🚀 go-pugleaf

I tried to mail you, but the letter bounced:


>GLOBAL CHANGE OPTION FOR THE WPS

I like this one.

>COMMON INSTALL PROGRAM

Very much needed. Also, see later...

>NEW FILE SYSTEM
>INSTALLABLE FILE SYSTEMS FOR REMOVABLE DEVICES
>MOVEMENT OF SHADOWS IN TO THE FILE SYSTEM
>MOVEMENT OF INFORMATION FROM THE OS2.INI TO THE FILE SYSTEM

All of these can be made the same. Take the "NEW FILE SYSTEM" as described,
and add a new file type "Abstract" (in addition to the two available, "File"
and "Directory"). The Abstract file type is for "shadows" (links), Program
objects, etc.

>LONG FILE NAMES IN FAT

Good, but probably difficult to implement with the current EA handling scheme.

>MULTIPLE INPUT QUEUES

Very much needed.

>A SIMPLE, ROCK SOLID INSTALL PROCESS

needed.

>RELIABLE WORKPLACE SHELL BACKUP/RESTORE (OS2.INI AND DESKTOP DIRECTORY)

Good, but automatically solved if the additional file type "Abstract" is
incorporated, and a file backup program.

>MAINTAINING THE NUMLOCK STATE (AS DEFINED BY THE BIOS)

Good.

>COLOURFUL ICONS

Agree. Changing the default colours and redrawing the icons did an awful lot
for WIndows 3.1.

>SCROLL-BACK BUFFER FOR OS/2 WINDOWS

Good.

>MOUNTING DRIVES INSTEAD OF HAVING DRIVE LETTERS

Desirable, but probably unrealistic, since just about any program aware of
drives would break :(

>MAKE "/" AND "\" ACT THE SAME FOR DIRECTORIES

Easy to implement on the operating system level, but can lead to enormous
difficulties with programs that are hard coded to take "/" as a flag separator
for arguments.

>SUPPORT WILDCARD EXPANSION IN THE SHELL

Good, but should be added to the file dialog boxes as well.

>COMMAND ALIASES IN CMD.EXE

Yes.

>TABLE OF EXECUTED COMMANDS

Very minor importance, but not too bad.

>LIST/KILL PROCESS COMMANDS

Yes.

>UNICODE

Very much needed.

>DATE AND TIME FORMAT

Necessary but not enough. OS/2 is unfortunately VERY lame on issues like this.
I can't make 4 digit year display the default, for example, neighter is there
any support for long date formats (Like "January 1st, 1994").

In addition to this, the API needs to be expanded and include functions for
converting date/time/floating-point-numbers/currency to/from string formats,
otherwise the settongs in the country setup are more or less useless, since few
programmers bother to parse the info (it's tricky as hell, especially with the
floating point numbers).

>FASTER BOOT OFF FLOPPY

At least some indication that the system is still alive and working.

>ADD SEPARATORS FOR NUMBERS RETURNED BY CHKDSK

Would be solved by adding the above mentioned functions to the API, and acually
USE them in all programs.

>RESIZABLE SHELL WINDOWS

Yes, and the default shouldn't always be 80x25, but something one can set
in the program object.

>RESIZABLE FONT FOR SHELL WINDOWS

Same as above, make it possible to set it from the program object, so that
different shells can have different font sizes on start-up.

>DISPLAY POSTSCRIPT

Disagree. Display PostScript is nice, but pig slow (talking from experience).
Maybe include a program that converts display postscript to something else,
in the development kits, so that the developers can work with display
PostScript (since it really is nice), but not have to bother about the
extreme slowness of it.

>DEFAULTS NOTEBOOK FOR SHELLS

Right.

>DEDICATED SWAP PARTITION

Whoeheartedly disagree, since a separate swap partition on the same drive
as the date/system will reduce performance. The better way to do it is to
simply make larger swap files the default.

------

Now for my own additions.

OPTIONAL DISABLING OF MENU DROP DOWN ON RIGHT ALT-BUTTON.

Odd, it may seem, but on many non-US keyboards, the right Alt button is
used when typing brackets and such, since many other countries have a few
additional letters in the alphabet. Now, when writing something, and a
bracket is needed, and you slip on the keyboard (happens once in a while)
that darned meny drops down, and it can be pretty annoying.

REFERENCE COUNTED RESOURCES

Users won't notice this, except for a (hopefully) increased performance, due
to reduced memory demands. As it is now, if you have an enormous lot of
fonts, and you run a program displaying all your fonts, the system will be
sluggish afterwards, until the next restart. This is because the system assumes
that since a font was once wanted, it just might be so in the future, and keeps
it in memory so that it can be used quickly. If, instead, a reference count is
incremented for each font when a process requests it for the first time, and
decremented when the process dies, the font can be unloaded when the count
goes to 0. While I haven't calculated on this, I'm convinced the performance
gains by not needing to have the fonts loaded will by far outweigh the
losses of having to maintain the reference counters. I'm not sure if the same
applies to other resources, but if they do, the same should apply to them as
well.

BACKGROUND COLOUR ON ICON TEXT

I'm surpriced this wasn't listed, since just about everybody that ever used a
background bitmap wants it.

CASCADABLE MENUES

I can add items to the object menues, even submenues, but I can't add sub-sub
menues. Why?

MORE DRAG DROP

It should be possible to drop a file on the PATH entry field of program
objects, a directory on the WORKING DIRECTORY on the same. To drop directories
on the PATH entry field of the search dialog and so on.

ASSOCIATE VIEW.EXE WITH .INF FILES

Comments unecessary.

