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Messages - Mentore

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91
Hi

You may know that on my free time I like to organize the OS2World wiki, and try to link as much as OS/2 related material (let say it helps me with my anxiety these days).

I want to try to list and link all the PC Magazine OS/2 related article:
- The general OS/2 subject articles here (OS2World wiki) (software reviews, OS reviews, critic, etc)
- The development OS/2 related articles here (EDM/2 wiki)

The good thing is that is seems that Google books got permission to republish some the PC Magazine issues and we can found them online: Google Books.

I'm now requesting your help, if you find some OS/2 article on PC Magazine, let me know the name or issue or date, and I will include it to the wiki list.

BTW: I know PC Magazine was not our preferred Magazine at that time, but I just want to list the OS/2 articles.

Also, if you think we should do the same thing with other magazines (list its OS/2 related articles), let me know.

Regards

There is a bunch of OS/2 related material in an old and defunct italian PC magazine. I also wrote some articles for it and managed the column for a couple of years.
I don't know if we can republish it though, so the best I can do is link it here:

http://www.mc-online.it/

OS/2 related articles are present starting from issue 50 if I remember correctly (mostly related to the IBM / Microsoft wars, with a perplexed view on the OS development, until version 2.0 came).

92
Applications / Re: OS/4 (technical details only)
« on: March 27, 2021, 05:55:41 pm »
Hi G. M. Anchieri

I recommend you to open a ticket on "https://github.com/bitwiseworks/qtwebengine-os2" (explain things in detail). The Bitwise guys does not visit this forum regularly and does not read all threads.
Possible they would like to focus first on having the browser on ArcaOS (with regular kernel) first, and maybe later they can check on that.

I think that opening a ticket will be a good "heads up" for them, but I can not predict their answer.

Regards

Truth be told, since (as far as I can remember) OS/4 is still kind of an unauthorized work it is definitely possible that this problem will not be solved. Even so, it may be worth a try, since if I'm not mistaken there are other problems with AVX under OS/2.

It's really too much time I don't fiddle anymore with my OS/2 machines. Definitely time to put these two up again. So much work to do, so little time...

Mentore

93
Web applications / Re: Otter Browser 1.0 [teaser]
« on: March 08, 2021, 09:28:03 am »
First native OS/2 Otter Browser build ever, enjoy.

Really good news. I'm following this closely.
Thanks for all this work!

Mentore

94
Applications / Re: Hpt path statement
« on: February 01, 2021, 10:11:35 am »
Greetings again,

I am setting up hpt husky (fidonet mail tosser) and all works fine.. except that I do not know how to put the config for husky one the path... I put all the executables in \usr\bin so can call husky from anywhere no problem. Husky requires a config file which is in C:\config\ in Linux I would just create a symlink to the config no problem, how do I get it to see the config file, I’ve put it on the path, I’ve tried set hpt=c:\config none of it works.  I can run it hpt -C c:\config\config but that’s not ideal... any suggestions?

Hope you are all well

Rick

Hi Rick,
a quick hack would be to use a desktop object, with the -C C:\config\config option in the command line call. Could you do with this?
Mentore

95
General Discussion / Re: Revolutionary PC Technology
« on: February 01, 2021, 09:00:42 am »
The C64 probably interfaces directly to the hardware, so an emulator won't help.

Sure. But its software could be easily ported to OS/2 with a suitable interface. OK, I'm just kidding ;)
Mentore

96
Hardware / Re: Does Arcaos support browsing phones?
« on: January 08, 2021, 11:00:51 am »
There's Samba. Some file managers have WiFi sharing which gives a web interface. Likewise with FTP. Or, sneaker net, either by ejecting the SD card (which was originally partitioned from OS/2 or plugging in a USB stick. I recently purchased a micro USB to USB A adapter that works well for plugging in a USB stick. Previously I paid $5 for the X-Plore file manager which I've been happy with (worked fine for free with no ads but a few things like WiFi sharing not enabled)
There's also https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/graphics/camera153.zip which allows pulling the photos straight off the phone in most cases using PTP and which you might want to try first.

