List of files missing in action

This is an incomplete list of files that have been freely downloadable and/or freely re-distributable in the past, but have gone missing from the net for sundry reasons. Even though a number of these are ancient they either offer some value to modern users or are important from a historical standpoint and it would be interesting to see available again.

Programming tools

• va602_?o.zip - VisualAge Smalltalk updates

The last official OS/2 VA Smalltalk 6.x update pack, when Instantiations bought the software package from IBM they asked for fix packs 6.01 and 6.02 to be removed from the IBM FTP site because IBM had deliberately made them usable as both fixpacks and as non-time limited demo versions. While this was not a problem for the MS Windows and AIX versions of the software that got 6.03 and 6.04 fixpacks anyway making 6.01 and 6.02 superfluous this became something of a problem for the OS/2 version that did not get 6.03 or higher fixpacks (Officially anyway, there were in-house updates).

• Hutt's ETH Oberon System

Executables and source are missing in action

• VisualAge for Basic updates

These were offered as a free download and as a free CD delivered update to those that had bought the system but this update disappeared from the IBM ftp system around 2001 and it appears no-one saved a copy.

• s2.zip

OS/2 Abbotsbury debugger for driver development, highly useful tool.

• gbase33.zip

OS/2 JBA Guidelines base version 3.3. Known to have existed as a free download on some OS/2 sites, Compuserve and from the company's homepage but no longer on the net. Version 3.2 (gbase32.zip) has also gone missing but v 3.1 is on most OS/2 sites. The reason why it was important is that while the back end generators are somewhat crippled on the base version, the GUI tools are not and a number of freeware Ada and Fortran tools used Guidelines as a GUI generator for OS/2 and MS Windows development.

• da.zip

OS/2 Abbotsbury disassembler

• tdt.zip

OS/2 Low Level Technical Developers Toolkit for OS/2

• adajba.zip

OS/2 GUI development for OS/2 PM GNAT [1]

• sockva.zip

Paul Elliott's VAC++ port of the Socket++ class library for C++. Look here for an archive of his original Socket++ page.

• dtpilot.zip

DOS Taylor PILOT. Simple public domain version of the PILOT programming language complete with BNF and source, the OS/2 port is missing in action too, but no-one remembers what it was called. The Atari ST port is all that can be found of it these days.

• Illinois Functional Programming Interpreter (ifp)

OS/2-DOS-Unices Was supplied as a source code in the late 80s/early 90s but has disappeared altogether, it is a version of the FP/FL functional programming language with syntax closer to Modula-2 or other Algol like languages.

• cim169.zip or cimEMX.zip

OS/2 & DOS Jon Martin Solaas' EMX Port of the Simula to C translator

• The source to Allan Pratt's portable FORTH C-Forth

DOS & OS/2 - This is only semi missing, it is not on the net but almost certainly to be found on old Shareware CD-ROMs.

• Jim Brooks version of FIG-Forth

OS/2 & 32 bit DOS. While it is for certain that this existed, it is not certain if this was ever released to the public.

• The OS/2 port of Sather

While this was an early version of Sather it would be interesting to get hold of this even if only for the OS bindings so that they could be ported to a newer version of the language.

• Mitsubishi Common Extended Self-contained Prolog

Or Common ESP or even CESP, an open source object oriented version of Prolog that the company developed in conjunction with the Japanese "AI Language Research Institute" and was for a while a commercial product.

• NEdit 5.2

Port of the UNIX programmer's text editor to OS/2, ca 2001.

• Installer/2

Databases

• DN2WEB20.ZIP

DOS Web interface for the DN2 freeform database

Sundry

• Enable/OA

The company went out of business in 1995, but a number of ex-users and employees of the company held out sundry mailing lists and file archives to support Enable/OA users up until about 2013 when they all disappeared taking the file archives with them.

Why do files disappear?

There are a number of reasons why this can happen:

• They can disappear for natural reason, original site is closed, personal web page is closed etc., and no one has had the presence of mind to upload a copy to one of the common FTP sites or archives.
• File was uploaded to Hobbes (long serving OS/2 FTP archive) and either not accepted or later removed, according to the hobbes rules the uploader is supposed to be contacted in that eventuality, but that almost never happens in practice, did not happen in the days before the site was called hobbes some 25 years ago and is unlikely to start now. 10 to 25% of files uploaded to the incoming directory of hobbes disappear from the site in the long term in most cases for reasons unknown^#1.
• The file was only hosted on Compuserve/LEO/Some other forgotten FTP site and disappeared. Most FTP sites of note that have closed down were mirrored, including sites that used to be large in the 90s like GARBO, SIMTEL and WinSite and therefore can be accessed today even if not directly. But others were not mirrored for sundry reasons, the only LEO mirrors out there did not archive the OS/2 section because the mirror webmasters did no like OS/2, did not think it was relevant or for some similar reasons. Some sites like Compuserve considered their file archive to be their intellectual property and therefore did not allow copying and when their file areas were shut down, no archive was made available to the public.

1

One of the stranger things of life on the Internet is the tendency for third parties to ask for file deletes of software packages that do not belong to them in a legal sense. Historically LEO resisted third party claims while Hobbes honoured them and in fact still maintains a list of files that are not allowed.