From: Info-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL ("Info-IBMPC Digest")
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.digest
Subject: Info-IBMPC Digest V93 #3
Date: 10 Jan 93 08:10:47 GMT
Reply-To: Info-IBMPC@wsmr-simtel20.ARMY.mil
Distribution: world
Organization: The Internet
X-Unparsable-Date: Fri,  8 Jan 93 23:46:31 GMT+1

Info-IBMPC Digest           Fri,  8 Jan 93       Volume 93 : Issue   3 

Today's Editor:
         Gregory Hicks - Rota Spain <GHICKS@wsmr-simtel20.Army.Mil>

Today's Topics:
                      486 heat: Worry about it???
         The truth about NT installing when OS/2 2.0 is present
                     A problem doing FTP by E-Mail
                           Bar code printing
                     Cannote Execute Myprg.Exe ...
        Cyrillic fonts needed for Word Perfect 5.1 (DOS edition)
                           DRAM refresh rates
                            e-mail addresses
                      Generic CDROM Configuration
                IBM PC 256K MB dip switches info needed
                  New Simtel-20 MSDOS CDROM available
           Opinion:  What IBM should change in OS/2 (2 msgs)
                         OS/2 2.1 Observations
                          redirecting plotting
             Using if-then-else conditionals to select text
                       Windows application errors
                         Wolf3d Joystick Usage
                     Re: CKermit - help! (V92 #207)

Send Replies or notes for publication to: <INFO-IBMPC@brl.mil>

Send requests of an administrative nature (addition to, deletion from
the distribution list, et al) to: <INFO-IBMPC-REQUEST@brl.mil>

Addition and Deletion requests for UK readers should be sent to:
<INFO-IBMPC-REQUEST@DARESBURY.AC.UK>

Archives of past issues of the Info-IBMPC Digest are available by FTP
ONLY from WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL in directory PD2:<ARCHIVES.IBMPC>.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 07:01:31 GMT
From: gel44@gel.ulaval.ca (Usager temporaire)
Subject: 486 heat: Worry about it???

Info-IBMPC@wsmr-simtel20.ARMY.mil writes:

>    I recently upgraded to a 486 and discovered that since my hard
>drive is mounted vertically right above the cpu
                  ----------

	No hard disk should be installed vertically unless it was
designed to be mounted in that position.  You may experience new bad
sectors cause by that wrong installation.

	Concerning your heat problem, it would be a good idea to put
your drive in another place in order keep your drive "healthy" longer.

Christian Plante a.k.a gel44@gel.ulaval.ca
Laval University
Quebec, Canada

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 5 Jan 93 4:30:50 EST
From: Gregory Hicks - Rota Spain <ghicks@BRL.MIL>
Subject: The truth about NT installing when OS/2 2.0 is present

Timothy:

The notes Marshall is referring to are from comp.os.os2.misc...

Regards,
Gregory Hicks
Editor, Info-IBMPC Digest

From: Marshall Goldberg <marshalg@microsoft.com>
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 93 13:43:32 PST

Dear Readers,

Here are the facts behind the problem experienced when trying to
install NT after OS/ 2 2.0 was previously installed on a disk. Please
note that there is no "conspiracy" here, but ordinary BUGS. These bugs
were properly discovered during beta testing, as we don't test
internally against OS/2 2.0 and/or other operating systems. Just to
make this clear I am including messages directly from the developers.

Marshall R. Goldberg
Microsoft Developer Relations Group

------------------

From: Mike Glass
To: John Hall; Marshall Goldberg
>Subject: FW: FW: Item off usenet
Date: Monday, December 28, 1992 2:49PM

Note that the inconvenience my bug caused  users of OS/2 2.0 was also
experienced (and expressed) by users of Compaq's Diagnostic partition
(type 12) and those that have XENIX partitions (types 2 and 3) on their
machines (among others).

