaning if a message destined for A and A has a forward to B and B has a forward to C the message for A then goes to C and A can have other forwards).
ZxMail supports multiple domains with no limits
ZxMail can route email through another SMTP server to save on bandwidth.
ZxMail is multi threaded for maximum performance.
ZxMail supports IP filtering to block or to allow connection based on an IP address.
ZxMail supports SMTP AUTH command with CRAM-MD5, PLAIN, LOGIN mechanism. Evaluation license for more mailbox than the basic 2 can had on request, just send an email to demo@zeryx.com
To view the pre requisite to run ZxMail go to
http://www.zeryx.com/English/req.html
For a listing of what is new in the current version of ZxMail go to
http://www.zeryx.com/English/whatsnew.html
For screen shots of ZxMail go to
http://www.zeryx.com/English/screenshots.html
ZxMail can be purchased at:
BMTmicro http://www.bmtmicro.com/BMTCatalog/os2/zxmail.html
Mensys http://shop.mensys.nl/catalogue/mns_ZxMail.html

A free fully featured 2 mailbox version is available.

April 16

new 0416 kernels available

Following is the readme [Moderator Note: I have trimmed the bug fix listing of the readme. These files can be found at ftp://testcase.boulder.ibm.com/ps/fromibm/os2/ Please read the entire readme before doing anything with these files.] .

Note the os2dump and the fixes section.
-Scott
----------------------------------------------------------------------

This contains fixes since xr_e002/xr_m015/mcp/acp. Important note: If you use the OS/2 SES facility, you need a new sesdd32.sys dated April 2001 or later to use this kernel. Also, a matching dump formatter (df_ret.exe), provided separately, is required, if you want to analyze a dump from this kernel. Finally, note that os2ldr is only required for the >64mb memory detection mentioned below.

***New as of 2002/04/16: I'm including an updated os2dump module, because the one that comes with mcp2/acp2 can possibly OVERWRITE your partition(s)! If you plan to use standalone dump and you have mcp2 or acp2, use this! Caveat: This os2dump will *not* work on non-LVMized systems (i.e. Warp 4+ FP13-16). On the other hand, the bad os2dump wasn't distributed for FP13-16.
New function:
1) Support for >64m memory using int15 func e820. Note, this support is enabled ONLY for Intel Pentium Pro or later, or non-Intel Pentium-class machines. This is done in an effort to prevent problems on older PCs.
2) The presence of \os2\boot\os2norev.$$$ suppresses the display of internal revision during boot.
3) Adding "EARLYMEMINIT=TRUE" to config.sys will allow device drivers, etc., access to the memory above 16mb early in boot. Previously, this was only available after DD and IFS init was completed. This has various implications when enabled:
a) AHA154X.ADD may do bad things to your system. Don't even ask.
b) There may be some settings of HPFS386 cache that are incompatible.
4) Trap messages will now give the module name instead of the device name. For example, "Exception in module: CLOCK01" instead of "Exception in Device Driver: CLOCK$". ***change from 0220/0223: Traps in 32 bit code now show the modname, too
5) Systems with a 486SX chip running FP15 will function correctly. Note, they will NOT work with ACP or (necessarily) on MCP.
6) SESDD32 will now work correctly (I hope) for both uni and smp
7) All process dumps should now be considerably faster. paddr(all) dumps should take about 40% less time and others around 80-90% less time.
8) EXE names will now also be displayed in alt-f2/alt-f3 processing (note that CMD file names, e.g. MPTSTART, will NOT be displayed, only cmd.exe)
9) alt-f4 is like alt-f2 plus it pauses after displaying each names (does not pause after BASEDEV= or PSD=) and, by pressing F1, allows you to skip loading/running the file displayed. Alt-f5 is like alt-f4+alt-f1.
10) The dump formatter (in dfxxx.zip) should be faster and also work on dumps >= 2gb, which was not formerly possible. 04/16/2002:
11) Added "1" as an OK setting for flags in config.sys. Now, things like EARLYMEMINIT=TRUE can also be YES,ON, or 1 (or FALSE,NO,OFF, or 0). I wish I could make stuff like this NLV-independent but that is ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE without HUGE changes.
2002/01/02:
Support for 16bit filesystems with >2gb file support (e.g.the forthcoming >2gb dump support ifs)
9/13/01
11) If you also install the enclosed clock01.sys to \os2\boot, you can add "CLOCKSCALE=x" to config.sys. The choices for x are 1 (the default, which is the old behavior), 2, and 4. The number represents a scale factor for the frequency of clock ticks. The theory is that CLOCKSCALE=4 will speed up some apps (maybe Netscape and/or Java).

