MMOUG December 1994 Newsletter

December 1994
Volume 2 Number 12

The views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily the views held by
the MMOUG or it's members. Don't agree with something you've read here?     
Write and tell us about it!  If you have any contributions, please upload them to area
18 of the WoodMeister or send them to me via Internet at USDSSKZS@IBMMAIL.COM.  If
you work for the State of Missouri and have access to DISOSS, you can send them to
POOLMWV at DSSHOST.      

Mid Missouri OS/2 User's Group

Minutes for November 16, 1994 Meeting

Attendees:  Ben Hoffman, Gerri Jeffery, David Keisker, Harvey Summers,
Jay Robertson, Carole Mosley, Gary Pool, Randy Wright, Michelle Wilson,
Phillip Wilson, Cindy Sturges, Woody Sturges, Randy Wilkerson, Kevin
Foon, Paolo Tomka, Steve Maring, Scott Brodbeck and Charlie Harris.

Phillip Wilson called the meeting to order.

Gary Pool reported that next month's meeting will be our Christmas party
and will be held at the Jefferson City Ramada Inn.  It will be on 12/21
and run from 3pm to 6pm.  Appetizers will be available as well as a cash
bar.  Members can attend for free, guests are welcome to attend but must
pay $10 at the door or join the MMOUG.  We are investigating running a
video tape of OS/2 Warp during the party and prizes will be given away.

The January meeting will be at the IBM office in Jefferson City and will
feature demonstrations of the communications packages that come with the
Bonus Pack:  OS2CIM, HyperAcess Lite, and the Internet Connection kit.

We are planning on having the February meeting in Columbia and present
OS/2 Internet connection through MoreNet.  The meeting location will be
announced later.

Suggestions for future meetings are:

March - Lantastic
April - Visual programming tools for REXX
May   - OS/2 Games

Phillip asked for suggestions for give away Software.

Kenneth Willard from Pinacle presented the Desktop Observatory product.
Michelle Wilson won a free copy of the Desktop Observatory and will
write up a review of the product for a future newsletter.

The meeting was adjourned.

Information Officer Input/Output

I wasn't sure whether I was going to have anything worthwhile to put
into the Newsletter this month.  Fortunately, there was a flurry of
activity on the OS2BBS over the last few days so I was able to swipe
several interesting pieces.  Nevertheless, I'm always looking for
something interesting to put into the newsletter.  If you have anything
to say that would be of interest to OS/2 users or if you see something
interesting on Compuserve, Prodigy, America Online, FidoNet, the
Internet or at the Well-Come-Inn, send it to me!

I can hardly wait!  In a few more days I'll get my check for teaching
part-time at Nicholl's Career Center.  As soon as I get the cash in
my hot little hand, I'm ordering a larger fixed disk (I saw a 540 Mb
IDE Quantum drive for $199 -- that's about 40 a meg!), an original
8-bit soundblaster ($35 -- if I had gotten one when I first got my
PC it would have been $180), and WWWWwwwwwarp! ($49 after rebate).
Yes!!!  I'd like to increase my memory from 4 Mb, but I'll probably live
with 4 Mb until I get a new multi-media PC.  Probably in about 3 years,
after the boat is paid off.

When everything is in place, I'll finally be able to do my own review
of Warp and let you know how it really runs on a minimally configured
system!  By then I should have DeScribe 5.0 installed.  Michelle 
(Lennane, not Wilson) called a couple of weeks ago and said that it
would be a while before I got it, so it may be a Newsletter or two
before it can be reviewed.

The big news, of course, is the Christmas party coming up on December
21 at Ramada Inn in Jefferson City.  Phillip has said that there will
be a lot of great giveaways.  Remember, it's free for members of the
OS/2 User Group or $10 for non-members.  Non-members can join the
User Group at the door for the ridiculously low price of $30.  That
would not only gain access to the party, but give them increased
access on the OS/2 WoodMeister, and allow them to be eligible for the
monthly drawings.  What a bargain!

Remember, if you are only reading the paper version of this, you're
missing out.  The electronic version has many more articles!  It's
available on the WoodMeister, Pete Norloff's board, the Advantis 
OS2BBS, and hopefully on Compuserve and AOL.  In the future, now that
I have Internet Access, I'll try to find good places to put it on the
Internet.  In fact, if anyone has any suggestions, let me know!

The Dog House

This may be the last time the Dog House appears.  Has it been helpful?
Would you like it to continue?  If so, let me know.  If it can be
dropped, let me know.  It is one of the most time consuming aspects
of the newsletter, so unless there is a general outcry or a volunteer
to take over writing articles for me, it's going to the boneyard.

If you have any neat REXX programs, please upload them to area
18 of the WoodMeister or send them to me via Internet at USDSSKZS@IBMMAIL.COM.  If
you work for the State of Missouri and have access to DISOSS, you can send them to
POOLMWV at DSSHOST.

Humor

Computer Glossary of Terms

Alpha -- Software undergoes alpha testing as a first step in
getting user feedback. Alpha is Latin for "it doesn't work".

Beta -- Software undergoes beta testing shortly before it's
released. Beta is Latin for "it still doesn't work".

Computer -- Instrument of torture. The first computer was
invented by Roger "Duffy" Billingsly, a British scientist.
In a plot to overthrow Adolf Hitler, Duffy disguised himself
as a German ally and offered his invention as a gift to the
surly dictator. The plot worked. On April 8, 1945, Adolf
became so enraged at the "Incompatible File Format" error
message that he shot himself. The war ended soon after
Hitler's death, and Duffy began working for IBM.

CPU -- Central propulsion unit. The CPU is the computer's
engine. It consists of a hard drive, an interface card and
a tiny spinning wheel that's powered by a running rodent - a
gerbil if the machine is a 286, a ferret if it's a 386 and a
ferret on speed if it's a 486.

Default Directory -- Black hole. Default directory is where
all files that you need disappear to.

Error message -- Terse, baffling remark used by programmers
to place blame on users for the program's shortcomings.

File -- A document that has been saved with an unidentifiable
name. It helps to think of a file as something stored in a
file cabinet - except that whey you try to remove the file, the
cabinet gives you an electric shock and tells you the file
format is unknown.

Hardware -- Collective term for any computer related object that
can be kicked or battered.

Help -- The feature that assists in generating more
questions. When the help feature is used correctly, users
are able to navigate through a series of Help screens and
end up where they started from without learning anything.

Input/Output -- Information is input from the keyboard as
intellligible data and output to the printer as unrecognizable
junk.

Interim Release -- A programmer's feeble attempt at repentance.

Memory -- Of computer components, the most generous in terms of
variety, and the skimpiest in terms of quantity.

Printer -- A joke in poor taste. A printer consists of three
main parts: the case, the jammed paper tray and the
blinking red light.

Programmers -- Computer avengers. Once members of that group of
high scrool nerds who wore tape on their glasses, played
Dungeons and Dragons, and memorized Star Trek episodes;
now millionaires who create "user-friendly" software to
get revenge on whoevery gave them noogies.

Reference Manual -- Object that raises the monitor to eye level.
Also used to compensate for that short table leg.

Scheduled Release Date -- A carefully calculated date
determined by estimating the actual shipping date and
subtracting six months from it.

User Friendly -- Of or pertaining to any feature, device or
concept that makes perfect sense to a programmer.

Users -- Collective term for those who stare vacantly at a monitor.
Users are divided into three types:

Novice Users -- People who are afraid that simply pressing
a key might break their computer.

Intermediate Users -- People who don't know how to fix their
computer after they've just pressed a key that broke it.

Expert Users -- People who break other people's computers.

OS/2 Tips 'N' Techniques

*Undocumented OS/2*

or,

*Changes Under the Hood in Warp Version 3*

Release 1.0
November 20, 1994
Compiled by Frank McKenney

Copyright (c) 1994 by Frank McKenney
All rights reserved.

:elines.
This document may be freely re-distributed for non-commercial
purposes.

This document is not another FAQ list as such, although it does serve
some of the same purposes.  It's intended as a replacement for the
accidentally omitted(;-) section of the OS/2 Warp Version 3 README
file that describes what is new and different in the latest version of
OS/2.  It's not that none of the changes which sudenly appeared with
Warp Version 3 have never been documented anywhere (although many have
not), it's simply that it's hard to know what to go looking <for>
without some idea of where changes occurred.

Changes, additions, and comments should be directed to rrs0059@ibm.net
or mailed to:

Frank McKenney
McKenney Associates
3464 Northview Place
Richmond, Virginia  23225
(804) 320-4887

*What is missing*

*Productivity Applets*

As of Warp v3, the old "applets" (ToDo List, Phone List, etc.)  are no
longer included.  Responding to numerous comments about the limited
functionality of the old applets, IBM has replaced these with a set of
complete applications included as a part of the Warp BonusPak (IBM
Works, HyperACCESS, PIM software, etc).  The BonusPak is described in
more detail in the "New Software" section, but the old applets, with
the possible exceptions of PM Chart (for pasting text into the Icon
Editor) and the Tune Editor (for creating System Sound files) will not
be missed.

No specific support for migrating data from the old applets to the
BonusPak applications has been provided.

*What's New*

*BonusPak Applications*

In contrast to the old Productivity applets, the new BonusPak
additions to Warp are true applications, and make much better use
of the PS/2 Workplace Shell (pop-up menus, drag-and-drop, etc.). For
those of you not aware of the new software, here is a quick summary:

IBM Works: --  word processing, spreadsheet, charting, database,
reporting.

HyperACCESS: --  terminal emulation.  This replaces the late,
unlamented PM Terminal with somthing easier to operate and less 
resource-hungry.

PIM: --  Personal Information Manager. Integrated appointment
calendar, ToDo list, planner, and Phone/Address book.

FaxWorks: --  Send/receive FAX application which can handle
distribution lists draged-and-dropped from the Phone book.

IBM Internet Connection: --  TCP/IP over a telephone line (SL/IP) and a
set of Internet tools: Gopher, NewsReader/2, an FTP client with 
drag-and-drop, Telnet (tty and 3270).  A WorldWideWeb client named 
Web Explorer/2 is in beta (v.91 currently) and avaiable via FTP.

Multimedia Viewer: --   Extensions to MMPM/2 for organizing and
displaying GIF, PCX, TIFF images. Also used to support
the graphics capabilities of Web Explorer/2.

Also included are a CompuServe Information Manager, IBM's MMPM/2 Video
IN, and Person to Person.

*Improved documentation*

In addition to the completely-revised "User's Guide to OS/2 Warp", you
older OS/2 users who upgraded may not yet have had a chance to look in
the Warp version of the Information object.  It's not just two INF
files and a README any more; there is a new set of manuals such as
"Printing in OS/2", "Performance Considerations".

*New printer driver: OMNI*

A new IBM OMNI printer driver relaces the old 16-bit Epson, DeskJet,
and PaintJet printer drivers.  Aside from the obvious disk space and
maintenance savings achieved by only having one driver instead of
three, the new OMNI driver ws wrrten to improve extensibility and
performance.

Based on comments from IBM during Warp Beta2 testing, it appears that
the OMNI driver is a full 32-bit driver which requires less memory,
does not rely on a 4-bit color internal display driver, and has major
improvements in bitmap support.  The OMNI driver was designed to
support any printer that supports a raster transfer language, and
future extensions could include vector language support as well.

*OS/2 now default to "polled" printing*

Under OS/2 2.x, the low-level printer support was interrupt driven,
using IRQ7 for LPT1 and IRQ5 for LPT2.  This was good (low overhead,
good throughput) and bad (IRQ conflicts with SoundBlasters and other
adapters, no choice on IRQ used, printer adapters and cables which
worked under DOS might not under OS/2).

Beginning with Warp 3, the default low-level printer support is
handled by periodically "polling" the printer port to see when it can
accept the next character.  This is good (allows a lot of printers,
cables, and LPTx adapters to work under OS/2 that might not otherwise)
and bad (increased overhead).

User feedback seems to be mixed.  Some printers seem to work
acceptably with OS/2 polled printing, some do not.  However, you can
re-introduce interrupt-driven printer support by edit your OS/2
CONFIG.SYS file to add a /IRQ to the PRINT01.SYS or PRINT02.SYS
statement.  For more information, type HELP BASEDEV at a command
prompt and then Search for PRINT01.

Although it is not explicitly stated, it appears that there is still
no choice on IRQs if you use them.  With the /IRQ parameter in place
IRQ7 will be used for LPT1 and IRQ5 for LPT2.

*Changes to Swap File*

Some changes were made to OS/2 memory management which appear to have
increased OS/2's "normal" swap file size by as much as 8-10 Mb over a
v2.1 system.  Some, but not all, of this increase can be attributed to
additional drivers (FaxWorks, IBM Internet Connection).  I have not
seen any official explanation from IBM on what may be contributing to
this increase (but see the section on DISKCACHE for one possibility).

*Changes to FAT Disk Cache Size (DISKCACHE)*

DISKCACHE=D,...

