OS/2 e-Zine! - October 31, 1995 - Volume 1 Issue 1 CONTENTS Welcome to OS/2 e-Zine! This is our first issue ever so please, look around and send us your comments! Regular Features: Editorial The rants... Trevor's Chris' Heath's Helpful Tips The Beta File What's New with OS/2? The '95 Warped Games Contest - Jim Dahl Reviews: ColorWorks 1.0 from SPG - Chris Wenham Shareware: NPS WPS Enhancer v1.81 - Mark Flanagan PMView v0.92 - Steven Atchue Zap-O-Com v2.11 - Ethan A. Hall-Beyer PMMail v1.1 & Eudora (for Windows) v1.5.2 - Kenneth Wolman Odds & Ends: Our Editorial Policy OS/2 e-Zine! advertising opportunities! Coming up in the next issue: - a bigger and better issue with even more features, reviews, screenshots, articles, interviews, etc. ----- We need your help! We want to continue to improve the quality and quantity of articles in these pages. We also have plans to begin publishing bi-weekly, but to do this we need more contributors. If you are interested in writing for OS/2 e-Zine!, let us know! ----- Copyright 1995 - Haligonian Media ISSN 1203-5696 ***** OS/2 e-Zine! is Here Well here we are finally. At times it seemed that OS/2 e-Zine! would never get onto the web but with the help of a lot of talented and generous people, it did! It was only a year ago when I first got Warp and realized what an enormous amount of interest there was on the Internet about OS/2. In the weeks immediately before I finally got my red box (thanks to Mrs. Santa) I conducted an informal poll of users' experiences installing OS/2. While the responses were interesting the amount of replies was even more so. By posting to a few news groups, I transformed my little corner of the 'net from an unknown backwater to a bustling intersection. This time around, we're hoping for Grand Central Station. :-) While there is certainly no lack of OS/2 related information on the Internet and even a few "review" type sites, we felt it was time that the OS/2 community had a regular, permanent and comprehensive source of information for its operating system. We hope that new and experienced readers alike will find this publication interesting and rewarding. Once a month, every month (for now!) we will bring you reviews, opinions, news and other trivia to inform, educate, and just plain entertain you. We've tried to balance illustration and bandwidth. For the most part images are not inline but they are only a click away for those who want them. If you have a comment on our layout (especially praise for our logo), let us know. Our first issue was put together largely by volunteer contributors, without whom this would not be possible. While there may still be a few rough edges to the e-zine you can probably blame those on me and I promise to work on them for the next issue. If you do want to go casting blame (or praise) we'd love to hear from you. Of course you can reach us by email (editor@mail.isisnet.com) and we'll try to share your comments with the rest of our readers. Also, you may wish to email directly to one of our contributors. For the most part their addresses are listed following their articles, but remember, you won't get to be famous if you don't send us your letters! So jump right in. We have a real hodge-podge for you in our first issue. There are our regular features including "Heath Phillipi's OS/2 Tips" and "What's Hip on the Internet"; also there are our reviews of shareware and SPG's ColorWorks; and don't forget to check out my and Chris Wenham's rants about OS/2! One word of warning: because our reviews are currently volunteer written, the opinions stated in them do not necessarily reflect those of OS/2 e-Zine! or Haligonian Media. Our editorial policy includes safeguards against incorrect reviews but as we are still so new and deadlines were so rushed for this issue, evaluation copies of all programs may not have been available to the editor at the time we posted. As one reviewer puts it, individual user's mileage may vary. If you disagree with something you see in our pages, don't sit there and fume about it, let us - and our readers - know! So have a look, leave us on your coffee table or take us to your doctor's office. And don't forget to tell your friends that OS/2 e-Zine! is here. ***** Trevor's Rant! Did you ever wonder what the reason is behind the relative lack of native OS/2 applications? I have. On a recent camping trip, my girlfriend and I were discussing it and I realized something. The argument that most people use to justify not developing for OS/2 is a crock! This is how I see it after a year of looking and listening. If there are roughly 60 million users of Windows 3.x (which I'm guessing is realistic) and roughly 4 million copies of Warp have been sold since its release then there is really no difference which OS you develop for. In fact, if you are not one of the 4 or 5 largest software houses, then because of marketing momentum, media attention, etc, it would probably be better to develop for Warp than for Windows - and that includes Windows '95! Here's why: Any small or medium sized software company would be foolish to think they could grab more than 5% of any existing software category in the Windows world. If half of Windows users are in the market for their application that makes 5% of 30 million which is 1.5 million copies. A fair amount, but read on. If, on the other hand, they were to concentrate on an OS/2 version of the same product and the same amount of the OS/2 world needed a native product then they would have a potential market of 2 million (50% of 4 million). Obviously there is already competition in some markets, but many are still wide open. Suppose they did a bang-up job and captured 80% of their potential buyers. That's 80% of 2 million, or 1.6 million copies. You do the math. Obviously it sounds better to claim, "Over 80% of OS/2 users choose our software!" than, "Over 5% of Windows users choose our software!" (yippee). Not to mention the fact that supplying even one key field with a high quality application would be guaranteed to spur further sales of OS/2 which would in turn increase your profits. Don't take my word for all this. Brad Wardell, everpresent representative on the 'net of Stardock Systems, posted a message to comp.os.os2.apps claiming the following about Object Desktop: "We've sold ~33,000 licenses in a single week so you can imagine the logistics we're going through." Now I'm not privy to Stardock's wholesale pricing, but I'd bet they're getting between $US 30 and $US 40 a pop. It doesn't take a degree from MIT to figure out those numbers but in case you need me to tell you, that's between $US 990,000 and $US 1,320,000 in one week! Still think I'm crazy? So what about the rest of you guys? Stop following the magic cow from Redmond and take the logical step. You'll only be helping yourselves. ----- Trevor Smith is the president of Haligonian Media and the editor of OS/2 e-Zine!, Haligonia, and outdoor Nova Scotia!. He has been using OS/2 only since Warp was released but makes up for experience with entusiasm. ***** Chris' Rant! I am an OS/2 user, and I enjoy that very much, thank you. What I can't stand is the idea that OS/2 is a dead platform. It's not that OS/2 is or isn't dead, but that the idea will certainly kill it. You've heard of the phrase "Self fulfilling prophesy"? It means a prophesy that comes true simply because enough people believe it will come true. Hey, if we're all convinced that the world will end on the year 2000 then chances are it will end - effectively - for us. People will go crazy and panic in the streets, the slightest earthquake (the type that happen naturally every day) will be immediately interpreted as a sign of armageddon/The Undoing of Creation/or whatever. General chaos, etc., etc., etc. The same scenario is rapidly happening for OS/2 and it's breaking my heart as well as pissing me off. The platform is not dead, as proof of this I show you these pages - they were all created with OS/2 and a majority of native OS/2 software. You can do things with OS/2, it works, and does many things better than other operating systems designed for the same hardware platform. I like to say that things are "effectively" this, or "effectively" that. Sure anyone could still use OS/2, same as you can still use CP/M, but is anyone really developing for it any more? One of the reasons that I use a computer is not just to make web pages or type letters to my dear Aunt Eileen, but to find out what new and interesting things I can do with a computer. I can't do that if there isn't any new and interesting software being written for it. That would mean the OS is rendered "effectively" dead. When I switched to OS/2 I got pretty much all I wanted. Except now I wanted to start using native OS/2 applications and ran into a snag - there aren't that many. Not in comparison anyway. Sure, look at Hobbes - oodles and oodles of great OS/2 applications, utilities and games. Great shareware applications. But what about major commercial applications? There's Lotus Smartsuite - An outdated and buggy port of the Windows version. Corel Draw for OS/2 - Discontinued. Only two or three of the Corel graphics suite applications were ported to OS/2, the rest were Windows apps with a few tools that helped integrate them with their OS/2 counterparts. WordPerfect for OS/2 - Discontinued. Buggy, slow, outdated. See what I mean? For those major Windows