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Messages - Olafur Gunnlaugsson

Pages: 1 ... 14 15 [16] 17
226
Marketplace / Re: ebay Stuff
« on: December 03, 2014, 07:36:34 am »
There are loads of NOS (New old stock) OS/2 products on eBay UK and US now for some reason, alongside a few used items, mostly individual sellers (cleaning up before Christmas ?). But alongside the usual used copies of OS2 2.1 and 3 there are a number of shrink wrapped Microsoft and borland applications and 1.x and 2.0 versions of the OS.

227
Applications / Re: BrainStorm: Wish list for OS/2 and eComStation
« on: December 03, 2014, 06:33:12 am »
A third vote for MIDI. OS/2 is (was? I think it still IS) far superior to Windows when it comes to timers and time resolution is the key factor in MIDI handling.

We have/had a great MIDI sequencing software (MIDI Station Sequencer) and some interesting experiments in score editors (like my ABC and Mup ports). So it's a start.

I know someone who is working on this, but preliminary work only in his spare time, I did some work on this around 2000, the issues then were:

RTMIDI was/is hopeless, Timur Tabi had done a partial MIDI implementation and then stopped work on it, he promised to supply source code but that never happened so the 2 or 3 major projects that actually used RTMIDI had to stop development including MIDI Station and AudioStation, the code as it was did not even support MIDI sysex passing, it was so basic. It was also in retrospect probably the wrong way around in the way it was implemented, instead of implementing MIDI functions it should have passed them through and concentrated on controlling the basics of the protocol and act as a timing reference, much simpler.

It would make a lot more sense to start again with something that emulates the MIDI part of VST3 (not the VST3 specification but the control section only, it is a bit like MIDI++), and then have MIDI as a subsystem of that, no need to implement the specifics, let the application or plugin handle that.

The basic Multimedia audio subsystem is ancient, it has seen no work on it since OS/2 2.0, it needs to be looked at, unusually since it was one of the few things that had been written from scratch by IBM so Serenity Systems said they could actually get the source for that as well, but that never happened either. While it functions perfectly well as it is, or reasonably well depending on what axis you look at it, the issue is if you want to support something that did not exist at the time of its original like DSD (HQ 1bit audio), multichannel audio processing (for music making or home cinema) or very low latency audio (not needed for MM but for music making), you might as well start from scratch.

The other reason that you might want to rewrite the audio subsystem is that modern microprocessors have SMID and other DSP functions that did not exist at all when the original  MM subsystem was developed, a simple module or plug-in architecture that would allow audio processing to take advantage of this without going through the complexities of what we have with current windows and Linux solutions that are all over-ambitious

All in all the audio portion is actually not that big a project, not compared to other parts of the system, but it needs someone that knowns what he is doing, or is willing to learn.


228
Article Discussions / Re: [Arca Noae] So, what would you like to see next?
« on: November 27, 2014, 09:57:46 pm »
- PM is the OS/2 GUI
- WPS is the desktop shell. The objects that organize the GUI to create the desktop interpretation (based on a real's world desktop) of the OS. WPS requires SOM and PM to show itself as it is.

Yes, but you see, the PM is just a port of Visi/On, a quick and dirty solution to getting OS/2 v1.1 out of the house in a form resembling what they had promised their larger customers. As a graphics engine and GUI it was backwards even when released, never mind 2015, some 30 years later, and yes the Micrografx engine that is used in 2.x and higher helps but it is something of a kludge. API emulation, binary emulation or partial emulation is fine for getting older software to run, but recreating it is sheer madness.

The WPS and the original OS/2 2.0/CUA 91 metaphor is on the other hand pure genius and needs to be preserved if only in a vague work-alike, just look at MacOS X, they have been talking about a fully object oriented front end since they released the first NeXT in 1988 and still have not managed to tie together something resembling a coherent vision, or fully object oriented for that matter.