I always connected my android cellphone to my OS/2 machine via FTP without a problem, being able to browse its internals. For photos only, cameraderie is perfect AFAIK.

Mentore

97
Programming / Re: SAF-T
« on: December 18, 2020, 10:41:49 am »
Hi,

Anyone here with knowledge of converting accounting data from text files to SAF-T?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAF-T

At the moment there are only three standard accounting reports that, by local law, must be availble upon request
from tax authorities. I think REXX and XML can be used for this.

Hi there,
I did a quick search and found this on GitHub:
https://github.com/atle85/SAF-T-to-CSV

seems it's just a python script doing the exact contrary of what you need.
I've got no knowledge of SAF-T format but, from what I can see, it's an XML file following a specific schema, so it should be not that hard to come up with a suitable converter.

Should you get out of luck please contact me at mentore . siesto @ alice . it, maybe I can patch up something (not sure about REXX though, since I can't access my OS/2 machines right now).

Mentore

98
Article Discussions / Re: OS/2 - ArcaOS and the Year 2020
« on: December 09, 2020, 08:14:08 am »
Dear Community.

I always like to take some time to share some thoughts about OS/2-ArcaOS and the community when the year is close to end, or on the early days of the new year. This year had been a personally stressful year at work because of the lifestyle changes that produced the COVID19 pandemic, but let’s keep that aside and focus on the OS/2 community, right?

Arca Noae is the one with the IBM OEM deal to keep selling OS/2 today. They had accomplished great things like USB 3 and UEFI support. The next 2021 they have the challenge to finally release ArcaOS 5.1 with multiple language support. I see this as an important milestone, because I'm hoping that from that point Arca Noae can focus in a long-term strategy to not only make OS/2 running on modern hardware, but to start improving the OS with more features. My final word about Arca Noae will be, let's keep supporting them, let's help them, because the delivered what was promised.

I generally second your statement, Martin. Being part of the Italian NLS team I have to admit I'm not making good efforts (work and family take up all my time), but we're doing anything we can to work on it.

Quote
Bitwise Works. They are the only development company and group we have on this community. They took the hard task to get a modern browser based in a modern engine to render webpages, and it is taking a lot of efforts on porting extra libraries and Qt5. I really hope they can have more developers for the OS/2 platform, but we need to keep in mind that they need resources (money) to pull this off. I also think we need to keep supporting them and they have their Patreon page for that.  The issue here is that they need regular income to keep paying the developers and I think  Patreon is a good way to support them.

I'm supporting Bitwise since one year and think it's a good thing to do. Sadly my income has decreased badly this year since I can't work into theatres :( but surely BWW developers are earning their money.

Quote
Individual Developers. There are also individual developers that keep developing new software and port software from other platforms. I will never get tired of thanking them for the love to the platform and their selfless work. They are awesome and I like that a majority like to share their knowledge on the forums. Sometimes it is not only about being a good developer, but also having a great attitude, and these guys have it.

I've been a part-time OS/2 software developer and will get at it again as soon as I have a working setup ready... Alas, too little free time.

Quote
So that was the easy part, it is just a quick summary of what is happening today with the platform, but the hard part will be always to look into the future. We still have different needs in drivers and applications for ArcaOS, and Operating Systems market are no longer in war for huge profits and money opportunity.

What do you think is needed today and maybe on the long-term future? Even if it just drivers, software or even a different strategy to have a more representation in the Operating Systems  space.