Under 2.x, the DISKCACHE statement in CONFIG.SYS specified how much
memory should be set aside (e.g. unavailable for applications) for
buffering file I/O to FAT partitions. Under Warp, the installation
substitutes a letter "D" for the usual numeric value (e.g. "D,LW" in
place of "384,LW"); this is either an error or an undocumented
parameter value. A number of users have reported that their disk I/O
was significantly reduced when they replaced the "D" with an
appropriate value (e.g. 256 for a system with 8 Mb of RAM); this is
consistent with the theory that an overly-generous amount of memory
was being set aside for cacheing FAT disk I/O.

*Mouse Pointer Settings*

The Settings notebook for the Mouse object in the System Setup folder
has a new page: Pointers. You can use this to load one of the
pre-defined sets of pointers shipped with Warp, or edit any of the
current set of pointer images.

There is one drawback: there is no feature for saving your changes.
They will stay in place until you load a new set of pointers, but you
can't then re-load your changes. Nor can you easily give a copy of
your beautifully-drawn pointers to a friend.

If you want something more permanent, go into the \OS2\POINTERS
directory and XCOPY one of the existing directories, then use the Icon
Editor to modify each pointer.  The next time you open the Mouse
object, your new directory will be listed along with those shipped by
IBM and the pointers you defined can be loaded as a set.

*Mouse "Comet Cursor" Settings*

Also added to the Mouse Settings notebook is a page for defining a
"comet trail" which follows the mouse pointer. If you have ever lost
track of where your mouse pointer is in a sea of Desktop windows,
you'll appreciate this feature.

*New Screen Settings Page*

If you open the System object in Warp's System Setup folder, you might
accidentally overlook the fact that the Screen section is now two
pages long. The second page can be used to define your monitor type to
OS/2. * Warning * Be sure to review the Help text for the new page
before making any changes. There's an easy-to-miss comment about
possibly damaging your monitor buried in there.

*Scheme Palette Additions*

The Warp Scheme Palette object has a number of new settings to help
you gain better control over the appearance of your OS/2 Warp Desktop.
Play with the Transparent Color and Visible Text checkboxes in
particular (not active for all settings).

*Create Utility Diskettes*

The System Setup folder has an object which will create a set of OS/2
bootable floppy disks for maintenance purposes.  The EWS BOOTOS2
program is still useful for setting up maintanance paritions or for
making a customized diskette set.

*New Hardware Diagnostic Tool: RMVIEW*

Included with Warp v3 is a new tool which can be invaluable in
diagnosing hardware problems such as shared IRQs. RMVIEW dumps a
wealth of detail on IRQ assignments, adapter memory usage, SCSI
addresses, and attached peripherals. Here's my NEC SCSI CD-ROM drive,
attached to a Future Domain TMC-840 SCSI adapter:

 Adapter: FD8XX_0 TMC-8x0 SCSI Adapter
 Device Type: MS-SCSI        Bus/Width: ISA 16 BIT
 Memory Base = 0X000CE000  Size = 00002000  Flg =  SHARED
 IRQ Level =  5  PCI Pin = NONE  Flg = EXCLUSIVE

   Device: CDROM_(4,0)  NEC      CD-ROM DRIVE:55  1.0   REMOVABLE  CDROM

For more details on RMVIEW parameters, type RMVIEW /? at an OS/2
command prompt. In particular, try RMVIEW's /IRQ (IRQ usage) and /IOA
(I/O address map) options.

*CONFIG.SYS AUTOSTART=...,LAUNCHPAD*

The OS/2 system variable AUTOSTART now supports a parameter to control
whether or not the new LaunchPad feature will autostart when the WPS
is started.  If you want to avoid having LaunchPad appear
automatically, remove this parameter.

LaunchPad can be manually started at any time by double-clicking on an
"empty" section of the WPS Desktop (or any other folder).

*Logging OS/2 System Errors: SUPPRESSPOPUPS*

Tired of writing down those SYS3175 pop-up screens so you can report
them to OS/2 Support?  If you add the statement

  SUPPRESSPOPUPS=D

to your CONFIG.SYS, each time an OS/2 application dies on a System
Error the TRAP information will be appended to a file named
D:\POPUPLOG.OS2 along with the time and date the error occurred.  Use
your favorite text editor to extract the latest error information and
add it to a FAX-to-be or an e-mail message.  LAN administrators can
build scripts to check for this file on LAN-connected OS/2 systems and
automatically extract its contents for reporting at a central support
site.

A description of the SUPPRESSPOPUPS variable can be found in the OS/2
Command Reference.

*Automatic re-boot on crash: REIPL*

An OS/2 system can be automatically re-ipled following an IPE or TRAP
if the statement

  REIPL=ON

is present in CONFIG.SYS.  See the Command Reference for full
description, but use with caution.  Note that message queue hangs and
tight loops cannot automatically be detected by OS/2, and will not
triger the automatic re-boot.

*Diagnostic Aids: TRAPDUMP DUMPPROCESS*

TRAPDUMP can be used to direct an OS/2 standalone dump to a FAT
partition instead of floppy disks. DUMPPROCESS will snapshot critical
process information when a program dies. These OS/2 system variables
are (briefly) described in the Commmand Reference.

*"But wait! There's more!"*

I just don't know all of it yet...  after all, I only got Warp GA
loaded yesterday afternoon.  As new material accumulates, and if
enough interest is expressed to justify the time and effort, I will
issue updates to "Undocumented OS/2".

This is a first draft.  Please send comments, updates, and suggestions
to Frank McKenney, rrs0059@ibm.net.  Be warned that flames will be
automatically routed to an attack-trained copy of Warp's UltiMail/2
Lite; on detecting a flame it will promptly trigger a SYS3175
self-destruct sequence, taking the offending missive with it.

Frank McKenney            / OS/2 Advisor (OS2BBS)
McKenney Associates       / Richmond, Virginia / (804) 320-4887
Internet: rrs0059@ibm.net / TalkLink: WZ01123

Subject: "Undocumented OS/2" (long)
Ref:     Append at 04:22:15 on 94/11/21 GMT (by WZ01123 at HONE82)

Frank,

Good job.  During the Beta II, I (for one) asked for a "readme" of some sort
that would outline "every" subtle change.  Well... such a thing did not make
it into the product.  I thought (and still think) that specific knowledge of
changing defaults and changing behavior was necessary for shops upgrading to
Warp.  My guess is that the "OS/2 Architect" has disappeared and no one knows
the whole story.

Among things you might add to your document are:

o  The "parameters" setting of command prompts now includes a percent -- %
o  There is a separate "settings" entry in an object's popup menu
o  Some objects, once on the Desktop, are now in OS/2 System (Shredder,
   Minimized Window Viewer)
o  Some objects, once on the Desktop, are now in Information (Master Help
   Index)
o  Gone is "Start Here"
o  Gone is the shadow of "Drive A" on the Desktop
o  Many more "Schemes" in the "Scheme Palette"
o  New "Mixed Color Palette" with 256 colors
o  Lots of UNDOCUMENTED "SOM stuff" (look up "SOM" in the Master Help Index,
   Glossary, etc -- nothing!)
o  Selective Uninstall
o  Multimedia install part of basic installation
o  "Easy" and "Advanced" installation
o  Beginning a "drag" does NOT cause the folder with the object to jump to
   the foreground
o  Install multiple printers during initial installation
o  Install CORRECT video drivers during initial installation
o  New \OS2\BOOT directory
o  ISA systems get (and NEED) both IBM1FLPY.ADD and IBM2FLPY.ADD drivers
o  Installation now CORRECTLY recognizes MANY sound, CD-ROM, etc devices
o  Three dimensional icons -- folder OPEN and CLOSED icons

The list is endless (smile and frown -- smile because there is a lot to
talk about, frown because there seems to be no "central repository in the
OS/2 shop" that knows the whole story (but I'd WELCOME the evidence that
proves me wrong)).

Jim Stuyck
J. D. Stuyck and Associates - (817) 571-1708

Subject: "Undocumented OS/2" (long)
Ref:     Append at 04:22:15 on 94/11/21 GMT (by WZ01123 at HONE82)

Frank,

Other changes:

- TEDIT.EXE has been added, no longer do you have to boot DOS to fix the
config.sys. Boot till white box appears and then hit Alt-F1. At menu escape
to a command prompt and type TEDIT. This brings up a non PM os2 based editor
so you can repair the config.sys.

- OSDELETE.EXE (located in the \OS2\INSTALL\BOOTDISK directory), Removes
OS/2 so long as syslevel indicates V3. If Windows is installed the audio
drivers will remain in the \OS2\DRIVERS subdirectory.

- Along with RMVIEW is a file called RESERVE.SYS, used to reserve resources
so RM will not touch them. I posted the syntax earlier!

- You can add your own config.sys files to the Aft-F1 menu thereby booting
the config.sys of your choice. In the \OS2\BOOT directory are config.x
files (x being the letter coresponding to the menu choices). You can add you
own config.sys file (named as config.p or such as long as you do not use
extension of 1, 2, 3 or any of the already apearing menu choices). This is
useful for docking stations. Then you edit C:\OS2\BOOT\ALTF1BOT.SCR and add
your choices so they show on the menu (do not edit the mid or top portion of
Alt-F1 menu). Next time you access the menu and hit P the CONFIG.P will
load.

- Alt-F2 key on boot to see drivers already loaded.

- To migrate the Calculator application ( I get a lot of questions on this
one) from 2.1 or 2.11 copy over C:\OS2\APPS\PMDCALC.EXE,
C:\OS2\APPS\DLL\PMDIARY.DLL, C:\OS2\APPS\DLL\PMDIARYF.DLL AND
C:\OS2\HELP\PMDIARY.HLP to their respective directories under Warp. All four
files must be present for the PM Calculator to function properly.

Raymond LaTulippe  (IBM) Boca Electronics Support Team

From:  Ray LaTulippe                     <MCP28570@d17jlatu.bocaraton.ibm.com>

Rebound -- Off the Boards

We're on the Internet!  Besides the regular dial-in 
access to the OWM, now you can use your Internet connection 
to gain access to the BBS.  FTP is available, as is VMODEM 
(if you're using the SIO drivers) and even a Web home page. 

Telnet and Gopher services are coming soon!  Here's how to 
access the system:

ftp:    owm.carenet.org
VMODEM: 159.251.161.3 (owm.carenet.org)
Web:    http://owm.carenet.org
modem:  (314) 446-0016

Please note - things are being built as you read this.  
We thank you in advance for your patience while we get 
things setup.  I do not plan on allowing people to go OUT 
of the BBS (ie: telnet to other locations from within the 
BBS), but I will strive to provide all the OS/2 resources 
via the OWM!

Coming soon: Telnet, Gopher, Newsgroups, and more!

                           
                            
                          
 
       < The OS/2 Woodmeister >
               Overview of downloadable files 
                      (314) 446-0016
      FIDO Node 1:289/27    1200/2400/9600/14400 D/S
       <>

(Tue Nov 29 05:30) Last 1 months newest of a total of 3138 files (525 MB)
                   Maximum privilege shown: Disgrace
                   Newest: CFGBETA.ZIP dd 11-28-94 (avail: 11-28-94)
                   Date flag: new on this system since: * = 1 week, + = 1 month

