Databook for OS/2

From OS2World.Com Wiki
Revision as of 19:46, 25 May 2013 by Martini (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

by David Both

Original site: http://www.databook.bz/?page_id=2704

Notes

This is a partial reconstruction of some of the information contained in the original DataBook for OS/2. In most places, where the data is available, I have kept the original Lotus Notes headings for the pages. This provides a bit of a historical context for the pages as the headers contain dates and times that the documents were created and last updated in Notes.

Most of the original illustrations are missing, even though the captions are still part of the text. I may recreate those, but please don’t hold your breath.

Note that many of the entries in this DataBook for OS/2 were written over 15 years ago. Keep that in mind as you read them and don’t laugh too hard. ;-)

Thanks

Thanks to WD “Bill” Loughman of Berkeley, California for sending me his downloads of some of the pages of the original DataBook for OS/2. Using that data, I am recreating the pages that he has saved. This is a great boon for anyone still using OS/2.

Unfortunately, much more data is still missing. If you, by any chance, have downloaded and saved any pages from the DataBook for OS/2, I would be very appreciative if you would zip them up and send them to me.

Forward

Chapter:1 – Front Material
Subsection: 2 – Other Stuff
Document Number:01
Topic: Forward
Date Composed: 10-27-96 02:06:52 PM Date Modified: 11-16-98 08:55:17 PM

I started writing this DataBook as a database for my own use in my consulting business, Millennium Technology, Inc. Over a period of time, I realized that my customers could use much of the data I had collected in my database. As it became clear that I could provide this data as a value-add to my current customers, it also became apparent that many others could benefit from this information as well.

At first, I intended to write a book and have one of the mainstream book publishers publish it. Well not many of them seem to be interested in Warp these days. Most of the “real” book publishers seem to have jumped on the Windows bandwagon.

With that problem staring me in the face, and since I have been creating the database anyway, and since I was going to make it available on the internet to my own customers, I decided to make it generally available for a one time access fee. I was also encouraged in my efforts by some of the good folks at (the now defunct) Indelible Blue, Inc. who told me that many of their customers are looking for information about Warp. Unfortunately IB has had no recommendations for books about Warp, especially Warp Server and Warp 4.

It is my hope that the $50 fee will be low enough to attract those who really need access to this type of data – along with the fact that the DataBook will never be out of date. As new Warp products are released by IBM, this DataBook will be updated to include them. The intent of the DataBook for OS/2 Warp is to provide information about all versions of IBM’s OS/2 Warp – to fill the gap which exists since the hardcopy book publishers don’t seem interested in the OS/2 Warp community.

Perhaps the DataBook and its kindred will soon be the “real” books and paper books will be the exception.

Warp Products Covered by the DataBook For OS/2

The DataBook for OS/2 Warp covers the following Warp products:

  • Warp 3
  • Warp 4
  • Warp Connect
  • Warp Server
  • WorkSpace on Demand
  • Warp Server for e-business


OS/2 Books Reference

These are the books I have found most useful in working with OS/2 Warp over the years. Combined, they cover much of the material that I had included in the old DataBook® for OS/2.

Obtaining these books may be somewhat problematic these days, but there are still a few around. I do have several copies of “Inside OS/2 Warp.” Table 1: OS/2 Reference Books Title ISBN Author(s) Publisher Description Inside OS/2 Warp 1-56205-378-7 Minasi, Camarda, Hallberg, Both, et. al. New Riders Publishing I co-authored this book and Chapter 22, “Troubleshooting” was reviewed as being, “A tour de force that will surely repay your $39.95.” That aside, this book is aimed at experienced users. It provides excellent coverage of everything from using the Desktop to how things work including an especially good, in-depth chapter of filesystems, and one on optimization. The OS/2 2.0 Handbook: Applications, Integration and Optimization 0-442-01234-9 Zack Van Nostrand Reinhold This book is a complete reference that discusses how to integrate DOS, Windows (3.1) and OS/2 applications. OS/2 Power User’s Reference 0-07-912218-3 Chapman McGraw-Hill This is a Tips and Techniques book using a “help desk” like Q&A format.

Chapter 1 – What is an Operating System and why is it Important?

The operating system you use on your computer is as important—or more so—than the hardware you run it on. This chapter of the DataBook for OS/2 discusses operating systems, why they are important, and why—at the time this was originally written—OS/2 was the best choice.

This chapter starts with a brief discussion of what OS/2 Warp really is, then proceeds with a brief introduction to the concepts, functions, and purposes of operating systems. It covers the basic tasks which an operating system performs.