You should track down the old DOS demo presentation of CUA91 and watch it, that was what OS/2 2.x was meant to be, and we almost got it. The concept of non-modal software is something that we got in lots of early IBM software but then slowly disappeared as OS/2 software got more Windows like (or Linux like, since all Linux shells ape windows down to a tee). We are starting to see non-modal software concepts on mobile phones and tablets since it is a concept that makes sense, and is genuinely one less thing to worry about for an end user that is using a tool rather than what his/hers life centres around, but desktop software seems to be going backwards.

...... sheeeesh ........ ranting on the Internet ..... a sign of fast approaching old age I suppose

229
Article Discussions / Re: [Arca Noae] So, what would you like to see next?
« on: November 25, 2014, 08:49:29 pm »
I will really like to see small, but continued effort to clone OS/2 Presentation Manager since it is an important component in the OS/2-eCS experience.  OS/2 PM API is big, but the idea is to start small selecting which are the components that needs update/replacement first.

Clone the WPS, the PM is 80's code and concepts that needs to be retired. The effort of more or less straight cloning of OS/2 like OSFree is going to have the same end result as Haiku had in the BeOS world, by the time it becomes a workable system, everyone has lost interest and moved on, all vendors have disappeared and the community not big enough to support itself.

Something like this:
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/barrelfish/

With a x86  emulation layer or virtualiser if on an x86 system, on top of the OS that allows us to run eCS-OS/2 as the front end of the system while we code a modern WPS replacement and tool set, if the base OS becomes outdated or unsupported or in some way undesirable, simply port the emulation layer and WPS replacement/Modern OS/2 API to a new system.

230
Hardware / Re: New X600's for SNAP users in the UK
« on: November 24, 2014, 04:18:04 pm »
Daniel - I think Matrox G550 is fully supported by SNAP but check the readme. Although at the time SNAP was developed probably only the PCI version was available. Until now a G550 with PCIe can be bought as new card. AFAIR someone reported the PCIe version works too with SNAP and OS/2 but slower compared to up to date cards. Basically it's the old G550 PCI version with an additional PCI/PCIe bridge.

OTOH my ATI X300 works including DOS/WinOS2. But hard get new especially with 2 DVI outputs.
Actually the AGP 4xx cards were available including the MAX card that is probably the fastest 2D card ever available for OS/2 (according to Scitech anyway) , but alas before mine blew up I never had the common sense to try it sing SNAP since the native drivers were perfectly OK. It is possible that the PCIe 450 cards work with SNAP although that is not a given thing.

Actually all MAX cards seem to have blown up because they have not been seen on the second hand market for the last few years

231
Hardware / Re: New X600's for SNAP users in the UK
« on: November 23, 2014, 05:41:26 pm »
Good find, but I do have to ask who doesn't use SNAP?

We have a range of ATI X550, X600 and X700 cards as well as a couple of NVIDIA FX5700 all quite happy to drive monitors to 1920 x 1200 @ 16m colours.

I had problems with SNAP and some newer motherboards, and a few years back with some ATI motherboard chipsets as well, and I also have a Nvidia Quadro board that I love but for some reason SNAP sees it at install time and has it accelerated, but after two boots refuses to see it as anything but VESA. That sort of minor niggles, SMP issues and people that  multi boot with Win/Mac OX/Linux/BSD/Whatever and understandably want to use newer cards even if it means they are unaccelerated under eCS are the reason people are looking more at Panorama these days

I use SNAP, and an X600 256MB BTW, but I literally built the computer specifically to run eCS, emperoar and SNAP and I am not sure everyone is willing to go that far ......

232
Hardware / New X600's for SNAP users in the UK
« on: November 23, 2014, 02:47:51 pm »
Just a heads up for those in the UK that still use Scitech SNAP,

A gent on Ebay has new stocks of the 256MB dual screen DELL X600's that he is selling for about 13 smackers inc. postage and both types of adapter cables

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ATI-Radeon-X600-256Mb-PCIe-F9595-/290592069592?pt=UK_Computing_Computer_Components_Graphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW&hash=item43a8a317d8

the X600 is one of the few chipsets were SNAP supports both DVI and VGA connectors and in addition is fully accelerated.

