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Poll about Faxworks disappearing

Started by kim, 2007.04.24, 03:18:41

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With or without Faxworks disappearing - do you feel the need for a new, "contemporary" freeware fax solution for OS/2, maybe with scanner & network-fax capabilities?

Yep - something new would be nice
41 (73.2%)
No - I can live with what's still available
7 (12.5%)
No - I don't need fax software in OS/2
8 (14.3%)

Total Members Voted: 0

kim

Faxworks disappearing - what do we do? This poll has been suggested to see if there is a need for new fax software for OS2.

svobi

Quote from: kimhav on 2007.04.24, 03:18:41
Faxworks disappearing - what do we do? This poll has been suggested to see if there is a need for new fax software for OS2.

Hey Kim
FaxWorks already disappeard LONG ago !!!
It's a pity: PMfax, on which FaxWorks was based, is gone too !!

One of the problem is:
You and most of us are mentioning the wrong name of the product
which should have been PMfax !

Yeah, there is another little (marketing) problem:
FaxWorks provided a much better product marketing with CD, Manual ...
... where PMfax was all ONline !!

I was lucky to have the FaxWorks set and then changed to PMfax Pro
with its superb features.

Many of us do not know that the delveloper/provider of PMfax also
produced WIN &, if not mistaken, Linux version too !?

I haven't heard about them for to long ;-(

kim

Guess that i'm going off topic here - But I'm aware of that Faxworks (pmFax) are already gone from the market; the poll itself was based on a suggestion from user that wanted to see if there was an interest for finding a solution for those who needs fax solution. I really like the products and I've used pmFax to fax quite a few fax in my days. Was involved for around 15 years ago in a project where we had around 150 incoming and outgoing fax lines where we used OS2 v2 Beta (gold code) on 386SX with 4MB ram and 4 fax cards per system.

Above mentioned activity was actually the reason why I started to use OS2 seriously; due to that Windows at that time really showed the limitations on how to handle hardware and software. We actually tried to build above solution around Windows and we just never got it to work and it also crashed all the time. Switching over to OS2, even a beta, everything just ran as it was supposed. At that time I also came from using the Amiga and I liked OS2 GUI with the combination of running command lines interfaces as well; just as we could on the good old Amiga.

warpcafe

Hi all,

well IIRC it was me who asked for the poll.
The reason being that the existing commercial FAX apps for OS/2 suffer the (in my mind) usual drawbacks of OS/2 software: Technically solid and stable, they do their work... but they still look and feel ugly like apps from the 80s or Win3.0 software with clumsy interface.

What I've been thinking about was to do a nice GUI on top of the fax apps by Mr. Pollack, enhance and link it with SANE and perhaps come up with some kind of fax server functionality... all this done with REXX and as an open-source project for people to participate. Well... guess that's it. OCR perhaps... (need to check the Tesseract interfaces) and then - hehehe - internet-based fax/email conversion.... yeah...

Those who voted "yes I would want to..." are invited to tell their fax app wishlist: What do YOU need? What's missing from YOUR favorite fax application?

Regards,
Thomas
"It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority.
By definition, there are already enough people to do that"
- G.H. Hardy

RobertM

Hi Warpcafe,

I've played with Tesseract, and it's very good. The only thing it may need is a TIF conversion utility depending on the TIF format that the fax app stores the faxes in (but GBM handles that quite nicely). Tesseract only handles certain compression schemes... using GBM to convert the TIF to 1 bit or 8 bit seems to do the job quite nicely (to allow Tesseract to "read" it).

What I am trying to find (for I need to put together an OS/2 Fax Capable system) is an app that will rotate the TIF 1 degree. Reason being, Tesseract seems to be 100% accurate in OCR'ing the fax (with the TIFs we've tried) if the TIF is rotated 1 degree... and only a few characters off 100% without rotating. The only character that seems to have a problem (with the fax using Courier) is "l" and "1" (lower case "L" and the number one), which it arbitrarily OCRs the number one to either a one or a lower case L. I have yet to try using faxes with other fonts (primarily because the faxes we need to OCR cannot be changed by us to other fonts, thus we are stuck dealing with what we get)... and since the original faxes are computer generated, they are always perfectly aligned (if they were printed and then faxed over, they'd probably be a degree or two - or portion of a degree - off, and OCR perfectly).


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
Star Trek New Voyages
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RobertM

#5
PEOPLE: PLEASE VOTE!!!!

If you see a Poll, PLEASE vote in it. If an option that you think should be there isnt, please let one of the moderators know (or post such in the poll's thread) so we can consider adding it...

eCS doesnt have the largest development pool out there, but it does have a dedicated one, as well as numerous apps that can be ported from Linux or someplace else, or apps already in existence that just need a nice interface and installer. It's hard to determine what eCS needs if no one answers these polls. It doesnt just show a lack of interest in the software, it shows a lack of interest in the OS itself. If you run eCS or Warp, you have to have some sort of opinion about the need for a particular piece of software...

