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EDM/2

The News

Written by Aram Agajanian

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OS/2

IBM has released the U.S. English edition of FixPak 39 for OS/2 Warp 3.

IBM has updated the I2O drivers on the OS/2 Device Driver repository. New SCSI and NIC interface drivers are available. The recent Warp Server for e-Business beta release, codenamed Aurora, is the only version of OS/2 that currently supports I2O drivers.

Epson Stylus Color printer drivers are now also available on the OS/2 Device Driver repository.

The WorkSpace On-Demand Tips and Techniques database is now available online. IBM has indicated that it will add new items to this database in the future including a section for WSOD 2.0.

C++

IBM has updated the OS/2 Warp 4 Developer's Toolkit. The update includes bug fixes and revised documentation. The update is available at the Developer Connection site.

Java

IBM released version 1.1.7 of the Java Development Kit (JDK) on the Software Updates site. Version 1.1.7 significantly improves runtime performance over earlier versions.

Several updates to JDK 1.1.6 were posted in November. The latest is dated 11/18/98.

IBM has released some fixes to Visual Age for Java 2.0. Rollup 1 contains fixes for a number of bugs in all editions of VAJ. A package of fixes for the Persistence Builder (called Fixpak 1) in the Enterprise Edition has also been released.

The Jikes compiler, available at IBM's alphaWorks site, has now been turned into an open source project. The source code is available for download and can be used under certain licensing restrictions.

IBM research has released TOAD, a Java Analysis (JAN) tool for JDK 1.1.6 and 1.2. Toad analyzes either a running application or source code and can produce a call graph and runtime statistical data.

Netbeans has announced Netbeans DeveloperX2 2.1, which supports JDK 1.2. New features of JDK 1.2 supported by DeveloperX2 are drag 'n drop, Beans enhancements, collections, JDBC 2.0, and Swing 1.1. Netbeans DeveloperX2 2.1 will be available in January, 1999. Conncurrent versions of Netbeans Developer will be available for JDK 1.1 users.

Rexx

Mike Ruskai has posted new REXX-callable DLL containing a function called RxFreeMem to Hobbes, here or here. RxFreeMem takes an argument of either 'physical' or 'virtual'. It returns the amount of free physical memory (using Dos16MemAvail()) or virtual (using DosQuerySysInfo()) memory. [Note: I cannot seem to find it at the indicated spot. Ed.]

RxExtras is a REXX-callable library that contains a large number of useful functions for REXX, VisPro/REXX, and VX-REXX. It also includes a library for calling many of the functions from C code. RxExtras is available under a shareware license.

Global Automation Co. has released a new version of RexxGUDB, a library of REXX-callable functions that provide an interface to DB2 Univeral Database version 5.x. New features include HTML generation APIs, Goserve integration tools, and better thread support. RexxGUDB is freeware and can be downloaded via the web.

Database

A new release of mSQL for OS/2 (2.0.4.1 build 5) was posted on the OS/2 Netlabs site in November. The release updates msqladmin to report the build number and fixes a bug in the processing of money data types.

Documentation

MekTek has posted a pre-release of VyperHelp version 1.01 to hobbes. VyperHelp is a visual tool for creating OS/2 help documents (IPF). New features include importing IPF files and exporting C header files. VyperHelp also supports importing Windows (HPJ) help source files.

Ulrich Moeller has released INF2HTML, a utility that converts an INF file into a set of HTML and image files. INF2HTML has been released under the GNU public license.

A new port of the DOC++ source code tool, version 3.2, has completed by Erik Huelsmann. doc++ generates html or TeX from a combined source/documentation input file. DOC++ supports C, C++, and Java. It is available for download on hobbes. It can be used under the GNU public license.

Web

IBM has released version 1.2.3 of Feature Installer. This version is compatible with the recently released Communicator 4.04 for OS/2. It is available for free download from the Software Updates site.

The Warpzilla team has posted an alpha release of nglayout, the front end to the open source version of Netscape Communicator 5 (aka Mozilla). The runtime package is available at hobbes.

A bug-fixed release of NetLookout was posted in November. NetLookout is a utility for tracking web, ftp, and gopher site updates. NetLookout is shareware.

Perl

Illya Zakharevich has posted a new release of perl 5.005 for download by ftp.

X

Holger Veit has released XFree86 3.3.3 for OS/2. XFree86 is a version of the X user interface platform. The package includes an X server, a variety of applets and tools, and libraries for the development of applications that run in the X environment.

Asbjorn Pettersen has ported the Glade 0.3.8 GTK+ User Interface builder to OS/2. The runtime is available at hobbes. Glade requires XFree86 for OS/2 and GTK+ 105.

Image acquisition

Solution Technology, Inc. has announced the start of a closed beta for updates to their Image Edition for OS/2 and TWAIN for OS/2 products. Image Edition is a tool for electronically storing documents. Updated features include the user interface enhancements and enhanced database recovery and regeneration. TWAIN for OS/2 is a set of drivers that can be used by an application to provide scanner support. Updated features include new drivers for new Hewlett-Packard, Epson, and Fujitsu devices.

BASIC

True Basic has released the Silver Edition of it's flagship product. The new version contains more than 200 new library calls not available in earlier versions. Special upgrade pricing from the Standard, Pro, or level 5 versions is available until the end of 1998.

Other

StarDivision has released StarOffice 5.0 Personal Edition for OS/2. It is available for download without cost (after registration) from StarDivision's web site under a license for personal use only. (The package is a 75 MB download.)

News items to news@edm2.com.

 

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