----------

From: Mike Glass
To: Windows NT Development Groups
>Subject: Re: FW: Item off usenet
Date: Tuesday, December 15, 1992 4:06PM

This is unbelievable. I make a very silly mistake in my drive lettering
algorithm in NT. I didn't increment the partition count when I
encountered a partition type we don't recognize. What the discussion
below doesn't mention, is that when we encounter a partition that we
don't recognize, drive letters are messed up for all the remaining
partitions on a disk. We assign drive letters only to type 1,4,6 and 7,
but we build objects to represent any partition, including IBM's boot
manager.  This means that partitions that could not be used by MS DOS
can still be accessed by software in NT.  I fixed the bug since the
OCTOBER BETA and I am amazed at the ridiculous accusations that are
flying around on confuseserve. Currently, with Ted's and my fixes,
after the install process, one must boot NT and then change the boot
indicator to the boot manager partition to restore the OS/2 dual boot
capability. We adjust the boot indicator because installing NT is a
multiboot process and the reboots must boot into the setup program.
Doug Hogarth has Windows 3.1, OS/2 2.0 and Windows NT installed on his
machine in building 1.

----------

From: Ted Miller, development manager, Windows NT Setup
Cc: Mike Glass
>Subject: RE: FW: Item off usenet
Date: Monday, December 28, 1992 3:50PM

There were two bugs in the October release that prevented us from
working correctly in some cases when any non-DOS (types 1,4,5,6,7)
partition is present on a disk.  The first is a bug in Setup, wherein
one part of Setup recognized the presence of the 'alien' partition and
another part didn't.  The net result is that Setup gets confused and
can produce the nasties that were mentioned.

The second bug has to do with the drive lettering algorithm, which was
broken for multiple primary partitions when some are of unrecognized
types (like is the case when boot manager is installed).

The first bug is mine, the second is Mike Glass's.  Both have been
fixed and we will work just fine with Boot Manager present in the next
beta.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992  20:11:16 EST
From: "Paul Robinson, Contractor" <FZC@cu.nih.gov>
Subject: A problem doing FTP by E-Mail

A user is having a problem doing an FTP request via the FTPMAIL
resource provided by FTPMAIL@DECWRL.DEC.COM.

To do a request for FTP you have to do a directory on the appropriate
site in the method THAT SITE wants.  Generally, if I do an FTP to a
site I use

DIR

the first time; this will give me some information in order to tell me
how to read the directory by knowing what is there.

His message to me indicates he was asking whether he should use DIR
PD1: or just DIR.

This implies to me that he is trying to issue a request to
WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL.  That's really where the problem is.

Simtel20 is impacted.  It is *very busy*.  Extremely busy.  It is for
that reason that mirror sites for this site have been set up.

I may suggest anyone trying to access WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL instead
try OAK.OAKLAND.EDU instead as SIMTEL20 is impacted.  {Badly impacted.}

"Now remember, on this pillage, you're supposed to rape the women and
kill the men.  Get it right this time, okay?"   - Attributed to Attilla
the Hun.  NOT.

Paul Robinson -- TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM
These opinions are mine alone.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 04 Jan 93 13:12:33 IST
From: "Jacques J. Goldberg" <PHR00JG%TECHNION.bitnet@VM.TAU.AC.IL>
Subject: Bar code printer.

Dana Hollander asked:
>Does anyone know of software that can be used to generate the
>appropriate postal bar code for a given address and to print it on an
>envelope?
>Subject: bar code printer?

Greg Hicks answered:
>Yep...  Just received my early November '92 PC Mag...
>
>It discussed a utility program that does what you want.  Program is
>written in assembly and is designed to work with LASER printers though.

       If I understood correctly, there are several questions in one.
a) print bar codes on paper.  b) feed enveloppes in a printer.

       The former is possible with TeX, with free layout and any mix of
bar code and readable characters. And it's free (I mean, no cost).

       The latter is printer-specific, but, I believe, unrelated to
what you print on the enveloppe, or did I miss something?

       As an example which might help you, I wrote for myself a short
TeX program that reads an ASCII file with the names and ID numbers of
about 300 students in a course which I teach. The program prints labels
with the student ID number in bar code and the name in clear. During
the tests the labels are attached to the exam, to speed up grades
collection. I print on a laser printer, but for that matter any printer
would do (slower or faster).  Is that what you are asking for?

                               Jacques Goldberg, Technion, Haifa, Israel

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 03 Jan 93 22:20:02 EST
From: (Marshall D. Abrams) <abrams@smiley.mitre.org>
Subject: Bar code printing

I have been using PC File 6.5.  It includes the ability to print 14 bar
code formats, including ZIP+4 Postnet.  It works with dot matrix and
laser printers.