This section also shows why the operating system of your computer is important to you. The importance of multitasking is covered and how multitasking enables you to use your computer more effectively. The different operating systems on the market today are discussed along with brief comparisons of OS/2, DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and Windows NT. Which of today’s operating systems are appropriate for business and which ones are appropriate for small business and home use are also discussed.

Scalability is extremely important; running the same operating system from laptops to servers can make life much simpler for the network administrator or the IS manager. Warp is the only operating system on the market today which can provide that level of scalability.

A short discussion of the history and versions of OS/2 is also included in this chapter.

Technology in Today’s Business

Computers are being used in almost every business today, both large and small. Small businesses especially find computers essential. One estimate places over 25.8 million computers in home offices alone, assuming only one computer per office. Most small offices have one or more computers. With more than 21 million small businesses in the United States today, the number of personal computers in use in the small office home office (SOHO) environment is probably between 50 million and 75 million.

The term “small business” is defined differently by many people and the definition even varies between industries. Virtually all definitions of small business, however, include more than 99.9% of all the business entities in America. With only certain exceptions, the same is true for most of the rest of the world.

Computers are supposed to increase our productivity and make us work more efficiently. But no one has really told us how to do that. At least they haven’t told those of us in small businesses. Paul and Sarah Edwards, in Working From Home (Putnam, 1994) consider a computer as essential as a telephone for the home office. Neither the Edwards’ books, as good as they are, nor any of the other books for small businesses discuss computers other than to tell you that you need one and to provide a very short discussion of some of the terms you need to know and a list of some components you might buy. Most books for small businesses make little or no effort to provide you with any guidance about the kinds of decisions you should be making.

Computers – A Competitive Advantage

Many business, both large and small, use computers today to perform many tasks necessary to the daily conduct of their operations. These tasks range from “simple” accounting chores, to graphics design, word processing, E-mail, fax and other electronic communications, knowledge or information storage and retrieval, financial analysis, and untold others. The list is as long as the number of people using computers in their businesses.

For the savvy business person, the computer can be a weapon to use against the competition. Intelligent application of computer technology in today’s business environment can mean the difference between mere survival and growing your business; between being one of the pack and being the leader of the pack. Appropriate use of computer technology can make your business more competitive. This is true for the very largest businesses as well as the very smallest, and for all of those which fall in between.

Since so many business people are already using computers, you might wonder how you can use computer technology in a way which might be different from everyone else and provide you with that competitive edge. At least part of the answer lies in using your existing or new computer technology to its fullest extent rather than wasting much of the power you paid for. In the next section we will look at a typical example of how most people use their computers today so that you can see what I mean.

Wasted Computing Power

Most of the computing power you have in your office is wasted. Your computers just do not have enough to do to keep them busy even a tiny fraction of the time.

Most computer users do at least some word processing, but this example could apply to accounting, database, spreadsheet, and many other types of applications as well. Let’s assume that our user has a fairly typical computer system – a 33 MHz 80486 processor with 8 MB of RAM and a 500 MB hard drive – and that he or she is a pretty good typist – say 75 words per minute.

Note: This “typical computer” is becoming less and less typical every day as faster Pentium and Pentium Pro systems replace the slower 80486 systems. However I choose to continue using this system for my example, because faster computers waste even more CPU cycles and time. A nice, slow computer provides a good foundation for the rest of this proposition.

Let’s look more closely at a couple of things before we go further with this scenario. You have seen the specification before, for a 33 MHz 80486 processor in this system. But what exactly does that mean? This specification is a measure of the processing power of the brain of the computer. 80486 defines the type of Intel processor chip installed in the computer, and 33 MHz represents the number of clock cycles per second and defines how fast that chip runs. The 80486 computer chip is capable of processing one computer instruction every 4 to 7 clock cycles. Therefore, a 33 MHz 80486 – at 33,000,000 clock cycles per second – should be capable of executing approximately 6,000,000 instructions every second.

Our typist can type about 75 words per minute and it takes about 1500 processor instructions to process each keystroke. If we assume an average of 6 characters per word, we get 6 characters x 75 words per minute / 60 seconds per minute = 7.5 characters per second. And 7.5 characters per second x 1500 instructions per character = 11,250 instructions per second are used to type this document. That leaves 5,988,750 instructions available for use each second which have been wasted. Over 99.8% of the available processing power in this computer has been wasted because the computer simply sits there waiting for the user to press the next key. One way to increase the efficiency of our computer technology is to use those otherwise wasted clock cycles.

