OS/2 SOFTWARE WE USE

Z-Tree-Bold is a clone of XTreeGold from the DOS world. This is probably THE most used software on my machine. It's an all purpose file utility, text mode application, and it's fast. It takes just seconds to open and allows various display options of directories. It handles Archive functions with the enclosed archiver.bb2 file (you need to have the actual archivers on your machine). It's also capable of being used as a file viewer, for any type, with the creation of simple .CMD files in the same directory. Samples are included for HTM, INF, HLP, GIF, etc. Below is my GIF.CMD file. - YES!! Just 1 line in most cases.

@h:\jvw\jview.exe %1

For HTML, just create the following HTML.CMD like the one below. (Or just copy the line to the clipboard and paste it into your editor, saving as HTML.CMD) This calls netscape, in KIOSK mode and displays your highlighted HTML file

@f:\netscape\netscape.exe -K %1

While browsing through a directory of files, I can highlight a .GIF and press (O)pen on the keyboard, and my GIF is displayed. The same can be done for any file extension that you have a viewer for.

Z-Tree does everything you would expect a file utility to do: Compare files, search for text within a file, move, copy, rename, attribute, prune, graft, edit, etc.

This is one utility that no OS2 power user should be without. This is the first program that I install after installing OS2 on any machine. Leave your mouse at home. (G)

Z Tree Bold can be downloaded at: http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/browser/ztb175.zip

Submitted by Murray Weismer.

I often need to create multiple copies of the same series of diskettes. The diskette copying program PM DiskCopy (shareware) makes this a simple, fast, and easy task. It creates diskette images in memory, or it can store them as hard drive files. To speed up writing disks, the program can optionally write only those portions of the diskette that are used and can also use a technique called sector sliding. OS/2's disk image formats are supported. The program enables you to view the file names contained in a disk image, and it can create self-extracting EXE files from one or more image files. A decent graphical file manager is included.

PM DiskCopy is available for downloading under the file name pmd24e.zip from Hobbes.

Submitted by Tim Howey.

Rick Yoder's TaskBar 2.62 is a great example of object oriented programming. It adds a taskbar to the selected edge of your screen. The taskbar is activated when you move your mouse to that edge (or an adjacent corner). The program is highly configurable and also adds a scrollable list of applications that appear in the center of your screen. The list is accessed using a hotkey combination. If you are using the LaunchPad, it will also give focus to the LaunchPad when the taskbar is activated.

Running applications are represented by their Workplace Shell icons, even for DOS and OS/2 text mode applications, and the icons are accompanied by "bubble" help text. From the taskbar, you can maximize, minimize, close, and hide applications, and more. You can also set taskbar to ignore particular applications you don't want to appear on the taskbar, such as the Desktop.

Although originally written for Warp 3, the application works great under Warp 4 and is an excellent compliment to the WarpCenter. Installing and removing the application is a breeze, as Mr. Yoder has made great use of the power of the REXX programming language. If you remove the application - it is recommended that you remove all WPS enhancers before installing a FixPak - everything gets removed, including folders, icons, WPS classes and *.ini file entries.

TaskBar is a Warp application I couldn't live without. Those who occasionally use Win 95 or NT 4 as well as Warp will be right at home with TaskBar, although you may wonder why the M$ tasklist isn't as convenient or powerful as Rick Yoder's TaskBar!

TaskBar can be downloaded from Hobbes.

Submitted by Tim Howey.

I send out a lot of multiple recipient (50 or more locations), multi-page faxes from my PC at work. FaxWork's excellent printer driver beautifully and quickly converts print jobs from my DOS, Windows, and OS/2 applications. My FaxWorks button bar was very easy to set up by just dragging and dropping from frequently used menu bar items. I often need to customize faxes, and FaxWork's drawing, pasting, typing, and other mark-up features make this very easy. The purpose of my faxes needs to be readily identifiable to the recipients, and FaxWork's customizable cover sheets make this a cinch by allowing me to paste in graphics and text.

Above all, I need rock solid reliability from my fax app. FaxWorks Pro has proven itself to be one of the easiest to use and most reliable applications I own, for any operating system. It is truly a workhorse, and I couldn't do my job without it.