I have used it to generate labels for a large mailing list.  The
results have been acceptable to the postal service.

Sincerely,
Marshall D. Abrams
 e-mail    abrams@mitre.org 
 telephone 703.883.6938     Information Systems Security Div.   
 secretary 703.883.5397     The MITRE Corporation, Mail Stop Z202 
 facsimile 703.883.1397     7525 Colshire Drive, McLean, VA 22102-3481   

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 2 Jan 93 20:21:42 CET
From: Gianni Piccoli <MC1275@mclink.it>
Subject: Cannote Execute Myprg.Exe ...

I had the sane message Cannot execute myprg.exe  in a completely
different situation, just the contrary of what happened to the other
users.

I was compiling a program in clipper 5.01. Everything worked fine, I
could run the program without problems until when I decided to link it
using prelinked library (base50.pll).

In this case the program works only if there is some other tsr program
consuming memory, if the program is launched alone with all the memory
available the dos responds : cannot execute myprg.exe ...

I use dos5.0 in high memory , himem.sys and umb and I have about 630000
bytes of memory available.

Is there someone that knows the reason for this strange behavour ?

GIANNI  ITALY
mc1275@mclink.it

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 21:18:20 GMT
From: castillo@media.mit.edu (Brian Anderson)
Subject: Cyrillic fonts needed for Word Perfect 5.1 (DOS edition)

I need to be able to support mixed English/Cyrillic editing on Word
Perfect for DOS.  Ideally I'd like to be able to change the character
set with a few keystrokes, see the Cyrillic characters on screen, and
get them to print to an HP compatible laser printer.  I know this would
be easier with the Windows version of the product, but I can't use that
on my machine (286 = too slow.)  If I can't get the Cyrillic fonts to
display, I'll settle for being able to print them.

"make lots of money",  "enjoy the work",  "operate within the law":  choose 2

Brian Anderson                    | "It's hard to work in a group when you're
castillo@media-lab.media.mit.edu  |  omnipotent." - Q, ST-tng  "Deja-Q"

------------------------------

Date: 29 Dec 92 01:29:57 GMT
From: "robert.k.nichols" <rnichols@cbnewsg.cb.att.com>
Subject: DRAM refresh rates
Summary: Extremely sensitive to temperature

 chuckst@microsoft.com (Chuck Strouss) writes:
...
>It is surprising how long some DRAMs can go without refresh.  For
>production systems, you must believe the manufacturers worst-case
>specs, but DRAMs rarely need to be refreshed that often.
...

The length of time that a DRAM cell can hold its content without
refresh is inversely proportional to the leakage current in the device.
The leakage current, in turn, is an *exponential* function of
temperature.  What this boils down to is that a device with cells that
must be refreshed every 2 ms at max rated temperature will hold
information for over 20 SECONDS at a junction temperature of 25 C.  One
particularly nasty consequence of this is that it becomes very
difficult to tell whether refresh is working correctly in your system,
and even harder to devise a test which will reliably detect memory
cells that might be marginal (from a refresh standpoint) at high
temperatures.

My apologies if the numbers aren't quite correct.  It's been some time
since I've worked in this area (since the days of 2 ms refresh
requirements, in fact), and my memory is a bit hazy.

Bob Nichols
AT&T Bell Laboratories
rnichols@ihlpm.ih.att.com

------------------------------

Date: 28 Dec 92 05:33:19 GMT
From: Bill Laird <COP80196%ucf1vm.bitnet@BRL.MIL>
Subject: e-mail addresses

The following information was taken from the fidonet os/2 echo:

     Sending mail to Internet addresses of Computer Industry Mags
     about OS/2:

Email addresses in computer industry
revised: December 25, 1992

OS/2 Monthly
Joel Siragher
1-800-365-2642 -or- (I believe) 908-247-0952
CIS:  Joel Siragher 72550,2440
Internet:  72550.2440@compuserve.com

Info World: 73267.1537@compuserve.com; 3502648@mcimail.com

Byte: 2500135@mcimail.com

ComputerWorld: COMPUTERWORLD@mcimail.com

Ziff-Davis
William Ziff               3302341@mcimail.com
(General?)                 4055927@mcimail.com