All of these wasted clock cycles are not the fault of your hardware, rather they are caused by the fact that DOS was designed in such a manner that it can only perform one task at a time. DOS was designed this way because the original IBM PC, back in 1981, was developed using some invalid assumptions. One of those assumptions was that the PC would be used in a single-tasking environment; that is, it would be turned on at the beginning of the day, run one program all day, and then it would be turned off at night. If the PC was on the desk of an accountant, it would run an accounting application all day long. If it were on the desk of a financial analyst, it would run a spreadsheet. If this PC were on the desk of a secretary, it would run a word processor all day long. There was no basis in these assumptions to provide a multitasking capability – that is the capability to run more than one program at a time.

Why Multitasking?

The Need for Multitasking

When many of us who purchased our first PC back in 1981 or 1982 began to use them, we immediately discovered that we needed the ability to run multiple programs at the same time. For example, within a week of taking delivery of my first PC, I was writing a letter on it. During the course of this letter, I needed to make an arithmetic calculation. I did not have a calculator, but I did have this $5,000 computer; unfortunately I could not use it to do the calculation without some time-consuming procedures. I had to go through the following steps to make a calculation and get it into my document.

  • Save my document
  • Exit from the word processor
  • Insert a diskette with a calculator program
  • Start the calculator program
  • Make the calculations
  • Write down the result
  • Exit the calculator program
  • Insert the word processing diskette
  • Restart the word processor
  • Load the document on which I was working
  • Find my place in the document
  • Type in the number

Because so many early adopters of the PC encountered this same problem, companies like Borland created programs such as Sidekick which would load and remain silent and unused in memory while other programs – such as word processors – did the work required of it. When you needed a calculator, a calendar, a schedule, or so on, you pressed a couple keys and the desired utility program appeared on the screen, ready for use. Programs like Sidekick are called Terminate and Stay Resident programs, or TSRs. So, immediately after the original IBM PC became available back in 1981, people were already trying to overcome the intrinsic single tasking nature of DOS.

One way to make your computer more efficient is to put to use as many of those wasted CPU cycles as you can. That means that you need to add true multitasking to your computer. Multitasking also makes you more efficient because you can have the programs you need available when you need them. There are currently a number of operating systems which you can use and which will give you some form of multitasking.

Multitasking in Windows 3.1

Windows 3.1 attempted to provide multitasking so that you could do more than one task at a time, but it is very limited in its capability, partially because it is still based on DOS. Windows 3.1 uses a type of multitasking called cooperative multitasking. In this type of multitasking, each application has to be willing to cooperate with other applications and surrender the processor to another program so that it can have some processor time.

With this type of environment, in which the end user has to rely upon the good intentions of all of the programmers who wrote the programs which are currently running on his or her computer, there is much reason for concern. A single program which refuses to yield the processor can cause everything else in the computer to come to a screeching halt. You can demonstrate this by starting any program on a Windows 3.1 system which will perform a task for a period of time – say printing from a word processor, or downloading a large file from an electronic BBS – then insert a diskette and format it. Whatever else you have started will come to an almost complete stop while the diskette is being formatted. Programs which do not work well together can also cause General Protection Faults (GPFs) and crash the entire system.

Multitasking in Windows 95

Windows 95 moves a tiny step closer to true multitasking, but it is still based in large part upon DOS and Windows 3.1, and suffers greatly from that limitation. Programs written specifically for Windows 95 cannot even be multitasked among themselves without cooperative multitasking, however, and when legacy Windows 3.1 programs are used alongside the Windows 95 programs, a single recalcitrant legacy application can cause the entire system to crash.

Even when using only those applications written especially for it, Windows 95 performs a significant amount of cooperative multitasking. This is because so much of Windows 95 is really Windows 3.1, and is therefore fundamentally cooperative multitasking in nature. A GPF caused by a Windows 3.1 program can still cause the entire Windows 95 system to crash.

Multitasking in Windows NT

The multitasking in Windows NT is very much like that of OS/2. The reason for that is very simple: Windows NT started life as OS/2. Back when Microsoft was responsible for creating OS/2 under contract to IBM, Windows NT was being developed as OS/2 3.0. When IBM and Microsoft split up over the relative directions of Windows and OS/2, IBM took over complete responsibility for development of OS/2 2.0, and Microsoft continued to work on what was then being called OS/2 3.0. Later on, as the rift between IBM and Microsoft grew, Microsoft renamed OS/2 3.0 as Windows NT, and IBM began development of its own version of OS/2 3.0, which became OS/2 Warp.