Filename     Area  Size   Date    Description
    
21APR1.ZIP      2  773K 11-14-94+ OS/2 Apar listing for all APAR (fixes) for
                                  2.1x version in inf format. useful for
                                  tracking down known problems , fixes
21APR2.ZIP      2  737K 11-14-94+ OS/2 2.1 APAR listing in INF format
21APR3.ZIP      2  751K 11-14-94+ OS/2 2.1x APAR listing in INF format 3/6
21APR4.ZIP      2  766K 11-14-94+ OS/2 2.11 APARs 4/6
21APR5.ZIP      2  718K 11-14-94+ OS/2 APAR list 5/6
21APR6.ZIP      2   75K 11-14-94+ OS/2 APAR listing 6/6
312PT1.EXE     11   46K 11-14-94+ Patches for Netware 3.12 1/2
312PT2.EXE     32   47K 11-17-94+ Netware 3.12 patch file 2/2/
AFIX043.ZIP    12   48K 11-21-94* AreaFix v.43 - Areafix manager for FIDO echo
                                  messages
AMOS301.ZIP     9   37K 11-17-94+ AMOS v3.01 DOS-program Mounts OS/2 HPFS
                                  drives using a TSR
ANS004.ZIP     12  262K 11-23-94* Answering machine for modems with ROCKWELL
                                  chipset
BINDEZ.ZIP     32   80K 11-17-94+ Untility for Netware system to manipulate
                                  bindery
BLACKHOL.ZIP    9   36K 11-21-94+ Like OS/2 shredder with a real attitude.
                                  Kills everything dropped on it.
BLANKR43.ZIP    9  257K 11-16-94+ OS/2 screen blankning utility *MUST HAVE*
BORGWA.ZIP     55  200K 11-21-94+ Borg Wav files
CFGBETA.ZIP     9  586K 11-28-94* Beta. Major update of CNFGINFO.EXE. Excellent
                                  utility. Lets you click on any config.sys
                                  item & get a full explanation, tips etc. Hot!
CIDLAN.ZIP      9    3K 11-15-94+ Util to aid in RSP file create for IBM CID
                                  process
CMAIL27C.ZIP   12  171K 11-17-94+ A E-mail program
CMDFLDR.ZIP     9   44K 11-14-94+ OS/2 WPS utility
DF1SUM.ZIP     59   22K 11-15-94+ OS/2 CIS Developers #1 forum listing
DF2SUM.ZIP     59   10K 11-15-94+ OS/2 CIS Developers #2 forum listing 11/8/94
DISKIO14.ZIP    9   18K 11-18-94+ OS/2 DISK benchmark tool
DO-FOR.ZIP     11   27K 11-14-94+ Novell Batch Bindry change util
DROPNZIP.ZIP    9  380K 11-16-94+ OS/2 interface to PD ZIP/UNZIP utils
DRPNZIP.ZIP     9   27K 11-23-94* Drop and Zip (ZIP front end)
DW0694.ZIP     24   62K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
DYNBUT.TXT     24    3K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
DYNQR3.ZIP     24   13K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
ECJDLL11.ZIP   24   44K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
EDMI2_10.ZIP    6  148K 11-23-94* EDM Article
EDMIDX.ZIP      6   42K 11-23-94* Electronic Developers magazine index
EVMON.ZIP      24   50K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
EXP200.ZIP     24   52K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
EZFACT.TXT     24    7K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
EZSOUR.ZIP     24   56K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
FAXDDE.ZIP     24   19K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
FB188.ZIP       9  234K 11-14-94+ FileBar 1.88 - Utility for OS/2 2.x FileBar
                                  is an application launch  facility & shell
                                  replacement for OS/2  2.x.  Uses less memory
                                  than
FB_188A.ZIP     9  282K 11-17-94+ FileBar 1.88a - Utility for OS/2 2.x FileBar
                                  is an application launch  facility & shell
                                  replacement for OS/2  2.x.  Uses less memory
                                  than
FORMS.ZIP      24   11K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
FORMSI.TXT     24    1K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
FRENUM.ZIP     24   28K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
FSP60.ZIP      21  342K 11-21-94+ FontSpec Pro is the ULTIMATE font manager for
                                  Windows. Supports both TrueType & Postscript.
                                  NEW!! Print installed & UNINSTALLED fonts!! R
FTPNLM.ZIP     11  214K 11-15-94+ Novell 3.12+ FTP patch
GC0165.EXE     24   81K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
GETREC.ZIP     24    8K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
GP0694.ZIP     24    9K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
IBMTRO.EXE     32   34K 11-21-94+ Token Ring utility
INC.ZIP        15 1654K 11-28-94* Demo of 'In Control', full function personal
                                  and small business financial package.  All
                                  functions work except the date is hard set.
INIMT32A.ZIP    9  731K 11-18-94+ OS/2 ini file editor/maintainer
IP12.ZIP       11   17K 11-15-94+ Some driver for OS/2 ip routing from Netware
                                  FTP site
IS114D.ZIP     24  107K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
JS0594.ZIP     24   26K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
KA9Q.ZIP       32  513K 11-21-94+ Ham Radio BBS uses internet protocols
KS0594.ZIP     24   33K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
LANBUILD.ZIP   32  306K 11-17-94+ Windows-based LAN design tool
LANSV1.EXE     11  399K 11-14-94+ Lan Server Utilities 1/3
LANSV2.EXE     11  375K 11-14-94+ Lan Server Utilities 2/3
LANSV3.EXE     11  406K 11-14-94+ IBM Lan Server Utilities 3/3
LC0294.ZIP     24   49K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
LC0394.ZIP     24   60K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
LC1193.ZIP     24   53K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
LCALL002.ZIP   12   13K 11-21-94* Last caller info for Maximus
LISTNB.ZIP     24    7K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
LMAN520A.ZIP    9  260K 11-16-94+ LASR_MAN v5.20 r01/01/94 MicroMetric <ASP>:
                                  Great for manuals, docs, drafts, legal, etc.
                                  - save up to 93% of paper usage! Laser/ink
                                  je
LOGIN.ZIP      24    8K 11-01-94+ --- no description available ---
LOOKUP.ZIP     24   34K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
LS4ADM.ZIP     11  333K 11-15-94+ *MUST HAVE* Lan Server 4.0 utilites **WORK
                                  under LS 3.0** allow many batch admin
                                  options.
LZSSLIB.ZIP    24   19K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
MAX202C.LZH    12  467K 11-21-94+ Maximus 2.02 Common files for DOS & OS/2
MAX202P.LZH    12  496K 11-21-94+ Maximus 2.02 BBS program. OS/2 files.
MAX202R.LZH    12  486K 11-21-94+ Maximus 2.02 DOS files
MB.ZIP         24    6K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
MFILE121.ZIP   12  128K 11-14-94+ MaxFile/2 v1.21 - A text based FILES.BBS
                                  manager for OS/2. Written specifically with
                                  the OS/2 sysop in mind. FILE_ID.DIZ import,
                                  archiver
MMOUGB94.ZIP    1  506K 11-02-94+ Mid Missouri OS/2 User Group Newsletter for
                                  11/94
MOVEST.ZIP     11   25K 11-15-94+ Lan Sever utility to move info from one
                                  server to another
MUREXX.ZIP     12   31K 11-23-94* Maximus user editor (in REXX)
NYTIMES.TXT     1    7K 11-14-94+ IBM responce to critical review
OPLTOOL3.EXE   24   74K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
OS2APAR.EXE     4  109K 11-16-94+ OS/2 APAR info.. compressed text file?
OS2BIT.ZIP     14  122K 11-23-94* OS/2 Bitmaps
OS2CFG9.ZIP     4   43K 11-28-94* Version 9 of Rick Meigs' great OS/2
                                  config.sys description file.  100k of data,
                                  tips and more.  Updated for Warp.  Must have!
OS2DC1.EXE     11  555K 11-18-94+ OS/2 netware requestor x/6
OS2UT1.EXE     11  647K 11-18-94+ OS/2 Netware REquestor x/6
OS2VLM.EXE     11  741K 11-16-94+ Netare patch for OS/2 workstations
OS2WARP.ZIP     7  491K 11-17-94+ TRIDENT chip drivers for OS/2 v.2.1 or
                                  greater. Not for previos beta.new as of
                                  10/10/94
OSC_212E.ZIP    9  362K 11-23-94* McAfee OS/2 virus scanner
OWM_ALL.TXT  LIST  346K 11-28-94* All files on the OS/2 Woodmeister
OWM_ALL.ZIP  LIST  125K 11-28-94* All files on the OS/2 Woodmeister
OWM_NEW.TXT  LIST   17K 11-28-94* New files (last 30 days) on the OWM
OWM_NEW.ZIP  LIST    6K 11-28-94* New files (last 30 days) on the OWM
P-LEX.EXE      24  294K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
P4WARR.ZIP     24   41K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
PAL$EVNT.ZIP   24    1K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
PAL$FILE.ZIP   24    1K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
PAL$FORM.ZIP   24    1K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
PAL$RTL.ZIP    24    2K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
PAL$TBL.ZIP    24    1K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
PB0394.ZIP     24   50K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
PBURST.EXE     11   62K 11-14-94+ Patches for Packet Burst for 3.12 and 4.xx
                                  Netware
PCT_TO.ZIP     24    5K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
PDOXWIN.DLA    24   27K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
PFWBUG.ZIP     24   18K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
PLNET111.ZIP   15  298K 11-18-94+ Planets v1.11 - more fixes, more features,
                                  more planets!
PMCOM220.ZIP   12  417K 11-23-94* Latest PMComm Communications program for PM
                                  (AWESOME)
PRFRM3.ZIP     32   72K 11-16-94+ Netware Perform v3.x measure throuput on any
                                  system Useful benchmark for opt packet sizes
PROGBA.ZIP     24    6K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
PROGRE.ZIP     24   10K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
PWPDOX.DSC     24    1K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
PWPDOX.EXE     24  124K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
PXCHART.ZIP    24    1K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
PXDCREAT.ZIP   24   17K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
PXDQBE.ZIP     24    5K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
PXDSQL.ZIP     24    3K 11-04-94+ --- no description available ---
PXDSRV2.ZIP    24   15K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
PXDTRANS.ZIP   24    6K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
PXDUTILS.ZIP   24    5K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
PXDVIEW.ZIP    24    8K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
PXDWGDSK.ZIP   24    1K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
PXFORM.ZIP     24   16K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
PXPALEXE.ZIP   24   18K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
PXSRV.ZIP      24   47K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
QVDM102.ZIP     9   56K 11-15-94+ OS/2 query VDM settings
RBAR.ZIP       24   17K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
RECORDER.ZIP   24   24K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
RH1293.ZIP     24   35K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
RPTCTR.ZIP     24   13K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
SAPTRAK2.ZIP   11   91K 11-15-94+ Network Tracking tool from Netware FTP site
SBTOOLS.ZIP    24  193K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
SFTINS.ANN      4    4K 11-23-94* Software Installer/2 v1.2 availability
                                  announcement
SHOWAC.ZIP     24    9K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
SIO135.ZIP     12  233K 11-21-94* Latest SIO Communication drivers for OS/2.
                                  This version has the VMODEM drivers.
SOUNDE.ZIP     24    3K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
SOURCE.DSC     24    1K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
SOURCE.EXE     24   45K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
SPEED2.ZIP      6 1330K 10-31-94+ Speed Pascal/2 Beta III
SPEEDBAR.ZIP   24   23K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
SQPCK141.ZIP   12  101K 11-23-94* Squish Packer util
SR0894.ZIP     24   12K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
SR0994.ZIP     24   68K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
SROUT1.EXE     32   36K 11-17-94+ PAtch for Novell servers to impliment source
                                  routing
STAYDO.ZIP     24    5K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
SUPPORT.TXT    24   27K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
SYNCDE.ZIP     24   12K 11-07-94+ --- no description available ---
T-RING.ZIP     32   36K 11-16-94+ Useful trace util for Token Ring systems --
                                  see card address, settings.
TABSEQ.ZIP     24   11K 11-08-94+ --- no description available ---
TCMAIL.ZIP     12   98K 11-15-94+ A OS/2 e-mail program I think
TCURSE.ZIP     24   40K 11-08-94+ --- no description available ---
TCURSO.DSC     24    1K 11-08-94+ --- no description available ---
TFOLDER.ZIP    24   55K 11-08-94+ --- no description available ---
TI127          24    8K 11-08-94+ --- no description available ---
TI1672.ASC     24    8K 11-08-94+ --- no description available ---
TI1895.ASC     24    7K 11-08-94+ --- no description available ---
TI2048.ASC     24    4K 11-08-94+ --- no description available ---
TI2569.ASC     24    5K 11-08-94+ --- no description available ---
TI2575.ASC     24    6K 11-08-94+ --- no description available ---
TI2578.ASC     24   27K 11-08-94+ --- no description available ---
TI2589.ASC     24   17K 11-08-94+ --- no description available ---
TIMEL100.ZIP   21  170K 11-21-94+ TIMELESS for WINDOWS 3.1,  v1.0
TIUTIL.ZIP     24   14K 11-08-94+ --- no description available ---
TOOL2.FSL      24   10K 11-08-94+ --- no description available ---
TOOLBR.ZIP      9   17K 11-15-94+ A WPS menu system
TORQUE.ZIP     31   25K 11-18-94+ Steve Gibson's WINMARKs tester defeats
                                  benchmark hacks
TRACER.ZIP     24   67K 11-08-94+ --- no description available ---
TRACIT.ZIP     32   64K 11-18-94+ LAN Trace utility, abilities unknown
TSLDRV.ZIP      7  112K 11-04-94+ The latest Trantor drivers for OS/2, may not
                                  work with WARP, do work with the Beta
                                  version.
TSPELL.ZIP     24  226K 11-08-94+ --- no description available ---
TUSER002.ZIP   12   14K 11-23-94* Maximus/2 user stats
TUTIL.ZIP      24   98K 11-08-94+ --- no description available ---
TYPEAHED.ZIP   24   10K 11-08-94+ --- no description available ---
UUXFER20.ZIP   32   28K 11-21-94+ A internet supported communication program
                                  (w/ .C source)
VNASUM.ZIP     59    9K 11-15-94+ OS/2 CIS vendor B forum listing 11/8/94
VNBSUM.ZIP     59    8K 11-15-94+ OS/2 CIS Vendor B listing 11/8/94
VXRXS21A.ZIP    2  879K 11-16-94+ Update to VX-REXX
WC094PCH.ZIP   24  153K 11-08-94+ --- no description available ---
WINLPR10.ZIP   32   71K 11-21-94+ Windows INternet printer util for winsock
WINPOS.ZIP     24    7K 11-08-94+ --- no description available ---
WK0294.ZIP     24   34K 11-08-94+ --- no description available ---
WNWAIS21.ZIP   32 1108K 11-23-94* WAIS Internet client
WSARCHIE.ZIP   32  154K 11-21-94+ Windows Archie Client
WSDRV1.EXE     11  577K 11-15-94+ OS/2 Netware requestor drivers x/6
WSETUP.ZIP      9   38K 11-18-94+ Allows WIN access/install under HPFS.
                                  Untested.
WSFNGR11.ZIP   32   90K 11-21-94+ Windows Finger (internet program)
WSFTP32.ZIP    32  229K 11-21-94+ Windows for workgroups FTP client
WSLPD-11.EXE   32   65K 11-21-94+ Print file directly from the internet reqs
                                  winsock
WSOS21.EXE     11  287K 11-16-94+ OS/2 Netware Client Requestor x/6
WSOS22.EXE     11  865K 11-14-94+ Netware OS/2 workstation drivers
WS_FTPB.ZIP    32   59K 11-23-94* Windows FTP Client for internet
XGATE3.ZIP     32  167K 11-21-94+ A usenet to fido gateway
ZOC199.ZIP     12  515K 11-04-94+ Public Beta OS/2 Comm Program. Latest .
ZOC200.ZIP     12  525K 11-17-94+ The latest (and greatest) OS/2 comm program.
                                  Best of them all, used by P Wilson and H
                                  Summers.
ZS102B.ZIP      9  276K 11-15-94+ *MUST HAVE* ZipStream 1.02b on-the-fly
                                  compression. Somewhere between ZIP and
                                  Stacker, but great!