PC Computing
     76000.21@compuserve.com
     3502648@mcimail.com

PC Magazine
PC Magazine (General)      1579301@mcimail.com
Joel Dreyfuss  (editor)    72241.264@compuserve.com
                           3316982@mcimail.com
Michael Miller             2478102@mcimail.com
Editor In Chief of PC MAG  72241.352@compuserve.com
Solutions Section (ask questions)
 - Solutions, 5563896@mcimail.com
 - 72241.104@compuserve.com


Lee Reiswig
Asst General Manager, Programming
IBM Corporation
PO Box 100, Route 100
Somers, NY  10589

Will Zachmann              72241.43@compuserve.com
                           3302341@mcimail.com

------------------------------

Date: 29 Dec 92 15:40:08 GMT
From: "Robert L. Smith" <rls@tip.wedge.nt.com>
Subject: Generic CDROM Configuration

    My wife, bless her, gave me a CDROM drive for Christmas.  I had it
running under MSDOS within a few hours but had no such luck under OS/2
2.0.  Under MSDOS I took IBM's generic CDROM driver off the November
PDK and installed it according to directions.  Now when I boot OS/2,
the following appears shortly after the startup logos:

    IBM CD-ROM Device Driver / Version 1.50
    SCSI-DD not found
    SYS1201:  The device driver "C:\OS2\SYSTEM\CDROM_G.SYS" specified
        in the DEVICE command on line 71 of the CONFIG.SYS file was
        not installed.  Line 71 is ignored.

    This may occur because of non-standard setups for my CDROM
adapter's I/O address, interrupt number or DMA channel (which I had to
juggle because my system is already loaded with other adapters).  But
this is only a guess because IBM seems to have adopted a policy of
supplying high-level documentation only.  Does anyone know what setup
configuration the generic driver requires, or if its requirement is
variable by invocation argument?

    My drive also doesn't work in a DOS window under OS/2.  An
executable named "mscdex.exe", apparently written by Microsoft, came
with the drive adapter.  Its function under MSDOS is to assign the
CDROM adapter to drive letter E:, which is the next available drive on
my system, and make it accessible there by other DOS programs.  When
executed in a DOS window under OS/2, it produces the complaint,
Incorrect DOS version

    This also happened at first under MSDOS, but MSDOS provides a
separate program, "setver", which eliminates that complaint if invoked
as a driver in config.sys.  Unfortunately, MDOS under OS/2 does not
contain the setver program, and the DOS 5.0 version will not run under
OS/2 DOS.

    Yes, I know I should have installed one of the CDROMs and adapters
that IBM recommends, but my wife didn't know about 'em.  If anyone can
offer advice for the above problems, I'd much appreciate it.

Regards, rLs

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 92 16:52:59 CST
From: Dan Davison <dbd@theory.bchs.uh.edu>
Subject: IBM PC 256K MB dip switches info needed

I need to know which DIP switches on the original IBM PC/XT 256K MB
control the memory on the board. I recently moved and can't find the
docs.  Specifically, what are the switches and positions required for
256K on the MB?

I have already tried DIPSET from Simtel; the switch positions it
presents are wrong: the "current settings" don't match the way the DIP
is set.

I have found that SW1 and SW2 are *not* involved, and at least one of
the others controls the default monitor setting.

Thanks in advance!

dan "I'll be glad to be able to print from WordPerfect again" davison
davison@uh.edu

------------------------------

Date: 4 Jan 1993 04:54:02 GMT
From: "Robert A. Bruce" <rab@allspice.berkeley.edu>
Subject: New Simtel-20 MSDOS CDROM, 640 megbytes, $25

A new edition of the Simtel-20 CD-ROM is available.  It contains about
640 meg of MS-DOS shareware and public domain software.

The Simtel archive has grown since I made the last disc in September,
so there wasn't enough room to include the Ulowell games archive.  I am
planning to finish a separate games disc later this month.

Even without the games archive, there still wasn't enough room on the
disc.  I had to leave something off, so I decided to delete the
windows3 directory.  Most of the stuff in that directory is included on
the CICA disc, so I figured that was better than deleting stuff that
wasn't available elsewhere.

