OS2eCS eZine #1
From the Editor: The Beginning of a New eZine and the Rebirth of OS/2!
Welcome to the very first issue of OS2eCS eZine! It has been awhile since the OS/2 community has had an online magazine or newsletter published. The last OS2eZine was published in December 2004 and the last VOICE Newsletter was August 2005! So we here at the OS2eCS Organization decided it was time to "get the ball rolling again"!
With eComStation v2 Beta released just a few days ago...we have many exciting things ahead of us! For a complete article on what is forthcoming in eComStation v2 check out these articles:
- eComStation 2005 RoadMap
- News and Info About eComStation from WarpStock Denver
With IBM officially pulling OS/2 support and availability as of December 23, 2005--the "OS/2 Is "Dead" mantra in the mainstream IT press is alive again! This is no shock to those of us who have followed IBM's Road Map for OS/2 and its sun setting plans.
Despite this news, OS/2 is more alive today than ever...reborn as "eComStation", an OEM version of OS/2 that is greatly enhanced and being metamorphosed into a current state-of-the-art operating system.
According to Bob St. John, Director of Business Development for Serenity Systems International..."there is no end in sight" for eComStation! So as a community we have much to look forward to in 2006 and the years ahead!
eComStation today is a more viable platform in terms of ease of use, productivity, compatibility with current hardware, and legacy support than any other x86 platform operating system available for sale today!
The goal of OS2eCS eZine will be to keep its readers up-to date on the latest software and news related to the eComStation platform while highlighting its many benefits such as productivity, performance, and security! Our goal is to publish a quarterly online magazine to keep the OS/2 community and new users aware of the benefits of the latest OS/2 technologies.
We invite you to participate by sending any articles or comments you would like to contribute to our editor. Articles need to be nothing other than plain text files. We can handle the formatting and editing of the article for publication. We hope this will encourage more article contributions by keeping it simple. Any screen shots or pictures are preferred to be in png format.
This is our very first issue, so please bear with us, with any errors or omissions. It has been a rush to get this issue out in time for the holidays!
Again, welcome to our first issue! We hope you enjoy this and many more issues to come!
Jeramie Samphere, editor of OS2eCS eZine, is a long time user of OS/2 since Warp 3 in 1995. He uses OS/2 and eComStation exclusively in his company, leveraging existing hardware infrastructure as well as new hardware.
WarpVision: The Ultimate Multimedia Player for eComStation
Part 1-Installing WarpVision on eComStation
By: Steven Douglas Taylor
First get Netlabs Warpvision latest and stable versions at: ftp.netlabs.org/pub/wvgui/wvgui_latest.zip
Unzip both in a dir or a WarpVision folder
Get ODIN from HERE (http://www.os2warp.org/odin/2005/odin32bin-20050402-release-xp.wpi):
Install via Warpin--just double click on the wpi!
When getting to the Packages screen just install these two selected and checked marked items:
- Odin Weekly Build ( 16 Jun 2004) (V0.5.691.0, 935 KB)
- Odin Weekly Build System Files ( 16 Jun 2004) (V0.5.691.0, 3,286 KB)
- Don't install these: Win32k.sys or .sym files
Reboot
Get Wincodecs at ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/wvgui/wincodecs/wincodecs_new.zip
- Be sure to read the READ.ME file for wincodecs.
- DO NOT PLACE THESE FILES IN YOUR WARPVISION DIRECTORY.
- Just make a WinCodecs folder or directory for them separate from the WarpVision directory.
- Just unzip them by ArcView and extract them to your [C:\]ODIN\SYSTEM32 directory.
- Then rename system.ini in the root ODIN directory to system.org.
- Then copy system.ini in the [C:\]ODIN\SYSTEM32 directory to the root [C:\]ODIN directory.
Reboot
Get libc06r1.dll from ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/wvgui/libc06r1.zip
Unzip and copy libc06r1.dll to your [C:\]OS2\DLL directory
Reboot
Optional WarpOverlay, a must install in my honest opinion.
Get if from http://os2.kiev.ua/en/overlay.download.php
After you have downloaded it, double-click on Overlay1_0_5.exe in the directory you saved it.
The following are the screens you will see..just proceed through them to install WarpOverlay:
- This is a demo version that only works for 15 minutes, then will blank the screen.
- You must to register it, so it will not blank out after 15 minutes.