STANDARD UNINSTALL PROGRAM

Most programs fill your system with files a little here and there, your OS2.INI
with some entries and such, and there's just about no way a user can clear
the system of a program, short of reinstalling OS/2. If there was a standard
uninstall program, and using it, from a developers pespectice, is simple and
well documented, the pain will be reduced severely (I know a lot of programmers
still won't bother, but if a few will a lot is gained).

HEAVILY INTEGRATED WPS APPLETS

The applets should be so neatly integrated with the WPS you won't ever see
the programs, just the data objects.

(as an addon, DEVELOPER DOCS ON HOW TO WRITE WPS APPS!!! How can lean WPS apps
be developed when the docs are so few and vague?)

   _
/Bjorn.
-- 
// Bjorn Fahller        Phone: +46 920 99719        <Team-OS/2>
// Professorsvagen 91   Keeper of the OS/2 archive at ftp.luth.se
// S-977 51 Lulea       (130.240.18.2). "Unemployed" due to lacking
// Sweden               disk space.

In article <bjorn.757443367@box.ludd.luth.se> bjorn@ludd.luth.se (Bjorn Fahller) writes:

Much deleted.

>Now for my own additions.
>
>OPTIONAL DISABLING OF MENU DROP DOWN ON RIGHT ALT-BUTTON.
>
>Odd, it may seem, but on many non-US keyboards, the right Alt button is
>used when typing brackets and such, since many other countries have a few
>additional letters in the alphabet. Now, when writing something, and a
>bracket is needed, and you slip on the keyboard (happens once in a while)
>that darned meny drops down, and it can be pretty annoying.

Happens all the time when you write in TeX.
>BACKGROUND COLOUR ON ICON TEXT
>
>I'm surpriced this wasn't listed, since just about everybody that ever used a
>background bitmap wants it.

You are so right.

>STANDARD UNINSTALL PROGRAM
>
>Most programs fill your system with files a little here and there, your OS2.INI
>with some entries and such, and there's just about no way a user can clear
>the system of a program, short of reinstalling OS/2. If there was a standard
>uninstall program, and using it, from a developers pespectice, is simple and
>well documented, the pain will be reduced severely (I know a lot of programmers
>still won't bother, but if a few will a lot is gained).

Great idea.

Regards. 

Per M. Hansen

OS/2 virus scan: Windows detected, erase (y/Y)

Per M�rkeg�rd Hansen 
Roskilde Universitets Center, IMFUFA
Tlf: 46757711, lok. 3296, Fax: 46755065.

Privat: 
Gr�nnegade 7B 1., 4000 Roskilde.
Tlf: 42353004, Fax: 42353004 (call first).

In article <bjorn.757443367@box.ludd.luth.se>,
Bjorn Fahller <bjorn@ludd.luth.se> wrote:
>>MOUNTING DRIVES INSTEAD OF HAVING DRIVE LETTERS
>
>Desirable, but probably unrealistic, since just about any program aware of
>drives would break :(


	Not really.  I've posted at least 4 times with a scheme that
	would probably allow current OS/2 programs that make hard 
	references to a: B: C: and so on to continue to run while the 
	user could now assign DOCS: or BIB: in the same way that he now
	assigns LIBPATH.

	The Amiga/Mac-style disk mounting that I propose is seamless, and
	would be more familiar to users than the UNIX mount-off-root 
	(well, I suppose the Mac desktop/ way is similar).  Additionally,
	mount off root could be easily simulated...


>>RESIZABLE SHELL WINDOWS
>>RESIZABLE FONT FOR SHELL WINDOWS


	FIX STUPID, NIGGLING BUGS IN WPS.  Why can't I set swapfile paramaters
	from a graphical interface?  Why can't I get my WPS desktop menu to 
	*stay* changed when I change it from schemes?  Suppose I want to make
	a new colorscheme, but keep the same desktop scheme--why can't I make
	a pallette of colorschemes that will change the _coloration_ of multiple
	desktop features on the whole, but *not* *change* *menu/font/etc.* 
	settings?  Why aren't things like the tasking parameters, protectonly,
	startupfoldersonly and so on accompanied with a nice GUI front end in 
	system setup?  Why isn't there a log file of successfully and
	unsuccessfully launched drivers/applications at system startup?  Why
	can't I make a snapshot of my desktop to be used at bootup, and then
	make a mess as I work throughout the day, only to have my desk cleaned
	up again--whew!--the next morning when I reboot? 

	MULTIUSER WPS.  Add ability to have logins and seperate, unique 
	desktop arrangements for multiple users.

	ALLOW DRIVERS TO BE LOADED AND UNLOADED WITHOUT A RESET.  That's
	right.  If Windows 3.1 drivers can allow a user to change resolution
	without exiting or restarting Windows, why not Os/2?  If Win3.1
	can restart so quickly the rest of the time, when that feature
	hasn't been implemented, why can't PM? 

	PROTECT SYSTEM FROM ITSELF.  Whoever decided that Os/2 should be 
	able to drag the OS2 directory to the shredder and have the command
	obeyed ought to be strung up.  At the very least, OS/2 should install
	the system files readonly, and offer a checksum program that can
	routinely scan all of the installed system files to be sure that they
	are not corrupted.

	ALLOW SYSTEM TO MODIFY .INI FILES WITHOUT COPYING THEM.  Last I checked,
	OS/2 copies the OS2.INI file to a completely new file (.$$$) whenever
	it modifies it.  This gets annoying if your ini file has been growing,
	especially if it's doing so due to WPS inefficiencies and bugs.

	UNIFIED SHELL WINDOW.  Use same shell window for DOS, OS/2 and
	POSIX (it was on this list) programs.  Having seperate command
	windows for text mode programs is stupid, especially the way they
	are handled now.