Over 100 people (as of yesterday) voted on the Warp vs Windows poll on another site (linked to from here)... yet so few people took the time to vote here (even though this poll has been up WEEKS longer)...

And if someone does port or write something... please send them an email, or msg through the forums or something saying "Thanks" or providing feedback about what works and doesnt. If you dont want to spend lots of time, a simple "I'm using ______, thanks for your efforts on it" is, I can assure you, appreciated by the programmer.


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
Star Trek New Voyages
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magog

#6
PMFax Pro has been released as Freeware:
Quote
On 31. Dec 2003 CDS gave away PrimaFax Pro for Windows and Linux and also PMFax Pro for OS/2.

Free Fax software for Windows, Linux and OS/2
=============================================

To celebrate the New Year CDS is GIVING away full, non-expiring
versions of our poplar PrimaFax Pro and PMFax Pro fax software
products for Windows, Linux and OS/2. 
These fax products normally cost up to $99.00 each, but as our
way of saying thank you for your past support, you can now download
the full version of these products and enable the full functionality
with the license key listed below:

Windows Key: 10-00054-273-937-727-579-251
Linux Key..: 10-00042-185-182-616-225-873
OS/2 Key...: 10-00040-974-912-151-306-952 (s/n: 12-00002-100-015-68)

Faxworks is included in eCS but PMFax Pro is a little bit better.
What is still missing a some kind of remote support so you can send a fax from a client when PMFax runs on an eCS server.
You can share the printer on the network, but you need to access the server via VNC or whatever to enter the number to dail.
There is a REXX description and module available but it wasn't included with the free version (see keys above).

I've got the OS/2 package of PMFax Pro on my harddrive. If you can't find the file (pmfpro_o.exe - 1.242 KB) I think there is no problem to upload it on hobbes for example.
Regards,
Juergen
*** Java Movie Database - http://www.jmdb.de/

kim

Quote from: magog on 2007.11.02, 16:22:47
What is still missing a some kind of remote support so you can send a fax from a client when PMFax runs on an eCS server.

Well, FaxWorks was available in a LAN version as well; so it would be great if that code could be released as well.

RobertM

Quote from: kimhav on 2007.11.02, 18:02:22
Quote from: magog on 2007.11.02, 16:22:47
What is still missing a some kind of remote support so you can send a fax from a client when PMFax runs on an eCS server.

Well, FaxWorks was available in a LAN version as well; so it would be great if that code could be released as well.

I could be wrong, but I thought it was the Faxworks Pro/PMFax Pro package that included the LAN support... though I am not sure. I own(ed) a copy... I'll look and see if I can find it.


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
Star Trek New Voyages
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Lumo

I voted no. I haven't seen or used a fax in years.

BigWarpGuy

With cable modems and DSL connections and other high speed internet connections, how many people still have an analog modem that the FAX software would connect to? Most can send it as an attachment to an e-mail.  ;D I have not used a software fax in many years.  8)

isycoed

In the legal business and real estate business, faxes are still very important.

Bill

Quote from: RobertM on 2007.10.28, 22:43:05
PEOPLE: PLEASE VOTE!!!!

If you see a Poll, PLEASE vote in it. If an option that you think should be there isnt, please let one of the moderators know (or post such in the poll's thread) so we can consider adding it...

eCS doesnt have the largest development pool out there, but it does have a dedicated one, as well as numerous apps that can be ported from Linux or someplace else, or apps already in existence that just need a nice interface and installer. It's hard to determine what eCS needs if no one answers these polls. It doesnt just show a lack of interest in the software, it shows a lack of interest in the OS itself. If you run eCS or Warp, you have to have some sort of opinion about the need for a particular piece of software...

Over 100 people (as of yesterday) voted on the Warp vs Windows poll on another site (linked to from here)... yet so few people took the time to vote here (even though this poll has been up WEEKS longer)...

And if someone does port or write something... please send them an email, or msg through the forums or something saying "Thanks" or providing feedback about what works and doesnt. If you dont want to spend lots of time, a simple "I'm using ______, thanks for your efforts on it" is, I can assure you, appreciated by the programmer.
:(Problem is that I cannot persuade the system to let me vote???????????     I am sure that I have done so in the past but I just cannot remember how.  HELP.    Bill

diver


Bill

Thanks for replying but I AM logged in. I have let the cursor roam all over the area at the beginning of the item where the Poll result is shown but, nothing makes the cursor change to a 'select' icon. Please, where do I vote?