From: sip1@ellis.uchicago.edu (Timothy F. Sipples)
Subject: Re: OS/2 questions from Amiga user
Reply-To: sip1@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: Dept. of Econ., Univ. of Chicago
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 15:16:21 GMT

In article <1992Aug20.024946.26954@datamark.co.nz> tfarmer@datamark.co.nz (Thomas Farmer) writes:
>For example, on my Amiga I can give task priorities to different
>tasks. For example, I normally run comms packages with a task priority
>of about 3, most other things with a priority of 0, and stuff like
>screen-savers and ray-tracers with a priority of -1 or lower.
>What is the equivalent with OS/2? Does it use task priorities in the
>same way? Can you change them?

OS/2 does use priorities (and dynamically adjusts them depending on
various factors, although that behavior can be disabled).  As shipped,
OS/2 does not include a utility to adjust the priority levels of
running tasks (or tasks you start); however, many applications include
this feature (especially communications programs) internally, and
there are at least a couple utilities available via anonymous ftp from
ftp-os2.nmsu.edu which will let you adjust program priorities (NICE
and SETPRI come to mind).

IBM evidently decided that this utility should not be included in the
base operating system since the company wanted to avoid adding
complexity, but, if you are a savvier user than most, the utilities
are out there for you.

>Another question : why is it necessary for OS/2 to load the various
>comms drivers and other such stuff from the config.sys? This means
>that whenever you want to change something, you have to reboot the
>machine. If you happen to be running TCP/IP, this takes a fair while.

Indeed.

The short answer is, "Because we're not there yet."  (Unix is very
similar to OS/2 in this respect.)  But there are probably some good
technical arguments why device drivers, in the main, are loaded in
CONFIG.SYS, at boot time.  I'll leave that to others, but I have a few
in mind.

>Third question : Can I turn off mouse acceleration? I like highly
>geared, but linear, mouse movement.

Mostly.  In OS/2 System -> System Setup -> Mouse you have several
speed adjustment options.  Some people aren't entirely satisfied with
the range of available settings, but feel free to experiment with
them.

>Question : Are there any command shells which aren't just text windows
>in a box? I'm looking for something that is scalable and doesn't just
>use scrollbars to access the pre-defined area.

I know it is being worked on, but part of the problem is that, in
order to maintain backward compatibility, those 80x25 windows are
extremely important.  If you start to get too fancy you then start to
break things.

It is certainly possible, but it is moderately difficult to implement,
and my hunch is that the designers of OS/2 focused their energies
elsewhere first.  While a "Cadillac" command line window would have
been a nice feature, they settled for a Chevy there and gave us a
Cadillac GUI shell.

>Last question : Can I play Pinball Dreams under OS/2? :-)

Anyone?

>I'm looking forward to the next release.

Oh, always.  OS/2 will continue to evolve at a rapid pace.

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