- Its just US$10, so please register it at Mensys!
They will email the registration key file to you, just read the readme and install it.
Reboot
Just run or double click on video2.exe in the directory where you unziped the WarpVision files.
Thank You!
Steven Douglas Taylor is a long time user of OS/2 since Warp 4. He is the Secretary and a Director at the OS2eCS Organization. He currently is the owner and operator of an OS/2 outpost on the Undernet IRC Network in (channel) #os/2warp.
CODEX: An Electronic Bible and Concordance for the eComStation Generation
By: Mike Engle
Introduction
Codex is a Biblical concordance. Basically it is a fast search program to find words in the Bible. It was written by J. Brandon Barnes.
Background
In the olden days, before computers, people who seriously studied the Bible would have a Concordance book nearby. In fact, many study Bibles today include a small concordance within the binding. Basically, a concordance was a book that contained most of the words in the Bible in alphabetical order. (Of course, simple words like, "the, and, or" would not be included in a concordance. You could look up a word and the concordance would list all the places that word was located in the Bible. Of course, concordances were translation specific. Some would even give a brief definition of the word and sometimes the Greek or Hebrew word. For more in-depth Greek and Hebrew definitions, Vine's Expository Dictionary is the book you want.
The Program
Codex is a "full-featured Bible concordance". It is available from BMTMicro (see below). Codex is small and fast. After double clicking on the icon you get a window starting with, well the beginning, Genesis 1:1.
You can then scroll through the entire Bible or use the look up dialog. To get to a specific location in the Bible, you can pick the book, chapter, and verse you want to read.
Of course, as you would expect you can search the Bible for words or phrases. The dialog box even provides suggestions as you type in your word of choice. You can even limit your search to various groupings of the Bible such as, Old Testament, Historical books, Gospels and others. As expected, you can add operators to your search for full Boolean searches.
The search results in a new window opening. This window lists the verses that contain the word(s) that you initiated the search with.
A single click on a line in the Verse List window will take you to the verse you clicked on. The word(s) you looked up is even highlighted in magenta, while the rest of the text is black.
Of course the King James Translation comes standard with Codex. The author wanted to provide the New International Version (NIV) as well, but Zondervan, the owners of the copyright, wanted over US$10,000 up front and an additional amount for each copy sold. This was far too much for a shareware product, so no NIV translation.
Even though the NIV is the best selling translation, the situation is not so bad. The Lockman Foundation, which controls the New American Standard Bible (NASB) translation, was much more cooperative. For a small additional fee, (see below) a NASB translation is available for Codex. The NIV translates from the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts phrase by phrase. This lends to a text that flows and is quite easy to read. On the other hand, the NASB is translated word for word with a particular emphasis on verb tenses. This results in the NASB being closer to the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek in phrasing and word order. While the NASB does not read as smoothly as the NIV, the NASB can claim to be the most reliable English translation. Since a concordance would be more often used in an in-depth Bible study, wouldn't you want the most accurate translation available, even if it does not flow off the tongue as well as other translations?
The situation even gets better. If you remember reading an older edition of the NASB translation, you would come across the words Thou, Thee, and Thy in the language of prayer when addressing Deity. The NASB translation that comes with Codex is the 1995 edition which replaced Thou, Thee, and Thy with You and Your.
At the author's web site you can also download some other translations which include the Darby (1890), Webster, and Young's Literal (1898) translation. As you can see these translations are quite old and beyond copyright. But sometimes it is helpful to read more than one translation. Within the Codex window it is possible to have multiple translations open at the same time. They can even (on the preferences dialog) synchronize so that all translations open to show the same verse.
In addition to translations, Codex also comes with some additional references. Along with the program you get "Easton's Bible Dictionary" and "Hitchcock's Bible Names". While the interface of the references is not the best they are usable and helpful.
Other features available include the ability to bookmark different areas and name the bookmarks whatever you like for quick look up later.
What I like
I have turned to Codex time and again when preparing Bible studies for small groups and for my own personal Bible study. The search is very helpful and I like reading the different translations side by side. Besides the functionality I mentioned above, I like the ability to copy a single verse or multiple verses to the clipboard to paste into something else. The NASB copyright allows a person to "reprint and/or quote the text of the [NASB] up to and inclusive of two hundred verses without express written permission...." The Foundation does request when text is used in not-for-sale media that the abbreviation NASB be used at the end of the quotation. Most of all Codex is fast and does not get in the way of my study.