The disc conforms to ISO-9660, which is the most common and generic
format.  It will work with almost any reader.  The files are in a
standard directory structure, so no special software is required.  An
optional menu driven front end is provided.

If you want to see what is on the disc, you can ftp the index and
readme files from cdrom.com (192.153.46.254), in the directory
/pub/cdroms/simtel.  If you want to use the disc with a BBS,
description files are included for rbbs, pcboard, wildcat, spitfire and
opus.  There are also 4dos descript.ion files in each subdirectory.

For further info, contact 

        Bob Bruce
        Walnut Creek CDROM
        1547 Palos Verdes, Suite 260
        Walnut Creek, CA  94596

        +1 800 786-9907, +1 510 947-5996, +1 510 947-1644 FAX
        rab@cdrom.com

The disc is available for FREE to anyone that has contributed any of
their own work to the Simtel archive.  Just email me your name,
address, and the name of the program(s) that you wrote.  Overseas
addresses are ok.

        -bob

[If you have ideas for other types of CD's, Contact Bob per the above
info.  gph]

------------------------------

Date: 29 Dec 92 17:45:15 GMT
From: "Douglas A. Bell" <dab6@po.cwru.edu>
Subject: Opinion:  What IBM should change in OS/2

While I like OS/2 very much, I was mulling over some of the things that
annoy me as I was installing the early December beta and came up with a
list of things that need to be changed or fixed that show no sign of
improving.

First are the scary strange little bugs.  The shifting windows, the
disapearing chracters on the top left corner of the screen when booting
fram a FAT partition.  Even though these things don't hurt anything, it
worries me when I see them happen.

OS/2 needs to do something about the applets.  They are not good
programs and they take up large chunks of disk space.  They have
prograssed past applets into ugly twisted behemoths that are difficult
to use.  I am bothered by the fact that I have to shuffle disks that
contain lots of code that add very little value.  Applets should be
simple, quick, and almost self explainitory.  Just try to configure the
pm terminal program.  Ug.  And all of this extra fat makes os/2 look
like even more of a resource hog.  42 meg for the beta is awful when it
could be just 35 megs.  Maybe IBM could include coupons for the applets
to get them for $5 or something.

OS/2 should have a quick and easy feature to make a bootable disk.

I really hate all the archane error messages with the practically
useless error numbers in front of the messages.  The message numbers
have not helped me once.  Whenever I don't know what the error is, OS/2
can never find the appropriate help files.  But those messages are
reasonable compared to the messages that accompany a trap.  I am afraid
to recommend os/2 to my department because of the error messages alone.

I'd like to see an istall option that allows os/2 run without the
workplace shell but with pm.  Just include a few utilities such as
'vdmstart' to start virtual dos machines, and you could have a slim,
dos multi-tasker that runs pm apps.

I almost hate to mention this, because it has improved so much, but the
install program could be better.  Why do I have to shuffle 10+ disks
for every selective install?

Doug-

------------------------------

Date: 29 Dec 92 18:11:55 GMT
From: Chris McClellen <chris@cad.gatech.edu>
Subject: Opinion:  What IBM should change in OS/2

Those are some good suggestions.  I wish IBM would supply BETTER
documentation WITH OS/2.  I hate the online reference.  You basically
only get to search for topics you want help on.  Now, the REXX
information thing is good, but the rest of them are disjointed.  I
would like to see printed manuals distributed with OS/2, that are in a
clear format.

One thing that annoys me about OS/2 is that I do not know all of the
settings that can be put in config.sys, and that I dont know what alot
of the utilities, and files are.  I try to look them up in all the
references, and they don't exist.

I would like to know all the capabilities of the system without having
to order Redbooks.  Hell, DOS came with a manual.  I know OS/2 would
come with several, but so what?  One problem I had, and I am sure
people do have with it, is that when I go to program OS/2 with a PD
compiler, I end up writing 32bit DOS apps, because I dont know what the
system can exactly offer me.  I know alot more now than I did when I
first got 2.0, but still... I expect good documentation to come with
the OS.  If they would put togther some manuals that are in arranged in
an organized fashion, people could know the true power of OS/2.

Untilk that day, I have to get redbooks, etc, to read about OS/2 to see
what it can do for me, etc, when those kinds of books should have come
with the OS.  Its really annoying to learn little facts about OS2 that
arent in the online ref., etc, from other people, when I should have
been able to read some manuals and know it.  The online ref manual is
not in a clear format either.  But, I prefer printed material to
sitting on my computer trying to make sense of the format that they
presented the stuff.

------------------------------

Date: 29 Dec 92 17:29:35 GMT
From: "Timothy F. Sipples" <sip1@ellis.uchicago.edu>
Subject: OS/2 2.1 Observations

This report is coming a bit late, since I'm on the road.  However, I
thought it worth posting now (late though it is).

Incidentally, I do have some benchmarks on this new code, but there are
a couple reasons why I can't post them.  The first is that the
Ziff-Davis license agreement says you can't disseminate the results of
WinBench (strange though that may sound), and the second is that I have
a slight disagreement with the methodology that I want to correct
first.  Also, we couldn't get NT to install on the same machine.

----------

On Friday, December 18, I had the opportunity to take a look at the
latest OS/2 2.1 beta at IBM in Chicago.

Yes, it looks like it will be Version 2.1, which tends to suggest that
there will be some sort of upgrade charge.  The expectation is that it
will be a modest one.

The beta version identifies itself as 6.479, 12/9/92, OS/2 2.1 (the so-
called "Borg" release).  It was tested on an IBM PS/2 Model 57 with
486SLC double clock processor, 320 MB SCSI hard drive, and VGA display.

The installation procedure has changed a bit.  There are now
twenty-nine 3.5 inch diskettes.  However, two of those contain
Multimedia Presentation Manager/2 (which is apparently going to be part
of the base product), two are display drivers, and five or six are
printer drivers.

The installation was quite similar to OS/2 2.0.  However, there are a
couple notable changes.  First, there are more devices supported.
Among them, the DPT SCSI adapter, several new printers (including
Citizen PN48, Compaq Pagemarq, LaserJet IV, DeskJets, a rewritten
PainJet driver from Micrographx, and several new IBM models), advanced
power management support (I could not determine which notebooks this
feature supports), PCMCIA support (for add-in "credit card" sized
accessories), and more SuperVGA support.  (Since the beta was tested on
a PS/2 with VGA, I could not determine the extent of this new SuperVGA
support.)

The installation program now has a single, unified screen for
installing device support.  All in all, installation has improved, but
there's still a bit of work that could be done.

Here are some of the notable improvements:

(1) EXIT_VDM now comes with OS/2.  This small utility can be used from
the command line to exit specific DOS sessions.

(2) "Update Windows desktop when Win-OS/2 desktop is modified."  This
checkbox is provided at install time, and, if you have a Dual Boot or
Boot Manager system (with Microsoft Windows 3.1), the desktops are, in
effect, unified.  If you change your Program Manager groups while under
Win-OS/2, your groups under Windows 3.1 are also changed.  It seems
that few people will find this feature necessary (since Win-OS/2 is so
vastly improved, as far as I can tell), but if you are a software
developer who must test under Microsoft Windows, this little feature
can be quite useful.

(3) FAX/PM.  A new applet has been provided, a small version of
Microfor- matic's FAX/PM.  It includes an OS/2 printer driver, so you
can fax simply by printing from any OS/2, DOS, or Windows application.
(Under Win-OS/2, the fax driver is listed if you opt to install
FAX/PM.)  However, don't cancel those orders for SofNet's Faxworks.
While FAX/PM looks full featured, it is restricted to one page faxes.
Not a bad choice for an applet, though, since background communications
is one of OS/2's strong points.

(4) Win-OS/2 3.1.  In the beta copy, the Windows 3.0 mode and real mode
are no longer present.  I do not know whether that will be the case in
the released version.  Win-OS/2 3.1 now apparently supports enhanced
mode, although I was unable to determine the extent of this support.
DOS sessions can be started from Win-OS/2 3.1.  When they are, they are
listed in the OS/2 Window List, thus maintaining a unified task
control.  The multimedia extensions and most of the Windows applets are
now provided.  In testing, the Win-OS/2 multimedia extensions worked
just fine.  (Tests were conducted with an IBM M-Audio Adapter.)  We
could play WAV files, and playback continued without interruption so
long as there was no disk or other CPU-draining activity.  (In other
words, the multimedia features work just as well as they do under real
Windows.  Note that MMPM/2 does not have this restriction -- WAV files
keep playing in the background no matter what the foreground
activity.))