Submitted by Tim Howey.

Editor's note: FaxWorks Pro was suddenly pulled from the market. If you can find a copy, you won't regret using it.

Aquila Systems Weather Software

Science students at East High School in West Chester, PA, have the good fortune of being able to use two systems at their school for retrieving weather information directly from earth-orbiting satellites. Member Bill Dyke teaches Earth & Space Science at East High. Below he describes the software the students use to process the weather data.

The Weather Software Package from Aquila System Systems, Inc., is an OS/2 based product that makes use of multitasking, true long file names, the unmatched multimedia subsystem, and the powerful high performance graphics engine of OS/2. It consists of two parts, the Receiver and the Viewer.

The Receiver captures the satellite image as it is transmitted from a weather satellite (it may be from GOES 8, Meteor 3-5, MeteoSat 3, or NOAA 10, 12, or 14). The receiver may be programed in advance to capture specific images from a particular satellite. As these images are captured, they are saved to disk using long file names that indicate the date, time, image, and transmitting satellite. The Receiver will continue to work in the background while viewing and manipulating images.

The Viewer permits the viewing of stored images. Once an image file has been opened, it may be enhanced in a variety of ways. One of the most useful enhancements is making a loop of several images to observe the development of storms and weather systems. Other enhancements include zooming in on an area, creating palettes, using the Key and Histogram to modify the appearance of the image, reading temperatures (on GVAR & HRPT images) from IR images, predicting storm paths, and making distance measurements.

Images my be exported in a variety of ways. They may be printed on any printer that is supported by OS/2. Or, exported as OS/2 and Windows Bitmap, TIF, GIF, and PCX formats that are built into OS/2 Warp V.4.

Further information cam be obtained by visiting the Aquila Systems, Inc., web site at http://www.aquilasys.com.

Submitted by Bill Dyke

Element.ary! for OS/2

And if you do not happen to have a satellite receiving dish in your backyard...

For an Internet-based system for receiving weather satellite imaging data, member Murray Weismer recommends Element.ary! for OS/2. Element.ary! is a shareware weather program authored by David DuPre. It has support for radar, forecasts, storm tracking, image downloading, and playing weather mpeg's. A download is available at the Cyberia/2 BBS site.

PMView, the "Swiss Army Knife" of image viewers, has been a favorite of mine for many years. If you have ever attempted to manage a directory of images, you know how quickly simple little tasks can become boring, numbing chores.

As a webmaster, images are sent to me that are often not appropriate for the purpose. They could be just a bit dark or light, they may be HUGE high resolution images, they could be a whole scene when only a head is required, or I may need to create thumbnails for a whole directory of images. Sometimes stripping a little detail or a bit or two of color depth will make a site load much faster.

When faced with a task such as the above, one's first thought is to pull out a full graphics editor, however, they are large, complex, usually expensive, and there is a steep learning curve. Further, if you don't regularly use the program, you'll be running up the learning curve again and again. PM view is a well behaved, simple to use program that can painlessly accomplish any of these tasks in a few seconds. Users are immediately comfortable with its straight forward interface.

Now available for Windows and OS/2, PM view began as an OS/2 shareware program and has blossomed into a cost effective, powerhouse application. You can download the retail or trial version at PMView.com

Submitted by Barry Mann.

DreckBak, designed by SIG member Murray Weismer, is a utility to make it easy to establish a backup strategy for an OS/2 machine. The program will write to any device that can be seen by the system as a drive letter. It is ideally suited to removable media drives, such as the SyJet, IOmega, and ORB products. It will also write to a hard disk. The program comes pre-configured to back up drives C, E, and F. These designations are easily changed, and additional drives can be be added as well. Directories and files that do not need to backed up, such as CACHE and DELETE directories, can be excluded.

Actions and errors are fully logged to a directory of the user's choice. DreckBak can be set up with a CRON program, or the included scheduler, for fully automated, unattended backups.

The package available at the DreckBak web site includes two freeware utilities used by DreckBak, a scheduler, complete documentation, easy setup instructions, and an install program to create the objects and directories needed by the program.