applications that have been ported they're either incomplete ports, buggy, discontinued, or all three. There are a few gems from companies that develop primarily for OS/2 though. Stardock Systems is an excellent example. Their Galactic Civilizations and Object Desktop are marvels of engineering and design. Partition Magic is a utility that should have been thought of years ago, and ColorWorks is a full fledged graphics application with more raw power than PhotoShop. But they're limited by a limited market. Users just aren't switching to OS/2 fast enough. Everything could change if we (or at least a big enough chunk of us) were to switch to OS/2 which is positioned for future hardware. This is a turning point in computing history, and if we're not careful or lucky it just may be that the side with the prettier scenery along the way will lead us to Monopolyville. As more people start using OS/2, more applications, more good applications, will be developed and sold. Then instead of being in a monopolistic grip we'll have just a little bit more freedom to play with and do things. Summary: So... I'd appreciate it if people would stop saying OS/2 is dead. It isn't, but all the naysaying is doing a good job of getting it there. And lastly - ask your local Warp user to give you a guided tour sometime. End of rant. ----- To find out more about Chris Wenham, check out his home page (http://www.spectra.net/~fox/). It's entertaining. ***** Heath's Helpful Tips Greetings! Welcome to the first edition of OS/2 e-Zine! This being the first time any of you have read this column (and the first time I have written it), I think a little discussion on the general purpose is in order. The aim of this column is to help new and potential users get "Warped". Not to say that experienced users shouldn't read this column, (I hope they read it as well, and maybe learn something new from time to time), but it will focus on many questions newer users have about OS/2. This being an electronic medium, I want to stress early that readers have input into this column. Feel free to e-mail the editor (editor@mail.isisnet.com) or myself (heathp@athenet.net) about topics you would like to see discussed. Since this is the first article, in a new column, in a new e-zine, about an old OS with new interest, let's start at the beginning. I've learned over the years that when considering a new operating system (OS) or software application, it is best to plan ahead before taking the plunge. In order to plan ahead, you need as much info as possible concerning the new OS/application. If you have already taken the plunge, please read on since we may discuss a resource you haven't found in your quest to be Warped. In a nutshell, there are three basic areas to look for information and support on OS/2 Warp. Briefly they are phone (voice), printed (paper), and electronic. First, lets look at electronic resources. The Internet is currently the largest network in the world. It has the broadest collection of information accessible from any one place. Unfortunately, with this vast amount of data comes a pervasive amount of "noise". Learning to use the Internet is like learning to ride a bike. At first you spend more time in the bushes or on the ground than you do going forward. The same is true for the Internet - you spend a vast amount of time wading through off-topic newsgroups and useless Web pages. To get you off on the right foot, let's look at some of the best places to start looking for information on OS/2. The search for any knowledge on the Web should start with a good search service. This means using search tools like the WebCrawler (http://www.webcrawler.com/) or Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com/). With tools such as these (and the many more that exist out there), you should be able to find anything you need, from vendor Web pages to the latest bug discovered by OS/2 users. I wouldn't want any of you to say "Great, but my search turned up 3,000+ Web pages. Which pages do I look at?" so here are a few of the most useful pages I have run across. If you need convincing on why you should try Warp in the first place, stop in on the Why Get Warped? page (http://www.ibm.com/News/ls950817.html) or the Personal Software Services page (http://ps.software.ibm.com), both from IBM. To see if your current hardware will work with Warp, or if you need to add something to your current setup, check out the Warp Compatibility Table (http://www.austin.ibm.com/pspinfo/pcmtblann.html). For a particular problem on a current install, head for The Warp Pharmacy (http://www.umn.edu/nlhome/g561/maki0019/WarpPharmacy.html) or the IBM Solution Database (http://ps.boulder.ibm.com). And, lastly, the mother of all OS/2 pages is the OS/2 web page put out by Team OS/2 (http://www.teamos2.org/os2web/). If it has to do with OS/2, there will be a link there for it. Usenet newsgroups can also be very valuable in your search for knowledge about OS/2. A few of interest include any of the comp.os.os2 (c.o.o.) groups. Good ones to start with are c.o.o.setup, c.o.o.setup.video, and c.o.o.setup.storage. One group many new users overlook is c.o.o.networking.tcp-ip. This is a very good group to read if you have questions about any of the IAK (Internet Access Kit) modules or Internet connectivity (as well as network connectivity). Another group that should be read is the alt.org.team-os2 group. Team OS/2 is a collection of users who donate their time and skills to help OS/2 users get the most from OS/2. Don't forget hardware/software specific groups as well. Many OS/2 users read groups such as comp.periphs.scsi. There are also vendor specific newsgroups (such as Dell or Gateway 2000) that might provide help. Another Internet resource often overlooked is FTP. Most needed files can be found at an FTP site somewhere in the world. For OS/2 there are a few good sites that have 90% of the needed fixes/shareware/demos/etc... These include Hobbes (ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu), CDROM (ftp://ftp.cdrom.com), LEO (Link to Everything Online - ftp://ftp.leo.org), and Team OS/2's FTP site. (ftp://ftp.teamos2.org) One great electronic resource some users of OS/2 overlook is the on-line help that comes with OS/2. You can press F1 at anytime to get help (just like Windows), and you can choose to look through all the help files on your hard drives (one better than Windows). You can also get error and command specific help from the command line by typing help . Also included with Warp is AskPSP. This can be a very valuable tool for problem solving once you have OS/2 up and running. (Refer to the Up and Running book that came with OS/2 for more information). If you use and like AskPSP, updates can be had on the IBM Technical Connection CD-ROM. This is a must have for anyone planning on supporting more than one install of OS/2 Warp on different machines. Call IBM at 1-800-992-4777 for more info. There are also forums on Compuserve, Prodigy, and America Online for OS/2 users, not to mention a number of local BBS's that support OS/2. Ask around at your local computer stores that sell OS/2 to see if there are any in your area. IBM also has an OS/2 BBS (the documentation that comes with Warp explains how to access it). Next, lets look at printed resources for OS/2. The first place to look if you have OS/2 already is the box. The manual, while somewhat thin for power users, has many valuable tips. It also has the phone numbers to call to get the official IBM tech manuals, a must have if you plan to program, or if you are just of a curious nature. Also included in the box is a string of subscription cards for most of the available periodicals for OS/2. For those of you who have long ago lost the box or never had the box (if you use Warp at work) here is a list of names and phone numbers (if available). Inside OS/2 by The Cobb Group OS/2 Magazine OS/2 Developer 1-800-WANT-OS2 OS/2 Professional 1-800-OS2-KWIK Personal Systems IBM's Magazine for Technical Coordinators 1-800-678-8014 There are also many books being released now for OS/2 Warp. Many of them fall in under the $50 mark and include a CD-ROM full of shareware or some other useful items. Since there isn't enough room to review them here right now, I will simply recommend you pick up one of the above magazines and see if they have any rave reviews. A trend has been developing in recent years that is making it harder and harder to get live phone support from a vendor. The good news is that you still get free support for Warp. The main number for IBM software support is 1-800-992-4777. The fax back support from this number is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also get prompts to more specific help, such as the free 60 day startup support (407-994-4777). Another place to look for support is in resellers. Granted, the local Best Buy may sell Warp, but they probably know as much about it as you know about nuclear physics. The resellers I am talking about are the OS/2 mail order specialty shops and local OS/2 consultants. The Sources & Solutions Directory is a very good place to look for both. Many resellers also have Web pages you can find through links on the pages above. For business users, a local consultant may be just the ticket you need to get your site up and running on OS/2. Check the local yellow pages or call IBM and ask if there are any local consultants/resellers