OS/2 - ArcaOS Santa's List for 2025

[Martin Iturbide]

Hello

Do you think it is time to review again our Santa's list for the platform?

On December of 2023 I sent this file to Lewis (Impress file attached) like a summary of the wishlist forum discussion. Please remember that this does not mean that all of this has to be done by Arca Noae. It can also provide some inspiration to other developer/porters to help out the user needs.

Code: [Select]

[b]HARDWARE[/b]
- Wifi Support
- Audio and Camera support for a Videoconference tool (Web based).
- Bluetooth support for Keyboard and Mouse.
- 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express.
- Dual Screen Support
- - Intel HD dual screen support. (To mirror screen or extend screen)
- - Easier Hot plug to projectors. (To mirror screen or extend screen)
- Video support for HDMI and DP output
- Video support for USB-C output
- Audio support for HDMI or DP output
- Hibernate support for PCs  / Laptops.
- Standby support for PCs  / Laptops.
- Special Keys support for volume (mute, mic) and brightness support. (Most common in laptop computers)
[b]SOFTWARE FRAMEWORKS[/b]
- Qt 6
- OpenJDK 18 (Java)
- GTK+
- Node.js / Atom (for stand alone Node.js applications)
- KDE
- OpenGL Support
[b]SOFTWARE[/b]
- Otter. Web browser
- Falkon. Web browser
- Eclipse. Development IDE
- The GIMP.  Photo edition tool
- Inkscape. Illustration tool
- Audacity. Sound recording editing tool
- QEMU. Machine emulator and virtualizer.
- Openscad . The Programmers Solid 3D CAD Modeller.
- QCAD. 2D CAD
- R. Statistics, 3-D and dynamic graphics
- TeX live. Recent version of the TeX typesetting program, successor o teTeX.
- Kate. Text editor.
- Notepad++. Text Editor
- Peazip. Archiver tool
- OBS. Video streaming, desktop recording.
- KDevelop. Development IDE.
- Lazarus. Development IDE.
- wxWidgets.  C++ library GUI API (Update it)
- LibreOffice. Since OpenOffice seems to be evolving to slow
- Upplay. A Qt-based UPnP audio Control Point
- Audacity. Audio Editor
[b]Platform Improvement Wishlist[/b]
- Memory Management
- Improvements TCP/IP Stack to support IPV6
- GUI Improvements
- ArcaOS Developer Kit

What do you think? Did something else change from December of 2023 to today?
Is there some other new requirement that showed up on 2024?

Regards

[Martin Iturbide]

Hello

I think that the "ArcaOS Developer Kit" was covered this year with AN's update the website - "Information for Developers".
- https://www.arcanoae.com/wiki/information-for-developers/
With their list of tools and the release of David's OpenWatcom and IBM Toolkit bundles I think this subject got more clarity.

Regards

[JTA]

Discussed a few times, and brought it up again (remotely at 2024 warpstock), but please add an entry for Winflector into the software section:

winflector.com

Goal would be to get the Winflector folks to produce a native 32-bit OS/2 client, by porting their linux 32-bit client over to OS/2. I'm trying to facilitate ArcaNoae, Winflector (and possibly Paul S.) to get together and get this client porting effort done. If it happens, then we have pretty much any 64-bit app available to us under OS/2, ArcaOS, in a native OS/2 window frame.

Currently, Winflector works with OS/2 via their HTML5 client ... I show that this works in my AToF post:

https://www.os2world.com/forum/index.php/topic,3502.0.html

... and here is the Winflector "request" for native winflector 32-bit client for OS/2:

https://www.winflector.com/store/forum/topic-view/id/610

Currently, Winflector's HTML5 client relies on older browsers for OS/2, which tend to not be developed much beyond their last version ever released. This HTML5 support works, and we can get 64-bit apps into OS/2, but ... a native OS/2 client would be so much better.

Thanks!

[Dave Yeo]

Discussed a few times, and brought it up again (remotely at 2024 warpstock), but please add an entry for Winflector into the software section:

Looks like it is closed source.

[JTA]

Sure, it's closed source ... Winflector folks own it, but note that they are producing clients for other platforms: win, linux, RPi, mac, android, html5 ...

We just need folks (ArcaOS, Paul S. ... you?) to help them get the client ported to OS/2 & ArcaOS ... I just don't know what that help looks like, but ArcaNoae, Paul, and hopefully others can work with them and possibly make it happen?

The benefits would be huge ... any 64-bit app, "running" under OS/2 in a native PM desktop window ...