As a result, Windows NT has very good multitasking characteristics. However, there are other reasons why Windows NT does not make a good operating system for many businesses. Windows NT is most suitable for large businesses with some very specific networking and security needs. It requires nearly double the RAM resources of OS/2 to run well and requires significantly more disk space to install.

Windows NT is also slower and less capable than Warp Server as a file and print server. The following excerpts from an IBM press release show why.

PC Week Labs Tests Performance of Leading PC Server Operating Systems

AUSTIN, Texas, April 10, 1996 . . . Results of an independent test conducted by PC Week Labs show that OS/2 Warp Server running on a single processor outperforms both Microsoft Windows NT Server and Novell Netware 4.1 running on four-way SMP- (symmetric- multiprocessing) equipped servers.

“We are very pleased with the results of this test, especially considering the fact that Windows NT was running on a server with four 133MHz Pentium processors and Warp Server was running on a uniprocessor machine,” said Art Olbert, director of product plan management, IBM Personal Software Products. “Our own tests have shown a 14 percent improvement in file and print performance in OS/2 Warp Server Version 4 over LAN Server 4.0. That means we have improved performance for our current customers and we have also beaten the competition.”

According to the tests, OS/2 Warp Server had a peak performance of 56M bps (mega-bits per second), outperforming Windows NT Server by up to 26 percent in file and print services. Windows NT Server performed at a maximum of 44 M bps, while Netware 4.1 placed last. The testing was conducted with Ziff-Davis Benchmark Operation’s newly released NetBench 4.01, with file and print services running on a 100M bps Fast Ethernet network.

“The results of this test are very impressive, but then again, I’ve always been impressed with the performance of IBM’s LAN Server,” said John Robinson, systems manager, South Carolina Department of Parks and Recreation. “And as we roll out the new OS/2 Warp Server, I’ve seen a significant improvement in file and print services.”

To view the complete article printed by PC Week, link to the PCWeek Warp Server Comparison. Note: This page is no longer available.

Multitasking in OS/2 Warp

OS/2 Warp is the only operating system for the desktop computer which was designed from the ground up as a true multitasking operating system. OS/2 relies completely upon itself for multitasking. It is in control of all applications running under it, even those which were not designed for multitasking. OS/2 will preempt any program which takes a predefined maximum amount of time and allow other programs access to the processor. OS/2 controls multitasking, not the application programs.

Here is what OS/2 Warp does for me. I do a lot of my work on a five year old computer – an IBM P75, 80486, 33 MHz system with 16 MB of RAM and a 400 MB hard drive. I also have a 1.2 GB external hard drive, a CD-ROM, a rewritable optical drive, and two 14,400 external Fax/Modems. This system is not state of the art, and it is not nearly as fast as most systems available today, but does have a lot of disk capacity. The hardware RAM capacity is maximized at 16 MB and cannot be increased further.

When I turn on my computer in the morning, OS/2 boots up and I start my personal information manager (PIM). This PIM consists of a clock/calendar with alarms, an appointment book, a to-do list, a phone book, a contact list, and a very flexible note pad. I also start my fax software which allows me to send and receive faxes while I work on other things. Since much of my day is spent writing, my word processor is usually the next application I start. I like to connect to the internet or CompuServe to check my E-mail and search for news and files of interest.

On one typical day recently, I was working on an article using DeScribe for OS/2 as a fax started to come in. FaxWorks OS/2 responded and accepted the fax. I started to print the document on which I had been working. I needed to send a message on CompuServe so I composed the message off line using Golden CommPass for OS/2. I sent the message while the print job was being sent to the printer and the fax was still coming in. While it was connected to CompuServe, Golden CommPass searched my favorite forums for new messages and downloaded the titles so I could select the ones I wanted to read at a later time. And while all of this was taking place, IBM AntiVirus/2, which is timed to scan my system for viruses every Friday at 4:00 PM, started up automatically and did so – without affecting anything else in progress.

This was admittedly a somewhat busier time for my computer than usual, but it does illustrate the potential of OS/2 to allow me to do everything I need to do without being hampered by limitations imposed on my computer by old operating system technology. It also shows that older, somewhat limited computer systems can have an extended life when OS/2 Warp is added to them. OS/2 Warp can do the same for you and your computer. The rest of this book shows you how.