  
         List created with DOWNSORT 5.5g by Rob Hamerling
               on Tue Nov 29 05:30 under OS/2 2.9
  

Threads

"Threads" are a collection of posts that may be of interest to individual
readers.

Reports from COMDEX

PRESS RELEASE 1 TEAM OS/2 Initial report to and from the Team

Tuesday, 15 NOV 1994

The "Pink Ninjas" are Back!  by Keith Wood

COMDEX attendees are "Getting used to seeing them."  IBM officials
credit them with "Giving the product the time it needed."  And rival
Microsoft has dubbed them the "Pink Ninjas."

They're the volunteers of Team OS/2.

This is the fifth COMDEX to be visited by Team OS/2 members in their
distinctive shirts ("Don't call them pink -- they're SALMON!"), and
their enthusiasm has increased with every show.  Teamers have been
covering the convention sites supporting exhibitors who are interested
in running OS/2 in their booths.

Teamers laughed when told that a competitor has claimed that they were
each being paid $500 for their efforts.  The fact is that the Teamers
are paying their own bills for their travel, stay, and meals (unless
you consider soda pop, doughnuts and M&Ms a "meal").

Though there is no money in this, Teamers' experiences are worth
millions, though -- for instance, Teamer Dick Krueger was standing
behind the crowd at the Warp demo booth when he discovered that he was
next to none other than Bill Gates!  The MS head was concentrating on
the demo, and left before Dick had a chance to offer to help Bill get
Warped!

Other highlights of the day:

On the Multi-Media side of the house Donald Champine and his Merry Band
are having the time of their life.  Their day actually started last
Friday when Donald and Janet started putting the team command center
together.  By Saturday afternoon they were busy at work trying to
prepare a Multi-Media demo.  Everything was in place and ready to
install but as luck would have it no one timed any of the demos for a
P-90 processor.  So Sunday and Monday were spent re-customizing the
demos and finding fixes for the ill fated software.  ATI, IPC, Everex,
and a host of other venders are now enjoying the all of the benefits of
WARP Multi-Media.  What we found while doing this is that most of the
visitors that came to the vendors booth while the Multi-Media teamers
were there did not want to see the vendor but wanted to talk to the
teamers about WARP!!!!!!!

Teamer Melissa Driver approached NBC News as well as PBS's Computer
Chronicles and discussed the Team OS/2 concept.  Both NBC and PBS
seemed interested in doing a story on both Warp and Team OS/2.  They
seemed to find it hard to believe that so many people would volunteer
and devote so much time and money into OS/2; and they seemed really
interested in Team OS/2 as a human interest story.  By the way, Melissa
went after the NBC News crew after they finished filming at the
Microsoft Windows 95 booth.

And some anyonymous Teamer left a very favorable impression with a Big
Name Reporter in the trade press.  The COMDEX Press Room has been
equipped with several dozen computers, each running OS/2 Warp, for the
use of the media reps at the show.  One user was having difficulty
using OS/2, and another leaned over and said "I saw this at <a big
hardware company's> booth.  One of the Team OS/2 people said to do
this, and it worked."  He then demonstrated, and it worked again!

One other feature of this Team activity is the presence of a contract
video crew, which has been interviewing Teamers and following them on
the show floor to see just what it is that Team OS/2 DOES.  Look for a
further report on this later in the week.

And who were those Teamers spotted at the very exclusive Spencer F.
Katt party on Monday night . . ?  Team OS/2 is EVERYWHERE!

For those of you hungry for information on what's happening at Comdex
related to OS/2 Warp... here's a report of my experience as a coach and
instructor at the "OS/2 Time Warp Institute" (OS/2 Warp Test Drive) and
SmartSuite for OS/2 pedestal here at Fall Comdex in Las Vegas.

We're running 12 shows per day, one every 30 minutes and are packing the
seats (45 seats, each with a PS/2 Model 77 - 50 Mhz - 16Mb memory system)
at every show.  We award 7 copies of OS/2 Warp, 4 copies of SmartSuite
for OS/2, and provide every attendee with an OS/2 Warp demo diskette, an
"I've just been Warped" black T-Shirt with red letters, and a White Paper
on OS/2 Warp - packed in a silver, "OS/2 Warp" silver-colored bag.

Today, we ran a special show for Team OS/2 members designed to provide
a more technical look at what's new in OS/2 Warp (compared with 2.1).
Lee Reiswig dropped by during the Team OS/2 show and was delighted to
hear we were doing a show exclusively for Team OS/2 members.  I gave
him a copy of SmartSuite for OS/2 on CD-ROM (which is what we're giving
away) - as he'd never seen the SmartSuite for OS/2 CD-ROM based install
program in action (I wrote the program in REXX, using Visual REXX to
provide a panel-driven interface, and allow users to take advantage of
OS/2's powerful multi-tasking capability to install the entire Suite,
if they wish.  Users can overlap the install of Ami Pro for OS/2, 1-2-3
for OS/2, and Freelance for OS/2).  Lee hadn't seen the CD-ROM version
as we received the CDs on Saturday, Nov. 12th.  I brought the first
batch of 250 CDs with me on the plane from Austin so we could give them
away at the show.

At the end of the show, we demonstrate the Internet Access Kit and show
a live Internet connection with Gopher and two Web Explorer sessions
running across a single phone line (using a 14.4 Kbps modem).  Most
attendees are fascinated when we demonstrate pulling information from
two sources using two Web Explorer windows.  Both Windows "surf" the
Internet simultaneously (as shown by the running icons in the upper
right hand corner of the Web Explorer windows).

We've had a large number of Microsoft employees attend the Test Drive.
One of them was caught editing the OS/2 INI files (OS2.INI, OS2SYS.INI)
on his machine - causing it to totally lock up.  One of our coaches
who also serves as an instructor (Lori Sackowitz of San Francisco) said
to the gentleman (I use the term loosely), "What did you just do to your
machine?"  He replied, "Oh, nothing."  She smiled at him and re-booted
the machine with a Ctrl-Alt-Del.  He was surprised to find that the
system came up and started running without a glitch.  We set the systems
up to rebuild the desktop and INI files as the system boots, restoring
the DESKTOP subdirectory and INIs from a BACKUP subdirectory (which
re-creates the initial desktop for the next show).  It's nice to know
we "outsmarted" a potential Microsoft saboteur (the turkey).

We also had Microsoft employees, while in line for a show, handing out
invitations to participate in the upcoming limited release of Windows
95 (anyone out there still unsure whether this is an all-out war?).

Jim Manzi, CEO of Lotus Development Corporation, was spotted hanging
out at the SmartSuite for OS/2 pedestal in the IBM booth (Lotus also
has a pedestal highlighting their OS/2 Suite).  Nancy Jo Bischof of
the IBM SmartSuite for OS/2 Brand Management team recognized him and
asked if she could have a moment of his time.  He agreed, and she
proceeded to tell him that every IBM (and Lotus) customer that is a
user of OS/2 and Lotus' OS/2 products is asking how soon they can
expect to see true parity between Lotus' Windows and OS/2 products.

All Jim would say is the he's hearing the same question from his
customers, and doesn't yet have the answer.  Admittedly, we know that
it is their stated intent to build a common-code-base which for 1-2-3
and Freelance will be based on their yet-to-be-released Windows 95
code.  Ami Pro for OS/2 *IS* the common code base for Ami Pro
development, and cc:Mail for OS/2 already exploits the Workplace
Shell.  It's 1-2-3 and Freelance that are giving us the most heart-
burn, and we're pushing at every opportunity to motivate Lotus Dev.
to crank out "parity" releases ASAP.  Way to go Nancy Jo.

I attended the MicroGrafx Chile Cookoff at the Thomas and Mack Arena
this evening (Tuesday night) - an event benefiting the National Ctr.
for Missing and Exploited Children.  IBM distributed around 900
adorable, stuffed, armadillos for a $10 contribution each, and easily
won the "popular choice vote" for their "Blue Flame" chili (the vote
being based on dollar contributions or wooden tokens, two per attendee,
given to each vendor).  All proceeds were donated to the charity.

After I'd just sold my last armadillo (36 in all), I came across Bill
Gates, walking around the event - apparently alone.  If you've never
seen Bill up close - you'd be shocked how unassuming a presence he can
be.  Appearances can be deceiving, and with Bill, that's an under-
statement.  He may not look like much, but makes up for it with his
uncanny ability to articulate a clear vision of where he sees his
company (and the industry) going in the future.  I missed his address
(yesterday), but heard he gave his vision of what we'll see by 2005.

Long-term vision seems to be highly appealing to customers (raising
their comfort-level as they begin to make a purchase decision).  Are
there any lessons to be learned here?  Is it technology or vision that
will shape the future of this industry?  Obviously, both are critical.
One enables, the other inspires.  It's my hope that we, of Team OS/2
(which includes IBM executives) can articulate a clear, inspiring
vision of what OS/2 Warp's technology brings to the consumer.  The
recent OS/2 Warp ads are a positive step in that direction.

I've not seen the act, but I've heard Paula Poundstone is a real hit
in the IBM booth.  She presents at one of our stages, four times per
day - and wanders around the IBM booth area, interviewing some of our
demonstrators while a camera man follows her around the show floor so
that the audience at the stage can still see and hear (on a screen)
her interaction with the demonstrator - and with show attendees.
Those who've seen her say it's a presentation well worth seeing.

Tomorrow night, IBM is sponsoring a special "Get Warped Party!"
(featuring impressionist Danny Gans) for IBM customers at the Ballys
Hotel Events Center.  The admission pass says "OS/2 Warp.  This is
one party you won't want to miss!"  I can hardly wait....

That's it for me.  It's almost 1:00am, and I have to be at the show
early to help set up for the Warp Test Drive (Time Warp Institute).

Allen Stalvey * SmartSuite for OS/2 Product Mgmt. Team * PSP - Austin
ASTALVEY @ AUSVM1      Tie Line: 793-3265       Outside: 512-823-3265


Subject: "Brad's COMDEX Review"

Another unbiased(;-) review of COMDEX, by Brad Wardell, Project
Manager at Stardock Systems, Inc. (GalCiv)

================================================================================ From: x90wardell@wmich.edu
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy,comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Brad's COMDEX Review!
Message-ID: <1994Nov19.160338.24145@wmichgw>

Every year I scan the internet looking for nuggets of info on what
is happening at Comdex.  In the last couple years, it seems like there
has been very little posting about what is going on in Comdex and since
this year I actually got to go (well, my company sent me) I thought I
would give a indepth review of what happened there...

I got there Saturday and quickly learned that I was not in a particularly
nice part of town.  If you ever go to Las Vegas, make sure you stay in
the South side of town if possible.  The nicest places being like
the Luxor, Excalibur, etc.  I stayed at the Shalimar which was well, I
didn't hear many gun shots at least...

But Comdex itself was only a couple mile walk and I walked there and
back several times.  I quickly learned that GOOD SHOES do matter.  By
Monday, my feet were in bad shape.  I was supposed to wear a suit, dress
everything, etc.  I just couldn't put on the dress shoes so I ended up
going in sneakers...

MONDAY:

Comdex in 94 was broken into 3 areas primarily.  The Las Vegas Convention
center which is where IBM, Microsoft, Intel, DEC, and the other big
guys are.  Next door there is the Hilton Convention Area which is where
some of the smaller companies are but still fairly big deals.  A few
miles away, there is "The Sands" which is just plain huge.  This is where
hundreds and hundreds of the smaller companies gather to show off mostly
hardware (or porn).

In the Las Vegas convention center it was pretty much the IBM and Microsoft
show.  I read in USA today that it was "Intel and Microsoft" but I saw
very little indication that Intel was a huge force at Comdex.  It was
definitely IBM and Microsoft.  Their bags and pseudo-briefcases were
everywhere.  OS/2 and Windows95 were everywhere (needless to say, Windows 3.1
was in even more places but mostly demoing some program).

