CompuServe Messages

I'll not bore you with the IBM party line on OS/2, as you probably have already seen it. I'll just say what OS/2 does for me. (Of course, some of what it does for me IS the IBM party line…) OS/2 communications: Finally, the PC platform can do non-dedicated comunications because of OS/2. I can have multiple serial ports going at full speed at the same time. For instance, I can be downloading from a BBS, like Compuserve, AOL, Prodigy, or any of the others at 14.4 Kbaud, and at the same time, I can be transfering a backup file from my Amiga 1200 at 38.4 Kbaud with only a very slight loss of speed on my OS/2 PC, so I can be doing something else like running a simple game or doing some wordprocessing. OS/2 also has some VERY nice programs for communications with mainframes! No Autopilot for OS/2 yet. (Steve, would you allow a port to be done on Autopilot, nudge, nudge. I've been itching to get into the OS/2 shareware market.) OS/2 stability: OS/2 is an extremely stable platform. SInce Windows programs are so buggy, running Windows 3.1, they crash a lot and when that happens, you usually have to reboot the PC. Not true with OS/2. For one thing, Windows programs crash less due to better memory handling, and if a Windows program should crash or lock-up under OS/2, you can just get rid of it and continue on with whatever else you might be doing. Also, if you have a pair of Windows programs that just wont run together, i.e., they crash each other, (it happens a lot, unfortunately,) you can run them in separate sessions. This way they can't crash each other, so they run just fine, at the same time, under OS/2. DOS programs run extremely well under OS/2, but if they do crash, it doesn't crash the whole machine. I can also run DOS programs under OS/2 that have no hope of running under Windows due to memory constraints. NT just plain can't run a lot of DOS programs due to hardware banging, but OS/2's virtual drivers don't seem to have a problem with them. For instance, I have a Postscript plotting program that just plain wont work under NT because it uses a dongle, and NT does not support DOS enough for it to see the dongle. (granted, dongles aren't a good idea, but this is just an exaample of something running under OS/2, that wont run under NT.) This same program wont run under Windows either, because it needs to much free low-RAM. Finally, I have a PC OS that I don't have to reboot more often than my Amiga. On average, if I'm not testing something on the Amiga, I reboot everyfew days. On the PC, I reboot once every couple of weeks. (Hardware testing is about the only thing that forces me to reboot OS/2 a lot, though I have found some OS/2 native programs that can cause a crash every once in awhile.) OS/2 programming: I can program for any one of three platforms in OS/2. (DOS, Windows, and native OS/2) OS/2 also has REXX, and since I got used to prototyping small stuff in AREXX on the Amiga, I don't lose that ability in OS/2. A lot of my old AMiga AREXX code will run under OS/2 with minor changes. Speaking of REXX, :), OS/2 developers are starting to develop programs that actually use REXX ports, just like what we have on the Amiga. That makes for far better scripting and IPC across the whole platform. (just lie what we have on the Amiga.) OS/2's clipboard: OS/2 has a far better implementation of the "clipboard" cancept than the Amiga, I can cut and paste between almost any application, whether they have specific code to do it or not. It can be handled at the OS level or at the application level. I can also use OLE between Windows prgrams, just like Windows and NT, but OS/2 is evolving in another direction with OpenDoc. You can think of it as a superset and better implemented OLE. (When all of OpenDoc comes to OS/2 in the next version, OpenDoc will be able to handle OLE and OpenDoc objects in any application, regardless if it's a Win app or native. (i.e., you be able to "OLE" cut and past from a Windows application into an OS/2 application… Games: 🙂 OS/2 runs many DOS games that just don't run under Windows, Win95, or NT due to one constraint or another. Also, it can multitask while your playing a game. I can be playing a game of Mortal Kombat II in a full screen DOS session, while I have a compile or a download going in another. NT could do this too, if the game runs in the first place. Win95 can't do it with any reliability. (MKII doesn't even run under Win95 🙁 ) Faxing: OS/2 V3 comes with a very nice Fax program that can fax from any application, regardless if it's DOS, Windows, or OS/2. It runs a bit like GPFax on the Amiga, but the interface is a bit cleaner. This fax program works far better for me than anything under Windows, and NT doesn't really have anything comparable. That's about all I can think of for now, but I'll keep thinking. Bob Comer — Cheyenne, WY USA Team OS/2