OS/2 And Procomm

[Carl Distefano]

David: I just upgraded to OS/2 2.1, and I'm thrilled. Since you also use it,
may I inquire: Do you by any chance run ProComm Plus in a virtual DOS machine?
If so, what's the secret? I can't get it to run (except by dual-booting plain
DOS). What I usually get under in a VDM is the ProComm logo and the familiar
flashing message "INITIALIZING" -- which never stops flashing. (Sometimes I do
get into the program and progress as far as dialing up and connecting with a
BBS, but then the ProComm screen freezes.) For your info., I have
COM_DIRECT_ACCESS set to On, COM_HOLD to On, COM_RECEIVE_BUFFER_FLUSH to All,
COM_SELECT to All, DOS_BACKGROUND_EXECUTION to On, and IDLE_SENSITIVITY set to
100 (this last setting is suggested in "OS/2 2.1 Unleashed" -- the best OS/2
book around, BTW). I tried setting COM_SELECT to COM4 (which my modem uses);
this wreaked havoc, causing the modem to shriek painfully. Anyway, if you
happen to know something....

Xy4 and XyIII+ run happily in their respective VDMs. I get 655K of
conventional memory, plus 2 Meg of expanded memory, for each VDM. An
unexpected bonus is that, when I "shell" to DOS from, say, XyWrite 4, I get
*another* whole 655K -- enough to run a big DOS app *under* XyWrite -- without
even opening another OS/2 window!

To get a feel for OS/2's multi-task abilities, I loaded two instances of a
fractal graphics program (very processor-intensive) in 2 separate VDMs, in
addition to Xy4. XyWrite performed beautifully. Full-screen editing was
snappy, and windowed performance was quite respectable. It was exciting to be
able to edit a document while watching two different fractals being generated
simultaneously, all in three desktop windows (not a setup I'd recommend for
getting any serious writing done). As I said, I'm thrilled. Now if I could
only get ProComm running, I'd be all set.