The first thing you encounter when walking in was a huge "WELCOME IBM" and
"Get Warped!" as you enter the building.  Then there is this huge
(and I mean H-U-G-E ) IBM booth as you enter that tells you where all
things IBM are.  Good idea but poor location.  There were so many people
in the area that I couldn't get near it.

By moving to the booths (on the right side) you run into Microsoft's booth
which showed lives demos of Microsoft Office and Windows95.  Windows95
looked pretty stable to me there.  They were running it with lots of
memory and fast machines (Which should be expected at any demo).  I
got to play with the newest version of Windows95 at the Microsoft booth
and was fairly impressed.  It is hard to put it into words but I would
say Windows95 is sort of like "OS/2 for kids". I don't mean that as an
insult but it is essentially a subset of what OS/2 can do.

To put it in basic terms, Windows95 is like having Windows 3.1 but with
Norton Desktop and having overlapping IO (i.e. drive access doesn't bring
things to their knees).  I know there are a lot of other differnces but
I think my description accurately sums it up.

But Microsoft did indeed put on a very good show.  I got to play with
various machines and Microsoft did things very professionally.  The live
demos were very good.

Moving on, I quickly found lots of booths running OS/2 Warp and Windows95.
I quickly learned something about Windows95 (which I later found was true
for OS/2).  Booths that didn't really care that much about Windows95 didn't
set it up in the same optimal ways Microsoft did.  In other words, not
enough memory, too high a resolution and too many colors to run demos
quickly, etc.  The same was true for OS/2.  As I walked to the various
booths running OS/2 and Windows95 I offered to tweak their setups so that
their demos would run better.  For example, at the DEC booth, they had
Windows 95 running an AVI at 1280x1024 with 16 colors.  Obviously, it was
slow.  I changed the resolution to 800x600 with 256 colors and the demo
ran a lot better.  I also got to find out that not only is resolution changing
on the fly not available for most cards under Win95 right now but it is
a downright pain (in terms of time) to change resolutions.  It seemed like
it took forever for the sysem to shut down, restart, and get back to where
I wanted it to (changing the resolution itself is of course trivial, just
change its value in the properties area).  I found the ATI booth was running
OS/2 at 1024x768x16.8m on some mega ATI card.  The AVI was running rather
slowly and I modified it to run at 1024x768x256 (it should be noted that
OS/2 DOES run the AVI's faster than Windows95, so I could put the machine
at a higher resolution and have it run better -- this is based on prior
experience, not random plays at Comdex).

Finally, I made it to the IBM booth which was mostly running OS/2 (some
AIX, some Windows, etc).  I got to see demos of DOOM for OS/2, Galactic
Civilizations, and a bit of Simcity Classic for OS/2 along with the
"SDS OS/2 Essentials" version of Roids.  Not surprisingly, DOOM for OS/2
got the most demoing.  I think it safe to publicly say that the OS/2
version of DOOM is better than the Windows version of DOOM.  The OS/2
version lets you resize it to any size and it can even take up the
entire screen.  The windows verson has pull down menus that let you
change it to specific sizes.  The windows version has better sound, the
OS/2 version has better speed.  Both versions were being run on varous
monster machines (Pentium 100s).  Galactic Civilizations and OE Roids
got quite a bit of attention.  A lot of users wanted to see what all the
fuss has been about with GalCiv.  Being a strategy game, GalCiv doesn't
demo as well as an action game like DOOM or Roids but it still got a lot
of demo time due to its growing popularity (I hear that GalCiv is now
#3 on the Top 100 games list this week).  Simcity Classic got a few looks
but it is not an action game either and a known quantity so it didn't get
many looks.

IBM had a couple rather strange shows going.  One had a popular comedian
(She must have been looking around and thinking "I'm in hell!" :) ) the
other was a time warp thing which I didn't get to see too much of because
there were too many people looking there.  IBM was also demoing their
pen stuff for OS/2 whichlooked quite impressive.  They let me write on
a Thinkpad and I must admit I was quite impressed with its recognition
(if you think my spelling is bad...heh, you should see my hand writing!).

I would have to give OS/2 a definite edge in the Las Vegas Convention center
over Windows95.  Of course, OS/2 is released and Windows95 isn't so OS/2
SHOULD win.  Windows95 has a very large presence there for an unreleased
product.  In fact, it had so much of a presence that I heard many usrs
(not IBmers or Microsoft people) grumbling that they are just sick of
Microsoft peddling vaporware.  Windows95 was talked about as if it is
a released product.  I played the dumb user and asked the info booth
at Microsoft where I could buy my copy of Win95 and they said "It's not
out yet, should be this Summer, a large beta will be coming out soon" and
so I asked where I could sign up for that and they didn't know.  I must
confess I found that annoying, if you're going to tout betaware as
"nearly released" and have it all over the place, I should be able to at
least conveniently get the beta (I know from the INternet that a $30
deal is coming out but that's not the point).

I went and checked out the PowerPC tent where they had MacOS, Windows NT
and Power OS/2 running in various states.  I got to talk to several OS/2
ISVs (great guys).  Saw Mesa/2 running in a couple places, looking very
good along with Arcadia and Pinnacle.  Really great guys over there.
Power OS/2 was definitely in alpha state.  You weren't supposed to even
look at the screen to hard or it might crash or something.  I talked to
one ISV who said that things are going really well though in the Power OS/2
area and they thought that IBm might actually get Power OS/2 out by next
summer.  Windows NT on the Power PC is supposed to be nearly ready to go
but it crashed when I minimized the program manager (I felt really bad,
we can chuckle in our advocacy groups but when you crash someone's demo,
it's not really funny and I felt pretty bad but all I did was minimize
it).  Of course, the MacOS was really stable and looking the slickest
by far (AIX was looking pretty good too).

Leaving Comdex for the day I had my fill of magazines.  I had a TON of
them, every comptuer magazine there was given out freely and I made
sure they have them all.  My wife was thrilled when I came home with
all the computer magazines to read... :)

TUESDAY: ...THE SANDS...

Here, Microsoft marketing was really smart.  Microsoft had no real presence
there at the sands but they gave out Windows95 bags which appeared to be
about the only bag you could get so you had everyone (nearly) walkign around
with Windows95 bags.

The Sands is the place you can really get some neat stuff if you look.  They
were giving out laser pointers for $40 (which is a steal).  I played with
one on the plane coming home trying to see if I culd flash the wing with
it (at least, until the stewardess came..).  In the lower level they had
a ton of porno stuff you could get, I didn't have time to go there and
my feet were killing me so my progress was slowed.

They had a lot of terrific software going on there and a LOT of it was
being demoed on Windows95 (DEMOED with WINDOWS 95 -- not a Windows95
demo but demoing software that was running on Windows95).  The demo
crashed in the middle but it looks like some companies are starting to
use Windows95 already.  IBM needs to do something about this as I asked
at the end if they were coming out with an OS/2 version of their
software (which took video clips and put them together).  They said they
had no plans but that I could get the Win95 version when it came out
to which I said "That could be a year from now! Windows95 IS NOT OUT!"
IBM people did manage to talk to them apparently as the guy mentioned.
They also had a Windows NT version in the works. I don't know what
Microsoft is doing to lure so many ISV's over to their camp but I hope
IBM starts getting away from begging the big dumb ISV's by paying them
to PORT their apps to OS/2 instead of helping OS/2 ISV's get bigger
(i.e. I know the company I work for would love to write a lot more
OS/2 software faster if we just had more capital to work with!).

But overall, I found the Sands to be full of neat stuff but also full of
really BORING stuff too.  I limped home shortly before they evacuateed
everyone due to some sort of fire alarm...

WEDNESDAY:

I left back for Michigan on Wednesday but stopped again at the Las
Vegas Convention center where I picked up more goodies.  They were
having test drives of Warp and Windows 95 on the top floor.  I managed
to get some free  food IBM had there (I am not sure it was meant
for us but it was in the hall).  Lots of people were lined up for
the warp test drives though.

CONCLUSIONS:

IBM definitely did a good job in promoting OS/2.  A lot of neutral people
were talking about OS/2 while grumbling at the vaporous Windows95.
There is begining to be a backlash from the IS community at Microsoft
for blasting vaporware in their face.  NT was bad enough but Windows95
is getting ridiculous.  Windows95 is looking like it will be an excellent
upgrade to Windows3.1 (though I don't know why users would wait another
6 - 10 months for something that OS/2 offers tod and is faster and
more powerful on top).

I can't wait for next Comdex, it should be quite a show.  I imagine it
will be OS/2 Warp 3.1 vs Windows95 next year (both probably released or
announced then).

Hope I didn't bore you guys too much.

Please feel free to repost this if you think others might be interested
in what happened.  I have posted this in comp.os.os2.advocacy,
comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy, comp.os.os2.misc.  It's really not an
advocacy post (at least, it's not meant to be) but just a review of
what happened at Internet while I was there.  I don't have access
to Compuserve and Fidonet users might want to see if if anyone wants
to post this there (assuming you don't think this post is just a load
of crud! :))

Brad
---------------------------
Brad Wardell
Project Manager
Stardock Systems (SDS) Inc.

To Order GalCiv:
Phone: (313)/782-2248
Fax:   (313)/782-9868

November 16, 1994

Thanks to Gene Barlow, PSP User Group Relations for sharing the
following report with us.

After heavily promoting OS/2 to the PC user group community for the past
three years, they are finally going for Warp in a big way!

This past weekend, over 350 user group officers, from groups all over
the world, held their semi-annual conference in Las Vegas. IBM sponsored
these weekend events and gave a series of technical sessions on OS/2 to
this influential audience. The weekend was highlighted by a special
presentation by Lee Reiswig on Warp and our LAN products. Finally, all
were given a copy of OS/2 Warp to try out and use.

The feedback I received after the weekend events was exceptionally
positive. Many of the officers stopped me to thank IBM for the events
and to tell me that they are now sold on Warp and intend to install it
on their systems.

I had no idea how solid that Warp interest was until Monday night at a
presentation by Delrina Corporations. The president and founder of
Delrina was speaking to these user group officers and demonstrating some
of their DOS/Windows products.

In describing Delrina's future plans and directions to this influential
group, OS/2 support was obviously missing from their list of supported
platforms. This omission caught the attention of the user group audience
and one of them questioned why it was not included.

The president proceeded to explain the lack of a market for OS/2 which
brought some hisses and boos from the audience. To challenge this
discontent, he asked them point blank..."How many wanted OS/2 versions
of their products". Over 80% raised their hands in support of OS/2. This
strong support for OS/2 really took the president back a step or two.

As the president was leaving the stage after his talk, he remarked to
one of his product managers that they needed to seriously rethink their
support of OS/2. I was told by one of their people that when he said
something like that, things happen! So, I hope that our ISV folks that
service Delrina will contact them quickly and offer to help them move
their products to OS/2 Warp. They have some excellent products that are
needed in the OS/2 software base.

On Tuesday at the Corel Corporation luncheon to these user group
officers, the President and CEO of Corel outlined their aggressive
product plans for the future. When he mentioned the support for OS/2, he
got a long applause from the audience, the only one in his talk. So,
this CEO also got the message that user groups are firmly behind OS/2
and want that support done quickly.

BEST Program

The IBM Business Enterprise Solutions Team (BESTeam) was developed to
meet the needs of Systems Integrators, Network Integrators, Value Added
Resellers and Consultants.  BESTeam provides strategic products,
professional certification, industry-leading marketing programs, enhanced
technical support and business partnership support to ensure BESTeam
members continuing success in the challenging information systems
environment of today and tomorrow.

  BESTEAM PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS

         The IBM BESTeam Program provides three levels of participation.
  Each level is designed to support specific market requirements from
  stand-alone workstations to enterprise client/server solutions. The
  participation levels are Professional, Executive and Premier.

  Professional membership is designed to assist integrators and VAR's in
  developing vertical solutions. This level requires a minimum personnel
  commitment. The certification requirements for this level are designed to
  provide expert OS/2 knowledge as well as knowledge in IBM LAN Server or
  Novell networking products.

  The certification requirements (per location) for Professional membership
  are:

      One IBM BESTeam Expert

  The Executive level was developed for integrators and VAR's involved in
  network integration. Executive-level requirements include certification in
  OS/2 and IBM LAN Server. These requirements ensure you gain expertise in
  developing comprehensive LAN solutions.

  The certification requirements (per location) for Executive membership are:

      One IBM BESTeam Expert
      One IBM BESTeam Advanced Expert

  The Premier level was developed for Integrators and VAR's developing
  distributed client/server solutions. Additional certified engineers are
  required to provide the software expertise required on enterprise solutions
  development.

