Author Topic: How do you transfer your old WPS to eCS 2.2 ?  (Read 20159 times)

Alex Taylor

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Re: How do you transfer your old WPS to eCS 2.2 ?
« Reply #15 on: March 15, 2014, 04:34:54 pm »
As I said, its main limitation is that it can't recreate setup string settings that WPTOOLS doesn't recognize. Also, until today it didn't support restoring custom icons, but I added that feature this morning (very experimentally so far) before importing the code. :P

Once I have it tested a bit more I probably will release it more publicly. I want to figure out exactly what things are missing from the setup strings, though.  At least it's now in SVN and on the FTP site for people to play with if they need it.

The thing is that I almost never update it except when I'm doing a migration or reinstall, which is pretty infrequent.  Then I use it, notice something else that needs doing, tweak it a bit more, then forget about it until the next round. :D

Doug Bissett

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Re: How do you transfer your old WPS to eCS 2.2 ?
« Reply #16 on: March 15, 2014, 04:37:11 pm »
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Why don't you release it now?

I think he just did.   :)

I have used a similar REXX program http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/dev/rexx/gbj111.zip (from 1997) that uses WPTOOLS.DLL. It works pretty well, for most things, but is limited to what WPTOOLS knows about. I have never tried the whole desktop, but it works with most desktop folders. A bit of editing will compensate for drive changes, and some other things. You do need to save the old setup, before you destroy it.

I will note, however, that I usually do a new install, and build the desktop again, fixing things that have been bugging me as I go along (and dropping things that I never use). It is usually faster, and more pleasing, than trying to mess around recreating something that was. GetObj (and probably Alex's new program) is useful for folders that have many objects, that were built by hand. Those that are built by an installer, are better done using the installer (which often does other things).

Andreas Schnellbacher

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Re: How do you transfer your old WPS to eCS 2.2 ?
« Reply #17 on: March 15, 2014, 05:07:49 pm »
As I said, its main limitation is that it can't recreate setup string settings that WPTOOLS doesn't recognize.

IMO that isn't a limitation. Your app is able to handle specific icons. The only missing thing that comes to my mind is the XCenter setup string.

Also, until today it didn't support restoring custom icons, but I added that feature this morning (very experimentally so far) before importing the code. :P

Icons work as well as with Henk's WPSBKUP.EXE and WPSREST.EXE.

At least it's now in SVN and on the FTP site for people to play with if they need it.

Yes, but the announcement is missing.

Andreas Schnellbacher

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Re: How do you transfer your old WPS to eCS 2.2 ?
« Reply #18 on: March 18, 2014, 07:07:58 pm »
Icons work as well as with Henk's WPSBKUP.EXE and WPSREST.EXE.

Apparently not: Some icons are missing in my test. Sorry, I won't test it further due to lack of time.

Alex Taylor

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Re: How do you transfer your old WPS to eCS 2.2 ?
« Reply #19 on: March 20, 2014, 02:52:48 pm »
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As I said, its main limitation is that it can't recreate setup string settings that WPTOOLS doesn't recognize.

IMO that isn't a limitation. Your app is able to handle specific icons. The only missing thing that comes to my mind is the XCenter setup string.

There are definitely some built-in WPS settings that aren't capable of being saved.  I discovered this a couple of years ago when doing a restore.  Unfortunately I can't find my notes so I don't remember what was missing; I just remember that some objects were broken because of it.

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Apparently not: Some icons are missing in my test. Sorry, I won't test it further due to lack of time.

I was fairly restrictive in how it saves and restores icons. It only does so with the icons of abstract objects (not filesystem objects) which are explicitly set as custom in OS2.INI.

This means that custom icons of folders and anything else that exists in the filesystem (e.g. URL objects and certain other things) will always use icon(s) in the Extended Attributes if any, or the class default icon if none. 

That was a deliberate choice.  It seems to me that if you are creating WPS objects from a saved directory/file structure, the icons should already be saved in the EAs.
« Last Edit: March 20, 2014, 02:58:36 pm by Alex Taylor »