they recommend. Well, I think that is a good enough start for now. Just remember, if you are new to OS/2 just look around, the help you need is there. IBM may not have the flashy ads of Microsoft, but they do have one of the best desktop operating systems today. Don't take my word for it, go out and see for yourself. ----- Heath Phillippi is curently a Customer Engineer for AmeriData, Inc. in Appleton Wisconsin. He is the OS/2 Warp Champion for the OS/2 BESTeam, as well as a proud member of Team OS/2. ***** The Beta File It seems that the long-standing promise of native software for OS/2 is finally coming true as can be seen from various applications hitting the market lately. And there are even more on the horizon. In beta testing this month are a slew of programs, from Internet applications to native OS/2 games. First up are a pair of Internet mail programs. All but the newest OS/2 users will remember the agonizing period after the release of Warp when we pined for a native mail reader that worked well. Now that PMMail v1.1 and Post Road Mailer v1.03a are here we have some options. And the field is about to get even broader. ----- The venerable shareware program, PMMail, is almost finished its first major overhaul and will soon be released as the new v1.5. Primary developers BoB and Icon are busy working out the bugs of the new interface and the "guts", respectively. It is reported that this simple and quick mail program will finally gain MIME and BinHex encoding/decoding support, much to many folk's delight. Also new are a more object oriented interface and nested message folders. No info about how the beta is going was available at the time this was posted but PMMail v1.5 should be out soon. For those of us who took the plunge early and registered, upgrading is free (until v2.0). Icon had this to say about the enhancements of the upcoming release: "Trust me, most companies would have called this 2.0....but we like our customers... :)" ----- Even bigger news is the fact that we will soon be seeing a new mailer in town. Nick Knight (nick@secant.com) (yep, that's his real name) is putting the final touches on his new 32 bit, PM Internet email client, MR/2 ICE. The MR/2 family is a long running entry in the BBS field and many may recognize the name from those roots. With the ICE release Nick plans to break into the Internet market in a big way. Currently in a restricted beta test with about 25 testers, MR/2 ICE is scheduled to be released for a public beta test around November 3, 1995 and will be available from Nick's home page (http://nick.secant.com) at that time. Assuming all goes well, Nick plans to have the GA shareware version ready for the first of the year. For those of you dying for details, the program will handle POP3 reading (with an SMTP hook planned) and send via SMTP or POP3. Also promised are a built in spell checker and thesaurus and lots of great GUI stuff. Sound like this is going to be a winner? Nick says, "I am determined to make this product absolutely irresistible. At the same time, I plan on keeping the competition's prices in check with a very reasonable registration fee." I think the market is about to get another quality contender. ----- Hoping to help you manage those huge storage devices better is Michael H. Shacter (mshacter@cpcug.org), developer of HyperView, and now, HyperView PM. HyperView is a snappy little shareware file viewer which allows users to isolate and extract information from word processor and text files. It reads ASCII text, Ami Pro, Clearlook, DeScribe, Microsoft Word for Windows, and WordPerfect files. It also handles archives in ZIP format and there are features for tagging all lines of text containing a matching search string. Until now, HyperView has been a text mode only application. However, the beta test for the first PM version of the product is almost finished. The beta has been limited to previously registered users of HyperView but soon the rest of us should see the new graphical version. Michael is currently working on a registration enforcement mechanism, and revising the documentation and expects to have the finished product out in the second week of November. Michael, responding to libellous statements that OS/2 is the DesqView of 94-95, says, "Two conditions must be satisfied if this statement is to be proved false: Developers must bring new and better OS/2 applications to market and OS/2 users buy them. I am doing my part." How about it? Anyone want to do theirs? ----- On the entertainment front, Rainald Menge (menge@rrz.uni-koeln.de) of Germany is busily polishing his new game, Toyland (http://www.rrz.uni-koeln.de/~a0085/Toyland.html). With a beta test of 35 people Rainald managed to beat out most of the major bugs and has now released his shareware application as a wide public beta. He expects to have the final version available by December of this year. One interesting twist is that every registered user will be able to use every future version of the game! Toyland is a puzzle game where you move a toy doll around different worlds trying to get around obstacles and retrieve certain objects. There are different obstacles and movement rules on each level so the game stays interesting for a long time. There is also an edit mode so users can create their own levels and even export them via email. Either under development or just released are POV-Ray rendered graphics and secret levels. "Toyland is a game that has simple basic rules but features various types of puzzles. The development of the game will continue - new worlds will be created," says Rainald. It's popularity remains to be seen but the game can be addictive. Although not of the same genre, its ability to create and share new levels "a-la-Doom" and Rainald's generous upgrade policy should prove to be major marketing factors. ***** What's New with OS/2? The OS/2 Entertainment Development Council and '95 Warped Games Contest The 1994 release of OS/2 Warp propelled OS/2 from almost exclusively corporate and software development environments into homes across the world. The sudden proliferation of home users of OS/2 has generated a tremendous demand for OS/2 entertainment software -- a market which was almost nonexistent just a year ago. While IBM has made efforts to develop a relationship with major game developers, it is difficult to convince companies to be the first to venture into uncharted territory while their current markets still prove lucrative. In June 1995, a discussion on the Internet newsgroup comp.os.os2.games proposed a game development contest, with cash prizes to encourage OS/2 applications development. I offered to coordinate such an effort, and along with five other OS/2 enthusiasts formed the OS/2 Entertainment Development Council. '95 Warped Games Contest The council's first major act was organizing the initially proposed shareware contest: The 1995 Warped Games! It is an open contest for shareware game developers who release native OS/2 games between June 1, and December 31, 1995. IBM delays in releasing the entertainment developers' toolkit and delays in support for the contest have prompted the Entertainment Development Council to push back the formal announcement of the contest. The deadline will most likely be adjusted accordingly by an announcement this fall. Details about the contest, including a current draft of the rules, are available on the Entertainment Development Council's world wide web homepage (http://naftalab.bus.utexas.edu/os2games). As a not-for-profit organization we rely exclusively on individual donations and corporate sponsors to help fund the contest. Individuals or businesses interested in making donations should contact me (dahl@agassiz.cas.und.nodak.edu). Development Information Though the Council has not yet sponsored any development newsletters, mailing lists, or toolkits of its own, it has compiled a very thorough list of OS/2 and general game development information available via the Internet. Interested developers can access the OS/2 game development information web page via the Entertainment Development Council's home page on the world wide web. ----- Jim Dahl is the organizer of the OS/2 Entertainment Development Council. Jim is a freelance OS/2 consultant and programmer; he worked at IBM Rochester in 1994 and authored the WSetup utility for OS/2. ***** ColorWorks 1.0 by SPG - by Chris Wenham On first appearances one might be disappointed with ColorWorks. It doesn't flood you with a million toolboxes, and the icons in the toolbox that does exist look a little ... how should I put it ... first generation? All of this dissolves after a few hours of exploring the product. Apart from its daunting 1.0 release, ColorWorks works well and it works strong. It's complete enough (and by that I mean it could be more complete) for professional work, and dare I say it, has enough power to entice professionals to switch from whatever it is they're currently using - and feel comfortable about it too. ColorWorks introduces some powerful new features that were borrowed from other platforms and innovates a few of its own. A very powerful example of which is the DIMIC (Dynamic In-Memory Image Compression) which can reduce the RAM requirements of your graphics files. Compression has been used when storing graphics files to disk for a long time, now ColorWorks has implemented it in RAM too. The immediate