Return-Path: Received: from mailer.bmtmicro.net (mailer.bmtmicro.net [63.96.6.4]) by mail.os2site.com (Weasel v1.10) for ; 04 Dec 2000 13:15:34 Received: from jupiter.accesscable.net ([24.138.0.20]) by mailer.bmtmicro.net (Post.Office MTA v3.5.3 release 223 ID# 0-58942U1100L200S0V35) with ESMTP id net for ; Sun, 3 Dec 2000 20:26:10 -0500 Received: from skip (CDR26-120.accesscable.net [24.138.26.120]) by jupiter.accesscable.net (8.10.1/8.10.1) with SMTP id eB41RdL22068 for ; Sun, 3 Dec 2000 21:27:39 -0400 (AST) Message-Id: <200012040127.eB41RdL22068atjupiter.accesscable.net> To: "WarpCast Subscribers" Date: Sun, 03 Dec 2000 21:28:18 -0400 Priority: Normal X-Mailer: PMMail 2000 Professional (2.20.2200) For Windows 98 (4.90.3000) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: [WarpCast] Announcing PC/2 - Program Commander/2 V2.20 From: "WarpCast News Service" Reply-To: "WarpCast News Service" X-Mailing-List: newsatwarpcast.com PMView 2000: The Versatile and Fast Image Viewer and Converter. Version 2.10 for OS/2 and Windows now available! More info and Evaluation Version at: http://www.pmview.com/ ********************************************************************* Source: Roman Stangl (Roman_Stanglatat.ibm.com) Moderator: Trevor Smith (feedbackatwarpcast.com) ------------------------------------------------------- Announcing PC/2 - Program Commander/2 Version 2.20 for IBM OS/2 2.x, OS/2 WARP, WARP Srv. SMP, Aurora Presentation Manager Copyright (C) by Roman Stangl December, 2000 Version 2.20 Draft I'm pleased to announce the public availability of PC/2 V2.20, the latest and greatest version of this utility that started development about 8 years ago! You're welcome to contact me, please just remove "no-spam" from my e-mail address above. Where to Download: ================== Primarily, you can get the complete package - including the complete source code - (and some other useful stuff) via my home page: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/7885/ by following the PC/2 links. I also try to make it available on the following major anonymous-ftp OS/2 archives (uploads to other sites are of course welcome): *) Hobbes (USA): Uploaded to: http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/incoming/ with a final destination of: http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/wps/ http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-browse?sh=1&dir=//pub/os2/util/wps *) Leo (Germany): Uploaded to: ftp://ftp.leo.org/incoming/os2/ with a final destination of: ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/comp/os/os2/leo/pmtools/ http://www.leo.org/pub/comp/os/os2/leo/pmtools/ What will you get (short version): ================================== PC/2 is a WPS enhancement or replacement, that features a program launcher, Virtual Desktops, Hotkey support, Sliding focus, Advanced Marking, Dynamic Menu Selection, Environment Spaces, WIN95 key support, QuickSwitch and SessionBar window, Hardware Panning support, TitleBar Smarticons, Lockup and Password protection support, Scheduler, WPS extraction and a Spooler Control Window (which enables spooling even when running PC/2 as a WPS replacement). Running PC/2 as the WPS replacement can save about 4 MB precious RAM, even on well equipped machines you can notice decreased swapper size and activity giving you a performance boost compared to running the WPS (due to the much smaller memory requirements compared with the WPS). For those of you who want to know the "tricks" used in PC/2, the full source (requires long filename support) is included, however it can be decrypted only on the 32-bit OS/2 platform to avoid using it on the Windows platforms. You are allowed to freely use, enhance or redistribute this package, if you don't strip anything, please see the online help for further details! This package is provided as-is, I shall not be held liable for any damages! For more detailed information, please take a look at my site at: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/7885/ or E-mail me at: Roman_Stanglatat.ibm.com What will you get (long version): ================================= PC/2 lets you become more productive using and maintaining your OS/2 based workplace because of its: - PC/2 is a tool for OS/2 Warp Clients: Tired of phrases like "OS/2 is for servers only", "OS/2 is a strategic part of the network computing strategy", ...? Sure, you could use PC/2 on OS/2 Warp Server (e.g. Warp Server Advanced (SMP) or Warp Server for e-Business) too, but PC/2 is targeted to enhance the operation of an OS/2 Warp based Client workstation, and despite of the lack of support (and likely also the lack of a vision to provide an alternative to the monopoly desktop OS almost all blindly follow like lemmings) OS/2 Warp still is a very powerful Client operating system you can trust to run your mission critial applications with! - Program Launcher as WPS enhancement or replacement: Tired of launching (detached) OS/2, DOS, WIN-OS2 and WPS applications from folders and icons that mess up your desktop? Then PC/2 allows you to do that from a configurable Popup Menu! In addition to the WPS you can also specify a hotkey, the position and size, priority, environment and a scheduled date. No more changes to CONFIG.SYS, e.g. you could even run 2 Netscape browsers running JAVA 1.02 and 1.1.4 runtime simultaneously! And you can export and import parts of the Popup Menu to and from files. It has never been easier to setup your Popup Menu! Alternatively you can activate the Popup Menu from the keyboard, including the WIN-95 keys, and launch the applications from there! And compared to the WPS (PMSHELL), PC/2 saves about 4 MB RAM, even on 32MB machines! - Virtual Desktop: The mess of applications windows on your Desktop drives you crazy? Then PC/2 is the management center that gives you backt control of the windows on a up to 9x9 fold Virtual Desktop, allowing you to switch with button clicks or simply by moving the pointer onto a surrounding row/column of your desktop. No more mess on your desktop! A powerful control window, the Overview window allows you to manage your Virtual Desktops and the applications running on them easily! Switching between Virtual Desktops is as easy as moving the mouse pointer onto the row and/or column surrounding your Desktop, PC/2 will automagically