[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.

These testcase kernels contain fixes since xr_e002/xr_m015/mcp2/acp2. The UNI and SMP files are for WSeB/ACP/eCS Pro (SMP kernel) and the W4 files are for post FP15/MCP versions, including eComStation. Only use the SMP kernel on a machine with more then one CPU.

Here are the latest changes in this version, as posted in the readme file. (See the Readme for a complete listing):]
Bug Fixes:
04/16: Added test fix for trap 000e in _ldrSegFixAddIterRec
- *May* have fixed some strange program load behavior with the implementation of the latest JR15038 fix.
Fixes to problems that exist in released code:
0416 revision 14.089b
PJ28541 sys0008 trying to start up lots of huge DLLs JR15038 new version: rather than slowing executable loads for everyone, I've gone back to using the faster stack-based buffer allocations most of the time. If you have loaded an ISS (security) or if you explicitly add "LDRSTACKOPT=TRUE" (No "SET ,,," please) to config.sys, we will try to minimize ring 0 stack usage by allocating buffers off the heap. This is slower, but prevents ring 0 trap 0008s in some cases. If you use TCPBEUI, particularly with the IBMTRP driver, you should probably add this parameter to config.sys.
Following are rough instructions for applying the os2krnl fix: In the directory from which you boot (C:\ or d:\ or whatever), type these commands. Note that os2krnl should have come with this file.
1. attrib -r -s -h os2krnl
2. attrib -r -s -h os2ldr
3. copy os2krnl os2krnl.sav
4. copy os2ldr os2ldr.sav
5. copy \os2\system\trace\*.tdf \save (or wherever)
6. unzip -o xxx.zip
If you want, you can turn the os2krnl and os2ldr attributes back on, but it's not necessary to do so.

Trace files (*.tdf) have been included.

An os2krnl.sym file has been provided with this fix. Just save it somewhere (root directory or anywhere). It is only needed in case OS/2 service requests a standalone dump of your system in the future.

April 16

eComStation Maintenance Tool 1.09.8

Posting up 1.09.8 now. The current change log is below. The excessive file copies were a real mess. The dialog enhancer updates were made, but they took forever.

You may want to look at ecsprep.cmd. I used it to build the structure that I burned to a CD, but it can also be used to create a LAN service system with the larger maintenance files unzipped and ready to go. The total space required on the CD is 265 Mb with all available fixes, updates, and upgrade protection features. I can service both english and german systems from my CD because the eComStation Maintenance Tool will start out in the language of the current boot drive and switch to the language of the target drive when appropriate.
Change Log:
Build 1.09.8
Included the ecsprep.cmd file to assist in creating a directory structure suitable for applying maintenance from CD or LAN drives.
Corrected problem with Dialog Enhancer copying too many files to work directory and subsequent problem in deleting work directory.
Corrected problem with modules updated for Dialog Enhancer not being backed up.
Removed unlock of work directories.
Added support for installation from CD ROM or LAN drive with major components unzipped.

April 16

gogo-3.10pl3-emx

This software is a mp3 encoder based on LAME3.88, which is optimized for Enhanced 3D Now!/SSE/SSE2 and dual-CPUs.

This software is a mp3 encoder based on LAME3.88, which is optimized for Enhanced 3D Now!/SSE/SSE2 and dual-CPUs.

Program URL: http://member.nifty.ne.jp/~pen/free/gogo3/mct_gogo.htm
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/gogo-3.10pl3-emx.zip
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=gogo-3.10pl3-emx.zip

April 16

Warpstock Czech Republic UPDATE

We have completely new site for this event.

Warpstock Czech Republic 2002 is a small event for OS/2 and ECS users from Czech republic and other places... You can come to this event to chat with other people etc.