	CLOSABLE SHELL WINDOW.  It's idiotic that you can't use a double
	click on the close box to close an idle, at the command line waiting
	for a command, DOS or OS/2 window without being asked if you're sure.
	Active program? Fine, ask.  Inactive, just a shell?  Close it.

	VECTOR ICONS.  Use vector graphics files for icons instead of bitmaps,
	(offer both) and allow the icon to be scaled to a fixed size no matter
	the resolution.  


>>DISPLAY POSTSCRIPT
>
>Disagree. Display PostScript is nice, but pig slow (talking from experience).
>Maybe include a program that converts display postscript to something else,
>in the development kits, so that the developers can work with display
>PostScript (since it really is nice), but not have to bother about the
>extreme slowness of it.


	NeXTSTEP on the 486dx2-66 that I saw it on had much faster screen 
	updates than OS/2 did, and OS/2 was using the accellerator hardware
	of the card, whereas NeXTSTEP was not.  NS even had faster (*much* 
	faster) scrolling in a mach shell window than OS/2 did, using a 
	smaller font and fewer vertical lines, on the same hardware..


>>DEFAULTS NOTEBOOK FOR SHELLS


	SIDEWAYS NOTEBOOKS.  Use notebooks styled in the same way as those
	used in Word 6.0 for Windows.  The tabs-on-top format is much less
	wasteful of screen real estate and looks better, too. 


>>DEDICATED SWAP PARTITION


	FIX STUPID SWAPFILE SETTINGS COMMAND LINE.  The sizes should be
	initial size and maximum size, not initial size and max-not-used-space.



>REFERENCE COUNTED RESOURCES


	Good idea.


>STANDARD UNINSTALL PROGRAM


	GET RID OF CONFIG.SYS.  IBM programmeers: Look at the WinNT registry.
	Learn. 


-- 
 The big mistake that men make is that when they turn thirteen or fourteen and
 all of a sudden they've reached puberty, they believe that they like women.
 Actually, you're just horny. It doesn't mean you like women any more at
 twenty-one than you did at ten.                --Jules Feiffer (cartoonist)

Lots of good ideas deleted.  And two more not mentioned.

(1)  The ability to toggle between a full screen os/2 screen, and a
window os/2 screen.  OS/2 can do it with dos windows, it would be
real nice to do it with os/2 text windows also.

(2)  File completion, (like unix's [tab]).


------------------------------------------------------------
|   Mattison (Matt) Narramore    jmn@gandalf.rutgers.edu   |
|        I'm my own evil twin, accept no substitute.       |
------------------------------------------------------------    

In article <2d24f39e.spatial@spatial.UUCP> evanc@spatial.UUCP (Evan Champion) writes:
>
>Please mail any additions to evanc@spatial.synapse.org (Internet) or
>Evan Champion @ 1:163/590 (Fidonet).

E-Mail bounced, so here are mine.

>POSIX COMPLIANCE

Unnecessary.

>DRIVER SUPPORT

Definitely.

>SYMETRIC MULTIPROCESSING

Yes.

>GLOBAL CHANGE OPTION FOR THE WPS

Enable the saving/loading of the DOS session settings to a file, and the option
to change all DOS program settings (and for that matter OS/2 program settings)
to match the current one.

>INI EDITOR

A config.sys file editor (for the unwashed masses) would be a good thing too.
Make it support drag-n-drop, so that the config.sys file can resemble the
startup folder on the Mac, which people seem to like.

>TEXT-MODE EDITOR

Maybe.  There are several available for free/cheap (like QEdit) which are
more than adequate.

>COMMON INSTALL PROGRAM

Would be nice.  A common UNinstall program would be even better.

>NEW FILE SYSTEM

Nice, but lower priority than most things.  HPFS does what I need.

>INSTALLABLE FILE SYSTEMS FOR REMOVABLE DEVICES

Would be nice.

>MOVEMENT OF SHADOWS IN TO THE FILE SYSTEM

Some easier way to tell that "this is a shadow" and not the real object
would be good too.  Just greying the text and altering the pop-ups 
doesn't seem to be enough sometimes.

>MOVEMENT OF INFORMATION FROM THE OS2.INI TO THE FILE SYSTEM

Good idea.

>LONG FILE NAMES IN FAT

This is there now, in the form of the .LONGNAME EA.  Start using it.

>MULTIPLE INPUT QUEUES

Yes.  Definitely.

>A SIMPLE, ROCK SOLID INSTALL PROCESS

Yes.

>RELIABLE WORKPLACE SHELL BACKUP/RESTORE (OS2.INI AND DESKTOP DIRECTORY)

Yes.

>MAINTAINING THE NUMLOCK STATE (AS DEFINED BY THE BIOS)

This doesn't bother me.

>CHANGING THE GRAPHICS DRIVER ON-THE-FLY

Nice, but lower priority than others.

>COLOURFUL ICONS

Yes.  Definitely.

>SCROLL-BACK BUFFER FOR OS/2 WINDOWS

Would be nice, but this is lower priority than others for me.

>MOUNTING DRIVES INSTEAD OF HAVING DRIVE LETTERS

I don't think this is necessary.  It would likely only confuse the average
user (who was dual-booting DOS) and any other program that knew about drives.

>MAKE "/" AND "\" ACT THE SAME FOR DIRECTORIES
>SUPPORT WILDCARD EXPANSION IN THE SHELL
>COMMAND ALIASES IN CMD.EXE
>TABLE OF EXECUTED COMMANDS

Definitely.  However, 4OS2 does most of these things now (if not all of 
them).  Might we get IBM to license 4OS2 from JP software and make it the
default CLI?