scroll into that direction then (you can of course configure that a click is required). You might even define the to delay that operation. That is HW Panning Support implemented in software instead of expensive hardware! - Sliding focus: You are among the people hating the need to click on windows to switch the focus? Activate the Sliding focus and PC/2 automatically activates the control or window below the mouse pointer (as X-windows does), no more clicks to switch between windows! Optionally you can define that the Sliding Focus will occur only after a delay. - Advanced Marking: You find selection of copy and paste operations from menubars or system menus inconvenient? Advanced Marking allows you copy and paste operations for OS/2 and DOS windows, (multiline) entryfields, E and EPM editor, CM/2, PC/3270, Passport/2, NetScape, Lotus Notes by just a few mouse clicks, no more inconvenient interaction with the menubars! - Hotkeys: Want to launch or swtich between applications with user-selectable Hotkeys? PC/2's Hotkey support allows you to launch and/or switch between applications with user-selected Hotkeys out of 108 supported combinations. The Hotkeys will be detected within any PM window, even OS/2 windows, just ensure that the Hotkey key combination isn't required to operate an applications. - Dynamic MenuSelection: Want menus automatically to cascade when touching them with the mouse pointer? Then Dynamic MenuSelection eliminates the need to click on menuentries to shell into submenus! Optionally you can define that the Dynamic MenuSelection will occur only after a delay. - Environment Spaces: Tired of applications that make modifications to your CONFIG.SYS before being able to run? Manage your application environments with Environment Spaces, which most easily compares to environment templates! Create and combine them and add them to the applications of your choice, no more changes will be required in your CONFIG.SYS (except for device drivers)! The application launcher from WSOD (WorkSpace On Demand) allows an administrator to do the same, but from what I've seen PC/2 does that in a much superior and elegant way! Additonally you may export and import Environment Spaces to and from files, making updates easy! - SessionBar and QuickSwitch: Want instant access to your applications (even when distributed around Virtual Desktops)? PC/2's SessionBar allows you to switch between applications (and automatically between Virtual Desktops too if required) from a graphical taskbar or the QuickSwitch window allows you to switch to the next/previous task! The SessionBar automatically adjusts other windows not to cover it (and displays additionally the battery status on APM capable PCs), no more a messed up desktop and instant access to your applications! You can even request that the SessionBar pops up only if you leave the mouse pointer on a hotspot for a configurable time! The SessionBar not only displays the running applications, but also a clock, an SMP capable CPU performance tracing window or the APM status window. You decide what to display! - HW Panning Support: Your ThinkPad's LCD display is smaller than the supported resolution but you're tired that your windows are larger than your LCD display? Then HW Panning Support ensures that windows won't be larger than LCD display, even when maximized! - TitleBar SmartIcons: You want instant access to close, rollup, help, ...? Then PC/2's TitleBar SmartIcons added to windows' titlebars are what you're looking for! - Security: Want to secure access to your PC/2 configuration or lockup your workspace even when not using the WPS? Then PC/2's Security options will fit that needs! - Scheduler: You need to schedule applications? Then the Scheduler built into the Popup Menu allows you to schedule application launches or even when to Shutdown and Reboot or Power off your PC! - APM Support: Missing APM suspend or power off support under OS/2? Then PC/2 will fit that hole allowing you even to schedule these events (requires WARP 4, but unfortunately with some combination of hard- and software you may be out of luck)! - Spooler Control window: You are not running the WPS (PMSHELL) as your WorkPlace Shell process but want to control your local printers? Then PC/2 Spooler is the management center you need! - WPS extraction: You want to migrate your WPS objects into PC/2's Popup Menu? Just drag them onto WPS 2 PC/2's icon and from there into PC/2, and PC/2 will automagically add them to the Popup Menu! - Online Automatic Update feature: You want to be kept informed about news in general and enhancements to PC/2 in detail? Then the Online Automatic Update feature will help you to keep you informed. PC/2 will automagically periodically contact my site (even when you are behind a proxy) and look for news! That's how push technology should work! - DLL Versioning: You want to be sure PC/2 loads the correct DLLs (after you have upgraded from an earlier version)? Then the version check PC/2 does for the DLL it loads will ensure you don't use outdated DLLs (that may be left over incorrectly from an older installation). - Hang protection: You want to be sure PC/2 recovers from PM SIQ (Single Input Queue) hangs? Then PC/2's hang protection ensures that you don't need to restart PC/2 after some hangs of the SIQ (done by other programs like e.g. Lotus Notes, Netscape to name the most prominent ones). PC/2 will automagically detect when one of its threads hangs (IMHO caused by a PM bug) due to an earlier SIQ hang, it will automatically kill and restart the hanging thread allowing PC/2 to continue. Additionally, during the next launch of PC/2 it will automatically check if such hangs or other traps happened and will inform you to contact the author about possibly making fixes for that problems. - Windows keys: You want to use the Windows keys on your keyboard under OS/2 Then PC/2 allows you to activate its Popup Menu with one or more of those keys or use it as a Hotkey to launch or switch to applications. Again, any comments (suggestions/questions/bug reports/...) are welcome! Warm regards from Vienna, Austria (Europe)! Roman ------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe, unsubscribe, or for more information on WarpCast, visit: http://www.warpcast.com/ -------------------------------------------------------