Regards

From my point of view:
  • drivers - USB 3 is good and hope it will come GA ASAP as we badly need it. But also Wi-Fi drivers are a must for all those who want to use ArcaOS on a laptop.
  • disks: we still have our share of troubles using thumb drives or external USB disks due to LVM needing to be used. I remember having almost destroyed an old Creative Zen MP3 player trying to make it work under OS/2 since it used an incredibly strange partitioning scheme. But also other devices have problems if LVM is used on them (like cameras and video cameras).
  • A different and more pervasive communication: this is, I fear, the most difficult thing to do, because it requires resources and manpower in order to spread a message regarding affordability, safety and stability of ArcaOS.

And yes, in my dreams I still think about a 64 bit recompiled OS/2 kernel :)

Mentore

99
Multimedia / Re: Updated Uniaud32 build
« on: December 07, 2020, 08:10:42 am »
Hi All,

Just a quick update to say that there's no real progress - broadly it's understood why the builds don't produce sound, and where the problem lies (the port of the regmap/regcache APIs), but there isn't a clear root cause/solution to this yet. I'm actually taking a break from looking at Uniaud for a short time - with any luck a fresh look after a break may help shed some light on the problem.

Cheers,

Paul

Best of luck Pete. I'm following this and hope to try the new builds soon (have to build one or two machines almost from scratch with some old hardware).

100
Applications / Re: Painting program?
« on: July 21, 2020, 08:10:55 am »
There are three old vector graphics programs: logoart, CorelDraw 2.5 and DrawIt.

Another really interesting "drawing" (more like editing, but also for drawing) available for free on OS/2 id Photo>Graphics PRO by TrueSpectra. The makers also sent a public registration key to make it useable.
It's somehow steep in learning but can make really interesting things - to some extent I feel it comparable to Inkscape (without of course SVG and many modern tools).

101
As long as ArcaNoae Mantis is not yet back up, translations still go on. : )

Question is though, should the GNU Public License in Warpin (warpin.wis) be translated to other languages too? Even if the text does not say so, I've read elsewhere that translating contracts voids their existence, as you'd need a lawyer to check if the meaning has not changed by translating the text.
So.. if nobody has other thoughts or valid reasoning, I'll keep the english translation of the GNU Public License and just translate the rest around it..


Hello,
based on my experience and on what I've studied in the past, GPL is NOT to be translated. The costs to verify the closeness between the actual original GPL and the translated one would be unacceptable and a translated GPL is considered as not valid.
This is what the FSF / GNU say, by the way, so I didn't take my time to provide a translated version of the GPL in my works, be them for OS/2 or else.

Mentore

102
Programming / Re: Porting Lilypond to OS/2 - eCS - Arca Noae
« on: November 11, 2019, 08:04:43 am »
Given that LilyPond is more of an engraving program than a traditional notation program and thus not very user friendly would something like MuseScore not make more sense? Or does that have even more dependencies?

BTW. For those with not very advanced needs when it comes to notation, old versions of Personal Composer run fine under OS/2, 16 bit version under WinOS/2 and 32 bit versions PE'ised.

Hi Olafur, yes you're right - and I've already ported other engraving programs, so the need for this was more like "OK, I want to add another one to the list". And after NotaMusica has been discontinued I think we could do with a real notation software - but I'm afraid something like MuseScore is really out of our league due to its dependencies. This MAY change now that we are really close to a  complete Qt 5.13 release, but my mileage may vary.

I'd like to take a look at some opensource notation software but almost everyone is rather huge or uses libraries like JACK which may make it impossible to port. I'll take a look when I will fire up my OS/2 machine again.

Oh, just a last update: I saw that some GUI programs (mainly Denemo and Canorus) are UIs to LilyPond, so I'm starting to think the (two or three  ;D ;D ;D ) OS/2-powered musicians could take advantage from this. I'll see what I can do when my OS/2 boxes will be back.

Mentore

103
Programming / Re: Porting Lilypond to OS/2 - eCS - Arca Noae
« on: November 07, 2019, 08:55:22 am »
Given that LilyPond is more of an engraving program than a traditional notation program and thus not very user friendly would something like MuseScore not make more sense? Or does that have even more dependencies?