>LIST/KILL PROCESS COMMANDS

Very definitely.  Having to get shareware to do this (killem and procs) on
a multitasking OS is just plain silly.  Make them callable by a keyboard
sequence like CTL-ALT-ESC or something, and allow them to kill the WPS as
an option.

>UNICODE

Not a priority for me.

>DATE AND TIME FORMAT

Nice idea, but low priority for me.

>MOVE TO THE MICROKERNAL FOR INTEL OS/2

Only if it doesn't impact on performance too much.

>FASTER BOOT OFF FLOPPY

Yes.  Include also a utility to make a single boot floppy as part of the
base operating system.

>BETTER SVGA IN DOS WINDOWS SUPPORT

Would be nice, but this is low-priority for me.

>ADD SEPARATORS FOR NUMBERS RETURNED BY CHKDSK

4OS2 does this with dir.  I like it.

>SEEMLESS CONVERSION OF LF->CRLF OR DROP CRLF

This is low-priority for me.

>JUMP-SCROLLING FOR SHELL WINDOWS

Yes.

>RESIZABLE SHELL WINDOWS
>RESIZABLE FONT FOR SHELL WINDOWS

These are nice but unnecessary, I feel.

>DISPLAY POSTSCRIPT

Nice but unnecessary.

>DEFAULTS NOTEBOOK FOR SHELLS

I'm not sure how this would be different than what we have now.

>RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON ACTION FOR PROGRAMS THAT DON'T USE IT

Use of the middle mouse button to cut and paste too.

>DEDICATED SWAP PARTITION

Just use a bigger swap file and put it on a partition with nothing else.
-- 
Patrick Duffy, duffy@theory.chem.ubc.ca | Now I lay me down to bed 
                                        | Darkness won't engulf my head
                                        | I can see in infra-red
                                        | How I hate the night.       -Marvin

Let me make a suggestion for those posting with suggestions for an
OS/2 wishlist.  Many people have suggested additional useful ideas;
however, most of these have annotated the *ENTIRE* original list with
such rather unnecessary comments as "I agree", or "Yes".  This just
makes reading these posts a pain-in-the-ass, especially where one has
to read all the way to the end to find substantative comments.

I'm not saying not to agree or disagree with the original suggestions
-- but if you strongly agree or disagree with a particular
"improvement" write a statement about why this is particularly
important, or elaborate on the original suggestion.  A simple "yes" or
"no" just wastes our time reading the group.  Also, if you have strong
feelings about multiple "improvements", it would be easier to seperate
them into seperate posts, which might then spawn seperate threads
discussing the various "improvements".

Pretty much the same rule goes for the Usenet in general... but this
thread has seen a particular excess of unnecessary quoting.

Yours, Lulu...
--
      _/_/_/ THIS MESSAGE WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Postmodern Enterprises _/_/_/ 
     _/_/    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~[quilty@philos.umass.edu]~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  _/_/ 
    _/_/  The opinions expressed here must be those of my employer...   _/_/ 
   _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ Surely you don't think that *I* believe them!  _/_/ 

In article <2g774r$t33@nntp.ucs.ubc.ca> duffy@theory.chem.ubc.ca (Pat Duffy) writes:

! >DEDICATED SWAP PARTITION

! Just use a bigger swap file and put it on a partition with nothing else.

No. According to OS/2 Unleashed (and common sense) it should be put
on the most frequently used partition on your least frequently used
drive (if drives are equally fast).

SIMULTANEOUS CLOSING OF A FOLDER AND OPENING OF ANOTHER. You should
be able to close the original folder when opening a sub-folder. There
are a couple of PD-programs that do this. You press F2 while double-
clicking on the sub-folder icon. This is most useful, so it should
be a standard feature.

PARENT FOLDER ICON. This icon opens the parent folder of the current
folder when it is double-clicked. This feature is a part of Chicago,
at least according to Windows Magazine, Jan. 1994.

--
---                               --       
--   --   Ari Huttunen           ----  It's not what you know.
    ----                  --      --   It's what you do with what you know.
     --                  ----           
                          --            

Per M. Hansen (perhans@MMF.RUC.DK) wrote:
: >Most programs fill your system with files a little here and there, your OS2.INI
: >with some entries and such, and there's just about no way a user can clear
: >the system of a program, short of reinstalling OS/2. If there was a standard
: >uninstall program, and using it, from a developers pespectice, is simple and
: >well documented, the pain will be reduced severely (I know a lot of programmers
: >still won't bother, but if a few will a lot is gained).

: Great idea.

Yes, a great idea - unfortunately, it only got to me by accident when I 
took a look at my news.  I try to look for Wishlist news articles but I 
missed this one the first time round (and as I said, only found it by 
accident when I went back in).  In addition, my news expires very quickly, 
so I may not get the article at all.  Please send all wishlist entries to 
evanc@spatial.synapse.org.  I will post a new version every Friday.

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

 Soft and hard links in HPFS.

   IBM's TCP/IP product supports this for NFS mounted devices. Why
can't it be done with HPFS for all drives, files, directories?

