Links

This page is formerly known as "Timur Tabi's Programming Links", from the old EDM/2 web site. The content has seen some recent updates but is still not fully checked so you will find the odd dead link.

Most of the links are to OS/2-specific sources of information, however links to generic (i.e. not platform-specific) sources are sometimes included for completeness.

Other OS/2 and eComStation related web sites

• eCSoft/2 - OS/2 & eCS software news an listings - By far the best updated and most comprehensive out there - In both Italian and English.
• eComStation.ru - Loads of info in Russian and English
• OS/2 World - News, forums and Wiki.
• OS/2 Warp News and Rumors
• OS/2 and Ecomstation Korea South Korean user forums and so on, responsible for a number of OS/2 ports of UNIX software.
• OS/2.org - Used to be a generic info page on OS/2 and eComStation issues but is now primarily a German language forum, but as such all in all more popular than any English language one.
• WarpServer Blog - In German - News snippets on new and updated OS/2 software and more detailed blog postings on older ones.
• Nightcall BBS - These are the archives of what used to be the Scandinavian BBS, outdated but contains a lot of old files there that are not to be found anywhere else.
• Alex Chapman OS/2 Home Page - Tad outdated in parts but useful info buried in between.
• Wisdomtree - Collection of eCS & OS/2 related links.

OS/2 related Facebook groups

• eComStation - The largest and most updated
• OS/2 World Facebook page
• Warpevents - Warpstock NA and Europe.
• OS/2 Warp Brazil
• Greek OS/2 Users

There are also a few related groups that have become invite only in the last couple of years.

OS/2 related blogs

• Metztli Information Technology Blog - IBM VAR, mostly Linux and zSystem, but quite a number of OS/2 related blogs in-between.

Twitter accounts

• OS/2 JP - Japanese language OS/2 related twitter account, mostly major news only

Conferences, seminars and user groups

Want to meet other OS/2 and eComstation users and developers?

• Warpstock - An OS/2 user/developer conference - Held in North America yearly
• Warpstock Europe - An OS/2 user/developer conference - Held in Europe yearly
• SCOUG Programming SIG - A special interest group of the Southern California OS/2 User Group
• HAL-PC OS/2 SIG - Meet other OS/2 users in Houston
• Philadelphia Alternate Systems User Group - Highly OS/2 oriented
• VOICE - A "virtual" user group, i.e. not geographically constrained and holds meetings only on-line.
• Wellington User Group - New Zealand
• Team OS/2 Hamburg - Germany
• A list of Worldwide OS/2 user groups - from VOICE

Companies and individuals offering OS/2 and eComStation services

• BWW Bitwise Works - Austrian company that offers custom OS/2 programming services and more.
• Arca Noae - USA based company, offers driver updates and sundry custom install, development and deployment services.
• XEU - Dutch company that offers the eComStation OS and sundry related services
• eComStation.it/Massimo Sangriso - Italian integrator, provides all common services and sales locally.
• ERA Computers & Consulting - Tennessee, USA - Most consulting and installation work plus eCS pre-loaded systems.
• Neil Waldhauer aka Blond Guy - California, USA, does consulting and support of OS/2 related systems.
• Russ Harvey - OS/2 consultation and services in Canada

Translation projects and tools

• PIDO/2 - Italian translation project for eComStation and individual software packages.

Project and source hosting

Websites that provide a range of support options for OS/2 developers, the big two are SourceForge and GitHub and they have their own separate pages.

• Codeplex - Microsoft's alternative, good but not flexible about licenses - Free
• Gitorius - Less popular alternative to GitHub - Free for open source projects
• Bitbucket - Offers both free and paid project hosting - not as flexible as some of the others.
• Code Base - Project hosting - Not free but inexpensive and has more features than most free alternatives.
• Launchpad - Project hosting - Primarily intended for open source projects.
• Google Code hosting - Reliable but has been shedding features lately and will be shut down in 2016
• Jira - Paid for only
• Unfuddle - Paid for project hosting
• Smalltalk Hub - Free open source hosting for Smalltalk related projects.

See also: Configuration management

Online References

Manuals and other online guides on OS/2 programming

• The OS/2 API Project - OS/2 API documentation on the web
• IBM BookManager - Tons of documents in BM format.

Programming related news groups, forums and mailing lists

• comp.os.os2.programmer.tools - OS/2 development tools - Go to the Google groups version if you or your ISP does not offer newsgroup access.
• comp.os.os2.programmer.porting - Porting software from other operating systems to OS/2 - Go to the Google groups version if you or your ISP does not offer newsgroup access.
• comp.os.os2.programmer.oop - SOM, WPS, and other object-oriented OS/2 programming - Go to the Google groups version if you or your ISP does not offer newsgroup access.
• comp.os.os2.programmer.misc - General OS/2 programming - Go to the Google groups version if you or your ISP does not offer newsgroup access.
• Os2ddprog - Yahoo OS/2 Device Driver Development Group
• David's device driver page

Magazines and articles with OS/2 programming content

• OS/2 e-Zine - The premier OS/2 news source, with the occasional developer-related article
• Microsoft Systems Journal back issues - Although they're no longer online, the older issues have lots of OS/2 information.

FTP sites (or their WWW equivalents), search engines, and other indices

• BMT Micro's OS/2 catalog - A collection of shareware OS/2 tools
• Hobbes' dev directory - LOTS of stuff.
• Free compilers page - Search for a free compiler of any language - Tad outdated

Low-level OS/2 programming

Device drivers, real-time control, hardware access, etc.