BTW. For those with not very advanced needs when it comes to notation, old versions of Personal Composer run fine under OS/2, 16 bit version under WinOS/2 and 32 bit versions PE'ised.

Hi Olafur, yes you're right - and I've already ported other engraving programs, so the need for this was more like "OK, I want to add another one to the list". And after NotaMusica has been discontinued I think we could do with a real notation software - but I'm afraid something like MuseScore is really out of our league due to its dependencies. This MAY change now that we are really close to a  complete Qt 5.13 release, but my mileage may vary.

I'd like to take a look at some opensource notation software but almost everyone is rather huge or uses libraries like JACK which may make it impossible to port. I'll take a look when I will fire up my OS/2 machine again.

104
Programming / Re: Porting Lilypond to OS/2 - eCS - Arca Noae
« on: November 06, 2019, 08:27:53 am »
It depends on fontforge, which is a GTK program IIRC, or at least depends on X, so not trivial to build though the dependency page does say some of the text modes can be built without X. Unluckily porting GTK would likely be akin to porting QT.

Thanks everybody.
So I was correct in thinking the first step is building the latest TeX distro - which is pretty funny: the CTAN seems to me a little cumbersome to browse for the sources. I will surely take a look at it.
Then it comes to FontForge which I have to watch closely, in order to see if it can be built without GTK.

Too many toolkits, too little time...

Mentore

105
Programming / Porting Lilypond to OS/2 - eCS - Arca Noae
« on: November 05, 2019, 11:05:05 am »
Hello all,
currently we OS/2 users can benefit from at least four or five music typesetting programs:
  • NotaMusica 2.6 (beta 2.7) - commercial, discontinued
  • Plain MusixTeX - pretty uncommon, powerful but TeX is required (and am I right in saying we really lack a current TeX?)
  • MUP MUsic Publisher (ported by me, not up to date with the current release) - easy to compile, requires text input
  • ABC Music composer (idem)
  • Philip's Music Writer (idem)
  • Lastly, we should have also some simple guitar fakebook software like Chordii or Chordpro (ported by me)

Now I'd really love if we could make one step beyond and start using some real beast like LilyPond. I actually am not able to fire up my old eCS box (pretty old indeed - at least 4 years without upgrading hardware), but I'd like to tackle this huge piece of art. I know it still needs text input just like ABC or Mup, but it seems to have more features, so...

Now for the serious part. Among the requirements I can see Guile 1.8.8 and some other things it needs:

    GNU Autoconf
    GNU Bison                       (Use version 2.0 or newer.)
    GNU Compiler Collection  (Use version 3.4 or newer (4.x recommended)).
    GNU gettext                    (0.17 or newer)
    GNU Make                       (Use version 3.78 or newer.)

These listed above we should already have. I'm not sure about the following ones (my thoughts on them in italic):

    Flex
    FontForge (recommended using at least 20100501); it must also be compiled with the ‘--enable-double’ switch, else this can lead to inaccurate intersection calculations which end up with poorly-rendered glyphs in the output.

    MetaFont
    The mf-nowin, mf, mfw or mfont binaries are usually packaged along with TeX.
    MetaPost
    The mpost binary is also usually packaged with TeX.
So, we should indeed have TeX updated!!!

    Perl
    Texinfo (Use version 4.11 or newer.)

    Type 1 utilities (Use version 1.33 or newer.)
    Cyrillic fonts (Often packaged in repositories as texlive-lang-cyrillic.)

    TeX Gyre ‘OTF’ font packages. As of LilyPond version 2.19.26, the previous default serif, san serif and monospace fonts now use Tex Gyre’s Schola, Heros and Cursor fonts respectively. Also See Fonts.

    The following font families are required:
    Schola, Heros and Cursor.

What are your thoughts about this? Do you think it's actually possible for us to have this beast under OS/2? (Yes I'd love to use it with my machine without having to boot a Linux / Win PC).

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