  The certification requirements (per location) for Premier membership are:

      One IBM BESTeam Expert
      One IBM BESTeam Advanced Expert
      One IBM BESTeam Enterprise Expert

*BESTEAM EXPERT REQUIREMENTS*

  AN IBM BESTEAM EXPERT is a technical person who has
  completed certification for:

      IBM Certified OS/2(R) Engineer AND

      IBM Certified LAN Server(R) Engineer OR

      Has obtained at least one (1) Certification from Table One below

  AN IBM BESTEAM ADVANCED EXPERT is a technical person who has completed
  certification for:

      IBM Certified OS/2 Engineer AND

      IBM Certified LAN Server Engineer AND

      Has obtained at least one (1) Certification from Table One below OR

      Obtains through testing five (5) additional credits in the elective
      options

  AN IBM BESTEAM ENTERPRISE EXPERT is a technical person who has completed
  certification for:

      IBM Certified OS/2 Engineer AND

      IBM Certified LAN Server Engineer AND

      Has obtained at least one (1) Certification from Table Two below AND

      Obtains through testing ten (10) additional credits in the elective
      options

:Note. Any company with fewer employees than the stated personnel
requirements for the Executive or Premier levels may contact the BESTeam
project office at 1-800-627-8363 for alternate criteria for qualification.

  TABLE ONE

Certified Banyan(R) Specialist (CBS)            Certified NetWare(R) Engineer (CNE)
Certified Banyan Engineer (CBE)                 Enterprise Certified NetWare Engineer (ECNE)
Certified Systems Engineer (CSE) for            SCO(TM) ACE
CA-Unicenter(R) LAN for OS/2
Lotus(R) Certified Notes Specialist (LCNS)      Certified AIX(R) Version 3 System Administrator

  TABLE TWO
Certified AIX(R) Version 3 System Administrator Certified Systems Engineer (CSE) for CA-Unicenter(R) LAN for OS/2
Enterprise Certified NetWare Engineer (ECNE)

  ELECTIVE OPTIONS:
*  COURSE                                                        TEST         TEST CREDITS*
  G3795 An Introduction to Integrated Networking              000-005         3 Credits
  G4570 OS/2 LAN Server and NetWare Client Coexistence        000-002         3 Credits
  G3611 Token-Ring Network Implementation and Management      000-001         5 Credits
  V5013 Ethernet(TM) Implementation and Problem Determination 000-008         3 Credits
  G3815 DSM:Remote Software Installation Using CID            000-016         4 Credits
  G3789 IBM TCP/IP for Workstations Workshop                  000-018         3 Credits

  Installing, Customizing and Planning LAN NetView(R)         000-017         5 Credits
  G3841 LAN NetView Installation Workshop
  G3842 LAN NetView Customization Workshop
  G3843 LAN NetView Planning Workshop

  BESTEAM PROGRAM ALTERNATE CRITERIA FOR QUALIFICATION

  Listed below is the alternate criteria for any company with
  fewer employees than the stated personnel requirements for the IBM BESTeam
  program Executive or Premier levels.

  1.  To participate at the BESTeam Executive level the alternate criteria is
      as follows:

          If you have one employee in your company the personnel certification
          requirement is One IBM BESTeam Advanced Expert.

  2.  To participate at the BESTeam Premier level the alternate criteria is as
      follows:

          a. If you have one employee in your company the personnel
          certification requirement is One IBM BESTeam Enterprise Expert.

          b. If you have two employees in your company the personnel
          certification requirement is One IBM BESTeam Advanced Expert AND 
          One IBM BESTeam Enterprise Expert.

  *BESTEAM LOCATION BENEFITS*

The following benefits will be administered at each location through the
BESTeam Liaison.*  The BESTeam Liaison is a person that you designate to act
as a focal point for receiving information and literature from IBM.

LEAD REFERRAL --  IBM will work to provide screened leads to members by matching
customers with the BESTeam member suited to the customers' requirements.

BESTEAM WORDMARK-MERCHANDISING KIT --  A unique IBM BESTeam wordmark and BESTeam
certificate are provided for each participation level upon completion of
certification requirements.

BESTEAM TOOLKIT --  The toolkit is a guide that will assist members in locating
resources for IBM software products, technical information, marketing support
programs and education.

SOLUTIONS DIRECTORY --  This directory, available to customers, will detail the
skill level and industry expertise of members.  BESTeam members' areas of
specialization will be published within the IBM Corporation to inform IBM
marketing and technical personnel of BESTeam member skills.

BESTEAM ADVISORY COUNCIL AND MARKETING AND TECHNICAL ROUNDTABLES --  These forums
allow BESTeam members to communicate their thoughts on program issues as well
as product requirements.  The ideas developed at these meetings will be
communicated to the proper personnel for consideration in future programs and
products.

EVENT MARKETING --  IBM will host local, regional and national events for the
promotion of IBM software products.

TECHNICAL BRIEFINGS AND DISCLOSURES --  Technical briefings and disclosures are
scheduled throughout the year.  BESTeam members will be notified of the
briefing schedule and location.

BUSINESS SERVICES --  BESTeam members will be able to take advantage of
additional service offerings as a result of their participation in the
BESTeam program (for example, your business will be referred to Business
Services Inc., a group health insurance provider).

RED BOOKS --  BESTeam liasions will also receive a complete collection of Red
Books (OS/2, LAN Server and Library Collection) as reference material for
their location.

OS/2 and LAN Server Collection -- 

  *PUBLICATION NUMBER PUBLICATION NAME*
  GG24-3780-02   OS/2 V2.0 and V2.1 Remote Installation and Maintenance
  GG24-3781-01   Automated Install for CID Enabled Extended Services
  GG24-3783-01   Automated Install for CID Enabled OS/2 V2.X
  GG24-3977-00   Automated Install for CID Enabled Products in Lan Server 3.0
  GG24-3730-00   OS/2 Volume 1:  Control Program
  GG24-3731-00   OS/2 Volume 2:  DOS and Windows Environment
  GG24-3732-00   OS/2 Volume 3:  Presentation Manager and Workplace Shell
  GG24-3774-01   OS/2 Volume 4:  Writing Programs
  GG24-3775-00   OS/2 Volume 5:  Print Subsystems
  GG24-4199-00   OS/2 REXX: From Bark to Byte
  GG24-3822-00   Migrating from DOS/Windows Environment to OS/2
  GG24-3944-00   Evaluation of OS/2 Application Development Tools
  GG24-3948-00   OS/2 2.1 Technical Update
  GG24-3959-00   Experiences with IBM OS/2 LAN Server V3.0 New Functions
  GG24-3876-00   IBM Extended Services for OS/2 Communications Manager
  GG24-3070-00   Redbook Bibliography

  Library Collection

  *PUBLICATION NUMBER PUBLICATION NAME*
  GG24-3566-00   Object Oriented Analysis of the ITSO Common Scenario
  GG24-3801-00   Cooperative Processing in an Object Oriented Environment
  GG24-3859-00   OO Technology in the Application Development Environment
  GG24-3890-01   NetWare from IBM: Network Protocols and Standards
  GG24-3891-01   NetWare Client for OS/2, Installation and Configuration
  GG24-3892-00   RIPL for IBM OS/2 V1.3, 2.0 and NetWare
  GG24-3963-00   MMPM/2 Programming
  GG24-3376-03   TCP/IP Tutorial and Technical Overview
  GG24-3531-01   TCP/IP for OS/2 Installation and Interoperability
  GG24-3949-00   IBM PC/3270 V3.0 Implementation Guide
  GG24-3958-00   Communications Manager/2 V1.0 New Features
  GG24-3649-00   IBM Network Products Implementation
  GG24-4207-00   A Collection of IBM LAN Netview White Papers
  GG24-4166-00   IBM LAN Netview Applications: A Practical Introduction to
                 Monitor, Fix, Tie and Scan

  The BESTeam Liaison will also receive the following benefits for reference
  purposes.

      Software Beta Code

      Beta Code Notification

      1 BESTeam Newsletter subscription

      1 set of Product Specification Sheets

  * Benefits are subject to change at any time.

  *BESTEAM EXPERT BENEFITS PACKAGE*

  Each BESTeam Expert will receive the following benefits package.* (Maximum of
  three packages per location)

      1 TalkLink subscription

      1 BESTeam Newsletter subscription

      1 BESTeam CD-ROM subscription

      1 copy OS/2 On-Line Book Collection

      1 Personal Systems Technical Solutions Magazine subscription

      Beta Program Notification

      Satellite Broadcast Notification

      ServicePak(TM)Fixes

      Demo software CD Subscription (OS/2 & LAN Server)

      1 set of Product Specification Sheets

      BESTeam Solutions Directory with Brochure

      1 set of White papers

      BESTeam Expert Seminar

  * Note: Benefits are subject to change at any time.

  *BESTEAM ADVANCED EXPERT BENEFITS PACKAGE*

  Each BESTeam Advanced Expert will receive the following benefits package.*
  (Maximum of three packages per location)

      1 TalkLink subscription

      1 BESTeam Newsletter subscription

      1 BESTeam CD-ROM subscription

      1 Copy OS/2 On-Line Book Collection

      1 Personal Systems Technical Solutions Magazine

      Beta Program Notification

      Satellite Broadcast Notification

      ServicePak/Fixes

      Demo Software (OS/2 & LAN Server)

      Demo Software Library

      1 set of Product Specification Sheets

      1 set of White Papers

      BESTeam Advanced Expert Seminar

      Red Books

  OS/2 and LAN Server Collection

  *PUBLICATION NUMBER PUBLICATION NAME*
  GG24-3780-02   OS/2 V2.0 and V2.1 Remote Installation and Maintenance
  GG24-3781-01   Automated Install for CID Enabled Extended Services
  GG24-3783-01   Automated Install for CID Enabled OS/2 V2.X
  GG24-3977-00   Automated Install for CID Enabled Products in Lan Server 3.0
  GG24-4133-00   Upgrading to PC DOS 6.1
  GG24-3730-00   OS/2 Volume 1:  Control Program
  GG24-3731-00   OS/2 Volume 2:  DOS and Windows Environment
  GG24-3732-00   OS/2 Volume 3:  Presentation Manager and Workplace Shell
  GG24-3774-01   OS/2 Volume 4:  Writing Programs
  GG24-3775-00   OS/2 Volume 5:  Print Subsystems
  GG24-4199-00   OS/2 REXX: From Bark to Byte
  GG24-3822-00   Migrating from DOS/Windows Environment to OS/2
  GG24-3944-00   Evaluation of OS/2 Application Development Tools
  GG24-3948-00   OS/2 2.1 Technical Update
  GG24-3959-00   Experiences with IBM OS/2 LAN Server V3.0 New Functions
  GG24-3876-00   IBM Extended Services for OS/2 Communications Manager
  GG24-3070-00   Redbook Bibliography

:Note. Benefits are subject to change at any time.

  *BESTEAM ENTERPRISE EXPERT BENEFITS PACKAGE*

  Each BESTeam Enterprise Expert will receive the following benefits package.*
  (Maximum of three packages per location)

      1 TalkLink subscription

      1 BESTeam Newsletter subscription

      1 BESTeam CD-ROM subscription

      Developer's Connection for OS/2

      1 copy OS/2 On-Line Book Collection

      1 Personal Systems Technical Solutions Magazine

      Software Beta Code

      Beta Program notification

      ServicePak/Fixes

      Demo Software (OS/2 & LAN Server)

      Demo software Library

      1 set of Product Specification Sheets

      1 set of White Papers

      BESTeam Enterprise Expert Seminar

      Red Books

  OS/2 and LAN Server Collection

  *PUBLICATION NUMBER PUBLICATION NAME*

  GG24-3780-02   OS/2 V2.0 and V2.1 Remote Installation and Maintenance
  GG24-3781-01   Automated Install for CID Enabled Extended Services
  GG24-3783-01   Automated Install for CID Enabled OS/2 V2.X
  GG24-3977-00   Automated Install for CID Enabled Products in Lan Server 3.0
  GG24-3730-00   OS/2 Volume 1:  Control Program
  GG24-3731-00   OS/2 Volume 2:  DOS and Windows Environment
  GG24-3732-00   OS/2 Volume 3:  Presentation Manager and Workplace Shell
  GG24-3774-01   OS/2 Volume 4:  Writing Programs
  GG24-3775-00   OS/2 Volume 5:  Print Subsystems
  GG24-4199-00   OS/2 REXX: From Bark to Byte
  GG24-3822-00   Migrating from DOS/Windows Environment to OS/2
  GG24-3944-00   Evaluation of OS/2 Application Development Tools
  GG24-3948-00   OS/2 2.1 Technical Update
  GG24-3959-00   Experiences with IBM OS/2 LAN Server V3.0 New Functions
  GG24-3876-00   IBM Extended Services for OS/2 Communications Manager
  GG24-3070-00   Redbook Bibliography

  Library Collection

  *PUBLICATION NUMBER PUBLICATION NAME*

  GG24-3566-00   Object Oriented Analysis of the ITSO Common Scenario
  GG24-3801-00   Cooperative Processing in an Object Oriented Environment
  GG24-3859-00   OO Technology in the Application Development Environment
  GG24-3890-01   NetWare from IBM: Network Protocols and Standards
  GG24-3891-01   NetWare Client for OS/2, Installation and Configuration
  GG24-3892-00   RIPL for IBM OS/2 V1.3, 2.0 and NetWare
  GG24-3963-00   MMPM/2 Programming
  GG24-3376-03   TCP/IP Tutorial and Technical Overview
  GG24-3531-01   TCP/IP for OS/2 Installation and Interoperability
  GG24-3949-00   IBM PC/3270 V3.0 Implementation Guide
  GG24-3958-00   Communications Manager/2 V1.0 New Features
  GG24-3649-00   IBM Network Products Implementation
  GG24-4207-00   A Collection of IBM LAN Netview White Papers
  GG24-4166-00   IBM LAN Netview Applications: A Practical Introduction to
                 Monitor, Fix, Tie and Scan

:Note. Benefits are subject to change at any time.

