OS2 World Community Forum

OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - General => Marketplace => Topic started by: Per E. Johannessen on September 28, 2015, 10:39:16 pm

Title: OnCmd
Post by: Per E. Johannessen on September 28, 2015, 10:39:16 pm
Hi,

Anyone happen to have OnCmd for OS/2 for sale?
Title: Re: OnCmd
Post by: Martin Iturbide on September 29, 2015, 12:31:42 am
Hi

The website is still available: http://www.onlinedata.com/

Regards
Title: Re: OnCmd
Post by: Per E. Johannessen on September 29, 2015, 03:27:03 am
Yes, I noticed that but it hasn't been updated since 1998. Have e-mailed them and hopefully I'll receive a reply.
Title: Re: OnCmd
Post by: Martin Iturbide on September 29, 2015, 02:41:54 pm
Hi.

Let me know if they reply. I'm trying to find the name of the On-Line Data CEO to see if something else can be done with its OS/2 software like turning it freeware or open source.

Regards
Title: Re: OnCmd
Post by: Per E. Johannessen on October 01, 2015, 09:41:15 pm
Just received a disappointing reply:

"OnCmd for OS/2 is not an active product for us so we can be of assistance to you at this time.  We have multiple current ongoing projects and the best I can do for now is to add your interest to our list and do not expect that we could look at it any time soon and for a single opportunity it may not proceed at all."

Still the software is listed for sale at their web-site !?
Title: Re: OnCmd
Post by: Martin Iturbide on October 01, 2015, 10:17:24 pm
Hi Per.

I tried to seach more about On-Line Data and I think that they belong to On-Line Service Corp (OSC)  which is a division of Hogg Fuel & Supply.  So when you have several companies involved the possibilities to be turned into "AS IS freeware" or even open source are low. 

But I'm still trying to find the name of the CEO. At least we can try to turn it "AS IS freeware".

Let me know if you got any name or email from them.

Regards
Title: Re: OnCmd
Post by: Per E. Johannessen on October 01, 2015, 10:47:24 pm
Hi Martin, already sent you a pm  ;)
Title: Re: OnCmd
Post by: Olafur Gunnlaugsson on October 07, 2015, 10:23:30 pm
Hi Per.

I tried to seach more about On-Line Data and I think that they belong to On-Line Service Corp (OSC)  which is a division of Hogg Fuel & Supply.  So when you have several companies involved the possibilities to be turned into "AS IS freeware" or even open source are low. 

But I'm still trying to find the name of the CEO. At least we can try to turn it "AS IS freeware".

Let me know if you got any name or email from them.

Regards
Should not bother with that, the core engine, while exceptionally fast does not support the use of anything but ASCII as text input, so no matter if you have the QNX, Windows or OS/2 version it is useless for anything that requires more than ASCII input, and that is just about anything these days.

There was an Australian compiler with similar feature set and speed that actually worked called "Base32"

It would make more sense to clean up x2C and port it to Watcom C
Title: Re: OnCmd
Post by: Per E. Johannessen on October 08, 2015, 07:26:41 pm
Well, I have no intention of making wonders with OnCmd but from what I've seen it does do what it was meant to do.
(I wasn't planning on using it for "production", just curious.)

Do you know if Base32 is available somewhere?

I'm not at all familiar with x2C or Watcom C, perhaps you could give some more info about what the "goal" would be?
Title: Re: OnCmd
Post by: Olafur Gunnlaugsson on October 10, 2015, 07:09:51 pm
Well, I have no intention of making wonders with OnCmd but from what I've seen it does do what it was meant to do.
(I wasn't planning on using it for "production", just curious.)

Do you know if Base32 is available somewhere?

I'm not at all familiar with x2C or Watcom C, perhaps you could give some more info about what the "goal" would be?

The problem with ASCII only, means no extended characters whatsoever in the database itself or code, no graphic symbols when  porting from old DOS code, no NLS characters in the data (no ð or þ for instance) not even accents, so no French é or Swedish ö or ligatures like æ. Since dBase and Clipper had no real problems with character sets in the database file this entirely artificial limitation sort of blew my mind when I bought a license in the late 90's, especially considering how good the rest of the code was, and how $#%!#$! expensive my triple target developers license was.

The gent behind Base32 disappeared around 2003, but I might have old contact info here somewhere, I was just thinking aloud since Martin was wandering if he should contact OnCMD, that tracking down the guy behind Base32 would be a better idea.