For more information, visit http://www.os2.cz/warpstock

April 16

New Release of Norman Virus Control

NVC5 was released approximately a year ago, and in the wake of its first anniversary now introducing NVC v5.3. In the course of the the past year, The most prominent changes to NVC v5.3 are:

NDesk - administrator tool for networks with Windows workstations E-mail, SNMP and SMS - new messaging module Enhanced NIU functionality New log file option for the on-demand scanner

Furthermore, the agent (Zanda) and the scanning engine have been fine tuned and general maintenance of the product.

System requirements

This version supports installation of NVC v5 on , OS/2 Warp 4, OS/2 Warp Server, Workstation On-demand, and eComStation.

For OS/2 we recommend Warp 4 fp 15 (or higher) and Java 1.1.8.

NVC Administration Desk - NDESK

NDesk is a tool for administering NVC5 network installations from a single workstation, including remote installation on the Win NT/2000/XP platform. You can distribute NVC to other machines in the network, provided that they run Windows NT/2000 or Windows XP Professional edition. NDesk can only run on a Windows NT/2000/XP machine. However, NDesk can administer and monitor Windows 9x workstations as well as NT/2000/XP.

Based on the conditions above, the primary functions that NDesk offers are:

NVC Remote installation on the NT/2000/XP platform Monitor NVC installations on all Windows workstations NVC Configuration management NVC Task file management

Each of these functions can be performed from one of the three tabbed dialogs that are displayed when the application starts. You should refer to the Administrator's Guide for details on how you can use NDesk to install NVC to Win NT/2000/XP machines, and how you can administer configuration and task files in the network from one single point.

E-mail, SMS, SNMP - new messaging module

You may not have access to the network at all times, but the E-mail, SMS, SNMP module allows administrators as well as single users to be notified by e-mail or SMS messages when certain incidents occur on standalone PCs or networked machines. Note: To install this module, go to the Install tab in Installation settings in the Configuration editor. Select Additional messenger protocols at the bottom of the list and click on Save. You will have to exit and restart the Configuration Editor to be able to configure the new "E-mail, SMS, SNMP" options. The new messaging module has a number of configurable options, and is located in NVC's Configuration editor. Please refer to the Reference Guide for details.

Norman Internet Update (NIU)

In NVC v5.3 the client machine can use proxy authentication as implemented in Windows NT challenge/response (aka NTLM).

Note that:

1. In addition to user and password (entered in the Internet tab in NVC's Configuration editor), and local hostname (fetched dynamically from Windows), NTLM needs a fourth parameter: Domain. By default, NIU will use domain = hostname. This will in most cases be sufficient. If not, you can specify domain in the new field "Domain (for Windows NT challenge/response)" field in the tabbed dialog Internet.

2. NTLM is only supported by NIU when the NTLM authentication server is in the first proxy/firewall etc. along the connection path from the NIU client to a NIU server.

The NIU client may now receive some customer information from the NIU validation server associated with the authentication key: customer name, expiry date, and number of licenses. This information will be stored in NVCCF.NDF. Please refer to the Reference Guide for more details.

Log file for the On-demand scanner

NVC now automatically generates a log file for on-demand scans. A new tabbed dialog in the On-demand scanner module in the Configuration editor allows you to create and configure the log file (or deselect this feature). Please refer to the Reference Guide for details.
Bug fixes, modifications and late changes
The Readme file provides the information on these changes, http://www.norman.com/documents/Readme_nvc5.txt NVC documentation. If you need more information, you can download the documentation in PDF format, http://www.norman.com/manuals.shtml.

This is a clipping from an Email sent to me. I am a reseller in Canada for Norman Virus Control and all their other products they offer.

