Hi All.
I just replaced here on my Warp 4 FP12 my XFolder most recent release by its sucessor, XWorkplace 0.91, that is installed with the new concept installation tool for OS/2 Warp, developed in NetLabs, Warpin. For longtime I'm using Xfolder by Ulrich Moeller because it is an efficient tool for works acceleration. Now I replaced it successfully by this new Ulrich Moeller's release. Sincerely, man, without this enhancement I simply can't work on OS/2 Warp! Jump Ulrich Moeller's web site and download Warpin and XWorkplace!
 
CLICK THE LOGO TO JUMP ULRICH MOELLER'S WEB SITE

Photo above shows Warpin 0.91 being installed on @Macarlo's Warp 4 FP12

What is Warpin

WarpIN now uses a Linux-like version numbering. That is, version numbers always have three parts, specifying major, minor, and maintenance releases.

 Versions with odd minor numbers are developer releases.

 So this version, 0.9.1, is a developer release too! Do not  expect everything to be bomb-proof with this version. Instead, expect this version to have plenty of bugs still.

- As soon as we consider something ready for public use, we'll release a "stable" version with an even minor number. So when this version is working OK one day, we'll release V1.0.0. This version has been released to allow building test archives already. Since creating install scripts is probably the most time-consuming part, this is something you might want to try already now. We are not planning to make any further changes to either the compression routines or the script language which are not fully backward-compatible. Still, not everything works yet (see section 6 below). - -said the developer.

COMPILING

This section describes how to compile WarpIN from the Netlabs CVS archive. If you're reading this file as part of a binary release (that is, if you already have WARPIN.EXE), you may skip this section. Instead, read the WarpIN INF files and check them against section 6 below to find out what doesn't work yet.

Source code is no longer included with the binary releases. Instead, check out the sources from the Netlabs CVS archive. See http://www.netlabs.org/nosa for details.

    What you need:

    a)  IBM NMAKE is our make utility. See "Source code notes" below.

        NMAKE comes with the IBM compilers and is now also publicly
        available with the IBM Device Driver Development Kit (DDK),
        available from "http://service.boulder.ibm.com/ddk/".
        It's behind the "Build tools ZIP file" button (tools.zip).
        You will need to register first, but other than that, the
        thing is free.

    b)  One of EMX/GCC or VAC++ 3.08. Jens uses EMX to develop the
        back-end, I use VAC++ 3.08 for the whole thing, but
        from time to time I check whether the frontend compiles
        with EMX too. If it doesn't, please don't complain,
        because EMX compatibility is not my main goal here.

    c)  If you use VAC++ 3.08, you need an implementation of the
        C++ Standard Template Library (STL). This is already
        included with EMX.

        The author are using STLport, an enhanced version of the original
        STL by Hewlett Packard. Download one from www.stlport.org,
        which has different versions.

      - I strongly recommend using 3.0.1, which still works with
        VAC++ 3.0. With the newest version (I have tested 3.2.1)
        you get lots of linker errors from ILINK which I haven't
        been able to fix yet. Apparently, the newer STL versions
        use the craziest template features, which VAC doesn't like. I have uploaded STLport 3.0.1 to ftp.netlabs.org/pub/tools/wps/xworkplace/ for your
        convenience. -said the author.

    d)  Only if you want to produce the INF files from the 001\
        subdirectory, you will need:

        aa)  HTML2IPF, a beautiful HTML-to-IPF converter written
             by Andrew Pawel Zabolotny. I have included this in
             the 001\ directory. Documentation is available in
             the XWorkplace source tree (on Netlabs CVS too).

        bb)  You absolutely need IBM's INF compiler, IPFC.EXE.
             This used to be included only with the OS/2 Developer
             Toolkits, but is now also included for free with the
             DDK also (together with NMAKE, see above).

NEW IN THIS RELEASE

V0.9.1

    This is both a "lotsa-new-features" and a bugfix release.

    --  WicPM added.

    --  Package dependencies are now implemented. Dependencies
        are stored in the database according to the REQUIRES
        attributes of the PCK tag and the database performs
        checks before deinstalling. Also, before installing,
        we check whether dependencies are met.

        This has been tested to a certain extent, but not
        extremely extensive. I'd be grateful for more feedback.