Note: This example was written before I had purchased a couple new computers, but it serves to illustrate the capabilites of Warp quite well. My new computers are faster and more powerful, but I have them doing the jobs of Warp Server and Lotus Notes Server, along with the Notes Domino Server which feeds this DataBook to the World Wide Web.

Computer-Centric Strategies for Enhancing Productivity

Increasing productivity is usually viewed as a human-centric activity. Most businesses think in terms of increasing the productivity of people. Government statistics even measure productivity in terms of units of work per capita of the workforce. No wonder we think in terms of increasing the productivity of our workers. The term “workers”, as used by many large corporations today, tends to dehumanize the people who are doing the work; they become just another tool whose output is measured in units of work per tool.

The reality is, that in these days of corporate downsizing and lean staffs, most people are already doing about as much as they can. They are working harder, working smarter, putting in more hours, and using computers and other office technology to do more than they ever have before. Productivity in the U.S. continues to rise, although very slowly. The U.S. is already one of the most productive countries in the world. A new approach is needed if productivity is going to increase significantly. It is time to start thinking in terms of increasing the productivity of the tools used in todays business office.

The last really significant productivity increase in the office was in 1981 when the original IBM PC was introduced. Within a very short period of time, many offices, both large and small, had added a PC to do some specific task. Over time, many of those PCs began to be used for additional tasks. As each task was added to the PC’s workload, the user, after an initial period of learning, became more productive at those tasks.

Use of the most powerful tools available is key to increasing the productivity of your computers. Warp – in all its incarnations as a stand-alone, as a client, and as a server – is the most powerful tool you can have on your computer.

SETI@Home – A Perfect Example of Multitasking

SETI@Home is a current (as of July 2000) project that illustrates the ideal use for multitasking. It also serves to illustrate how much CPU power is wasted every day, and how the Internet can be harnessed to provide huge amounts of computing power for application to certain tasks.

SETI@Home

SETI@home is a scientific experiment begun in early 1999 that harnesses the power of hundreds of thousands of Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Anyone with a computer that has access to the Internet can participate by running a program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data. There is also a small but real possibility that your computer will detect the faint murmur of a civilization beyond Earth for which you could get credit as a co-discoverer.

The Project

The SETI@Home project was developed by scientists at the University of California at Berkeley. It is an attempt to locate radio emissions of intelligent beings that might be located on other planets.

The problem is that for two years, beginning in early 1999, they will be receiving data from the radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico. About 35 GB of data is generated each day. The processing needed to fully analyze this data amounts to over 36,000,000,000,000,000 calculations for the data of a single day. The Berkeley folks simply did not have the required computing power on hand nor the money to purchase it.

They came up with the idea of splitting the data into small packets that they call “work units” and sending them to computers on the Internet. Each computer could analyze one small packet of about 107 seconds worth of data at a time and then send the results back to UCB. Using thousands or even hundreds of thousands of computers at a time to analyze the data would actually create the largest virtual computer ever assembled to perform a single task.

The result of this is the software called SETI@Home. It runs on many different platforms including various flavors of Unix, Linux, OS/2 Warp, BEOS, Windows 95/98/NT, and Mac.

As I write this, there are 802,849 users participating in this project. Many, like me, use multiple computers so as to be able to process multiple work units simultaneously. At this time, over 25,000 years of CPU time has been donated to this project.

How it Works

The SETI@Home software is designed to run in the background, or as a screen saver. On Windows (all versions) systems it runs primarily as a screen saver but it can also run as a background process. On other platforms, including OS/2, it runs as a background process and only takes up those CPU cycles that are not being used by other tasks or processes.

The client software which runs on your computer contacts the server and is sent a work unit. The client software processes the data in the work unit and sends the result back to the server at Berkeley. Processing can take from a few hours to a three or four days per work unit, depending upon the speed of the client computer.

This is an outstanding use of the multitasking capabilities of many computers to achieve a result that would overwhelm a single computer, or for which a more powerful single computer cannot be made available due to resource constraints. By using the multitasking capabilities of operating systems like OS/2, this huge scientific task can be accomplished with little or no impact to the users on whose computers the program is run.

Note that on the Intel platform, the OS/2 Warp systems seem to have one of the best average times to complete each work unit. Additional Information

For more specific information about the project and how it works, link to the Berkeley SETI@Home web site.

What is OS/2 Warp?

This section describes OS/2 Warp, its features and functions. This section also contains my Short History of OS/2 as well as a bit about the future of OS/2.

=