advantage to this is that you can edit larger files, and you can edit more of them. The drawback is that draw operations are slower. While using ColorWorks I found that it's best to have DIMIC off when you want to do freehand drawing to the canvas, otherwise it's just too jerky and unresponsive to be useable. Of course, another feature of ColorWorks that can fix that is its support for up to 64 CPUs. With dual-processor motherboards and SMP (Symetric MultiProcessing) coming into the market this is a definite power plus that'll give it the speed edge over other photo processing applications. ColorWorks in use Rather than just list its features, I decided to use ColorWorks to create something. A large part of photo-processing work involves assembling pictures from 'bits' culled from other files - a face here, a background there, an object clipped out from there, etc., etc. - making a digital collage so to speak. This would explain the popularity of photographic clip-art libraries, like the massive 200 CD Corel Photo Libraries. Being no artist, I had no idea where to start, so I picked a simple project; take an object and place it in an unlikely setting, then add some text and maybe a few side details. In my image-bank collection I found a picture of a '63 Corvette viewed head-on as it was driving towards the camera. This was the object to be clipped, but to complicate things was the background it was set against. Somehow I had to screen out the trees, road and buildings in the background so it could be pasted cleanly against whatever new background I decided to pick for it. This is where the concept of masks came in. A mask is a way of marking off the particular parts of the picture, right down to the individual pixels, that you want to change or clip out, and which parts you don't. In ColorWorks it's simple to define a mask, you simply flip into Mask mode and paint it. In Mask mode, all the painting tools you used before to create an image are now used to define the mask. Freehand, geometric shapes, text, bezier curves, lines, floodfills, and if wished an option for selecting the entire image (this does actually come in handy as I'll describe later). Since the car and the angle it was turned defied all attempts to classify it with any of the regular geometric shapes, I selected the freehand tool and a wide enough brush to lay down a quick and rough approximation of the car's shape. When painting, the mask is defined by applying a transparent shade of color over the image, like a tint filter. The default color is magenta but you can also pick from red, green, blue, cyan or yellow. As I created the mask, the 'vette now looked like it was out of a scene from the movie Repo Man - where the car was glowing in a neon but fake/low-budget looking aura. Highly amusing actually! This 'aura' had a convenient side-effect too; I was worried that it would be difficult to define the border where the wheels met road since the shadow that the car cast made it look all black down there. The magenta mask acted a bit like night vision goggles and made the wheels and the car's shadow stand out against the black road. I find ColorWorks' method of defining the mask to be much better than the 'marquee' employed by other programs. With the classic black-and-white-dashed marquee it was hard to tell which parts were inside or outside the mask and in complex areas the mask would just degenerate into grey noise. Add to that the fact that most programs insisted on animating this marquee which just made it a confusing sea of static and slowed down everything you did with it. With the car roughly covered, I settled down with the zoomed view to fine-tune the mask. I selected Undefine from the Edit.Mask-Edit-Options menu, now whenever I painted to the canvas with any of the tools it would undefine the mask under those pixels. With this I could 'sculpt' the mask to fit the contours of the 'vette perfectly. This is where the option to select the entire canvas as a mask came in handy, especially when creating protection masks (more on that later). This is similar to how artists will paint a mirror black, let it dry and scratch out their drawings with a sharp point (and thus get a nice silver-against-black effect). You can 'scratch' out the objects and scenes you're interested in. If it's easier to define what the object isn't than what the object is you can simply mask those parts and select Invert from the Edit.Mask-Edit-Options menu. Everything that isn't masked will become masked, and vice-versa. As I chiseled away the mask for the car I had to switch between different brush sizes for fine and coarse work. In most programs a brush shape and size is determined by a floating toolbox with buttons for diameter, shape, rotation, density etc. But with ColorWorks you just pick from the pre-defined brushes in the Brushes menu, a-la-Macintosh style. This may seem incomplete or crude, but to be quite frank I found it quicker and more convenient - no messing around with the controls, just click-click-done. ColorWorks comes with 35 preset brushes and a density control (to 'blur' the edges of whatever brush is in use), but the user can define more. When I was satisfied that the car was properly masked, I selected Image Mask from the Edit.Save-Mask menu - the mask was now committed to memory as an image mask (other types are Protection Mask and Distortion Mask). I could now choose Float-Image-Mask from the Edit menu and the 'Vette became a free-floating object on the canvas. I created a new blank canvas and moved the floating car to it by right-dragging it to the new window. Then I saved the file, ready for when I'd need it later. Adding it to the Background ColorWorks doesn't come with an image browser that lets you preview thumbnails of files or flip through a slide show of pictures, so I used a handy shareware program called PMView to do that. Since I was looking for an unlikely setting I tried my 'Space' directory. In it I found an excellent view of Saturn's rings at solar ring plane crossing as seen from Rhea. How more unlikely can you get? So I right-dragged the 'Vette over onto Rhea and positioned it there on the rocky terrain. It also occured to me that I might as well play with a few of the effects from the Effects menu as well, so I chose Channel-Swap and swapped the blue channel for the green channel, thus turning a blue Corvette into a green one. Finishing touches I looked at the driver in the 'Vette and noticed that thanks to his bushy moustache he looked rather grumpy. I mean it did make sense after all, I wouldn't be too peachy if I was on Rhea either. Now, that called up the necessity for a good caption to this picture, something that would make it complete and compliment its comical nature. I picked one, typed it out, and added it to the top of the picture with the text tool. The text tool is interesting, when you add text you can first move it around to position it just where you want, then after clicking to 'anchor' it you can pick the angle it's displayed at. It draws a line from the anchor point to your cursor so you can easily find a reference point to get just the right angle. Well, picture complete... almost. I hadn't done a perfect job of clipping out the 'Vette in the first place, and since I'd swapped the color channels it had a slight 'halo' around parts of it. I zoomed up on the offending aura and blended it out with a diffused brush. Other features ColorWorks is not a piece of software that sits still either; it has the power to bend to the user's needs. If you see a number anywhere, such as the number of brushes, or the number of warp effects, or the number of texture maps, chances are it can be extended. With ColorWorks you can apply more than one effect at a time, and so therefore mix and combine effects together to produce new ones. You can then save those combinations to disk for use later with other pictures. SPG claims this is like writing your own plug-in effects without having to be a programmer. Well I wouldn't go so far as to say that it replaces the likes of Kai's Power Tools, but it'll probably cover enough bases to keep you satisfied. But one feature that really stands out and shows off OS/2's multithreading architecture is the ability to work on a canvas even while other draw operations are still running on it. If a complex chain of effects is being computed you can still go ahead and edit the same picture. ColorWorks will ensure that everything is done in the right order and won't mess up your work. What's more, you can use multiprocessing and open multiple views of the same picture. This is especially usefull for editing in zoomed mode. You can zoom in with one window while keeping the other at original size. All drawing operations performed on one window will be reflected in the other, and vice versa. The error prone will enjoy a configurable undo of up to 256 levels, customizable on a per-canvas level (meaning one canvas can have all 256 levels activated, and another scrap-pad canvas can have only a few,). That, coupled with the DIMIC, can really make ColorWorks easy on the RAM challenged user. As I will point out, I did quite nicely with only 8 megs installed on my machine. "Version 1.0" Nice as it is, ColorWorks is only version 1.0 at the moment, and in a few places that shows. ColorWorks crashed on me a few times as I worked. It had a problem with loading one