Sincerely

Vaughn Bender

April 16

VIA Tech. 8233 integrated sound driver

MMPM/2 AC'97 sound driver for VIA Tecnhologies KT266A (8233 south bridge) with IOCTL90 support.
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/8233ac97.zip
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=8233ac97.zip

April 16

VIA Tech. 8233 CPU cooling/power management tools

A set of tools to control CPU cooling on KT266A and some KT133 chipsets. Includes APM idle hook, throttling control and fan speed control programs.
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/8233cool.zip
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=8233cool.zip

April 16

April 2002 OS/2 eZine now Available
The April issue of the OS/2 eZine is now available at
http://www.os2ezine.com
IN THIS ISSUE:
From The Editor
Robert Basler
Reviews
Watchcat - Oldie but Goodie
Douglas Clark tells us about a useful process killer
The Discount Rack
James Cannon finds some great Disney software you can share with your family.
Quickview Pro for DOS
John Bijnens looks at a solution for viewing a wide variety of video formats.
Articles
Installable File Systems
Douglas Clark looks at a the surprising variety of IFSes for OS/2.
Perl/2
Brent R. Scott looks at the 'duct tape' of programming languages.
ODBC on OS/2 Part 12
Douglas Clark wraps up the series - for now...
The Art Department
Cool desktops for you.

http://www.os2ezine.com

April 15

OS/2 CONNECT web magazine for May

CON0502.ZIP contains the OS/2 CONNECT Newsletter for May 2002 in HTML file format suitable for use with standard web browsers, such as the Netscape Navigator. OS/2 CONNECT is THE authoritative source for contact information in the universe of IBM's OS/2 32-bit operating system.

Program URL: http://www.os2ss.com/connect/
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/con0502.zip
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=con0502.zip

April 15

CallNotify v0.1 sends new log entries to clients on network.

CallNotify consists of a server which watches a log file for additions and a client which can run on a remote machine. When the server detects a change in the log file, it sends the newest entry to the client(s). Primarily developed for use with ISDN CallerID for OS/2 by Willibald Meyer, Joerg-Stefan Sell und Volker Weber (Caller13.zip).

Program URL: http://www.dlcc.de
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/callno01.zip
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=callno01.zip

April 15

nmap-2.54beta30

Thanks to the guys at NetLabs the beta is now available. Nmap ("Network Mapper") is an open source utility for network exploration or security auditing. It was designed to rapidly scan large networks, although it works fine against single hosts. Nmap uses raw IP packets in novel ways to determine what hosts are available on the network, what services (ports) they are offering, what operating system (and OS version) they are running, what type of packet filters/firewalls are in use, and dozens of other characteristics.

ftp://unixos2.org/pub/unix/internet/nmap/nmap-2.54beta30-os2.zip
Additional software:
ftp://unixos2.org/pub/unix/internet/nmap/ipspy140.zip
ftp://unixos2.org/pub/unix/internet/nmap/lpcap04a.zip

Program URL: http://www.unixos2.org/

April 15

Tcpdump-3.4

Tcpdump is a tool for network monitoring and data acquisition. You can use it to dump information on all the packets on a network that match a boolean expression. Tcpdump uses libpcap, a system-independent interface for user-level packet capture. libpcap-0.4 is included with this package.

ftp://unixos2.org/pub/unixos2/unixos2-current/unixos2/n1/tcpdump.zip

Program URL: http://www.unixos2.org/

April 15

Hfsutils-3.1a

Hfsutils is a collection of tools for reading and writing Macintosh HFS volumes. These utilities can manipulate HFS volumes on nearly any medium.

ftp://unixos2.org/pub/unixos2/unixos2-current/unixos2/tcl1/hfsutils.zip

Program URL: http://www.unixos2.org/

April 15

eComStation Maintenance Tool 1.09.7

New name to reflect that it is more than just a tool for fixpacks. I now have a German eCS GA system running with Fixpack 2, TCP/IP 4.3, IBM Web Browser 1.2, and Java 1.3.1 installed.

There are also fixes in the English portion of the code.

http://www.ecomstation.com
--
Chuck McKinnis
IBM Senior Systems Engineer (retired)
http://pws.prserv.net/mckinnis/

April 15

IFS based RAMDISK for OS/2 version 1.01

"RAMFS is freeware. Feel free to use it, and to get ideas from the source code when you develop your own file systems. I developed RAMFS on OS/2 Warp 3.0, and have seen it work on OS/2 Warp 4.0.

RAMFS is a "remote file system" (as opposed to a "local file system") meaning that it isn't associated with a hard disk partition. Instead, drive letters are created through OS/2 calls. OS/2 doesn't know the internal data format in the file system - it only accesses the data through special file system functions.

Files are stored in RAM. This means that the data are lost when the system is rebooted. It is useful for holding temporary files - just let the TMP and TEMP variables point to a RAMFS drive, and your temp directory is automatically cleaned up at each boot.

A RAMFS drive always reports a free space of 64 MB. This is an arbitrary number, and it doesn't mean that you can only store 64 MB -- RAMFS just has to answer something when OS/2 asks about the amount of free space."
Program URL: http://karl.myip.org/ramfs.htm
Dirrect download: http://karl.myip.org/ramfs101.zip

Features

* Create as many RAM drives as you want, using the drive letters that you want

* Size only limited by available RAM and swap disk space

* Allocates swappable RAM from OS/2 as necessary when files are created, and releases it again when files are deleted

* Long file name support like in HPFS. Case isn't significant, but preserved like in HPFS. Files with long names are not visible from DOS and WINOS2 programs.

* Extended Attributes - up to 64 KB total for each file/directory

* RAM is allocated in units of one page (4 KB)

Non-features

* Does not support file locking functions (DosSetFileLocks())

* Does not support the DosFindNotify...() functions. I have never seen OS/2 use these functions.

* Changing the size of a large file is slow, because RAMFS allocates a new block of RAM, copies the contents into the new block, and then frees the old block. This happens often if you use COPY or XCOPY to copy files to a RAMFS drive.

Installation and use

Add IFS=d:\path\RAMFS.IFS to config.sys and reboot. During boot, it will show a short version message. If you like to keep your boot screen clean, you can suppress the message with the /Q switch, like this: IFS=d:\path\RAMFS.IFS /Q

Then, from an OS/2 prompt, use RAMDISK.EXE to create a RAM drive. To create a drive R:, type RAMDISK R: To have a RAM drive created at every boot, you can add RUN=d:\path\RAMDISK R: to config.sys.

RCOPY.EXE is a small file copying program without any bells or whistles whatsoever -- it doesn't support things like wildcards or setting the destination file date and time. As I at the time of this writing don't have access to an OS/2 compiler, it is a DOS executable, and it doesn't support long filenames or EAs. Syntax: RCOPY sourcefile destfile Include drive and directory as necessary in sourcefile and destfile.

The special feature of RCOPY is that before it starts copying, it creates the destination file with the size of the source file. It is useful for copying large files to a RAMFS drive since the size of the destination file is only changed once. On one system, I have seen COPY take 56 seconds to copy a 20 MB file from one RAMFS drive to another, while the same operation using RCOPY took 0.4 second.

Source code

RAMFS.IFS is written in Borland C++ 3.1 and Turbo Assembler 3.1. Yes, Borland C++ happily compiles 16-bit code for OS/2. If you want to recompile, you will need the 16-bit OS/2 header files (not included here). With some tweaking, you may be able to compile it with other 16-bit protect-mode compilers. You can link it with the 16-bit IBM LINK.EXE, or Borland TLink 5.1 (the one that comes with Borland C++ 3.1). Borland doesn't document it, but TLink can actually generate OS/2 executables.

RAMDISK.EXE is a small and simple 32-bit utility. You should be able to recompile it with any 32-bit OS/2 compiler. I used IBM CSet++ 2.1.

RCOPY.EXE is written in plain C and should be compilable with any 16- or 32-bit compiler.

History

1998-01-03: (without version number). Initial release.

2002-04-14: Version 1.01. No big changes.

* Added a version number :-), the boot message, and the /Q switch.

* Fixed a bug that showed up when doing wildcard searches from 32-bit programs, in particular Jonathan de Boyne Pollard's 32-bit Command Interpreter. Strange things happened if you specified an exact filename to a command that allowed wildcards.

* Changed the amount of free space and total space reported to OS/2 from 1 MB to 64 MB. Some programs don't like to write large files to a drive that apparently only has 1 MB free. A test version, ramfs64.zip, with just this change has been floating around for some time.