What I don't like
Of course no program is perfect for everyone. So here are my few gripes about Codex.
My first gripe concerns when you bring up the verse with the word you searched for. The verse is located at the top of the window. I so often find myself scrolling upwards to see the previous verse or verses. A major part of Bible study is context. And to gain the context the particular verse you are looking at requires the verse or verses that proceed it. When in Africa 99 % of the questions we received could be answered by reading the verse in question in context.
The references are a nice addition, but the interface seems a bit minimalist. It almost seems as if the references were a last minute add in.
Finally I don't like the way the multiple verse clipboard copy is implemented. First off, it is done via a dialog box instead of just highlighting verses and then copy. In addition, the copy contains the reference at the end of every verse. It would be nicer if the copy range would put the reverence at the end of all the verses copied instead of after every verse.
Cost
Just for this article the price of Codex has been reduced. For Codex and the King James translation the cost is US$15.00 available at BMT Micro. Codex alone. If you also want the NASB translation, you will pay an additional US$15.00, for a total of US$30.00 from BMT Micro. Codex with NASB translation. This is a great deal and better than what I paid for it some years ago.
Summary
In conclusion I must admit that Codex is one icon close to my desktop. I find it very useful. Yes an NIV would be nice but I do prefer the NASB for a more in-depth Bible study anyway. Along with a few other programs, I consider the money spent, well worth it (and that was before the new pricing).
Mike Engle teaches biology at Mount Aloysius College in South Central Pennsylvania, USA. (A university for anyone outside of the US.) He has been using OS/2 since version 2.0. Before that he used CP/M. Any other operating system he finds too frustrating (causes him to swear too much).
eSchemes: Easily beautify your eComStation System with a theme!
By: Jeramie Samphere
What is eSchemes? eSchemes allows you change the colors, fonts, icons, and other WPS (Work Place Shell) system apperances. eSchemes gathers the functionality of Scheme Palette, Window Themes, eStyler Lite, Icon Themes, Sound Schemes, and Pointer Schemes and provides an integrated set of WPS Objects to easily manipulate and apply a system wide theme, affecting all appearances of windows and backgrounds. eSchemes is a model of Work Place Shell (WPS) applications utilizing SOM (System Object Model) and Object Oriented technology that is the heart of the Work Place Shell user interface. This enables eSchemes (like other SOM enabled applications) to be extended by third party developers. All schemes are represented as objects, and so it allows for such things as mobile schemes. After customizing a scheme, a user can simply save that object and copy it to another users machine, allowing them to have all the same theme settings applied on their system. Scheme files are easily managed via the WPS (Work Place Shell) using intuitive object interaction (RMB click on the object).
What can eSchemes do for you? eScheme makes it easy to apply system wide themes to your eComStation system using intuitive objects that you can easily manipulate to further customize your system. Perhaps one of the exciting benefits of eSchemes, is that, it will allow changing the pale gray attributes of folders and windows to something more desireable--this is a function not currently possible using other tools. For applications to benefit they will need to be recompiled to use the new "CLR_PALEGRAY" method.
eSchemes is currently in Beta code, but is already very usable and stable. It is being developed by eCo Software. Some new functionality to be introduced in future releases:
- Documentation for Third Party Developers to interface with eSchemes
- New Buttons!
- Allow schemes to be changed without a reboot!
- Non-Rectangular Frames!
- Other updates that will allow changing check-boxes, radio buttons, and scrollbars.
In summary, eSchemes is a state-of-the-art theme management application that will bring eComStation's attractiveness to a whole new level! It provides customizing of your desktop unlike anything available for any other platform. eSchemes with its SOM and WPS technology will provide a competitive advantage for enhancing productivity and overall system appeal!
Before eSchemes you had a mess of many individual apps to configure:
Introducing: eSchemes by eCo Software
First you need to access the eComStation Betazone and download eSchemes: http://betazone.ecomstation.com/fileviewer.php?file_id=138
If you havn't registered for a BetaZone account yet, simply login through the main eComStation page: http://www.ecomstation.com (This is the recommended approach.)
Under "Reserved Features" you should find the "BetaZone".
Once you locate eSchemes, get the latest version and install. Its a WarpIn package, so its very intuitive to install:
