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This is the first edition of the OS/2 Wish List - a compilation of all the 
wishes of OS/2 users to be handed over to IBM when we get enough wishes.  If
you notice something on this list that you say 'Gee, I really like that 
idea' mail me!  I will add your name to the list of the supporters for that 
feature.  This show of force for particular features will help IBM judge 
which features are really needed and which are 'wishful thinking' :-)

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This is the OS/2 Wishlist, compiled from people on the Internet and Fidonet.
This document hopefully represents the direction in which the public would
like OS/2 to go and the tasks that must be accomplished to get OS/2 there.

Whenever possible, the wish descriptions are taken from direct quotes from
the author.  If the wish is taken as a direct quote, it is included in
quotes ( "" ). Any comments made with respect to these quotes are listed in
parentheses ( () ).  Editing changes are marked in square brackets ( [] ).
Wishes not listed in quotes are ones I wrote myself.

Attached to each item is the name and address (or multiple names and
addresses if the item was requested by multiple people).  The first address
is the first person asking for the addition (and if the wish description is
a direct quote, the author of the quote); any additional addresses are
people asking for the same or similar addition to OS/2.

The items listed are in the order in which they were received.

Please mail any additions to evanc@spatial.synapse.org (Internet) or
Evan Champion @ 1:163/590 (Fidonet).


Last Updated: 93-12-30

POSIX COMPLIANCE

  (could someone elaborate this one for me as I am not very familiar with
  POSIX nor the reasons for wanting POSIX compliance)

  Babak Masalehdan (tillman+@pitt.edu)

DRIVER SUPPORT
  3rd party driver support must be improved; IBM should do everything
  possible to get 3rd party vendors to support OS/2 and must do
  everything ensure the same high-quality drivers we get from IBM for 3rd
  party vendors.  Possibly, a driver testing centre should be set up to give
  free testing of device drivers for compatibility with OS/2 systems.

  Babak Masalehdan (tillman+@pitt.edu)

SYMETRIC MULTIPROCESSING
  Symetric multiprocessing (SMP) should be part of the base system, or if
  costs prohibit such a move, should atleast be part of the CD-ROM
  distribution.

  Babak Masalehdan (tillman+@pitt.edu)

GLOBAL CHANGE OPTION FOR THE WPS
  There should be a way to say, for example, 'Make all folders look like
  this one'.

  Babak Masalehdan (tillman+@pitt.edu)

INI EDITOR
  An INI editor should be included as part of the base system.

  Babak Masalehdan (tillman+@pitt.edu)

TEXT-MODE EDITOR
  A text editor that can be used when booting from floppies must be included
  for emergency measures. I recommend using the same editor that comes with
  IBM DOS 6.1 which is based on TinyEd, an IBM EWS product.

  Evan Champion (evanc@spatial.synapse.org)

COMMON INSTALL PROGRAM
  A single, common install and uninstall program should come with OS/2 and
  IBM should insist that all 3rd party vendors make use of it.  This install
  program should even be used for the OS/2 installation.  I recommend the
  one that comes with IBM SearchManager/2.

  Evan Champion (evanc@spatial.synapse.org)

NEW FILE SYSTEM
  This new file system should have: symbolic links; security in the form of
  read, write and execute bits for the user, group and other; an execute bit
  for specifying executable files without relying on the filename ending in
  'EXE', 'COM', etc.; must be journaled; support extended attributes
  greater than 64K, caches greater than 2 MB, immense file system size (in
  the terabyte range). This file system should be positionned as a
  replacement for HPFS; in fact, a program to convert from HPFS to the new
  filesystem as well as from FAT to the new file system should be provided.

  Evan Champion (evanc@spatial.synapse.org)

INSTALLABLE FILE SYSTEMS FOR REMOVABLE DEVICES
  Installable file systems must be made available for removable devices,
  including floppies.  It is unaccepable for a user with optical disks to be
  forced to use FAT instead of another file system (ie: HFPS)

MOVEMENT OF SHADOWS IN TO THE FILE SYSTEM
  The Shadows are one of the most complex parts of the WPS because often
  users don't understand that a shadow only exists in the desktop.
  Therefore, shadows (or 'symbolic links') should become part of the file
  system. This could be accomplished with a new file system (see above) or
  additions to an existing file system.

  Evan Champion (evanc@spatial.synapse.org)
  Lew Jensen (lrj@helios.tn.cornell.edu)

MOVEMENT OF INFORMATION FROM THE OS2.INI TO THE FILE SYSTEM
  Icon information etc. should be moved from the INI files in to the file
  system in the form of extended attributes.  This will allow users to
  retain system settings even when replacing the operating system as all the
  necessary settings are kept along in the application's extended attributes
  which can be backed up, and would solve the problem of the ever-growing
  OS2.INI file.

  Evan Champion (evanc@spatial.synapse.org)

LONG FILE NAMES IN FAT
  All filesystem calls should rely on the LONGNAME extended attribute for
  FAT filesystems,  making long filenames transparent to the user, just like
  they are for HPFS filesystems.

  Evan Champion (evanc@spatial.synapse.org)

MULTIPLE INPUT QUEUES
  "I can't stand having PM lockup or be pokey on me because it only has
  a single input queue and some brain dead or slow PM program has
  stopped servicing it.  Windows NT has this and the alpha of Chicago
  I played with does too.  And don't placate me by telling me a "good"
  PM program should use multiple threads and this wouldn't be a problem.
  Bull!  IBM's own apps with the Developer News CD are one of the worst
  at hogging the input queue (10-20 seconds isn't unusual when first
  starting up even on my 486SLC2/66 Mhz box)."

  John Freeborg (johnf@persoft.com)
  Cheng-Yang Tan (cytan@tristan.tn.cornell.edu)

A SIMPLE, ROCK SOLID INSTALL PROCESS
  "I can't tell you the number of people who I have convinced to switch to
  OS/2 only to be gravely disappointed by the install from hell.  *Why*
  should I have to disable my external CPU cache and "turbo" settings in
  BIOS and run in slow mode just to install?  Windows NT doesn't have
  to resort to any of this!  Why should switching video modes be so hard?"

  John Freeborg (johnf@persoft.com)

RELIABLE WORKPLACE SHELL BACKUP/RESTORE (OS2.INI AND DESKTOP DIRECTORY)
  "Why should people have to resort on shareware utils which may/may not
  work to do this?  WPS is great, but everything isn't 100% reliable and you
  must provide a way to get back to my last saved point."

  (could this be achieved through the movement of INI information to the
  filesystem? -- EC)

  John Freeborg (johnf@persoft.com)

MAINTAINING THE NUMLOCK STATE (AS DEFINED BY THE BIOS)
  "[I wish] the OS would leave the NumLock key to the state in which the
  system sets it (or at least have a setting for that in CONFIG.SYS).  I
  hate the way OS/2 turns it off when the system boots (my BIOS has a
  setting for the NumLock state, OS/2 should leave it alone).

  Marko Teittinen (marko@cs.umd.edu)
  Jerry Freeman (n6140299@henson.cc.wwu.edu)

CHANGING THE GRAPHICS DRIVER ON-THE-FLY
  "...it would be nice to be able to change the graphics driver on the
  fly (without complete reboot, naturally the desktop needs to be
  shutdown and restarted in the new resolution, but that could be
  automated).

  Marko Teittinen (marko@cs.umd.edu)

COLOURFUL ICONS
  The default icon set in OS/2 is a bit bland and unappealing.  A splash of
  colour would really improve the looks of the WPS.

  Cheng-Yang Tan (cytan@tristan.tn.cornell.edu)

SCROLL-BACK BUFFER FOR OS/2 WINDOWS
  A scroll-back buffer of user-definable size should be available for OS/2
  windows.

  Cheng-Yang Tan (cytan@tristan.tn.cornell.edu)

MOUNTING DRIVES INSTEAD OF HAVING DRIVE LETTERS
  Drives should be mounted as directories off of the boot drive.  For
  programs that are not designed to handle such a system, the root drive
  could be called 'C:', and all other drives would be accessed using a
  directory path

  Lew Jensen (lrj@helios.tn.cornell.edu)

MAKE "/" AND "\" ACT THE SAME FOR DIRECTORIES
  Users should be able to change directories using either "/" or "\" as
  directory separators.  This would require changing the command-line switch
  delimeter to '-' from '/'.

  Lew Jensen (lrj@helios.tn.cornell.edu)

SUPPORT WILDCARD EXPANSION IN THE SHELL
  The OS/2 command shell (CMD.EXE) should provide wildcard expansion.  For
  example, a user should be able to 'cd \desk*' to change in to '\desktop'.
  This simplifies application development as well, as each piece of software
  doesn't need to have wildcard expansion routines.

  Evan Champion (evanc@spatial.synapse.org)

COMMAND ALIASES IN CMD.EXE
  The OS/2 command shell (CMD.EXE) should support command aliases.  This
  allows users to alias a complex or cumbersome command with a short, simple
  name.

  Evan Champion (evanc@spatial.synapse.org)

TABLE OF EXECUTED COMMANDS
  The OS/2 command shell (CMD.EXE) should in memory a table of executed
  commands.  This would allow the shell to quickly start up a program that
  has been run before without having to search in the path for it.

  Evan Champion (evanc@spatial.synapse.org)

LIST/KILL PROCESS COMMANDS
  As part of the base operating system, a command to kill processes must be
  provided.  There must be some means to kill off a program that has gone
  awry quickly and simply.  A simplified version of the 'procs' command
  should also be provided to allow users to find the process they need to
  kill without having to search through the masses of information that
  'procs' provides.

  Evan Champion (evanc@spatial.synapse.org)

UNICODE
  Unicode support should be included in the base operating system.  This
  would also remove the need for a different double byte character set
  version of the operating system.

  Michael John Raine (michael-raine@uiowa.edu)

DATE AND TIME FORMAT
  The system date and time format (as defined in the Country object in the
  System Setup folder' should be used everywhere in the operating system -
  including the directory lists which currently use US-format dates and
  times.

  Evan Champion (evanc@spatial.synapse.org)

MOVE TO THE MICROKERNAL FOR INTEL OS/2
  While I recognize that the OS/2 kernal is insanely optimized for the PC, I
  think it would be best to move the whole architechture to the IBM
  Microkernal, for uniformity with other OS/2 platforms as well as for
  better memory protection as device drivers would run in user space and
  could not crash the whole machine.

  Evan Champion (evanc@spatial.synapse.org)

FASTER BOOT OFF FLOPPY
  Booting OS/2 off floppy takes forever.  An unexperienced user could think
  that the computer has crashed while booting.  Something should come up
  telling the user that something is happening, rather than 'Please Wait'
  for a few minutes.  A big improvement would be booting off a single floppy
  instead of the current two, which would also make the boot process much
  faster.

  Evan Champion (evanc@spatial.synapse.org)

BETTER SVGA IN DOS WINDOWS SUPPORT
  OS/2 needs better SVGA support for DOS window sessions.  All resolutions
  supported by a card should be available for windows.  As long as a window
  would not cover more area than available on the desktop it should be shown
  (or perhaps a method for 'squishing' the windows to make them fit on the
  desktop could be developed).

  Tedman Leung (tedman@sfu.ca)

ADD SEPARATORS FOR NUMBERS RETURNED BY CHKDSK
  "Numbers in things like CHKDSK & other file sizes [are difficult to read].
  1073299562 gets kind of hard to read, whereas 1,073,299,562 means less
  Excedrin."

  (could this be implemented using the 1000's separator in the Country
  settings? -- EC)

  Jerry Freeman (n6140299@henson.cc.wwu.edu)

SEEMLESS CONVERSION OF LF->CRLF OR DROP CRLF
  The PC is the only computer I know of that uses carriage return-line feed
  to denote the end of a line - everyone else just uses the linefeed.
  Because of growing diversity, the PC is forced to work with computers of
  all different architechtures, and exchanging text becomes quite difficult
  when documents can't even be viewed properly.  I propose two solutions -
  one, very radical, is to get rid of CRLF totally.  The second, and probably
  the more livable option, would be to change the 'type' shell commmand to
  be able to view text with only linefeeds properly.

  Evan Champion (evanc@spatial.synapse.org)

JUMP-SCROLLING FOR SHELL WINDOWS
  Windows currently scroll too slowly - jump-scrolling, whereby only what
  can be put to the screen in a reasonable amount of time is shown, would
  improve performance dramatically.

  Evan Champion (evanc@spatial.synapse.org)

RESIZABLE SHELL WINDOWS
  Being limited to fixed resolutions (80x??) is an unnecessary limitation
  for shell windows.  They should be changed to be dynamically resizable -
  simply pull on the resizing borders to resize the screen.  During the
  process, the title bar could change to show the current resolution.

  Evan Champion (evanc@spatial.synapse.org)

RESIZABLE FONT FOR SHELL WINDOWS
  Similar to having dynamically resizable shell window resolutions, there
  should be dynamically resizable font sizes.  The amount of text that could
  be shown a one time in the window remains constant, but the font size is
  changed (using the resize borders).  This should be an option in the
  titlebar menu and not default behaviour.

  Evan Champion (evanc@spatial.synapse.org)

DISPLAY POSTSCRIPT
  PC's have become powerful enough to handle display Postscript, and
  definitely the next generation of PC's - the PowerPC's - could handle
  display Postscript with no problems at all.  With fonts playing an
  increasingly important role, it is important for what is on the screen
  to look as much as possible as printed output.

  Evan Champion (evanc@spatial.synapse.org)

DEFAULTS NOTEBOOK FOR SHELLS
  Have a default settings notebook for shells specifying the default font,
  default window resolution, etc.

  Evan Champion (evanc@spatial.synapse.org)

RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON ACTION FOR PROGRAMS THAT DON'T USE IT
  The commands in the toolbar menu (at the top left corner of each window)
  as well as the menubar (in the case of PM application) should form a
  right mouse button pop-up menu for applications that do not explicitly
  support the right mouse button.

  Evan Champion (evanc@spatial.synapse.org)

DEDICATED SWAP PARTITION
  For performance reasons, a dedicated swap partition option should be
  available in addition to the regular swap file option.  This would
  use an entire logical drive for swapping instead of having to constantly
  resize a swapfile on a regular drive, causing fragmentation in addition
  to the inherently slower process of file I/O over device I/O.

  Evan Champion (evanc@spatial.synapse.org)
--
EVAN CHAMPION ==================================================
Team OS/2 Member!        To add your ideas to the OS/2 Wishlist,
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada  mail to: evanc@spatial.synapse.org
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