***********************************************************************
* bombim cadiz             | Theorem:   The early bird gets the worm. *
* cadizht@csgrad.cs.vt.edu | Corollary: The early worm gets eaten.    *  
***********************************************************************

In article <bjorn.757443367@box.ludd.luth.se> bjorn@ludd.luth.se (Bjorn Fahller) writes:
>I tried to mail you, but the letter bounced:
>
>
>>GLOBAL CHANGE OPTION FOR THE WPS
>
>I like this one.
>
>>COMMON INSTALL PROGRAM
>
>Very much needed. Also, see later...
>
>>NEW FILE SYSTEM
>>INSTALLABLE FILE SYSTEMS FOR REMOVABLE DEVICES
>>MOVEMENT OF SHADOWS IN TO THE FILE SYSTEM
>>MOVEMENT OF INFORMATION FROM THE OS2.INI TO THE FILE SYSTEM
>
>All of these can be made the same. Take the "NEW FILE SYSTEM" as described,
>and add a new file type "Abstract" (in addition to the two available, "File"
>and "Directory"). The Abstract file type is for "shadows" (links), Program
>objects, etc.
>
>>LONG FILE NAMES IN FAT
>
>Good, but probably difficult to implement with the current EA handling scheme.
>
>>MULTIPLE INPUT QUEUES
>
>Very much needed.

Second on the list.

>
>>A SIMPLE, ROCK SOLID INSTALL PROCESS
>
>needed.
>
>>RELIABLE WORKPLACE SHELL BACKUP/RESTORE (OS2.INI AND DESKTOP DIRECTORY)
>
>Good, but automatically solved if the additional file type "Abstract" is
>incorporated, and a file backup program.
>
>>MAINTAINING THE NUMLOCK STATE (AS DEFINED BY THE BIOS)
>
>Good.
>
>>COLOURFUL ICONS
>
>Agree. Changing the default colours and redrawing the icons did an awful lot
>for WIndows 3.1.
>
>>SCROLL-BACK BUFFER FOR OS/2 WINDOWS
>
>Good.

Would be great.

>
>>MOUNTING DRIVES INSTEAD OF HAVING DRIVE LETTERS
>
>Desirable, but probably unrealistic, since just about any program aware of
>drives would break :(

This could possibly be done in a seamless way through the use of some
sort of sybolic link which pointed to the volume label [ie sybolic link
volume-d in the root of C: points to the volume which has a volume label
xxx].  This should allow the best of both worlds as the drive letters
would still be there for programs which needed them but you could still
have mounted drives.

>
>>MAKE "/" AND "\" ACT THE SAME FOR DIRECTORIES
>
>Easy to implement on the operating system level, but can lead to enormous
>difficulties with programs that are hard coded to take "/" as a flag separator
>for arguments.

Also there would be the problem that -filename is a valid filename under
OS/2 and DOS.

>
>>SUPPORT WILDCARD EXPANSION IN THE SHELL
>
>Good, but should be added to the file dialog boxes as well.
>
>>COMMAND ALIASES IN CMD.EXE
>
>Yes.

Agreed or simply replacing cmd.exe with something more like bash etc.

>
>>TABLE OF EXECUTED COMMANDS
>
>Very minor importance, but not too bad.
>
>>LIST/KILL PROCESS COMMANDS
>
>Yes.

Top of the list!!!!!.
>
>>UNICODE
>
>Very much needed.
>
>>DATE AND TIME FORMAT
>
>Necessary but not enough. OS/2 is unfortunately VERY lame on issues like this.
>I can't make 4 digit year display the default, for example, neighter is there
>any support for long date formats (Like "January 1st, 1994").
>
>In addition to this, the API needs to be expanded and include functions for
>converting date/time/floating-point-numbers/currency to/from string formats,
>otherwise the settongs in the country setup are more or less useless, since few
>programmers bother to parse the info (it's tricky as hell, especially with the
>floating point numbers).
>
>>FASTER BOOT OFF FLOPPY
>
>At least some indication that the system is still alive and working.
>
>>ADD SEPARATORS FOR NUMBERS RETURNED BY CHKDSK
>
>Would be solved by adding the above mentioned functions to the API, and acually
>USE them in all programs.
>
>>RESIZABLE SHELL WINDOWS
>
>Yes, and the default shouldn't always be 80x25, but something one can set
>in the program object.
>

Great idea.

>>RESIZABLE FONT FOR SHELL WINDOWS
>
>Same as above, make it possible to set it from the program object, so that
>different shells can have different font sizes on start-up.
>

Agreed.

>>DISPLAY POSTSCRIPT
>
>Disagree. Display PostScript is nice, but pig slow (talking from experience).
>Maybe include a program that converts display postscript to something else,
>in the development kits, so that the developers can work with display
>PostScript (since it really is nice), but not have to bother about the
>extreme slowness of it.
>

The idea of being able to display display postscript is nice but
considering that there are alot of people who do not have fast hardware
and that it would not really give a huge ammount in terms of
funcitonality over the present system I wouldn't be in favor of it.

>>DEFAULTS NOTEBOOK FOR SHELLS
>
>Right.
>

Agreed.

>>DEDICATED SWAP PARTITION
>
>Whoeheartedly disagree, since a separate swap partition on the same drive
>as the date/system will reduce performance. The better way to do it is to
>simply make larger swap files the default.
>

I;m up in the air over this but I would personaly be in favor of any
system which could reduce the possibility of the system going down due
to running out of disk space.