There has been an awful lot of work put into the Windows compatibility,
it seems.  One of the finishing touches, for example: we could install
the Windows M-Audio driver using the facilities within Win-OS/2.  At
the conclusion of the driver install, Win-OS/2 (and Windows) prompts to
restart itself.  Under real Windows, the screen will blank and the
desktop will come back up.  Under Win-OS/2, same thing.  For some
reason I didn't expect it to work -- I expected to be dropped back to
the Workplace Shell.  No such luck -- it worked just as it should.

(5) Pen enabled.  Not tested.

(6) Support for OS/2 as an AS/400 client with PC Support.  It wasn't
clear what this meant, and it was not tested.

(7) In the DOS Settings, the default DPMI_MEMORY_LIMIT is now 4 MB,
which should help keep the latest DOS and Windows applications comfor-
table.

(8) MMPM/2 ships with SoundBlaster support -- no need to go hunting for
the driver.  System events (e.g. dragging icon to the Shredder and
expecting toilet flush sound effect :-)) are not yet integrated with
MMPM/2.  Also, there are not (yet) audio adapter virtual drivers (so
that sound output from Win-OS/2 and MMPM/2 can be arbitrated).  At
present you get messages saying that the sound hardware is in use, and
OS/2 will refuse to run Win-OS/2 (for example) if its sound output is
enabled while MMPM/2 is playing a WAV file.

(9) Data files now pick up the icons of their parent programs if the
association exists.  For example, if you have set up your system so
that all DOC files are associated with WordPerfect (so that if you
double click on a DOC file up comes WordPerfect with the file loaded),
all the DOC files will pick up the WordPerfect program icon.  It makes
things a bit friendlier.

(10) EPM is now Version 5.51.

(11) Disk space requirements for a full install have gone up,
naturally.  As always, use Selective Install to keep things under
control -- the vast majority of people aren't going to need everything
that can be installed.  The increase seems to be modest, however.

(12) Subjectively speaking, performance seemed yet again better.

Timothy F. Sipples      | Read the OS/2 FAQ List 2.0h, available from
sip1@ellis.uchicago.edu | 128.123.35.151, anonymous ftp, in /pub/os2/all/info
Dept. of Econ., Univ.   | /faq, or from LISTSERV@BLEKUL11.BITNET (send "HELP")
of Chicago, 60637       | [Read the List, THEN post to ONE OS/2 newsgroup.]

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 03 Jan 93 19:07:03 MEZ
From: Wolfgang Christen <WAC@ibma.ipp-garching.mpg.de>
Subject: redirecting plotting

Hi,
I have a program that is able to calulate some mathematics and send the
resulting plot directly to a HP plotter via the serial port.  But what
I need instead is to make a HPGL plot file.  Is there a possibility (a
program) to catch the commands from the port and redirect them to a
file under MS-DOS?  Any hints a VERY welcome!

Sincerely
Wolfgang

|             Wolfgang Christen             |                       |
|   Max-Planck-Institut fuer Quantenoptik   | Tel.: +49-89-32905230 |
|   email:   WAC@IBMA.IPP-GARCHING.MPG.DE   | Fax:  +49-89-32905200 |

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 01 Jan 93 21:40:02 EST
From: (Marshall D. Abrams) <abrams@smiley.mitre.org>
Subject: Using if-then-else conditionals to select text

I need some help in identifying modern software that duplicated some
functionality I have come to depend on in some old stuff.

I have been using a version of nroff called nr to produce vugraphs and
notes on my PC.  I would like to switch over to something more modern,
such as Power Point 3.0.  Among other things, nr has no capability to
include graphics.

But nr does have if-then-else conditionals which I use to customize the
length of a briefing.  I use the conditionals to select whole slides
and even lines within slides to include or exclude according to the
value of a "length" switch.

I would really appreciate learning about a similar capability that I
could use with Power Point or some similar modern briefing preparation
package.