of my files which caused it to suddenly buy the farm, and once when I was switching virtual desktops between ColorWorks and my editor it packed it in too. Speed could be a bit better too. Even with DIMIC off freehand drawing wasn't as smooth and connected as I would like it to be. A faster processor/more processors (remember it's SMP enabled up to 64 CPUs)? Maybe, but I think the routines could do with a bit more optimizing. Thanks to its heavy use of multithreading the program was very responsive, and I was able to take it up on its claim that you can edit a picture even while other draw operations are taking place. ColorWorks will not give you the hourglass cursor unless you really ask for it. I'd like to see more brush styles available too. Charcoal, pastels, watercolors, that sort of thing. Wider file format support would be convenient - it'd save all those trips to PMView converting back and forth between formats. One of the nice things about image editing is that it's fun and challenging. It's also highly portable, since with so many graphics formats available it's easy to open the same file in a different program to apply that one effect that only that program has. Of course it's more convenient to be able to use only one image editor for all of your work; that's where the idea of plug-ins came from. ColorWorks doesn't support the Adobe Plug-in format, in fact I can think of no native OS/2 image processors that support Adobe Plug-in. So that's what I'd put on the top of my wish-list; a native OS/2 version of the Plug-in standard, maybe get KPT ported over, wouldn't that be nice? One last thing - SPG really ought to clean up the user interface a bit in version 2.0. For example I found that switching between defining and undefining a mask was a commonly used operation, but it's buried at the very bottom of the Edit menu. A row of radio-buttons at the bottom of the screen would be much much better. Conclusions I've compared ColorWorks to a number of popular Windows image editors, including Fauve Matisse, Corel Photo-Paint, and Paint-Shop-Pro 3.0. ColorWorks needs smoothing and 'sandpapering' to give it a more rounded and finished feel, but it's got power, a lot of it, and that may be enough to convince professional artists to seriously consider buying it. ----- ColorWorks v1.0 SPG Inc. 15505 Bull Run Rd., Ste. 303 Miami Lakes, FL 33014 (305) 362-6602 (voice) (305) 823-2753 (fax) http://www.spg-net.com/ ----- To find out more about Chris Wenham, check out his home page (http://www.spectra.net/~fox/). It's entertaining. ***** NPS WPS Enhancer v1.81 - by Mark Flanagan The first item of business after installing OS/2 and the Internet software is to go on a world-wide hunt for shareware and freeware. What follows is installation, crashes, deinstallation, bruised ini files - the result of the quest for the perfect system. Eventually, it all starts to come together - the perfect viewer, some utilities, games, goofy desktop tricks - the works. These are the fruits of the programmer: application work intended to benefit the user, and, perhaps in a minor way, enrich the author. One author not likely to be enriched - yet - is Shinji Takasugi of Team OS/2 Japan, whose NPS Workplace Shell Customizing Program, recently upgraded to Version 1.81, is a superb collection of applets intended to add dimension (of several kinds) to IBM's business-like Workplace Shell. While Warp improved the look of the interface considerably over version 2.x, after awhile, it can look a little, well, flat. WPS Enhancer, as it is becoming known, doesn't completely remake the face and operation of the WPS; that appears to be the job of the commercial program, Object Desktop. It adds limited functionality and some visually arresting - and fun - animations and shadows to folders and objects. The program is inspirational: add some three dimensional icons, a terrific bitmap background, and the system can become a showpiece, bound to impress, say, Windows '95 users, who may already be tiring of their pristine desktop. Best of all, it works its magic without adding a line to any system file. One merely unzips the file and installs it. An object appears in the startup folder, and a click on it brings up a notebook filled with options; exploring its pages is exciting because of what the program promises - and then delivers. As sometimes happens, however, one moves on to the next hot thing, but because the program is so light fingered, one has only to jettison NPS WPS Enhancer by shredding the icon and program folder to clean the system - a freeware miracle! To describe what the program does would imply that it is a hodgepodge of features pasted together with horse glue. Well, maybe it is a bit, but Mr. Takasugi has been generous in allowing every feature to be enabled optionally, thus allowing one to use only the features found most appealing. These fall into two general categories: aesthetic enhancements and functional enhancements. While the Workplace Shell doesn't lend itself to prettiness (IBM's middle name would seem to preclude it) Mr. Takasugi has found ways to impose prettiness upon it. First, shadows can be added to open folders to give them a three dimensional look. In keeping with the OS/2 philosophy of making every element tweakable, the user can lengthen or narrow the shadows and determine how translucent they will be - perfect for co-ordinating the shadows with bitmaps. Second, a series of animations can turn opening a folder into an event - after and fore images can spin the folder into view, assemble it out of rapidly conjoining pieces, or blast it off with a burst of fireworks. Again, how much or little of this takes place is up to the user: one can enable one to five animation choices, which will operate randomly. And one can limit the animation to folders, as Warp does, or extend it to all objects that open and close - an option that may prove that one can have too much of a good thing. A raft of features tweak menus and open objects. They include: eliminating "Arrange" and "Sort" from the desktop menu (one mistaken "Arrange" proves the value of this item); enabling the arrangement of icons on a grid (as with the less-ambitious Extended Desktop); various ways to sort material in menus, including by extension; the addition of an Xit-like one-click close button to every open folder and application; and a raft of features that alter the behavior of dragging objects around the desktop - from within the folder (rather than from the title bar only), with other folders still visible, etc. Most of these ideas fall into the category of functional enhancements. Perhaps the most ambitious of this type of feature is a change in the behavior of the pointer in relation to open folders and objects. Instead of maintaining a static position in relation to a new open folder or dialogue, the pointer can be modified to jump into the new folder or to the button in a dialogue that has focus. This isn't a new idea to X-Windows users, but it is radical enough to be a bit discombobulating when put into action in OS/2 - especially because so many folders can be opened in sequence and quickly enough to make the pointer become a bouncing ball on the screen. A little acclimation proves its value, though, and one's manipulation of the mouse can decline to a few clicks and movements in a given session. The feel of it is what takes getting used to - but it might be worth it. New in version 1.81 is the ability to draw directly on the desktop, in any color, which can be used for meaningless doodling, notes to someone who might see the computer later - whatever. Presumably, future releases may add line weights, border effects, and (who knows?) animation. Mr. Takasugi is good enough at what he's doing to make you anticipate the next release. All of the above options - and there are more - are beautifully transparent in execution, so they seem natural extensions of OS/2. If a newcomer were put on a fully implemented NPS desktop, they would have no clue whatever that any of the features were not native to the system and, if they were to criticize its busy-ness, they would then have the choice of deselecting the features found most unappealing. This is a hallmark of OS/2 - and of a program that extends it in unexpected and wonderfully useful ways. There have been a plethora of Desktop Enhancers since OS/2 wandered outside the boundaries of the business world. The EWS Extended Desktop, the commercial Deskman/2 and several others have tried to fill holes in IBM's original design. Deskman/2 and the new Object Desktop are clearly substantial programs that require a commitment to their use; the value of NPS Workplace Shell Enhancer is different: it pulls together a raft of simple enhancements into an integrated package that one can utilize as much or as little as suits one's tastes. While it pushes only a little past the boundaries of being merely a fun program, its footprint on the system is so light that one can indulge it. And can move on to more substantial programs when the indulgence wears thin. Still, a marvelous program, very much worth trying. ----- NPS WPS Enhancer v1.81 Author(s): Shinji Takasugi Registration: Freeware! ----- Mark Flanagan (markpf@ibm.net) is Production Manager at Thieme Medical Publishers in New York City and has been using OS/2 since version 1.0. ***** PMView v0.92 - by Steven Atchue Almost Picture