The Hitchhiker's Guide To OS/2 - Issue 5
The Hitchhikers Guide To OS/2
- About The Guide
- Here and Now
- SoftViews
- TechnoWatch
- OS/2 Tips
- Trivia Question
- How to Submit
About The Guide
The Hitchhikers Guide To OS/2
Issue #5
Published On 3/22/94
This guide is meant to give a concise report on current OS/2 events. Any and all contents are solely my opinion. If you don't agree with them run around the net and delete every copy you can find. Otherwise sue me, but all I have is a 2400 baud modem and a bunch of credit card bills. Anyone is welcome to the latter :). Read on and I hope you enjoy another issue of the HitchHiker's Guide To OS/2.
Any Comments Regarding The Guide or monetary donations can be directed to:
sdudas@austin.onu.edu
Steve Dudas.
Special Thanks go to Dr. V. Phaniraj for letting me know that wp2ipf/2 exists.
In you haven't guessed that is what this is done with.
Thanks to Kim Kruse Hansen for the great job he has done with this application.
Copies of the HHGOS2 will be available for anonymous ftp from ftp-os2.cdrom.com.
look in /pub/incoming/hhgos2_#.zip
every other Saturday for a new release or look in /pub/os2/2_x/info/newsltr/hhgos2_#.zip For back issues.
The .zip file will contain both a .txt and a .inf version of the HHGOS2.
Here and Now
IBM and Cyrix have completed a landmark chip manufacturing deal. Cyrix will design chips and IBM, who has the most advanced chip fabrication plants in the world, will mass produce them. Currently only 486 CPUs will be made but plans are in place to begin building Cyrix's pentium class M1 CPU before the end of this year.
The effect of this will be rock bottom 486 prices, I would expect them to dip to the cost of today's 386-DX40 for the low end. If they can mass produce the M1 and bring it to market and while meeting their current price estimates the Pentium is in for a major price cut. Cyrix claims that the runs 486 code M1 as fast the pentium runs P5 optimized code, and 30% faster if code is recompiled for the M1. They also project a final chip cost of around $280. Life is going to get real interesting at Intel.
The deal also leaves IBM an option to sell up to 50% of the 486 chips themselves. This should enable Ambra and IBM's other direct marketing divisions prices to drop even lower.
SoftViews
File Managers under OS/2
Review submitted by: Gunmundur J. Helgason
In this little paper of mine I will compare 4 native OS/2 file managers. They are:
DirMaster 1.20 shareware $20
DirectoryManager /2 (demo version) shareware $35
File Manager /2 1.31 shareware $35
Norton Commander 1.0 for OS/2 commercial $?? * All prices are base US prices add $5 to $10 elsewhere.
Ok. first the individual apps:
DirManager/2
This is my favorite when it comes to looks, very polished interface which I greatly like and easy to manoeuvre around it. The demo I tested has this incredible annoying nag feature which is an About box which pops up at fixed intervals. I find this the most powerful of these 4 and keep in mind that this is just a *demo*! :) It is dated in Dec 1993 and there is likely a new update out there. It alone has the power to scan an entire drive for a file spec. (like *.doc) and then copy them all to a target drive/dir, great feature! Also like FM/2 it's colors can be changed via the Color Palette for that custom look. If you run multiple jobs in it (i.e. view contents of 2 directories) you can have two windows open (likely more in the full version) besides the tree view. It is easy to change the settings of file display, look, etc. in the Settings menu. In short: this is great file manager with lean looks and very fast operations and there are no surprises in how it does it business. TRY IT. The file name is: <dm2demo1.zip>
DirMaster 1.20
DirMaster 1.20 is a small little app from Alexander Wilkens of iLogic Software, Norway. The .exe is dated at March 6 1994 so it's quite new. In looks DirMaster is similar to Norton Commander, except Norton has less buttons to play with. It's mem requirements are about 1620kb's. It has a flexible app launcher which would allow to have your own apps in the button bar and launch them with a single click. This takes some fine tuning of your part, but that is one time only job. This is a little and mean file manager which I like but I'd like to see more punch packed into future versions (more object oriented actions, container boxes etc.). The file name is: <ilgdm120.zip>
FileManager/2 1.31
This is a frequently updated file manger to say the least :)
It is written by M. Kimes of Bare Bones Software, Shreveport, USA.I have tested it somewhat and like it. It's mem requirements area bit high, 2429kb, but that is due to it's icon look. Everyfile is displayed as an icon, either the actual icon or areplacement (folders or papers depending on the file format).Changing the icons to mini icons didn't seem to effect the memory use. However you can display the files in DOS format(called Details in FM/2) in which the mem use drops to about 2050kb and this method I prefer. One great OO feature of FM/2 is that you can change the colors of the app via the Color Palette. This is a very good file manager which I would encourage you to try out, the latest version is: <fm2_135.zip> Norton Commander 1.0 for OS/2
Ok, here it is: Symantec's first OS/2 product (and likely the last if my former DOS hero Peter Norton has anything to say about it). It closely duplicates it's DOS brother and uses almost none of OS/2 advanced options; there is no right-mouse container of any kind, if you have seen DOS Norton Commander you've seen this one. Straight port, that's all. This is a 1992 software which in OS/2 world is *old news*. I have really nothing more to say about his one, you most likely know it and just look at the benchmarks to see how it stacks against the others.
Mr. File PM 4.5
Here is another FM written by IBM employee, it is very efficient in mem usage (uses only about 540kb). It has some odd looks and usage that I cant get used to. Also it rapidly found all *.doc on my HD but refused to copy more than 97 of the 245 for reasons that I cant understand. It seems very fast and efficient in operations. It uses the right mouse button for Drag and Drop instead of using it for container box like DirManager and FM/2 do. I find it too Windows-like for my taste (i.e. all operations take place from pull down menus). Try it, however, you might like it. I wont include it in the tests for various reasons.