>------
>
>Now for my own additions.
>
>OPTIONAL DISABLING OF MENU DROP DOWN ON RIGHT ALT-BUTTON.
>
>Odd, it may seem, but on many non-US keyboards, the right Alt button is
>used when typing brackets and such, since many other countries have a few
>additional letters in the alphabet. Now, when writing something, and a
>bracket is needed, and you slip on the keyboard (happens once in a while)
>that darned meny drops down, and it can be pretty annoying.
>
>REFERENCE COUNTED RESOURCES
>
>Users won't notice this, except for a (hopefully) increased performance, due
>to reduced memory demands. As it is now, if you have an enormous lot of
>fonts, and you run a program displaying all your fonts, the system will be
>sluggish afterwards, until the next restart. This is because the system assumes
>that since a font was once wanted, it just might be so in the future, and keeps
>it in memory so that it can be used quickly. If, instead, a reference count is
>incremented for each font when a process requests it for the first time, and
>decremented when the process dies, the font can be unloaded when the count
>goes to 0. While I haven't calculated on this, I'm convinced the performance
>gains by not needing to have the fonts loaded will by far outweigh the
>losses of having to maintain the reference counters. I'm not sure if the same
>applies to other resources, but if they do, the same should apply to them as
>well.
>
>BACKGROUND COLOUR ON ICON TEXT
>
>I'm surpriced this wasn't listed, since just about everybody that ever used a
>background bitmap wants it.

Very handy.
>
>CASCADABLE MENUES
>
>I can add items to the object menues, even submenues, but I can't add sub-sub
>menues. Why?
>
>MORE DRAG DROP
>
>It should be possible to drop a file on the PATH entry field of program
>objects, a directory on the WORKING DIRECTORY on the same. To drop directories
>on the PATH entry field of the search dialog and so on.
>
>ASSOCIATE VIEW.EXE WITH .INF FILES
>
>Comments unecessary.
>
>STANDARD UNINSTALL PROGRAM
>
>Most programs fill your system with files a little here and there, your OS2.INI
>with some entries and such, and there's just about no way a user can clear
>the system of a program, short of reinstalling OS/2. If there was a standard
>uninstall program, and using it, from a developers pespectice, is simple and
>well documented, the pain will be reduced severely (I know a lot of programmers
>still won't bother, but if a few will a lot is gained).
>
>HEAVILY INTEGRATED WPS APPLETS
>
>The applets should be so neatly integrated with the WPS you won't ever see
>the programs, just the data objects.
>
>(as an addon, DEVELOPER DOCS ON HOW TO WRITE WPS APPS!!! How can lean WPS apps
>be developed when the docs are so few and vague?)

As an addtion to this I would like to see a set of sample interface
definitions for things like interfacing protocols to comms programs [ie
something like what is done in ZOC but as a general standard].


And for my wish list.

I would like to see a couple of additions to the WPS.

    the option to display the size of a directory - this can be done
    under the command line with no problem but seems impossible to do
    under the WPS.

    extension of the find command WRT shadows - this is more to do with
    the way the WPS handles multiple shodows with the orginal command.
    Where you have only one shadow selected you can use the orginal
    command to locate, copy or delete the option but this command
    disappears when you have more than one shadow selected.  If you
    could use this command on multiple shadows then the combination of
    this and find would make a useful file maintenace tool that would be
    fully intergated into the WPS.

    the ability to define program objects that will accept more than one
    item [preferably via a notebook setting]. This would make the WPS
    more consistent in my option as you would no longer have some
    objects like the shredder which will accept multiple objects whereas
    user defined objects can't. Also it would be very useful for obvious
    reasons.

That's it for the moment
Joe.

--

So sad I've lost my sig.  :-(.

In article <2g72r7$3ng@cville-srv.wam.umd.edu>, rsrodger@wam.umd.edu (R S Rodgers) writes:
> In article <bjorn.757443367@box.ludd.luth.se>,
> Bjorn Fahller <bjorn@ludd.luth.se> wrote:
>>>DEDICATED SWAP PARTITION
> 
> 
> 	FIX STUPID SWAPFILE SETTINGS COMMAND LINE.  The sizes should be
> 	initial size and maximum size, not initial size and max-not-used-space.
> 

	I disagree.  Let the SWAPFILE grow as big as it wants.  I don't want to
set a max of "100M" only to have the system blow up when I don't have 100M on
my system, for example.  Much better to let the SWAPPER.DAT to take up all the
space it needs, until it hits my "warning" point.

	Then again, a better solution would be to make OS/2 and apps (hello,
Lotus?) use installed physical memory more efficiently so as not to NEED
swapping 50M at a time . . .  

>>STANDARD UNINSTALL PROGRAM
> 
> 
> 	GET RID OF CONFIG.SYS.  IBM programmeers: Look at the WinNT registry.
> 	Learn. 

	Oh, yea.  Learn how to be 18 months behind schedule with a product that
went form "The Next Desktop" to "The Next Server" to "Hey, guys, we were only
kidding."  Learn.  Right.

Todd Louis Green
Team OS/2

Some small additions:

1) Ability to lower the active window with the mouse, maybe right click
   on titlebar.

2) Ability to change keyboard settings (repitition rate und repitition
   delay rate) above the todays maximum rates. Maybe 90% or 99% of the
   users have there settings at maximum or 90% of maximum I think.
   I don't think it a good design, if most people will use the
   maximum rates and maybe 5% or 10 % use the the first 90 % of
   the settings.

   But maybe this is a hardware problem and not an OS problem...

3) More consistent behaviour of CMD.EXE. What I would like to see
   improved is e.g. the different meaning or handling of points in
   filenames. Try myprog, myprog. or "myprog. " to start the program
   'myprog'. Only the last one will start the program. I would like
   to be able to have files ending with points or even spaces and not
   all considered to be the same.

   Also try to move 'bigfile' to 'BIGFILE', I remember getting some
   problems, when I tried it (under 2.0). I never tried it again.

4) 'move' to move between filesystems...

5) REXX should use national language support. For example, using
   SysFileTree to get filenames, one always gets the US-date and
   time-format, which is not very meaningful in Germany.

These are just some additions that come to my mind and have not yet
been mentioned here, Unicode, ALT HOME for OS/2 Shell-Windows and
these multiple message queues I would also like to see implemented
soon.

