Re: OS/2

[Robert Holmgren]

David:

Interesting to see the sudden interest here in OS/2! I've been using OS/2 for
a year now (including various beta versions of v2.1 since November 1992), and
cannot imagine computing without it. OS/2 makes me realize that I shouldn't
have hesitated but rather gone straight to UNIX years ago.

Re your msg 8904, what is the reason to run task switcher Back-and-Forth under
OS/2? On the face of it, you defeat the memory management capabilities of OS/2
by running your various apps in the same memory space under B&F! With OS/2
multitasking, why task switch? I'd at least experiment with removing Xy from
B&F control.

I've run Sig and Xy very successfully under OS/2 since the outset. No crashes
-- zero! -- that I don't attribute to Xy itself. You write, "if I pop the menu
line and then go to certain menus it crashes..." Which menus cause this event?
I've never tried to print a graphic...but I'd check the LaserJet printer driver
on the Desktop first. Have you got enough memory in your laser printer for
graphics? And what's the installed memory in your computer? Give Xy all the
memory it can get (set DOS high, enable UMBs, enable EMS, set HIGH any DOS
DEVICEs called in CONFIG.SYS using the DEVICEHIGH= statement). Set DPMI and
XMS memory to 0 (you don't need them). Set IOPL=YES in CONFIG.SYS so that apps
can access hardware directly.

I've repeatedly pushed the concept of Xy-OS/2 with Billerica and Baltimore, in
preference to a dumb kludge like Windows/DOS v3.1. My argument was/is, why not
be one of the first to climb onto the OS/2 platform (where a lot of odd
connoisseurs are gathered, ripe for picking), instead of being one of the last
to go through the DOS Window, where there is already strong competition and
deep-rooted favoritism -- a colorful graphical arena where a text-based ASCII
WP is a moping wallflower? Why WASTE limited human and financial resources on
a dead end pseudo-OS that's about to be superseded? But they're not in a
risk-taking mode; and the size of the installed Windows base is irresistable.