    --  CONFIGSYS attribute UNIQUE flag support improved.

    --  EXECUTE attribute is now supported.

    --  CLEARPROFILE and WRITEPROFILE attributes now supported
        (although deinstallation doesn't work yet).

    --  Six-part package IDs (with three-part version numbers)
        are working now.

    --  Installation of WarpIN itself now creates objects for
        the documentation too.

    --  Various GUI enhancements and bugfixes. Added new
        XTextView control for viewing text.

    --  WarpIN can now repair the database itself to a certain
        extent, should it become corrupt.

    --  CONFIG.SYS was always rewritten to disk, even if
        nothing was changed. That lead to a lot of backup files
        in the boot drive. Fixed.

    --  Script parsing errors always had wrong line numbers.
        Reworked that, I hope it's better now.

    --  REPLACECLASS wasn't stored in the database. Fixed that.

    --  Fixed some memory leaks and other heap problems.

    --  WIC.EXE has new "-c" and "-r" parameters for changing
        to subdirectories and recursively adding files.

    --  Source code reorganized again. Split up the frontend C++
        classes across many more headers to reduce the need for
        recompiles and speed up compilation also.

    --  Introduced more base classes for the various frontend
        classes so we can make STL list's of the base class,
        which reduces code bloat amazingly. I reduced WARPIN.EXE's
        size by about 100 KB doing this.

 
FILE DESCRIPTIONS

    Files in this directory:

    --  COPYING: the GNU General Public Licence (GPL), under which
        WarpIN is released.

    --  *.cmd: demo scripts for creating test archives. See notes below.

    --  *.wis: demo install scripts for the *.cmd archive creator scripts
        of the same filestem.

    --  warpin.exe: the actual installer. This needs a WarpIN archive
        on the command line. You best create a program object for this
        and associate it with "*.WPI" files.

    --  warpin.inf: "WarpIN Programmer's Guide and Reference."

    --  warpin.tmf: WarpIN NLS text messages. Must be in the same dir
        as warpin.exe.

    --  warpin.sym: symbol table created by MAPSYM.EXE in case WarpIN
        crashes.
        Must be in the same dir as warpin.exe.

    --  wic.exe: the "WarpIN Archive Creator". Explains itself on the
        command line.

    The subdirectories contain the source code.

Photo above shows Warpin Test compressing all dll of Warp 4

TESTING WARPIN

    The author have added a small script called "apps.cmd" which creates
    a test archive in your \OS2\APPS directory on your boot drive,
    containing a few of the programs that come with OS/2.
    This will of course only create the archive, not delete any files.

    The sample archive will have three packages and an install script
    which can create WPS objects and modify CONFIG.SYS.

    ----> WARNING 1: Alpha #4 was the first alpha which messes with CONFIG.SYS.
                     From the author's experience, the system still boots after
                     WarpIN has modified CONFIG.SYS, but WATCH OUT.
                     WarpIN will create a backup copy of your CONFIG.SYS
                     file called CONFIG.xxx with "xxx" being a three-digit
                     number, but please, please, make an additional backup
                     copy of CONFIG.SYS yourself before installing the
                     archive, you never know.

    Then do this:

    1.  Double-click on WARPIN.EXE to have it install itself.

    2.  Double-click on APPS.CMD to have a large sample archive (APPS.WPI) created. This packs a number of system files, including all the DLLs
        in your \OS2\DLL directory, into the sample archive.

        WARNING 2: This thing requires up to 30 MB of free space on the
                   current drive. WIC.EXE still has no error checking in
                   this respect, so beware.

    3.  Double-click on APPS.WPI to have it installed.

        WARNING 3: Do not enter any OS/2 system directories for the package installation paths. This might overwrite all your system
                   DLLs! Use some new directory instead.

CONTACT

    Warpin developers have created two groups on egroups.com for WarpIN discussions.
    All WarpIN developers are members of both groups, so please don't
    mail us directly, but use the groups instead:

    warpin-user     for WarpIN users which don't care for programming.
                    Use this group for bug reports.

    warpin-dev      for WarpIN developers and anyone who's interested.
                    You should be vaguely familiar with the source code
                    to join.