Thomas Mack

In <2g7dk5$f2n@nic.umass.edu> quilty@twain.ucs.umass.edu (Lulu of the lotus-eaters) writes:

>Let me make a suggestion for those posting with suggestions for an
>OS/2 wishlist.  Many people have suggested additional useful ideas;
>however, most of these have annotated the *ENTIRE* original list with
>such rather unnecessary comments as "I agree", or "Yes".  This just
>makes reading these posts a pain-in-the-ass, especially where one has
>to read all the way to the end to find substantative comments.

I both agree and disagree. When I wrote my followup, I first decided not to
include anything of the original, except where I disagreed and wanted to
clarify why. Later I changed my mind because: If the list is sent to IBM
to see what changes users want, there's no way to tell which changes *users*
see as higher priority than others. If I add which I agree with, you can
add how many wanted every thing on the list. That way, something only
one person want, is probably less important than something 10 persons want.
   _
/Bjorn.
-- 
// Bjorn Fahller        Phone: +46 920 99719        <Team-OS/2>
// Professorsvagen 91   Keeper of the OS/2 archive at ftp.luth.se
// S-977 51 Lulea       (130.240.18.2). "Unemployed" due to lacking
// Sweden               disk space.

In article <1994Jan3.141559.11714@ips.cs.tu-bs.de>,
Thomas Mack <mack@ips.cs.tu-bs.de> wrote:
>Some small additions:
>
>1) Ability to lower the active window with the mouse, maybe right click
>   on titlebar.


	How about a "push to back" button?

	BETTER MOUSE BALLISTICS.  The current ones are awful.


-- 
 The big mistake that men make is that when they turn thirteen or fourteen and
 all of a sudden they've reached puberty, they believe that they like women.
 Actually, you're just horny. It doesn't mean you like women any more at
 twenty-one than you did at ten.                --Jules Feiffer (cartoonist)

Here is my list...

1 - A better way to cut and paste between different windows. 
The currunt Mark, Cut and Paste strategy is just to clumsy. 
I'd like something like under X Windows.

2 - I'd like faster boot from diskette. Only one disk (insted of two 
would be fine).
 
3 - Utilities to kill processes.

4 - Multiple input queues. 

5 - Allow precise allignement of icons on the Desktop. 
 Maybe from the Destop settings Notebook like exDesk does.
     
6 - Allow more types of bitmaps to be displayed as background (eg. 
GIF, JPEG). 

7 - Scrollback buffers in shells windows. As it is now implemeted it's 
practicly useless. The buffer is just to small.

8 - Like someone already said... either give us some WPS aware apllets
or leave them out. The applets that now come with OS/2 just don't do
it justice.

9 - Ability to load new drivers without having to reboot. To many times
I've booted and fergot to turn on my SCSI CDROM.    


I know most of these can be done with freeware and shareware out there
but it would be nice to see them in the OS. 








-- 
Danny Vezeau    | Bell-Northern Research | Of course, opinions expressed 
spice@bnr.ca    | Ottawa, Canada         | are my own
ESN 393-7908

spice@bmerha2f.bnr.ca (Danny Vezeau) writes:

>1 - A better way to cut and paste between different windows. 
>The currunt Mark, Cut and Paste strategy is just to clumsy. 

On a related note, it would be nice if you could cut and paste to and
from a text window. 


------------------------------------------------------------
|   Mattison (Matt) Narramore    jmn@gandalf.rutgers.edu   |
|        I'm my own evil twin, accept no substitute.       |
------------------------------------------------------------

Danny Vezeau (spice@bmerha2f.bnr.ca) wrote:
: Here is my list...

: 1 - A better way to cut and paste between different windows. 
: The currunt Mark, Cut and Paste strategy is just to clumsy. 
: I'd like something like under X Windows.
I'd like an extra option called: "Mark and copy" - the effect is obvious.

Hilton

=============================================
| Hilton Goldstein - Computer Science Dept. |
| University Of Natal, Durban, South Africa |
| EMail: goldstei@shrike.und.ac.za          |
| Voice: (031) 260-1020                     |
| Fax:   (031) 261-6550                     |
|                                           |
|        My comments are my comments!       |
|                                           |
| Is Microsoft Windows about to become:     |
|   EX-Windows?                             |
=============================================

rsrodger@wam.umd.edu (R S Rodgers) writes:

>In article <1994Jan3.141559.11714@ips.cs.tu-bs.de>,
>Thomas Mack <mack@ips.cs.tu-bs.de> wrote:
>>Some small additions:
>>
>>1) Ability to lower the active window with the mouse, maybe right click
>>   on titlebar.

>	How about a "push to back" button?

How about reading the manual? :-) :-)

>	BETTER MOUSE BALLISTICS.  The current ones are awful.

Just curious, since I don't find it a problem - what, precisely, is
"awful" about the mouse behaviour? Which mouse do you have?
-- 
Tom Hatton
hatton@cgl.ucsf.edu
(415)-476-8693

How about a format program which writes a bootsector program more user-friendly
than the current one.  I, for one, really _hate_ having to reboot just because I
accidentally booted with an OS/2 formatted floppy in the drive.  Even MS-DOS 
allows you to remove the disk and retry the boot...and its been that way for 
ages.  Why must OS/2 users have to put up with such user-hostile behavior?

If you don't know what I am referring to, try it, and see what I mean.

