EDM/2 - The News

The News

/apps

Pillarsoft recently released version 1.20 of Enhanced E, its replacement for the OS/2 System Editor.
Cornelis Bockemuehl upgraded his free (for private or scientific purposes) PM astronomy program, PmAs, to version 1.02.
/cd-rom

BMT Micro is now shipping its 2nd edition of the OS/2 Supersite CD, a gigantic 2-GB 4-CD collection (5000+ files) of OS/2 freeware, shareware and commercial demos.
The Team Trier Collection Vol. 4 CD-ROM containing a variety of OS/2 fixpaks and applications, is also now available. Documentation and installation instructions are in German.
/devtools

Andrew Zabolotny is distributing a second release of his port of pgcc 1.1.1, the Pentium-optimized version of egcs (experimental GNU compiler system).
A pre-release of VyperHelp, a visual outliner and editor for creating IPF help files is available for free use and distribution until June 1st.
Sharon Dagan has set up a mailing list for NICE/2 development and use. You can subscribe by email or by visiting the NICE/2 Home Page.
The OS/2 port of version 1.21a of V, a free (GNU GPL) C++ IDE, has been released (see the separate article in this month's issue).
/dbase

Yuri Dario released his OS/2 port of mSQL 2.0.9 just a few days after the Unix version.
/doc

In an interview in InfoWorld, Steve Mills, general manager of IBM's Software Solutions division, discusses IBM's emerging software product strategies. He talks about Windows 2000 and NT, Linux, Java, and "shoes -- and ships -- and sealing-wax --" with not a peep about OS/2. Does this mean IBM has it pegged as a Problem?
In the same mindframe, IBM has announced plans to sell bare laptops, meaning "a base machine without any operating system on it so you could load any form of Linux you want," says Phil Hester, chief technology officer for IBM's Personal Systems Group.
But there is hope. On their venture into Linuxworld, these guys may stumble across the recent article on GNOME that reads: "It means GNOME may one day become as usable and flexible as the OS/2 Workplace Shell. The OS/2 Workplace Shell is CORBA-based and is probably the most powerful GUI desktop available."
IBM also announced that its OS/2 Warp Server for e-business (aka Aurora) will be available for Europe, the Middle East and Africa in May 1999.
TechWeek recently published an article on OS/2 web sites, and the Chicago Tribune wants to hear from people who are "still running OS/2".
Finally, looking for summertime pageturner? Edwin Black, former editor of "OS/2 Professional" has written his first novel, a techno-thriller with the chilling title, "Format C:".
/drivers

nVidia's TNT2 chipset now supports OS/2.
Abbottsbury Software's WinCast OS/2 driver for Hauppage WinTV and Wincast PCI cards has been upgraded to version 1.040T. Although website and readme refer to 1.040M, the driver in the zipfile really is 1.040T.
An ESS Solo1 PCI Audio driver is now available for ThinkPad390E at the IBM DDK site.
/events

IBM's Solutions '99 multi-platform, multi-vendor developer conference will focus on Java. The three-day event, including presentations of new technologies, hands-on labs, and seminars with experts runs from July 19 to 22 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
/fixes

FixPak 1 for IBM's VisualAge C++ v4 is now available, as is another for icc v3.6.5 (the one shipped with VAC++ 4).
There's also a new PixPak for IBM Data Access Beans.
/graphics

Jan Danielsson has released PoV-Ray 3.1e for OS/2.
/java
MoneyDance 2.0, a Java Quicken-like finance manager that also runs on OS/2, is available as a Gold Release.
Brad Barclay has launched the Java-PalmPilot Project, a set of developers tools and GUI-based end-user applications for synchronizing Palm devices (Palm 1000 - 5000, PalmPilot Personal and Pro, and Palm III) with PCs.
Aquila Systems has ported a javax.comm API which Java programs can use to access communication ports.
An OS/2 version of QuoteGrabber 2, a Java/Swing online stock-quote displayer has been released.
/multimedia

Audio-CD-Creator, a frontend for CDRecord/2 is now available.
Lesha Bogdanow has ported TiMidity++ 2.0.1 (a software MIDI synthesizer) to OS/2. He also upgraded his port of the Amiga Real Audio player to version 0.02, and LBPlay to 0.06, while rereleasing LBCSMix, a Crystal Mode 2 mixer, under the GPL.
Thorsten Thielen released version 2.27 of Minta, an MP3 tagging, listing and information PM-utility for OS/2.
From Samuel Audet comes version 1.07 of his mpg123.dll.
Lorne Sunley is distributing a beta version of a new Media Control Device (MCD) for Television on the OS/2 desktop. The MCD/VSD drivers use the Hauppauge Wincast/TV card and physical device drivers.
The AWE64 Under OS/2 site has formed a local newsgroup to help users get AWE64 sound cards working under OS/2.
/rexx

Wayne Swanson has set up a new site dedicated to OS/2 with the focus on VisPro and REXX solutions.
rxGPIB, a REXX DLL for accessing GPIB (IEEE488) functions and controlling instruments such as multimeters, oscilloscopes, and frequency generators is now available.
/utils
Symantec has updated IBM Antivirus with new virus signatures; the latest version is AV30DL, dated April 30, 1999.
Version 1.00 of the Free Config.sys analyzer/optimizer/information tool is now available.
Meanwhile Klaus Staedtler released version 1.40 of his Tyra/2 Config.sys analyzer and editor. Tyra/2 is shareware with a 31-day trial period, although registration is free for OS/2 freeware developers.
From Eugen Kuleshov comes a new version of the PopUp WPS extension for entry-field cut-and-paste operations with a mouse.
The RAR integrated archive manager for OS/2 has been upgraded to 2.50.
Version 3.c of DreckBak, an OS/2 disk backup utility, is now available.
Roman Stangl has upgraded his Program Commander/2 shell enhancer to version 2.09i.
Also JP Software's 4OS2 alternative shell and its TakeCommand/2 GUI have been updated to version 3.02.
/web

HomePage Publisher, a native OS/2 WYSIWYG web designer and publisher, has been updated to Version 2.1, Level B.
Version 0.8 of ServerConfig/2, a PM utility for configuring Apache and InetPowerServer/2 servers, is now available.
From Platon Fomichev comes Squid 2.2 (stable beta 1 version), which delivers high-performance cacheing for Web clients while supporting FTP, Gopher, and HTTP requests.
Oleg Deribas has ported version 2.0 of httptunnel, a networking utility for connecting to computers outside a firewall by creating a bidirectional virtual data path tunnelled in HTTP requests.
Pretty Pop Software released Jasmine 2.72, an FTP front-end for webpage maintenance. It requires the Watcom VX-REXX runtime module (vrobj.dll) available at Hobbes or Leo.
Version 1.15 of Carrie R. Lust a free (mailware) phone-cost and online time tracking utility for OS/2 is now available.
The Config.sys Documentation Project and the Philadelphia OS/2 SIG website have been refreshed.
Recent address changes include Pillarsoft, and David Ameiss's page covering his Warpstock 98 presentation on "Setting Up a SOHO Network".
Among new sites is the Bay Area OS/2 Page.
/x

Doug LaRue's recent presentation to the San Diego OS/2 Users Group on installing XFree86/2 with a simple script he wrote has been published at their website.

Please send news items to news@edm2.com.