[Dave Yeo]

Really depends on what framework they're using. Having to implement something to use the Presentation Manager and the WPS can be a huge job.
You could always reach out to them and find out what would be involved in a port.

[Ibrahim Hakeem]

Looking at the system requirements, the oldest setup Winflector could theoretically run on is a Linux environment from the latter half of 2007.

I'm optimistic that this could potentially be an "easy-win" for us, but as Dave said: it comes down to asking them about the required work & weighing it against the task of porting to PM & WPS.

My biggest thought on this is in regards to the vast majority of developers for new OS/2 software, who are hobbyists undertaking open-source projects in their spare time. I'm suspecting that Winflector would hardly be interested in a licensing deal for a platform so small, meaning that a successful implementation of this idea would involve a lot of unpaid work for a paywalled closed-source application; something which most open-source hobbyists rightfully do not want to deal with regardless of what benefit it might lead to.

One of the only saving graces would be if it so happens there is an industrial use/interest in such a service - I suspect this is not the case as AN would've likely gotten on top of it quite some time ago.

[Dave Yeo]

OK, it uses GTK. That would be a huge job to port, much like Qt. While nice to have, I can't imagine it being ported.
It can also run in a browser, so that might be a possibility, though even for that there's a good chance it needs something we don't have, webgl or node.js.

[Ibrahim Hakeem]

OK, it uses GTK. That would be a huge job to port, much like Qt. While nice to have, I can't imagine it being ported.
It can also run in a browser, so that might be a possibility, though even for that there's a good chance it needs something we don't have, webgl or node.js.

My bad, Dave, I forgot about the strife we have with GTK. I take back most of what I said before 

[ivan]

The big question is 'why would we need it?'  Until there is a reasonable answer to that question I see no point in considering it.

[Paul Smedley]

OK, it uses GTK. That would be a huge job to port, much like Qt. While nice to have, I can't imagine it being ported.
It can also run in a browser, so that might be a possibility, though even for that there's a good chance it needs something we don't have, webgl or node.js.

Might be possile to use odin to build GTK - but if it needs opengl, etc we're royally screwed. nodejs is working well enough to build chromium....

[Mentore]

OK, it uses GTK. That would be a huge job to port, much like Qt. While nice to have, I can't imagine it being ported.
It can also run in a browser, so that might be a possibility, though even for that there's a good chance it needs something we don't have, webgl or node.js.

Might be possile to use odin to build GTK - but if it needs opengl, etc we're royally screwed. nodejs is working well enough to build chromium....

What about mesaGL? I don't remember its current status. A slow renderer would still be better than no renderer at all...
Mentore

[Dave Yeo]

What about mesaGL? I don't remember its current status. A slow renderer would still be better than no renderer at all...
Mentore

I visited it, seven years back, and got it compiling and the examples ran good. [https://github.com/OS2World/LIB-GRAPHICS-WarpMesaGL.
Problem is that it is old. Gives gl.h while now it is gl2.h that is required.

[JTA]

Winflector, while a paid application, has something of immense value to us all ... they offer a free 1-user server license, and the clients are free. No time limits ...

Thus, on my AToF solution (everything running on one desktop/laptop), you are delivering 64-bit apps to your OS/2 vm, all for free. Or, you can put the server somewhere else on your home network, and deliver 64-bit apps to your dedicated OS/2 machine. That's a lot of value for the OS/2 community, which I suspect is much bigger than a few users ...

Commercially, we all guesstimate that this user pool is quite large, from hints dropped, and focus of ArcaNoae ... I'm beating the drum as loudly as I can, at the past two Warpstocks and elsewhere, and at last Warpstock, AN did mention that they should look further into Winflector. If ArcaNoae talks to Winflector, there could be lots of symmetry in that relationship ... plus, AN has the true numbers for OS/2, commercial and non-commercial.

This would really help the community out, while we try to get more open-source apps converted to native.

Imagine a new OS/2 developer sitting at a laptop (running in AToF fashion) & pounding out code ... developing on an ArcaOS desktop that runs any 64-bit (or other) app he or she would ever need, via Winflector.

[Mentore]

What about mesaGL? I don't remember its current status. A slow renderer would still be better than no renderer at all...
Mentore

I visited it, seven years back, and got it compiling and the examples ran good. [https://github.com/OS2World/LIB-GRAPHICS-WarpMesaGL.
Problem is that it is old. Gives gl.h while now it is gl2.h that is required.

sh*t. I was hoping there was a better solution.
AFAIK also PortableGL has its limits (TinyGL is good but even more limited).

Mentore