Important to get the 256Mb version since there were gazillion different versions of the X300/X550/X600 that are all more or less the same chip with some features enabled so on so forth, only the 256 X600 are guaranteed to have full bandwidth, the 128 versions of this Dell card for instance were much slower.

233
Hardware / Re: Motherboard woes
« on: November 12, 2014, 08:00:09 pm »
I went to Frys' and spent 2 hours going over the motherboards they had and have narrowed my choices down to 5. 3 from MSI and 2 from Gigabyte.
The MSI model numbers are A88x-g43 runs a AMD pross. and uses realtech chip sets as both lan and sound. 84. USD
                                                     Z87-G41 PC Mate runs Intel pross. and uses the same chip set as the above board listed above. 109 USD
                                                     Z97-Gaming 3 runs Intel pross. a realteck sound and an off brand lan chip set. 139. USD
The Gigabyte boards model numbers are GA-Z97X-UD5H runs Intel pross. real tech sound chips and a lan chip I never heard of.
                                                                            GA-Z97X-SL1  Same specs as above.
If I choose the Gigabyte board I may have to get a generic lan card in case the on board chip set doesn't work.
I called customer service for both companies and I was not impressed with MSI.  Finally was told to push the F11 key on boot up to get legacy support.  Rep for Gigabyte said I should be able to change the settings in the Bios. Neither of them would would commit to whether I could get Legacy mode. Both of course have a UEFI Bios.
When I go back to Fry's I'm going to talk with the techs there (Maybe I'll luck out and find one that runs Linux)and see if they know.
I'm going back this Friday to purchase 1 of the above, but would like some feedback from you all.  If I choose one and it does not work I will go to  Linux until  there is a new release of OS/2 that supports UEFI.


Marc
The networking chip on the Z97-Gaming 3 is an Atheros chip, Qualcomm bought out the company and has been renaming the products with "gamer syntax", you should not worry about EFI, all boards I have seen come with a BIOS emulator, you might need to switch that on in the BIOS but most appear to have that automatic.

That AMD A88X board looks qewl, but who needs 8 SATA ports on a budget motherboard?

234
Hardware / Re: ESS 1869 sound card drivers for eCS 2.1?
« on: November 09, 2014, 06:15:00 pm »
Just use anonymous login (user=anonymous, password=email address)

Or even user=anonymous password=password

email addresses as passwords were more common in the olden days, modern browsers usually try an anonymous access before they ask for a password so if he uses a browser there should not be a problem

235
Programming / Re: Pascal through visual
« on: November 03, 2014, 08:49:18 pm »
Hi Mick,

You are probably referring to Sybil? (Sort of like Delphi, I think it shares class names etc)

WDSybil is the open source version: http://www.wdsibyl.org/en

There is also Virtual Pascal but I don't know whether the GUI part (Lazarus) is available for OS/2

Speedsoft Pascal became Sybil that in turn was forked into WDSybil and Lazarus. The original poster should download WDSybil (note that he has to register at the site listed above to be able to download the package). Lazarus is the frontend to FreePascal rather than Virtual Pascal and the first thing the Lazarus developers did when they started the project was to throw out the OS/2 part of the source and in general showed hostility to the idea of continuing OS/2 development of Lazarus, so despite the existence of a current FreePascal port to OS/2-eCS, a Lazarus port has never existed and probably never will.

236
Hardware / Re: Motherboard woes
« on: October 31, 2014, 11:52:26 pm »
Am running it 24 hours a day now. I'm looking for a new board.  I need 2 pci slots (3 would even be nicer). I'm running EC/S 2.1. Can anyone steer me to a motherboard that will work?
I will order this AMD one the next days: http://geizhals.de/msi-a88x-g41-pc-mate-7793-037r-a1074142.html

Before that, I looked at this Intel board (together with a cheap Intel CPU): http://geizhals.de/msi-h87-g41-pc-mate-7850-001r-a953906.html

I can't say that these boards work well. But from the infos I sampled over a longer time, I think they should.