• The OS/2 Programming Device Drivers mailing list - This page contains all driver-related information. Just go there!
• CFM TWAIN SDK - A toolkit for interfacing with scanners via the CFM TWAIN product

COBOL

• Micro Focus COBOL for OS/2 3.1J - In Japanese, so I don't know what it says
• Casegen for COBOL - Generates CICS applications in COBOL

Visual programming, CASE, RAD, etc.

• VisualAge Generator - A RAD tool for Java, I think.
• Libero - A cross-platform visual programming tool for multiple languages
• Object WorkBench - A workframe for C++ and Java programmers
• ZMECH - A cross-platform visual CASE tool

Databases

• DB2/2 Personal Developer's Edition 7.1 - Free download!
• Maxxum Consulting - Makers of the Base32 xBase compiler
• Astrac Visualizer - A database/workgroup tool like Lotus Notes
• e_Db Database Server - A cross-platform database server

OpenGL

• OpenGL web page -
• IBM OpenGL web page - It talks only about the AIX version, but the AIX developers wrote the OS/2 version.
• Magician - A Java front-end to OS/2's OpenGL engine

Embedded Systems

• ESP Magazine's embedded systems develop internet resources - Tons of links to WWW resources on embedded systems development.
• Texas Instrument's DSP Village - Search on "OS/2", you'll find some OS/2-hosted compilers
• Lattice ES68 C Development System - A C cross-compiler for 680x0 systems
• JAL V2 JAL Version 2 Pascal like language compiler for MicroChip PICs microprocessors (OS/2 eComStation version).
• XWISP2 - an eComStation(OS/2) support program for the Wisp628/648 PIC programmer.

Presentation Manager (PM)

• Generalised Bitmap Module - Libraries and source code for loading, saving, and manipulating images in a variety of file formats
• S Lib - A cross-platform GUI library for OS/2, Windows, and Unix. From the makers of Stellar Frontier
• V C++ GUI Framework - Cross-platform GUI Framework, now for OS/2!
• Anatomy of a PM program - An article by Les Bell
• Shape Window for OS/2 PM - Non-rectangular PM windows
• FreeType - Replacement TrueType engine for OS/2
• Cell Toolkit - Library for Split Views and Toolbars

Multimedia, Graphics, and Game Development

• Crystal Space - A free 3D engine for OS/2 and other OS's, note that only older versions have explicit OS/2 support, but the code is fairly portable.
• Stéphane Charette's reference page - Various INF files for online viewing, including rare MMPM and gaming docs.
• SVGA & VESA Kit for emx - Write OS/2 programs that run in high resolution graphics modes
• SciTech MGL - Cross-platform 2D/3D graphics library, now available for OS/2!
• BlobCity - An OS/2 game like SimCity, with great multithreading and full source code
• Fly8 - A flight simulator, with source code
• DevBahn OS/2 Game Programming Sanctuary - My articles from OS/2 Monthly and other stuff

Unix porting

• The UNIX and OS/2 EMX Porting Companion - A guide to porting apps from Unix to OS/2
• EMX Resources - A list of applications ported to OS/2 using EMX

Installatation, configuration, and update

Create programs that install or configure your application

• SFX Installer - A one file archive/installation tool
• IBM Software Installer - The original software installation program from IBM

Version Control and Project Management

• ProjectFolder - A WPS IDE for Visual Age C/C++ 3.0
• Perforce - A cross-platform version control utility. SciTech uses it.
• Opus Make - A cross-platform powerful make utility

Copy Protection, Encryption, and Security

• SecureIt - Registration protection for your shareware application

Applications with documented plug-in API's

• CadWare's BlueCAD 1.0 - An excellent small and fast CAD package for OS/2
• Maul Publisher - An OS/2-only desktop publishing application

Editors and Viewers

• Fast Editor Lite - Small yet powerful programmers editor for OS/2
• PillarSoft's Enhanced E and EE editors - Small yet powerful editors, with some programmer features
• Andys Source Code Folding Editor - Cross-platform editor with the ability to group lines into a larger 'meta-line'
• Compile File Comparison Family - A set of cross-platform file-comparison utilities

Debuggers

• Interactive Code Analysis Tool (ICAT) - Source-level debugging for applications and drivers. Use this when your normal debugger fails.
• PMSysLog - An event logger equivalent to the Unix Syslog daemon

Documentation generators, converters, formatters, and parsers

Tools to work with help files and other documentation

• HTMIPF - Free HTML->IPF Compiler

Miscellaneous

• Développer sous OS/2 - A list like this one, but in French
• OS/2 and Linux Topics - And yet another mostly outdated index
• OS/2 emulation layer for NT - Emulates over 110 DOSCALL functions under NT
• Christoph Bratschi's Homepage - Small programmer's editor, Netscape plug-ins, MCI tester, some file viewers, etc.
• Telvox Software Shop - Some kind of cross-platform CODEC, I'm not sure what it does
• Opt-Tech Sort - Stand-alone or linkable cross-platform sort utility
• SMT - A multi-threading kernel for use with Libero (see above)
• Mozilla Cross-Reference - Lots of great developer utilities, with source code, from the Mozilla project

Historical computing and programming

• Historic Documents in Computer Science by Karl Kleine at the Jena University, the latter being historically important since it was the primus motor behind the early ALGOL development, unusual for a then East European country.