Sincerely,
 
Marshall D. Abrams
 e-mail    abrams@mitre.org 
 telephone 703.883.6938     Information Systems Security Div.   
 secretary 703.883.5397     The MITRE Corporation, Mail Stop Z202 
 facsimile 703.883.1397     7525 Colshire Drive, McLean, VA 22102-3481   

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 00:22 IST
From: AVISHAI ANTONOVSKY <KPUAV%HUJIVM1.bitnet@taunivm.tau.ac.il>
Subject: Windows application errors

Hi,
I don't know if this is the right forum, but I thought having worked
with Windows some of you might have encountered the following problem:
When I try to run a Windows application using Windows 3.1 in standard
mode (I don't know if it has anything to do with the mode), I sometimes
get application error messages. For example, when I try to enter the
file manager, I get, more often than not, the message:

         |---------------------------------------------|
         |                Application Error            |
         |                                             |
         |Winfile caused a General Protection Fault in |
         |module USER.EXE at 0008:08D9                 |
         |                                             |
         |                 |-----|                     |
         |                 |close|                     |
         |                 |-----|                     |
         |---------------------------------------------|

Another example is when I run "After Dark" (a screen saver). It gives
the same message, this time for module COMM.DRV at 0002:03EB. However,
in this case it waits 10-15 seconds after running the program before it
halts.  Most of the time I just click on the "close" box and continue
working (giving up the program I wanted to run); sometimes it just
locks the whole system.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Avishai Antonovsky

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 30 Dec 92 22:29:45 -0500
From: Howard Weiss <hsw@columbia.sparta.com>
Subject: Wolf3d Joystick Usage

I have a copy of the Apogee game Wolf3D (version 1.0 and 1.1) that
works great with my keyboard or mouse, but I am having trouble getting
it running correctly with the new joystick I've just hooked up.

The machine is a Gateway 2000 386/25 running DOS 4.01.  I've just
started using a QuickShot Warrior 5 joystick that works fine for all
the other games I've got that allow joystick usage (including other
Apogee games).  However, with Wolf3D, no matter what I do, I can only
have the game recognize forward and left motions - right and back do
nothing.  I have centered the joystick and I have even changed joystick
ports - all to no avail.  Yet, as soon as I get out of Wolf and go into
another game, the joystick works properly.

Has anyone else run into this problem?  Is there a fix?  I thought that
there might have been a problem with version 1.0 which is why I've just
downloaded version 1.1 - but there is no difference.

Thanks,

Howard Weiss
hsw@columbia.sparta.com


------------------------------

Date: Thu Dec 31 10:09:06 PST 1992
From: bill@Celestial.COM (Bill Campbell)
Subject: Re: CKermit - help! (V92 #207)

Info-IBMPC@wsmr-simtel20.ARMY.mil writes: 

:harriga@duc.auburn.edu (Greg A. Harris) writes:

:>???? You cannot "connect" until you "dial". Look at ckermit.ini. Make
:>sure it has your modem listed in 'set modem' and check the 'set port'.
:>Then do 'dial 123-4567' to dial. Then do connect.  Read ckoker.doc
:>(packaged in the ckermit 5A(188) files in pub/uploads) to find the
:>procedure to automate the logon with scripts, once you get things
:>working.

:Note: I cannot figure out how to make it stop setting my port speed to
:the connect speed reported by the modem. I want my com port to stay
:locked at 57600, but CKermit adjusts it to 14400 when it sees the
:CONNECT 14400 message. This is a real pain and I have to escape back
:and reset the speed. To avoid having to do this, I go:

:C-Kermit>set carrier off
:C-Kermit>c

:It doesn't complain then...

But it doesn't work properly either.  The correct solution (from TFM)
is

C-Kermit>set dial speed-matching off

The off modifier was change in the 5A(188) release.  Prior to this it
was on which was counter-intuitive.

Bill
-- 
INTERNET:  bill@Celestial.COM   Bill Campbell; Celestial Software
UUCP:   ...!thebes!camco!bill   6641 East Mercer Way
             uunet!camco!bill   Mercer Island, WA 98040; (206) 947-5591

------------------------------

End of Info-IBMPC Digest V93 #3
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