Would he not be better off with a AMD board with a AM3+ socket? under eCS the GPU portion of the FM chip is kind of wasted and you can get a faster AM3+ or FX with an AM3+ pin layout than a comparable FM1/FM2 chip. A cheap GPU card would be a better buy ....

A cheap 760 board  like:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-760ga-p43-(fx)-amd-760g-s-am3plus-ddr3-sata-iii-6gb-s-sata-raid-pcie-20-(x16)-d-sub-atx

Or even a cheap 970 board that is much more up to date if he runs other OS's as well:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigabyte-ga-970a-ud3p-amd-970-sam3-am3plus-ddr3-pcie-20-(x16)-2-way-crossfirex-atx

237
Hardware / Re: Compaq Armada 1750 [Laptop]
« on: October 31, 2014, 05:09:48 am »
I have a few 1750 Armadas that I used to use for compatibility testing and debugging of software since virtual machines sometimes hiccuped on software that ran fine under real hardware. There was an incompatibility with eCS 2.0 Beta (mouse driver? CD ROM driver?, cannot remember) that we or Mensys never solved, but I do not think I ever tried 2.0 release or 2.1, I just vent back to 1.2, Amouse was OK under 1.2 and the system in general ran very well especially if you maxed out the memory.
Hi. Are you saying Amouse driver worked well with the touchpad, or with a ps/2 mouse? Because if you say it worked well with the touchpad I can try to install that version...
 Mine is a Compaq Armada 1750 Notebook PC 6366/T/6400/D/M/1.

With the internal trackpad & pointer

BTW the Armada 7800, 7400 and 1750 are basically the same model with different processors and some other very minor diffs, the 73xx has similar hardware to the 1750 but is lighter and thinner and slightly older thus not offering USB, you can share a base and batteries with all these models.

238
Hardware / Re: Compaq Armada 1750 [Laptop]
« on: October 30, 2014, 03:16:31 am »
I have a few 1750 Armadas that I used to use for compatibility testing and debugging of software since virtual machines sometimes hiccuped on software that ran fine under real hardware. There was an incompatibility with eCS 2.0 Beta (mouse driver? CD ROM driver?, cannot remember) that we or Mensys never solved, but I do not think I ever tried 2.0 release or 2.1, I just vent back to 1.2, Amouse was OK under 1.2 and the system in general ran very well especially if you maxed out the memory.

BTW the best video driver for them is the old pre-gradd driver, it has a minor bug in that the video display file does not have/create the correct size/frequency setting for the screen but that can be fixed by editing the file in text mode. Overall the original driver is much faster and less problematic than SNAP or Panorama.

There are more than one version of the 1750, the mouse and audio boards have different but closely related hardware, but very different layout. Audio is slightly flaky under any OS (Shitty chip), but works using the original drivers, did not test genaud.

The USB chip is a very early custom Compaq unit and has a known hardware bug in that it reset itself every now and then, but apart from that works fine in eCS, Win NT, Win9x, Win2K and WinXP, just as long as you realise that it is the hardware that is glitching on an occasion and not the drivers.

Although the reason I bought them at the time was simply that I could pick them up for 20 pounds apiece, they were actually quite usable, I ended up using one as may main OS/2 system and an alternative WinXP system for a few years. eCS ran fine but XP needed to be stripped to the bone to run in the rather meagre memory on offer, but the system could take larger disks than advertised and I managed to have a shared fat32 data partition so I could keep just one browser and email profile for both Windows and eCS.

239
Comments, Suggestions & Questions / Links on front page
« on: October 08, 2014, 08:05:01 pm »
Why on earth are there no links to the OS/2 Wiki, Edm/2 wiki etc. from the front page?

240
Programming / Re: ObjectVision
« on: September 28, 2014, 04:34:49 am »
Ah thanks :)

I'll give that a go.

I do remember that there was a native OS/2 version though. The windows version might work though.

There was, Version 1.x was 16bit but there was a version 2 (and possibly v2.1) for 32 bit OS/2 v2, however it came out only shortly before Borland dropped the development of Object Vision altogether and it was slower than the 16 bit version. A late beta of OV was shipped on an early Devcon disk, possibly DC1.

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