Photo above shows XFolder upgrading in Warp 4.0 of @Macarlo,
Inc. To read about XFolder V. 0.70 Beta click here>@@@
How Was
XFolder Developed?
-------------------------------
by Ulrich Möller
AUTHOR OF XFOLDER
XFolder was programmed in C, using the IBM C-Set/2 and the Warp Toolkit.
I'm just a university student in Germany and cannot afford to buy $500 integrated
developments, however powerful and convenient they may be. This is why I've been
programming Borland Pascal 7 for DOS for years and went on to REXX during 1997,
a result of which is my (in my view) very
valuable CommandPak package for improving the OS/2 command shell. (It is also available
from my homepage.)
The German OS/2 magazine "OS/2 Inside" (which is said to be the best OS/2
printing in the world) has issued a CD-ROM "Top OS/2-Vollversionen". In
English, this means something like "Top OS/2 full versions". Yes, I know
German is difficult ;-)
This CD miraculously contains a COMPLETE IBM C-Set/2 (C/C++ Tools 2.01 with the
WorkFrame/2 V1.1 and V2.1). Although this was published in the days of OS/2 2.x,
the Warp 3 Developer's toolkit is also contained in this CD. All
this is available for only DM 28 (some US-$20), which is just an nbelievable bargain.
You may order the "Top OS/2 Vollversionen" at the following address:
AWi Vertriebsservice
"OS/2 Inside Shop"
Bretonischer Ring 13
85630 Grasbrunn
Germany
You will have to include a cheque over DM 28 plus DM 6 for shipping.
For more on OS/2 Inside, you may check their (German) homepage at http://www.os2-inside.de/.
(Please note that I am in no way affiliated with OS/2 Inside, but I believe that
this CD-ROM could finally be a way to allow everyone to start serious programming
for OS/2. That's why I'm "advertising" for this CD-ROM.)
While rumours are that IBM is about to drop SOM altoghether, the C-Set/2 in conjunction
with the Warp 3 Toolkit contains everything for developing powerful WPS classes.
It is very well documented, enabling me (who neither knew C nor the OS/2 API, but
only OOP with Pascal and Windows 3.1) to
build XFolder's basic functionality (version 0.11) in a triplet of days.
Valuable reading, aside from the Toolkit docs, can also be found in the four IBM
OS/2 V2.0 Redbooks, which I found on an old Hobbes CD-ROM and might still be available
on the commonly known FTP sites. It is quite outdated (dealing only with OS/2 V2.0),
but the system's basic concepts have pretty
much remained the same.
I also strongly recommend the Electronic Developer's Magazine
for OS/2 on the WWW, which has published fabulous articles on all aspects of OS/2
programming.
If you have the above tools, you should be able to program the WPS in a jiffy. All
you still need then is a good portion of patience, since the WPS runs in a single
process (PMSHELL.EXE), and bugs in your project will make the whole thing crash
repeatedly. Check the fantastic "Debugging WPS applications" section in
the Toolkit WPS Guide to compensate at least the most annoying problems.
Ulrich Möller
ulrich.moeller@rz.hu-berlin.de
http://www2.rz.hu-berlin.de/~h0444vnd/
@Macarlo, Inc.
@Macarlo's Shareware & Web
OS/2
Java Lobby Member
Java Site Accredited
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