  *IBM BESTEAM PROGRAM SOFTWARE PURCHASING OPTIONS*

  There are two software purchasing options available to a BESTeam
  member:

  1.  Direct contractual relationship with IBM Corporation

  2.  Relationship with an IBM-approved Managing BESTeam Administrator (MBA)

If you choose to source your products directly from the IBM Corporation, a
minimum revenue objective is required on an annual basis. In addition, IBM
will provide technical and operational support to your organization as
defined in the contract. If you choose to source your products from an IBM
approved Managing BESTeam Administrator (MBA), no minimum revenue objectives
are required. In addition, your Managing BESTeam Administrator will provide
technical support and operational support as defined in your relationship
agreement.

Lotus SmartSuite Promotion

DATE -- 941108
CATEGORY -- WS00, WS20
TITLE -- LOTUS SMARTSUITE FOR IBM OS/2 PROMOTION
ABSTRACT -- For a limited time only, customers can purchase Lotus**
SmartSuite** for OS/2 (R) and OS/2 Warp Version 3 together as a       
package for a special low price of $219.

All orders under this promotion must be placed no later than
December 30, 1994, by calling IBM at 800-3IBM-OS2 (342-6672).

Commercial, state, and local government and educationcustomers can 
participate.  Federal government customers should call 800-333-6705 
or 301-564-7970 to determine eligibility.

Customers with a volume or special bid commitment can take advantage 
of this promotion or their volume/special bid discount.  Products 
acquired under this promotion will count toward their commitment.

IBM reserves the right to modify or withdraw this promotion at any time.

** Product or company name is a trademark or registered trademark of  
its respective holder.                                             

(R) Registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation

IN BRIEF . . .

          o   For a short time, customers can acquire Lotus SmartSuite for      
              OS/2 and the new OS/2 Warp Version 3 for a special, low price of  
              $219.                                                             
          o   Final order date:
              -   December 30, 1994

OS/2 Warp Promotion

DATE -- 941108
CATEGORY -- WS00, WS20
TITLE -- IBM OS/2 WARP VERSION 3 UPGRADE PROMOTION
ABSTRACT -- For a limited time only, current users of OS/2 (R) for Windows
(Version 2.1 or earlier) can acquire OS/2 Warp Version 3 and receive  
a $25 rebate.

OS/2 Warp Version 3 must be acquired on or after November 4, 1994, but 
no later than December 31, 1994 by calling IBM Direct at 
800-3IBM-OS2 (342-6672).

Rebate coupons and supporting documentation must be received by IBM 
on or before June 30, 1995.

Commercial, state, and local government and education customers can 
participate.  Federal government customers should call 
800-333-6705 or 301-564-7970 to determine eligibility.                

This promotion cannot be combined with any other discount or allowance.  
This coupon may not be combined with any other IBM coupon offerings.  
VALU customers are eligible to utilize this promotion in addition to 
their normal VALU agreement. Products acquired under this promotion 
will count toward their VALU commitment.

IBM reserves the right to modify or withdraw this promotion at any time.

(R) Registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation

IN BRIEF . . .

For a limited time only, current users of OS/2 for Windows 
(Version 2.1 or earlier) can acquire OS/2 Warp Version 3 and receive  
a $25 rebate.                                                         

          o   Coupons will be shipped from IBM with Warp Version 3 and can also 
              be found at all participating re-seller locations.                
          o   Coupons will include a description of the redemption process.     
                 Final order date:
          o   December 31, 1994                                                 

OVERVIEW -- ADDITIONAL INFORMATION - For each qualifying 
copy of OS/2 Warp Version 3 acquired during the promotion period, 
participants should mail the following items to the address listed 
below:
          o   UPC code from OS/2 for Windows box                                
          o   Receipt for OS/2 Warp Version 3 purchase                          
          o   $25 OS/2 Warp Promotion Rebate Coupon (Blue and White)            
                 Mail to:                                                       
              IBM PSM Promotion Support Center                                  
              11149 Research Blvd.                                              
              Suite 400                                                         
              Austin, TX  78759                                                 

A redemption process is available to those corporate accounts that are 
unable to accept rebates.  Please call your Personal Software 
Marketing Representative for details.

                 Qualifying Products:
          o   OS/2 Warp Version 3 3.5 inch Diskette (83G8100)                   
          o   OS/2 Warp Version 3 CD-ROM (83G8102)                              
          o   OS/2 for Windows 3.5 inch Diskette (71G5391)                      
          o   OS/2 for Windows CD-ROM (71G5395)                                 
          o   OS/2 for Windows 5.25 inch Diskette (71G5392)

Effective OS/2 Advocacy

From: hodges@breeze.seas.ucla.edu (Richard E. Hodges <hodges>)
29 Oct 94

Guidelines for Effective OS/2 Advocacy

Over the past few years, long time OS/2ers have become aware that
the computer trade press doesn't give us much attention. Letter
writing campaigns to magazines have helped to minimize the blatently
unfair reviews, but OS/2 still doesn't garner much respect in the
press. Fortunately, the "Electronic Press" is one area where OS/2 has
solid support. This is due to the fact that we, the actual customers,
are able to voice our opinions directly to one another. Nobody is
in direct control of the media and what is "printed". This is where
the grass roots OS/2 effort began. This is where Team OS/2 was born.

In following the discussions on usenet, I have noticed an important
trend to negative and fruitless bickering with Windows' advocates.
While OS/2 users have a fine reputation for being helpful and courteous
to "newbies", novices, and even other long-time OS/2ers, the tone of
OS/2 advocacy needs to be more positive and effective. I frequently
see OS/2 advocates being drawn into arguments which go astray of
the original point, or degenerate into extended and pointless debates.

At times, so-called debates resemble an old Monty Python skit where,
paraphrasing, a man walks into a room labeled "Argumentation", and
says, "Ah, this is argumentation, right?". "No it isn't!" "What do
you mean, it said so on the door." "No it doesn't" "Yes, it does. I
just read it." "You must be mistaken." "No I'm not!" "Yes you are."
"Am Not!" "Are to."... well, you get the idea.

Remember, the number of people who actually *contribute* to advocacy
groups in places like usenet, Fidonet, CompuServe, Prodigy, AOL, etc.
is likely quite small compared to "lurkers" who may be interested
in OS/2 and silently tune in to get an impression of what OS/2 is
all about. These people probably will not spend a lot of time
following the debates. OS/2ers need to be aware of this and try to
"put your best foot forward" and do so as concisely as possible.

                    *SOME DOs AND DON'Ts OF OS/2 ADVOCACY*

 1. BE COURTEOUS AND POLITE.

    There is nothing to be gained by taking an angry tone, insults,
    name-calling, etc. Naturally, it's tough to "turn the other cheek"
    when people call us "nuts" and "fanatics". Keep a cool head.
    Readers will see for themselves that you're a reasonable person.

 2. EXPLAIN OS/2 ADVANTAGES -- USE SIMPLE EXAMPLES

    Try to state in plain english what you like about OS/2. Keep in mind
    that readers may not be aware of OS/2 terminology and acronyms.
    For instance, when you say, "Wow! I just got the GA. WPS looks
    great! The IAK is awesome. Install found my ATI and SB card and
    MMPM/2 is really neat. Can't wait for GalCiv..." One gets the idea
    there is something good here, but what is it?

 3. BE HONEST ABOUT OS/2 WEAKNESSES

    OS/2 is a great system and we love it. But, like everything it has
    its weak points. Admit it! Trying to whitewash some deficiency in
    OS/2 weakens your credibility and opens the door for a counter-attack
    that you can't win. Just point out that, on balance, the overall
    advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

 4. DON'T ARGUE AGAINST A "STRAWMAN"

    Example: "NT can run on Pentium, MIPS, DEC Alpha. OS/2 can't!!!"
    "Sure, I can't run OS/2 on DEC Alpha. But, I can't afford one so
    it doesn't matter to me. OS/2 makes the best use of what I own."
    Here, there's no point arguing about the future "portable" OS/2.
    For now, it doesn't matter anyway.

 5. DON'T BACK PEOPLE INTO A DEFENSIVE POSITION

    This is a standard tactic of negotiation. If you argue too
    vehemently, what happens is the "other guy" becomes entrenched.
    They can't change their mind on an issue without "losing face".

 6. TRY TO KEEP SUBJECT TITLES POSITIVE

    Many people just browse subject titles. Make sure what they see
    looks interesting and inviting. Avoid pointless follow-ups on
    negative subjects. Watch out for Windows' advocates introducing
    or changing subject title to anti-OS/2 themes.

 7. DON'T RESPOND TO OBVIOUS FLAME BAIT

    Recent examples from usenet:

    "Just like IBM's other high-quality offerings, TopView and AIX."

    "OS/2 users can't do that.  They *think* they can, but they can't,
     because their position is almost always irrational."

    It is a pointless waste of bandwidth to respond to these insults.

    Note that the first one is an attempt to divert the subject to the
    general category, "IBM products that do not have mass-market appeal."
    Non sequitur. No sense in pursuing it.

    The second attempts to incite a series of angry responses, which
    are subsequently used to justify a claim that OS/2 users are
    "fanatics". Ignore this nonsense. Wastes bandwidth.

 8. TERMINATE DEAD END THREADS

    It's easy to get bogged down in pointless debates that can't be
    proven one way or the other. Predictions about the future, guesses
    about installed base, sales of apps, etc. JUST SAY NO! Politely
    disagree, and let it go.

 9. DON'T SPREAD ANTI-OS/2 RUMORS

    Occationally, you see an anti-OS/2 rumor that apparently comes
    from nowhere and has no apparent basis in reality. For instance,
    there was a recent one titled "[Rumor] Windows 95 for PPC?" Don't
    follow up on it. Send the article's author *mail* and ask for proof.
    Also, don't reprint or follow up to anti-OS/2 news articles. The
    press is biased enough, try to keep it off the nets.

10. DON'T SHOOT FROM THE HIP

    For instance, don't post that you love or hate this article.
    Don't respond to those who do. Or do it by mail.

*WINDOWS ADVOCATE TACTICS TO WATCH OUT FOR*

  o RED HERRING ARGUMENTS

    Watch out for arguments that are intended to confuse the reader,
    or divert attention away from the subject.

    A classic example is the so-called "unified command line" in
    Windows NT. Windows advocates like to use this one as an example
    of how Microsoft's user interface is better. It's a red herring
    for three reasons. First, it diverts attention away from the fact
    that NT's GUI is relatively primitive, being based on the Win 2.x
    and OS/2 1.x style which appeared in the late 1980's. Second,
    since NT has such small sales, most people have no idea what the
    discussion is about. Therefore, they are confused and simply hear
    that there is "something NT users think is better" (I disagree, BTW).
    Even though the feature is trivial, most people don't know that.
    Finally, it diverts attention away from the fact that DOS/Windows
    and Windows 95 don't even have a non-DOS command line.

  o THE "WINDOWS FAMILY" WINDMILL FIGHT

    This is a special class of red herring arguments brought on by
    the Windows Family concept. It works like this: You make a valid
    a point about a feature of a specific version of Windows. The Windows
    advocate answers that you can get that feature in some other
    version of "Windows". Red herring because the other system also
    changes the costs, limitations and other unrelated features.
    You're fighting a windmill, Don. Don't do it. Politely point out
    the total tradeoffs that are implied.

    An example is responding to criticism of DOS/Windows with information
    about NT. "Windows doesn't offer true multitasking." "You can get
    that with NT!" "Windows doesn't have hardware enforced memory
    protection. OS/2 does." "NT has it!" Trouble is, of course, NT costs
    more and doesn't offer the same downward compatibility.

