Re: Xy4 In OS/2

[Carl Distefano]

Jordan: Creating a RAMdisk in OS/2 is easy. The driver, VDISK.SYS, is
included. All you need do is add a line to CONFIG.SYS, e.g., for a 1 Meg
RAMdisk, DEVICEHIGH=C:\OS2\VDISK.SYS 1024,512,16. The parameters are,
respectively, disk_size,sector_size,number_of_directories.

Yes, there is a companion to 4DOS called 4OS2, which is said to be quite good.
(I have it, but haven't gotten around to looking at it just yet.) And
defragging isn't a problem; there aren't any OS/2-specific defraggers that I
know of, but a DOS defragger works OK (you have to boot a clean DOS from a
floppy). Interestingly, I've encountered disk errors -- the kinds reported by
CHKDSK -- much less frequently since changing over to OS/2. For tape backups,
I'm currently using something called Syplus for OS/2, which I bought from
Colorado Memory Systems and which works with their tape drives. It has its
annoying quirks but does the job. I'd forgotten about PKZIP for OS/2! I
agree, it's not the ultimate backup answer, but I bet it's blazingly fast.
Hmmm, I wonder if the the file format is compatible with PKZIP for DOS?

My statement about setting VIDEO_MODE_RESTRICTION to CGA was correct. Perhaps
I should have explained a bit, though; it's not what it seems. The
VIDEO_MODE_RESTRICTION setting provides a convenient way of augmenting
conventional memory by reallocating video RAM not needed by character-based
applications. Some DOS memory managers use elaborate jiggery-pokery to achieve
this; changing the OS/2 setting takes a mere couple of clicks. The
"restriction" affects only graphical applications. Character-based
applications like Xy4, display at normal resolution. Even Xy4's graphical view
doesn't seem to mind this setting. A CAD program or a graphical WP like
WordPerfect 6.0 for DOS, however, might mind very much. Fortunately, in OS/2
each DOS application lives in its own Virtual DOS Machine with its own DOS
Settings, blissfully unaware of what's going on, so to speak, right next door.
A high-tech version of an old, pre-war apartment building with very thick walls
-- the kind many New Yorkers would kill, or at least bribe, for. Fortunately,
the price of a copy of OS/2 is a lot less than the going rate for corrupt
building supers....