* Added the RCOPY program.
Program URL: http://karl.myip.org/ramfs.htm
Dirrect download: http://karl.myip.org/ramfs101.zip

April 14

No More free beers for Microsoft !

MUNICH AGAINST THE MICROSOFT MAFIA !!

An article on Saturday in the main South Germany Newspaper "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" has outlined the city of Munich's disatisafaction with Microsoft's new licencing policy being brought in with XP. The article, in German, can be read at:

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/aktuell/sz/artikel140754.php

With the end of support for Windows NT on aproximately 10,000 workstations run by the Munich city council at the end of July, the city is faced with an addition annual bill of around 4,5 MILLION Euro (a euro is just less than AUS$2 or US$1) to "upgrade" and annual licencing fee's following years. With the tight hardware checks built into XP, hardware changes can cause the OS to need to be re-registered and activated with Microsoft, incuring further increased costs for the council and hence the rate payers.

Munich Council is actively looking into switching away from Microsoft products for what it sees as unfair business practices and is investigating a switch to Linux.

Er-Hum .... Perhaps someone from IBM Germany, should be paying the burgermeister a call ??? OS/2 can ceratinly fullfil the city's requirements.

While the loss of this revenue will not worry Microsoft unduly, a switch to OS/2 could breath a new lease of life into OS/2 Warp. Since Munich, the capital of Bavaria is one of the richest cities in Germany and considers itself the centre of Information Technology in Germany, wher Munich leads others could follow.

Even if IBM can't win back this valuable customer, it good to see the tide turning against the suspect business practices that continue to be executed by Bill Gates Gang of sch***ters.

The comments above are my opinion (although shared by many), the data in the newspaper article is factual as far as I know.

Cheers/2

Ed Durrant.

April 14

DynDNS Update 3.0.1 (DDUP) Frontend V3.0

DynDNS V3.0; GUI for DDUP 3.0.1; Supports all well-known ddup attitudes. Up to 10 of host can be configured.

Additional requirements: DDUP 3.0.1 and a DynDNS Account at http://www.dyndns.org/

Program URL: http://www.peters-andreas.de (site is in German only)
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/dyndns.zip
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=dyndns.zip

April 14

Python 2.2.1 port to OS/2+EMX

Python 2.2.1 port to OS/2+EMX. Python is an interpreted, object oriented, scripting language.

Program URL: http://www.andymac.org/python.html
Source:
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/python-2.2.1-emx-src-020414.zip
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=python-2.2.1-emx-src-020414.zip
Binaries:
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/python-2.2.1-emx-bin-020414.zip
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=python-2.2.1-emx-bin-020414.zip

April 14

Serial Port Source Code. This is a wrapper class to access serial port

Serial Port Source Code. This is a wrapper class to access OS/2 serial port. It is not complete. But it is useful to understand what is needed to access a serial port. It can be extended to be a complete wrapper around a serial port without too much work. This source code is not supported anymore by its author.
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/serialport.zip
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=serialport.zip

April 14

AntiWord - Convert word documents to text and postscript

Convert word documents to text and postscript. This version just has better OS/2 documentation

Program URL: http://www.winfield.demon.nl/index.html
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/antiword032-2.zip
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=antiword032-2.zip

April 14

Normalize 0.7.1, a textmode program to adjust the volume wav and mp3

Normalize is an overly complicated tool for adjusting the volume of wave files to a standard level. This is useful for things like creating mixed CD's and mp3 collections, where different recording levels on different albums can cause the volume to vary greatly from song to song. (Can now adjust mp3 files).

Program URL: http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~cvaill/normalize/
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/normalize-0.7.3.zip
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=normalize-0.7.3.zip

April 14

Some utils for inkjet (Epson) printers.

This VIO program allows you to proceede nozzle check, clean head and align caibration with your ink jet printer. Epson: 4xx (?), 810, HP Deskjet 695c, 845c are supported now (maybe partially).

ftp://ftp.pilot-film.com/os2/inkjet_utils
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/inkjet_utils4.zip
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=inkjet_utils4.zip

April 14

Return to Wolfenstein source relased

Anyone interested in making it work on OS2 the linux source just have been released at:

http://www.3dgamers.com/games/returnwolfenstein/

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