    There's a whole series of these related to going back-and-forth
    between Windows 95 and Windows NT. When cost and downward
    compatibility are the issue, Windows advocates tell you about
    Windows 95. When stability is important, you hear about NT.

  o THE MARKET MOMENTUM ARGUMENT

    When Windows can't be defended on its merits, you begin to hear
    about "market momentum". Installed base, applications available,
    and developer support are the main issues. While these are
    important concerns, one needs to point out that we, the customers,
    ultimately do have a say in the matter. In effect, this argument
    goes, "Sure, Windows isn't as good. But nobody is going to change,
    so we're stuck with it. Like it, or lump it."

  o RATIONALIZATION AND DISTORTION

    A favorite tactic is to over emphasize some minor point while
    totally ignoring a major issue. The most important subject in
    this class is tedious criticism of minor user interface defects
    in OS/2, while completely ignoring important design deficiencies
    and architectural flaws in DOS/Windows 3.1 and/or Windows 95 which
    lead to performance and reliability problems. Some examples:

    "OS/2 icons aren't as pretty as Windows"     (Windows: Objects?)
    "Separate Win sessions eat memory!"          (Windows: No can do?)
    "OS/2 doesn't support Win32!"                (Thunking to Win16?)
    "OS/2 FAT volumes don't see long file names" (Very FAT kludge?)
    "Windows 95 is prettier!"                    (Like beta tests?)
    "Single message queue! Bad design!"          (Win16Lock?)

  o DIVERSIONARY TACTICS

    Some clever Windows advocates are masters of changing the subject.
    This even includes the subject title. Consider this recent example:

    Subject: Re: Win NT for productivity (was: PCWeak: OS/2 walks away)

    Notice that the original positive for OS/2 was replaced by a
    positive for NT. There are a number of more subtle tactics one
    needs to watch. Perhaps the most common one comes in discussions
    of DOS and Windows support. If you say OS/2 downward compatability
    is excellent, invariably the topic will be diverted. Adjusting DOS
    settings to get a game to work, discussion of future Win32 support,
    unicode, C2 security, etc. Stay on track. Don't take the bait.

  o ENDLESS FOLLOW UPS ON NEGATIVE SUBJECTS

    Some Windows advocates stay up until the wee hours of the morning
    continuously responding to any subject negative to OS/2. If you
    respond, the thread just continues indefinitely.

  o PAINTING OS/2 USERS AS "NUTS" AND "FANATICS"

    Very annoying. Very offensive. Hard to ignore. But, must be ignored.

  o GLOOM AND DOOM PREDICTIONS FOR OS/2

    Obvious example of pure FUD. Easily defended.

VX-REXX
Evaluation by David Keisker

VX-Rexx is a robust (I had to use this buzzword atleast once!), full-featured project
development "Visual Basic" tool for the OS/2 environment.  This program creatively
combines a visual designer, REXX code debugger, and enhanced functions to form a easy to
use program.  In this evaluation, I will talk about some of many features of VX-Rexx, the
manual, the object tool palette, and likes/dislikes of VX-Rexx.

With VX-Rexx you virtually don't have to touch the keyboard in order to create a
project.    A richly populated tool palette of 21 commonly used objects is available to simply
drag and drop objects to create the window your designing.  Advance developers may use the
Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) which is one of the objects found on the tool palette.  DDE
lets you pull data directly from a spreadsheet or database into your GUI application.  Other
great features are the  database and query features available to VX-Rexx users.  The
WATCOM has devoted an entire chapter explaining how to use VX-Rexx to access IBM's
Database 2 OS/2 (DB2/2).  Once you make the database connection, you can predefine a
query function by dropping the query object from the tool palette onto your application. 
Then you may define you own query code or let VX-Rexx define and write the code
automatically.  Once you have completed visually creating your application and writing the
Rexx code (of course, VX-Rexx writes a majority of the Rexx code for you!), you are ready
to test your application.  Simply select the "run project" from the RUN menu and VX-Rexx
executes your program.  If by some far off chance you made a syntax or logic mistake in
your application, you can use VX-Rexx to interactively debug your application.  After the
application is completed, you can convert you application into a execute (.EXE) file for free
distribution.  The only catch is that in order to run any VX-Rexx application, the file
VROBJ.DLL must be present.  WATCOM allows to you freely distribute this DLL.

I'm the type of person that always reads the manual before trying anything new.  I
know that's strange, but in this case WATCOM's manual, simply reading the manual made
me enjoy using VX-Rexx all that much more.  This was one of the best computer software
manuals I have ever read (and I must say I have read too many to count).  The manual was
extremely well organized and easy to use.  At the very beginning, the manual instructs you
on how to  create a simple program.  This gives the programmer a "hand on" approach to
learning some of the VX-Rexx's features.  A project may contain these 5 items: objects,
properties, methods, functions, and routines.  A project is simply the Rexx program or
application you are programming.  An object is simply a building block for your visual
application.  I will further discuss objects later on in the evaluation.  A object will contain
both properties and methods.  The property of the object simply defines the objects size,
label, color, etc.  The method of a object is a set function associated with the object.  The
Rexx language already has many predefined functions such as Verify, Lines, Random, and so
on.  A routine is a set of Rexx code that is created and attached to objects in your
application.  There are two types of routines: event and general.  A event routine is executed
automatically when the user triggers the event, such as clicking on a radio button object.  A
general routine is called explicitly by other routines within your application.  You will
"CALL" general routines in your applications, but not event routines.  The manual has a
alphabetized listing describing and presenting examples of all VX-Rexx objects, properties,
events, methods, predefined routines, and functions.  The novice REXX user will be
delighted to read the chapters in the manual that introduces the REXX language and gives a
brief summary of the REXX syntax and functions.

In my opinion, the tool palette is certainly the most useful feature of VX-Rexx.  The
tool palette contains 21 of the 26 commonly used objects used to create your visual
application.  Listed below are the objects found on the tool palette and a brief description and
use of each object.

DescriptiveText --  Used to display titles and other static text in you
application.  There is no user interaction or events associated with
descriptive text.

GroupBox --  In a window, all objects belong to one group.  You can
have several group boxes in a window, with each box containing
several objects.  Several uses of this object is to group radio buttons
together or to emphasize a relationship between a group of objects.

PushButton --  This is to used to initiate an action that is associated
with the object.  Such os "OK" or "CANCEL".

RadioButtons --  This object gives the user an exclusive choice from
mutually related choices.  Selecting one radio button clears the
previously selected radio button. 

CheckBox  --  Gives multiple options from which one or more may be
selected.  Its has two states, either on or off.

ImagePushButton -- The same as the Push Button except that this object
uses an image instead of a textual caption.

ImageRadioButton --  The same as the Radio Button except this object
uses an image instead of a textual caption.

PictureBox --  This object displays an image, such as a bitmap or an
icon picture.  This would be used to display your company's logo.

ListBox  -- This object displays a list of items from which a selection
by the user can be made.  This could be used to list all files from a file
search.

ComboBox  --  This object is a combination of the EntryField and
ListBox objects.  The ComboBox lists predefined values in which the
user may choose from rather than typing his selection in the entry field.

DropDownComboBox --  Very much like the ComboBox except when
the user clicks on the arrow button, a list of values drops down and
allows the user to select an item from the list.  

EntryField  --  This is a field which the user may type a line of text. 
This field may be used to type a name or an address.

MultiLineEntryField  --  An entry field which multiple lines may be
entered by the user. This field may also be used to display text, such as
error messages.

SpinButton  --  This objects allows the user to cycle through a
predefined set of values.   Such as letting the user select a value from 1
to 9.

ValueSet  --  Used to present to the user a set of choices from a group
of boxes containing either text or a picture, from which only one may
be selected at a time.  This object is very much like RadioButtons.  A
use of this object is to present to the user a "launchpad" of applications
to execute.

Slider  --  Displays a set continuous range of values from which a
single value may be selected at a time.  This object is commonly seen
as a volume control in many sound programs.

NoteBook  --  Presents a series of pages from which set information
may be selected about the objects in the project.  This object is
commonly seen in OS/2 system in order to view or change settings.

Container  --  Used to present a collection of records as icons, text, or
a combination of both.  Commonly seen as displaying files within a
directory.

DDEClient  --  A client for the Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE).

Timer  --  Used to generate events at regular intervals.  Several uses of
this object would be to animate a man walking across your screen or to
activate a screen saver.

Writing a VX-Rexx program can be accomplished in 5 easy steps:
     1)  Point and Click/Drag and Drop the object(s) from the tool palette onto       
         your window of your application.
     2)  Set the properties of each object.
     3)  Write the REXX code for each object (VX-Rexx will help you accomplish 
         this by providing you with a generic set of REXX coded functions.
     4)  Execute and if necessary debug your application.
     5)  Make the application into an executable file.

It's just that easy!!  Certainly knowledge of the REXX language helps, but novice
application developers will virtually have no trouble using this program to develop their
applications.  Even the experienced programmer won't find VX-Rexx patronizing, but a
useful tool in quickly developing applications.  That's the beauty of VX-Rexx.   The drag
and drop objects and great graphical integration really makes VX-Rexx a joy to use.  As I
mentioned earlier, I loved to easy to use and well organized manual.   Included in VX-Rexx
are 21 ready to run sample applications that show the diversity of applications than can be
accomplished using VX-Rexx.  A definite plus to new application developers.  

After using the program numerous times, I did find several items I disliked about VX-
Rexx.  First, is that even though the executable applications I created were relatively small,
VX-Rexx requires a DLL to be present at runtime of the application.  This required file is
VROBJ.DLL is over 800K big!   This makes your application usually expand several 
diskettes.   Another problem is that although many of the menu selections have keyboard
shortcuts,  none of the objects have a keyboard shortcut.  This also pertains to trying to
delete an object from your application.  To delete an object, you must use mouse button 2
and select the delete option.  Although I don't use shortcuts as often as I should, it still
would be nice to have the option when I needed it.  The next item could also be viewed in a
positive perspective.   The VX-Rexx version 2.0 has (at last count) three fixes available from
WATCOM.  Fix A was over one megabyte in its compressed form.  This fix has significant
changes to both the design and run-time environments.  It has new or improved many
properties, methods, and functions found within VX-Rexx.  Fix B corrected about 10 bugs
and was 109K large.  The last fix, version C, corrects the compatibility with OS/2 Warp
version 3 and the problem of VX-Rexx adding an extra blank line when inserting code using
drag and drop.  I have just downloaded this last fix, but haven't installed it.  I am currently
using Warp and VX-Rexx seems to work fine with Warp without the fix.  These fixes can be
viewed as a blessing in the fact that the fixes show WATCOM's dedication to correcting
problems found by users of VX-Rexx.  Of course, I should have enough practice installing
fixes to programs because of all the previously bought Microsoft software now gathering dust
on my bookshelf!

Overall, I would recommend this product to anyone planning to develop REXX
applications.  The program is both easy and fun to use.  Give it a try !

WATCOM International Corp.
415 Phillip St.
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada  N2L 3X2
Phone: (800) 265-4555
         (519) 886-3700
Fax: (519) 747-4971
BBS: (519) 884-2103
Internet: tech@watcom.on.ca
Compuserve: GO WATCOM or POWERSOFT, section 16

Christmas Party

The next MMOUG Meeting will be the CHRISTMAS PARTY!  It will be on
Wednesday, December 21, 1994 at the Ramada Inn's Hampshire Room in 
Jefferson City.  There will be meat trays, cheese and crackers, chips 
and salsa, soda and punch, and a cash bar.  We start an hour earlier 
than usual, at 3:00 pm.  Of course there will be drawings for prizes.
Remember, it's free for members of the OS/2 User Group or $10 for 
non-members.  Non-members can join the User Group at the door for the 
ridiculously low price of $30.  That would not only gain access to the 
party, but give them increased access on the OS/2 WoodMeister, and 
allow them to be eligible for the monthly drawings.  What a bargain!
:lines align=left.
Ramada Inn
1510 Jefferson Street
Jefferson City, MO 65101
314-635-7171
:elines.

From Columbia:

Take Highway 63 South to Highway 54 West (across the bridge).

You may exit at either the Jefferson Street or Ellis Blvd. Exits.


                                   N
                                 W   E
              J|  |H               S
              E|  |W
              F|  |Y
              F|  |
              E|\/|5
              R|/ |4
              S|  |
      Ramada  O|  |
           N|  |
               |  |
              S|  |
              T|  |
               |  |
          _____|\_/_____________
                     Ellis Blvd.

MMOUG Registration Form


Name:_____________________________________  Nickname:_____________________
         Last Name,                First                         Initial

Company Name:_____________________________

Address:___________________________________  Work Phone:___________________

         ___________________________________  Home Phone:__________________

City:_________________________  State:_______  Zip Code:_____________________


Questionnaire

Your Operating System:

   ___ DOS  ___ OS/2 ___ WINDOWS ___ UNIX ___ OTHER __________________

Your Interest in Computers Include (Check all that apply):

   ___ Education  ___ Business   ___ Entertainment ___ OTHER  ________________

_______________________________________________________________________________
Annual membership fee for the Mid Missouri OS/2 Users Group is $30.00 US.  
Purchase Orders are accepted.  Please make your check payable to MMOUG and mail to:
MMOUG, P.O. Box 30654, Columbia, MO.  65205-0645
Thank you for your support.
_______________________________________________________________________________

The Mid-Missouri OS/2 Users Group is a non-profit corporation who's dedicated purpose is to aid and
facilitate the education and communication between individual computer users, different computer 
groups, and the general public.

The Woodmeister BBS is the official Bulletin Board of the MMOUG.  A copy of the Bylaws is
available for downloading from the Woodmeister BBS (314-446-0016).

For assistance with OS/2, call our Voice Mail at 314-636-0805.