 About XWPS 0.91

XWorkplace is a complex set of replacement classes for the OS/2 Workplace Shell. It can add features to pretty much all parts of the system, such as generic object features, folder enhancements, replacement icons, CONFIG.SYS settings, and much, much more.

    XWorkplace is the successor to XFolder V0.85.

    All parts of XWorkplace are fully configurable and can be selectively enabled.

    For an introduction to XWorkplace's many features, please open the "XWorkplace User Guide" (XFLDR001.INF).

    Note that this is a developer's release. It is not guaranteed to be stable in every environment. Lots of new things have been added since the last public XFolder release (which was V0.85), and even though these are working on my system, this does not mean it will work on yours. So beware.

Photo above shows XWorkplace 0.91 being installed on @Macarlo's Warp 4 FP12

INSTALLATION

    XWorkplace is installed using WarpIN.

    If you are still unsure whether you should use XWorkplace at this point, you can have WarpIN unpack the XWorkplace files on your hard disk only without registering and replacing Workplace Shell classes. This will not alter your system's behavior yet.

    To do this, disable the "Register WPS classes" flag on the respective page which WarpIN will show you after you press the "Next" button a few times.

    You then then read through XWorkplace's documentation first and decide then whether to actually register XWorkplace's classes. To do this later, simply open this WarpIN archive again.

    Note: Use WarpIN V0.9.1 or higher to install this archive. Since WarpIN V0.9.0 will be unable to create the XWorkplace objects on your Desktop, with that version, you'll have to execute BIN\CROB001.CMD manually after installation (in the XWorkplace target directory tree).

Photo shows a steep of the the upgrade from XFolder to XWorkplace

UPGRADING FROM XFOLDER

    XWorkplace is the successor to XFolder (the latest XFolder version was V0.85).

    XWorkplace and XFolder cannot coexist, since XWorkplace provides all the features of XFolder 0.85 plus many bugfixes and even more features.

    As a result, if XFolder is installed, XWorkplace will disable your XFolder installation. You should install XWorkplace to a directory OTHER than your existing XFolder directory to make sure no file conflicts occur (I might have forgotten something).

NATIONAL LANGUAGE SUPPORT

    This archive contains XWorkplace National Language Support (NLS) for English only. Even though XWorkplace is prepared for supporting additional languages, there are no other NLS packages available yet. These will be added to a later release.

    XWorkplace will take over your existing XFolder 0.85 settings, if present. However, many more settings have arrived, so many will be initially disabled.

    If you prefer to go back to your existing XFolder installation later (after all, this is a developer's release), have WarpIN de-install XWorkplace and install XFolder again, using INSTALL.CMD in your XFolder directory. Your old XFolder settings remain untouched by XWorkplace.

Photo above shows the XWorkplace Setup notebook

GETTING STARTED

    In any case, open the new "XWorkplace Setup" object first and go to the "Features" page. This is the most central place to enable XWorkplace features. Refer to the "Help" button there.

KNOWN LIMITATIONS

   - This version has known bugs. I have it running on my system for  everyday work, but some things are a bit annoying, so be warned. - said Ulrich Moeller.

    As opposed to what XFLDR001.INF might be saying, the following
    does not work:

    1)  Christian Langanke's Animated Mouse Pointers for OS/2 are not yet included. This is currently in the works and will be added in a later release.

    2)  If "Extended associations" is enabled in XWPSetup, the new "File types" page in "Workplace Shell" is working, but XFldDataFile doesn't support the enhanced file type icons yet. You'll see the proper icons and associations in the "Open" submenu, but clicking on them will not open the proper association.

    3)  The new trash displays wrong info sometimes and cannot delete objects which have the read-only attribute on.

    4)  Trash can confirmations and auto-delete on startup and shutdown don't work quite yet.

    5)  Creating the trash can objects from the XWorkplace Setup "Features" page fails. Go the to "Objects" page instead and create the trash can from there.

    6)  XSHUTDWN.EXE currently doesn't work at all.

CONTACT

    Ulrich Moeller have created two mailing lists at egroups.com for contact.  Please use these lists from now on for questions, suggestions, and bug reports.

    For XWorkplace users:
        xworkplace-user@egroups.com

    For XWorkplace developers and those who are interested:
        xworkplace-dev@egroups.com

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