The file name is: <mrfile45.zip>
Testing:
DirManager DirMaster FM/2 1.31 Norton
Memory requirements in KB:
1940kb 1620kb 2050b 1805kb
Rescan C:\ (405MB FAT):
2.80 sec(1) 1.18 sec 2.16 sec 1.03 sec
1 click 1 click 1 click 1 click
Find *.doc on c:\
3.43 sec N/A N/A 15.89 sec
3 clicks N/A N/A 2 clicks
Copy *.doc on c:\ (2):
52.00 sec N/A N/A N/A
6 clicks N/A N/A N/A
Copy dir (94 file /3.6MB)
23.78 sec 26.00 sec 25.93 sec 24.09 sec
6 clicks 9 clicks 8 clicks 8 clicks
delete dir(94 files/3.6MB)
21.97sec 52.90sec (3) 8.09sec(4) 22.04sec
4 clicks 4 clicks 6 clicks 4 clicks
Display contents of dir:
0.98 sec 1.72 sec 2.86 sec 1.15 sec
1 click 1 click 1 click 1 click
Total time for 4 tasks:
49.53 sec 81.80 sec 39.40sec 48.31 sec
12 clicks 15 clicks 18 clicks 14 clicks - It creates a nice little icon tree
- Copy *.doc from all over the drive to one dir.
- The program has this nice bar display which slows it down greatly.
- This figure I just don't get, FM/2 must something very strange here.
CONCLUSION: None of these 4 can totally do what I want as I am former power user of DOS. I still do most of my file management in DOS or OS/2 windows (uncompressing/decompressing etc.). I am *much* quicker to, say, move 40 files from one dir to another by command line that to start a FM, select the dir, the files, target dir, and closing the FM. Some cases however are almost impossible to do or take forever without a FM, like I am beta testing a new brilliant data compression tool and often have to move large amount of various files from all over the HD to a target dir. This is piece of cake with, say, DirManager (the other 3 cant do this task). Just select the search (like *.doc) and it finds them for you, then just select them all and select the target dir. Easy and fast. Also to edit a Directory tree is much more pleasant and easy (often safer as well) to do than via command line.
DOS or OS/2 command line is still faster and more flexible but if you don't want to remember complex command lines like below then FM's are for you :)
uc a -m -tst -f -i sample.uc2 #test\new\files !*.doc These 4 FM's will all do just fine. If you're after small size and simplicity get DirMaster 1.2 but if you are after power and are willing to spend another 300kb or so, get DirManager. Of the 4 I think that Norton's is the worst and FM/2 some- where in the middle. DirManager is the winner in my book (and no I don't get a free copy for writing this, I wish :). However, if you choose one of these 4 then you'll most likely enjoy it and accept it's shortcomings and learn how to circumvent it's limitations. Moving between these 4 is easy so if you want to try another one out go ahead, they are in ftp.cdrom.com /pub/os2/2_x/.
WINNER: DirManager
LOOSER: Norton Commander 1.0 for OS/2
Tools Used: Gateway2000 486/66 256k cache, 405MB IDE Western Digital, Diamond Viper 2MB VRAM VLB, OS/2.11, PMP 2.11 (for seeing the mem use), and my professional stopwatch :)
TechnoWatch
IBM has recently made information available about the upcoming releases of OS/2. They have many versions coming out to suit many needs, while it may be a bit confusing at first I think this strategy will win over the most users.
First OS/2 2.2 or OS/2 Lite will ship in late summer. This version trims down the RAM requirement to 4 megs and includes a install program dubbed "one button install". Must be a mighty big button :)
If IBM markets this as strongly as they have OS/2 for Windows and if Chicago has not shipped yet (Like this is even a remote possibility) IBM has a pretty good chance of winning over a large number of users. Especially if they are smart and sell it for $50.
IBM also has plans to ship a version of OS/2 for the PowerPC sometime in the next 12 months. This product is probably the least understood, current information says that this will be based on a generic microkernel. This kernel is capable of providing all basic needs to any operating system. Thus you buy the base OS, then buy modules to run your favorite software, say a Windows+DOS module or an AIX module. From what is being released IBM has a complete dominance over MicroSoft here. Microsoft hasn't even announced vaporware capable of this.
The last major version of OS/2 announced to date is OS/2 2.2 server edition. This version will have Lan Server integrated into the package and will also support plug and play. IBM has also talked about adding a new user interface to this version.While the current OS/2 interface is quite nice, what better place to test a new one out? If it bombs it would not be too much of a problem since not many people do work directly on the server, and if its great IBM will get tons of positive feedback.
OS/2 Tips
A couple great new little programs have come out and I thought I would tip everyone off to them. The first is IBM Employee written software, or EWS, the program is called excal.zip and provides one of the most Work Place shell interfaces I have ever seen. The entire app can be almost run from the mouse alone.
The second is a PM Mpeg player written by Mike Brown. Its only version 1.0 but its very well done and looks to have a promising future.
Both of these programs can be found on ftp-os2.cdrom.com in the /pub/2_x directory.
Trivia Question
Who is credited with naming UNIX?
Answer to last Issues Trivia Question:
The first Nuclear power plant to use software to guide the shutdown of its reactors in emergency situations was _____.
Yup you guessed it, someone borrowed the book that had that in there. Look for 2 answers in the next issue.
Yes I know these are hard... but stop by the library and look it up! Who knows, you may learn something.
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