Perfect For those of you who do any image viewing, the newest version of PMView may fill an enormous gap. Any of us who have been using OS/2 for any time at all may have been forced to use different programs to view many types of graphics. Well not any more! The latest release (v0.92) of the PMView graphics viewing package does a superb job of handling a vast variety of graphics types. Not only does PMView do a great job displaying graphics, it is also extremely easy to use; testing was effortless. PMView's menus are well organized and well constructed. According to the documentation, PMView is primarily written in C++ and is dynamically multithreaded (able to spawn and kill threads as needed). It is apparent from its performance that it is programmed to take full advantage of the 32 bit OS/2 architecture and multithreading. Additionally, WPS features such as drag and drop and registering of object classes have been implemented. Many of PMView's features have been around in other programs for a while. However, they have never been grouped into one package - until now. Most high end commercial packages, primarily for Windows, do not even come close to the robustness of features in PMView. Abilities such as being able to zoom in on a picture or flip it are common among the average shareware program. PMView, however, goes further to include more advanced features and doesn't disable or cripple them in the shareware version. The viewing options available seem endless; simple options and more advanced ones almost guarantee that a beginner will not be intimidated and an expert will fall in love. The File->Open window actually has thumbnails (small images) of your graphics. No guessing - just click on the thumbnail and the graphic opens. Users can choose to create these thumbnails automatically when File->Open is chosen. The program then creates the thumbnails in the background as you use your computer, so the next time you open the directory, the thumbnails are displayed. You can also choose to create thumbnails manually or when graphics are loaded. This is probably the wiser choice when you have directories with hundreds of graphics such as on CD-ROMS. A recall option allows you to reload any of the last eight viewed files with one mouse click - very nice for authoring or just playing around. You can also print any displayable graphic, which can be kind of fun (I am sure that some of you will find this very useful). Printing can be achieved on any OS/2 supported printer and is done completely in the background freeing up the computer almost immediately. I found print quality to be above average considering I was printing on a 24 pin color printer. A slideshow has also been added within the last couple of revisions of PMView. This feature is a wonderful tool for anyone that is looking to achieve professional presentations. One of the more useful editing features is the capability to change file formats, which in PMView is simple. All you do is choose the File->Save as... and a pull down menu displays the available conversion types. This a useful feature if your current draw program is not capable of saving files in multiple formats. (editor's note: this is a life saver! PMView has allowed us to work with many other cranky OS/2 programs which would not save to either .gif or .jpg.) Another use for format conversion is creating background bitmaps for your desktop. PMView will pretty much change any file into bitmap format to be displayed on your desktop or in any of your folders. Windows 3.x bitmaps can also be created using the same conversion method. With a little creativity and exploitation of PMView's other features, some very nice backdrops can be crafted. All of the remaining conversion filters (way to many too list) have advanced options that can be implemented by seasoned graphics professionals or enthusiasts. PMView can save GIF files in interlaced mode and has options for transparent color and background color indexes - very useful tools when authoring WWW pages. JPG (JPEG interchange format) options include quality, which allows you to control the size of the file by reducing or increasing the quality; smooth, which allows cleaning up of the image; and progressive JPG, which allows the display of the file progressively, much like interlaced GIFs. BMP, DIB, and RLE (Bitmaps) can be saved cross platform for use on any version of OS/2 or Windows. Another handy feature is the ability to capture a screen or window. This has a lot of usefulness if you do any presentations, HTML, technical documentation or other type of work that may require screen shots. You can capture the whole screen, a portion of the screen, a window or the interior of a window. This feature alone could save hours capturing screens for technical documents or HTML because you can save them to GIF, BMP or JPG right in PMView without cutting or pasting. As the name implies, PMView is not a draw program, but it does allow editing of graphics files. It is somewhat similar to a Windows program called Graphic Workshop allowing you to do photo retouching tasks such as cutting and pasting. There are also more advanced image manipulation controls and options. Some of these include: brightness control; RGB balance; negative; gamma correction; palette editing; and picture conversion (black & white, grayscale, 16, 256 or deep color). Options such as dithering and color conversion are very useful tools that can be instrumental in touching up images. This is what separates PMView as a viewer from its competitors. As with most shareware you don't get a printed manual so you must rely on read me files or on-line help. On-line help is available and for the most part is very thorough and to the point. Choosing help from any area of the program navigates you precisely to the subject in the help file and also gives jump points to related subjects that are available. The contents and index are adequately structured and easily referenced. Installation is done from the command line and is not very intuitive. Let's just say installation is not one of PMView's strong points. First, you must know how to unzip files, create directories, and edit your config.sys file. If you can do these, you are home free. Once you get past the hair pulling stage, however, the installation does do some integration with OS/2 by creating an icon on the desktop and also some trickier things like registering the objects with the WPS and providing all the correct associations so you can double click any graphics file and OS/2 will open PMView. I am sure that if the authors sat down and wrote an actual graphical install program, it would be as wonderful as PMView. But for now... Digging into the history of PMView reveals that development is ongoing. Features such as Twain scanner support and expanded paint and drawing capability are planned for the future, so I would be willing to say that these guys are in it for the long haul. After using PMView for the past few months, I don't think I can do without. Some of you may get hung-up on the installation but don't give up. It is well worth it. Others may breeze through the installation and not find it as exciting as I do, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Personally, I think it's a keeper! ----- PMView v0.92 Author(s): Raja Thiagarajan & Peter Nielsen Registration: US$40.00 ----- Steven Atchue (satchue@ultranet.com) has been doing computer consulting for the past four years. He has been in the computer industry since the birth of the AT. Currently, he is doing product reviews, freelance writing and for fun he is building his own house. Steve can be reached on CompuServe as 75250,3726. ***** Zap-O-Com v2.11 - by Ethan A. Hall-Beyer ZOC: PM Communications Software for the Masses With the release of OS/2 Warp last fall, IBM was gracious enough to include a BonusPak of tools and utilities to allow users to benefit from the inherent power of OS/2's design. While some of the software in this supplemental package is well designed, one notable exception is HyperAccess/Lite, the BonusPak telecommunications program. In this aspect, IBM perpetuated a tradition common in past operating systems: the utilities included are used as a bootstrap only long enough for you to go out and find something better, useful, and with a good set of features. For the OS/2 platform, there are many alternatives to HyperAccess/Lite. Quite popular is ZOC, by Markus Schmidt of EmTec Innovative Software. As communications programs go, ZOC is quite mature, and the depth of what the program offers testifies to the author's commitment to his product. What is (a) ZOC? As the author puts it, to "ZOC" could be "a method of communicating with other people through the means of extremely sophisticated hard - and software". In fact, ZOC is simply an acronym for "Zap-O-Comm". While the name may appear frivolous to some people, don't be fooled; ZOC is a serious communications tool. It is a full-featured communications program for the OS/2 Presentation Manager, driven completely by menu, icon bar, and notebook configuration. In its latest version, 2.11, it offers much of what is found in commercial programs, and features not included in most other shareware programs. But it retains a distinct humour that comes as a pleasant refreshment to standard issue computer software. ZOC was first made public in late 1993, as version 0.97 (beta). Even as an incomplete product, the program became an instant hit with many users. It was the first true OS/2 PM modem program, and was the choice of many people switching over from text-based, albeit capable, competitors. Since the 1.00 release, ZOC has undergone two major development stages. In versions 1.00 - 1.33, Markus improved and perfected the base features that one expects to find in viable modem software. Then, approximately a year ago, version 2.00 went public (after a beta test limited to registered users) and included major changes and additions. Since then, full support as a telnet client, and ISDN capabilities (a separate product) have been added. Installation Installation is a snap. Those of you who recall the potential troubles of the "installation" in versions 1.xx will be pleasantly surprised. Instead of coming as an archived directory tree, the main distribution package includes two files (and some quick documentation) INSTALL.EXE and INSTALL.FIL. The former is a full graphical installation routine that allows you to choose where individual components are installed. In addition, if you have a previous version installed, it prompts you before overwriting key files (such as your settings and phone book files). The install program creates the necessary icons, and displays some help files (which you probably want to review before proceeding). The First Time The first time you launch ZOC, it will display a useful help screen, with options to obtain assistance depending on your level of experience with this type of program. The help guides you through the steps you should follow in order to dial out successfully the first time. But, if you're like most people, you jump right into the program and do your best (or worst!). In ZOC, an inviting "Options" menu is where most people head - and where some people get confused. While almost every aspect of the program is user-configurable, there is some inconsistency in how to reach specific settings. Changing the serial and modem settings is straightforward, once you notice that "Serial" and "Modem" are two separate items. Also, it may take the novice user some time to find out how to change the redial delay from twenty to five seconds (hint: it's in Options->Global->Phone book). All this aside, configuration IS quite easy, and help on all options is accessible by pressing F1 at any point. The Kingpin that Holds it all Together Once the modem is configured (and make sure you press "Save", not "OK") it is simple to dial out. The window will immediately accept standard modem commands (for all you people who like typing in atdt directly). Or you can create a permanent entry, by selecting the first icon on the icon bar. This brings up the Phone Book dialogue, one of the nicest features of ZOC. In a communications program, the phone book is what brings it around full circle - how well does the software make use of its configuration? In ZOC, quite well. Every entry in each of the four phonebooks is as configurable as ZOC is itself. ZOC allows you to save a given configuration to a specific file, and that file can be specified within a phone book entry. However, if you choose to use the default setup, there are still many things that can be changed. Each entry may have a unique download directory, scrollback log file, emulation (ANSI) and transfer protocol. There are two levels of scripting: a simple "AutoLogon" (which can be 'learned' automatically) or, if needed, you can use ZOC's full REXX support to automate such tasks as bundling and downloading news. Finally, coupled with a tailored phone costing configuration, ZOC keeps track of total online time and costs. Is it a Perfect World? ZOC is great in many aspects. Some things just make you sit back and think "neat!" - such as the option that lets you put a phone book entry directly on the main menu, for immediate access. There are a wide range of customisation tricks that make the program a pleasure to use. Three configuration screens, "F-Macros", "AutoMacros" and "AutoReply" allow for quick typing shortcuts. Any ZOC user who's ever typed in "bug" and seen "bug (oh no!)" mysteriously appear instead will know what I mean (it is an AutoMacro). These options allow you to define quick access to your name, phone number, or other information you type in frequently. Another functionally intuitive feature is the "Snippets" window, which is unfortunately hard to find the first time. This enhancement monitors the text that comes through, and captures useful bits of information like internet, compuserve and fidonet addresses, and displays them in a handy window. I'd like to see this feature enhanced to allow user configuration, however. The actual presentation of the window is very flexible as well. The icon bar is completely configurable (but some of the icons could be more intuitive) and a second button bar is present to allow custom functions (REXX scripts - a reasonably complete REXX host mode is included) to be immediately accessible from the main screen. The main window can be set to any dimension, or allows a "best fit" option which chooses a font which best fits the screen size the user selects. Of course, it offers a split-screen chat window and customized colours as well. It isn't a Perfect World Despite ZOC's great features, there are certain things that could use improvement. One gripe many users have is that the main window can only use the System VIO typeface, which isn't the prettiest. Also, if you happen to have a Cirrus Logic or ET4000 based video card, you may get ugly lines appearing between text (the author claims this is an issue with OS/2, not ZOC). Further, it does not support the RIP graphics protocol, which is important for some people. Overall, these are small issues, but they do count. As mentioned previously, the configuration layout could use some refinement. Also, the program takes too much time to load, even on my well-endowed 486 (about 10 seconds) - and you can't do anything else while it is loading. Things like these I would like to see changed (and ZOC's nasty habit of immediately re-pasting any text I cut from the main window back into that window). What deters most people, however, is the price. While the unregistered version of ZOC contains all the features that the registered version includes, it is nagware. The program will inform you, after each download, that you have the option of registering, for the rather high price of $70 (version 2.xx) or $90 (all future versions). Add $5 shipping, $20 for the optional disk and printed manual, and $35 if you're a lucky ISDN user, and the total is rather intimidating. At $95 for a full registration + shipping, many people may seriously consider cheaper shareware alternatives, or a full commercial product. Is it Worth it? Many registered users will agree that ZOC is indeed worth the registration price. The author has shown continued commitment, and has improved his product consistently. The recent addition of full telnet client support (now available to unregistered users as well) and ISDN development indicate ZOC is not about to be abandonned. There is now even a mailing list dedicated to discussion and support of ZOC, and a significant number of dedicated users willing to offer assistance. If you're looking to obtain a full-fledged commercial communications program for OS/2, you should definitely consider trying ZOC. For those of us used to paying $30-$50 for a shareware program, ZOC is overpriced. But in either case, it is worth your time to try it. You won't be disappointed; this program sets the standard to which other communications programs are compared. ----- Zap-O-Com v2.11 Author(s): Markus Schmidt Registration: US$70 ----- Ethan A. Hall-Beyer (eahallbe@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca) is a second year Math/Computer Science student at the University of Waterloo, currently on work term at IBM Canada. ***** PMMail v1.1 and Eudora v1.5.2 - by Kenneth Wolman I have been an OS/2 user since late 1993. I bought Red Box Warp back last November, shortly after it came out. I was particularly intrigued with the "freebies" thrown in, namely the BonusPak and (particularly) the Internet Access Kit. I had no horrible experiences installing either Warp itself or the IAK. But then I went to get email from my provider using the glitzy packaged application, UltiMail/2. And I came damned close to simply throwing my software out the window and going back to Dirty Old DOS and Windows. Luckily, I discovered that with a few adjustments to the autoexec.bat and config.sys files, Windows Internet programs could find the IAK's winsock.dll, and programs like Eudora, which are remarkably fast and reliable even under Win-OS/2. Still, OS/2 loyalists waited for a native mailer that would take advantage of the Workspace Shell and let them get free of Redmond, Washington. So when PMMail came out, followed not long thereafter by the PostRoad Mailer, here at last was the chance to wave good-bye to Eudora, the Chameleon mailer, etc., etc., and use the real thing: an OS/2 program written for the system, something that was not a Windows workaround. So I tried PMMail 1.1 (available from Hobbes, CDROM, and the other usual suspects) and the relatively new Eudora release, Eudora "Lite," version 1.5.2. I even liked PMMail well enough to send in my $30.00 to register it. The problem is this: I don't like PMMail 1.1 quite well enough to keep using it in its present state. Eudora 1.5.2 is more feature-rich and configurable than the OS/2 program. Pluses and Minuses Let's look at Eudora Lite first, then PMMail. I hate to say this because I really AM an OS/2 loyalist, and member of Team OS/2. But from the point of view of being a heavy email user, Eudora Lite 1.5.2 for Windows is one of the greatest programs I have ever used on any platform: DOS, UNIX, or OS/2. It is rock-solid, reliable, effectively bugfree, has documentation (almost too much of it, but you don't need it to use the program), and decent on-line help files. And it's free! How does it perform under Win-OS/2? I have used it under both the Red and Blue box versions of Warp. While I have found that Windows applications tend to perform less than optimally using Microsoft's own Windows as the base for Win-OS/2 support, Eudora runs equally well in either edition, and it does so in both seamless mode and from the Win-OS/2 program manager. It takes a bit of time to load because all that Windows code has to load first, but once it's on the desktop it fetches mail quickly and handles all its operations without a problem. It also works very nicely with the IAK's implementation of winsock.dll. Eudora's big drawback as a Workplace Shell program is that it seems to default to taking up your entire screen at 640 x 480, and it has some problems dealing with the Windows fonts, at least when it's first run. The size of the open window is manipulable, so it's a solvable problem, but it can be an inconvenience all the same. It also has some minor but tricky configuration procedures. If you create aliases (a simple enough procedure from the Special/Settings windows, or from the toolbar icon), you need to double-click on the window in order to save the new aliases; there is no button on the screen to indicate a save. However, the entire Special/Settings array has been improved over earlier versions. Everything is done with icon-based menus. Mail can also be forwarded, redirected, and replied to either in group or single-user mode. Setting up individual mailboxes is a piece of cake; and simply typing an alias name retrieves the full pathname of the recipient every time. The hardest thing to master in Eudora is appending files to messages. If you are sending plain text, you need to play with the settings and mail yourself a file or two to make sure you're not sending a BinHex version, and that you indicate you want the message in the body of the mail. Unfortunately, you will only see an indicator in the headings that a file has been attached; you will not see the file itself, and this can be a problem. Hence the advice: send mail to yourself until you know you've got it right, and download the documentation from Qualcomm, find someone with (sigh) Microsoft Word for Windows, and read it. Some final drawbacks: there is no external editor, and you are stuck with the dreaded 8-3 naming conventions. The program runs wonderfully under Win-OS/2, but it is still a Windows program. But Eudora has one feature in its favor: it is a simple matter to use it as an off-line mail reader. When you've downloaded your mail, no matter how much, you can disconnect and do all your work off-line, freeing your phone for stuff like calls. You save your mail to the Outbox, close it, and it's still there. When you log back onto your provider, you simply send all your queued messages which are then timestamped. As for PMMail.... PMMail does a number of things very well, even if configuring it may be mysterious and not quite intuitive for a first-time SLIP or PPP user. You have to look under the "PMMail" menu to find a submenu called Configure, which allows you to define your system connection. Another menu, called Preferences, allows you to make choices about removing mail from the server, adding different signature files, and word wrap. Once done, PMMail loads to the desktop FAST: no Windows code to worry about, after all. Click on the Fetch Mail icon and everything on the server downloads quickly. Click on the message you wish to examine and it appears in a separate window. You then have a choice to reply with or without the original message. There are problems, however, and for someone who is more than a casual emailer, they are problematic. Mailbox and address functions are present, but are hard to set up. To create aliases, you have first to set up a separate address book of some kind, then include the alias within it. To send mail to the given person, you need to open the address book and click on the alias. The complications are not helped by the fact that PMMail does not have documentation or a user guide. What the Help menus explain they do very well, but they do not explain what you _cannot_ do. A somewhat unintuitive program can be made quite user-friendly if the user can consult a reference. The lack of one here is a problem that won't go away until the gap is somehow filled. Your mileage may vary here because I've heard contrary reports, but my experience has been that setting up separate mailboxes, while easily done, is unreliable. You can use the "Transfer" function to move a piece of mail to the mailbox you select from a submenu, but there's no guarantee it will get there. I have personally had pieces of mail go into mailboxes other than the one I selected. I have also had them stay exactly where they are, in the Inbox. This possibly broken feature makes mail storage a bit chancy and time-wasting. (editor's note: we also use PMMail v1.1 at OS/2 e-Zine! and have had no problems of the kind described here.) As a person with accounts on more than one system, I also miss the presence of a function That allows me to redirect my mail. I can forward it, but it arrives at the other system without the original sender's name and email address, so if I try to answer from the other system, I have to brute-force the address. As with Eudora, there is no way to configure an external editor such as elvis, emacs, or vi. (editor's note: Oops! It seems that this _is_ possible. Thanks to Steve Schneider and others for picking up on this.) You are forced to use PMMail's flavor of the OS/2 system editor, and you are not given a choice of fonts: everything appears in that hideous System VIO font, and there is no way to change it, even if you doctor the Font Palette on the OS/2 configuration menus. Another problem I found with PMMail is that its off-line capabilities are more difficult to manage than Eudora's. It saves mail to the Outgoing box, but (unless I've missed something) it also loses unfinished mail: at least it has done so with mine. There is no way to save an incomplete message except to a separate file. If you exit, you lose what you've done. The only way I've found to get PMMail to hang onto mail written off-line and not ready for sending is to hit the "Send" key. You will get an error about not being able to find the network, but the mail will queue up. It is every bit as inconvenient as it sounds. On the other hand, appending text files is simple and quick. And they appear in the body of your message, so they can be edited before you send them out. PMMail is basically a good program, and in its current release it is excellent for someone with little time to play with their software and whose email traffic and storage requirements are relatively simple. But - and again, this is personal experience - the program seems to have traps and murky areas that I would dearly love to see clarified in time for Release 1.5. Hell, I paid for the thing, I'd like to use it:-). But for the time being, I'm going to stick with Eudora. (editor's note: Hmmm... It seems Ken's article has sparked some controversy. We will be posting your replies to our feedback section shortly!) ----- PMMail v1.1 Author(s): BoB & Icon Registration: US$ 30 ----- Kenneth Wolman (wolman@interactive.net) is a technical writer in New York with a night job as a sometime poet. ***** Editorial Policy OS/2 e-Zine! strives to be a high quality publication bringing the best in news, reviews and opinions to the OS/2 community. We promote the use and discussion of OS/2 and its native software. It is not our intention, however, to engage in "bashing" of any other operating systems or its software. 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CANADA B2Y 3P1 (902) 461-2266 ***** Coming up next time - on the Web November 30, 1995 Reviews: WPS Enhancers - We take a close look at Stardock's commercial hit, Object Desktop, and how it compares to other entries in the OS/2 add-on market. Shareware - More reviews of your favourite - and some new - shareware applications. Games - A review of Galactic Civilizations and upcoming features of the new GalCiv II. Books - OS/2 e-Zine! jumps into the book review business. Articles: The Memory Issue - How much RAM is enough for OS/2? How much is good? What ever happened to those $1 a meg predictions? Interview: Brad Wardell - We speak to Stardock Systems' resident evangelist about Object Desktop, Galactic Civilizations II, 8 new OS/2 products and the future of OS/2 software. All the regular stuff: The Rants The Beta File Your Letters Heath's Helpful Tips What's New with OS/2? Internet Resources What Else?: What else would you like to see covered in the next issue? It's not too late to let us know! ***************** Copyright 1995 - Haligonian Media ISSN 1203-5696