X2C is a dBase/Clipper/xBase compatible compiler that pumps out C code that is ready for compiling with a C compiler and would probably work with Watcom as is, as it outputs very clean C code but the current version has only been tested with Borland C++. Just a few modernisations to make it slightly less work to compile in one go and so on, might be all that is needed, it might even be as little as a few REXX scripts. Since the output code is a well defined C subset it might even be possible to merge it with one of the PD Mini C compilers into a program that compiles executables on its own.

You may also take a look at Harbour, it is similar to X2C with more modern syntax, however I think that the OS/2 port only works properly with IBM VAC++  and older versions of GNU C as back ends, neither of which is as user friendly as Watcom in eCS.
Title: Re: OnCmd
Post by: Per E. Johannessen on October 11, 2015, 03:17:39 am
Thanks for info.
Which version of OnCmd did you buy? Latest for OS/2 PM was 5.5 I think.
Would be nice to find out more about Base32.
Title: Re: OnCmd
Post by: Olafur Gunnlaugsson on October 24, 2015, 08:20:46 am
In reply to your (now deleted!?) post, the last contact info for the gent behind Base32 was:
Maxxum Technology International
63 Armagh Terrace West
Marton, New Zealand
Tel: +64 6327 5521
Fax: +64 6327 5520

The company is now called "ITL Aviation Limited" and is still around although by now out of the oil and software business . Note that there is an Asian company of the same name that has no relation to this one and has a funny homepage with their logo photoshopped on impressive looking buildings

Actually a Kiwi rather than an Aussie as I had remembered it, the gent that runs the company is called Brendon Edward Deere and he posted to OS/2 groups from time to time  in the 90's.

https://web.archive.org/web/20000609141919/http://www.maxxum.co.nz/prod01.htm

And as for your interest in R:Base, the 16 bit version worked extremely well in its time, cannot remember using the 32 bit one.

Have you tried Lotus Approach? Excellent database program, the OS/2 version had bugs in the join creation code that would sometimes make it crash while creating joins, but once they were created the resulting database was stable. Although outdated I still prefer the development interface to Microsoft Access 2016 and Filemaker 14 even if the DBF backend lacks the sophistication of the latter two. On the other hand the use of dbf files meant that it could be used with all kinds of third party utilities if needed.
Title: Re: OnCmd
Post by: Per E. Johannessen on October 24, 2015, 04:16:08 pm
Actually I'm looking for a RAD that creates stand alone programs. I have DBExpert, which is easy to use, but quite outdated for creating GUI's. VX-Rexx works with the Q+E odbc drivers bundled with DBE, while I get lots of errors trying to make VisproRx  work with them.
VP has the db-designer and also "report writer" so I'd like to have it working.
Anyone managed to get VP to work with the Q+E dbf-drivers from DBE?

About OnCmd, although not very likely, perhaps if more OS2-users showed interest in the product it could happen that they fixed the "ASCII-only" stuff and released a new version?

I've also been in contact with R:BASE Technologies and they offered R:BASE 4.5++ for OS/2 16-bit. Last version for OS/2 was R:BASE 5.5 32-bit, and to my big disappointment, they were unable to find a digital or hard copy of that version.
Title: Re: OnCmd
Post by: Olafur Gunnlaugsson on October 25, 2015, 08:04:48 am
Visual Prolog, it has a somewhat rudimentary but fully functional dbf based database engine that is not recommended for massive databases but works fine with smaller ones and the RAD portion even though old is excellent. The Danish company that makes it continued to sell 5.2 to those that nagged them for years after they ceased OS/2 and Unix development but I gather they are no longer willing to supply copies. However I have the full "freeware" version of 5.2 as an ISO that has almost all of the tools that the full version has but creates executables that start with "no commercial usage allowed", and if you get along with it, I may have an extra license of the full version somewhere that I bought cheaply for my personal use in 2002 when they announced that the software would become Windows only.

http://www.edm2.com/index.php/Visual_Prolog

I doubt OnCMD will do anything, the problem existed in the QNX version that pre-dates the OS/2 and Windows version by a number of years, this is not a bug, but an inexplicable design choice and will require lots of re-coding and testing to fix. The company was extremely polite and helpful over the phone, but could not help in any meaningful way.
Title: Re: OnCmd
Post by: Per E. Johannessen on October 26, 2015, 05:19:39 pm
I'd like to have a look at Visual Prolog, sent you a pm.