  ---------------------------------------___---------------------------------
 | Al Dhir                              /___\  Internet Access Group, Inc    |
 | Internet: adhir@betelgeuse.iagi.com  (o o)  301-847-0228 Fax:301-847-0229 |
  -----------------------------------ooO-(_)-Ooo-----------------------------

>SYMETRIC MULTIPROCESSING

I noticed this one is getting a lot of support.  May I ask why?  How many people
are really going to benefit from this?  In my opinion, this should wait until 
everything else is done...

>
>GLOBAL CHANGE OPTION FOR THE WPS

Definitely.

>INI EDITOR

Definitely.

>NEW FILE SYSTEM

Just add links and permissions to the current one and we're OK.

>INSTALLABLE FILE SYSTEMS FOR REMOVABLE DEVICES

Yes.

>MOVEMENT OF SHADOWS IN TO THE FILE SYSTEM

Should go hand in hand with symbolic links.

>MOVEMENT OF INFORMATION FROM THE OS2.INI TO THE FILE SYSTEM

Good idea.

>COLOURFUL ICONS

Big yes.  Get some graphic artists to draw up some real nice looking icons. 
OS/2 default look is pretty humble...

>MOUNTING DRIVES INSTEAD OF HAVING DRIVE LETTERS

Agree.  Good idea.  Make it part of HPFS.

>SUPPORT WILDCARD EXPANSION IN THE SHELL
>COMMAND ALIASES IN CMD.EXE
>TABLE OF EXECUTED COMMANDS
>ADD SEPARATORS FOR NUMBERS RETURNED BY CHKDSK

I think IBM should license 4os2 from JP Software and ship that as the default 
shell  That would have evrything we need :-).  In addition, they should get 4dos
as well.

>LIST/KILL PROCESS COMMANDS

Definitely.

>JUMP-SCROLLING FOR SHELL WINDOWS

Yes.  Windows 3.1 does it - why can't OS/2?

>RESIZABLE SHELL WINDOWS
>RESIZABLE FONT FOR SHELL WINDOWS
>SCROLL-BACK BUFFER FOR OS/2 WINDOWS
>DEFAULTS NOTEBOOK FOR SHELLS
>RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON ACTION FOR PROGRAMS THAT DON'T USE IT

Why not make a PM version of xterm.  You're all set.  Add 4os2 to the xterm and
it'll be like a dream come true.  Or, better yet, port tcsh as well, and give us
a choice of 4os2 or tcsh as our shell.

ADDITIONS OF MY OWN:

- Allow SVGA DOS programs (and WinOS/2 when in SVGA) to continue to run when 
placed in the background.  Currently, resolutions higher than VGA do not.  Am I 
doing something wrong?

- Change the bootsector program on formatted floppy disks.  Add an option to
retry the boot like MSDOS has been doing for ages.

- Make it _easier_ to change video drivers!  I don't mind rebooting, but I 
detest reinstalling when the reboot results in a blank screen :-(.

- Add 'small fonts' as an option to all video drivers (WPS and WinOS/2)

- Sub-sub menus on all objects (someone else mentioned this and I support it)

- More sound card drivers (Gravis Ultrasound...)



  ---------------------------------------___---------------------------------
 | Al Dhir                              /___\  Internet Access Group, Inc    |
 | Internet: adhir@betelgeuse.iagi.com  (o o)  301-847-0228 Fax:301-847-0229 |
  -----------------------------------ooO-(_)-Ooo-----------------------------

In article <hatton.757645387@cgl.ucsf.edu>,
Tom Hatton <hatton@socrates.ucsf.edu> wrote:
>rsrodger@wam.umd.edu (R S Rodgers) writes:
>>	BETTER MOUSE BALLISTICS.  The current ones are awful.
>
>Just curious, since I don't find it a problem - what, precisely, is
>"awful" about the mouse behaviour? Which mouse do you have?


	The accelleration threshold is too high, no matter the mouse
	(we have it on systems with MS and Logitech mice, all different
	versions).


-- 
 The big mistake that men make is that when they turn thirteen or fourteen and
 all of a sudden they've reached puberty, they believe that they like women.
 Actually, you're just horny. It doesn't mean you like women any more at
 twenty-one than you did at ten.                --Jules Feiffer (cartoonist)

In article <2g9vcg$n5h@owl.und.ac.za>,
Hilton Goldstein <goldstei@shrike.und.ac.za> wrote:
>Danny Vezeau (spice@bmerha2f.bnr.ca) wrote:
>: Here is my list...
>
>: 1 - A better way to cut and paste between different windows. 
>: The currunt Mark, Cut and Paste strategy is just to clumsy. 
>: I'd like something like under X Windows.
>I'd like an extra option called: "Mark and copy" - the effect is obvious.


	STEAL THE WINNT "QUICKEDIT" MODE, but make it start with a 
	double click on the window to allow mouse input to be used normally.

	ALLOW USERS TO SET THE DRIVE LETTERS FOR PARTITIONS THEMSELVES.
	Given the number of times that this has come up, with people annoyed
	when adding a new HD, I'm surprised that this didn't make the list.

-- 
 The big mistake that men make is that when they turn thirteen or fourteen and
 all of a sudden they've reached puberty, they believe that they like women.
 Actually, you're just horny. It doesn't mean you like women any more at
 twenty-one than you did at ten.                --Jules Feiffer (cartoonist)

R S Rodgers (rsrodger@wam.umd.edu) wrote:
: In article <hatton.757645387@cgl.ucsf.edu>,
: Tom Hatton <hatton@socrates.ucsf.edu> wrote:
: >rsrodger@wam.umd.edu (R S Rodgers) writes:
: >>	BETTER MOUSE BALLISTICS.  The current ones are awful.
: >
: >Just curious, since I don't find it a problem - what, precisely, is
: >"awful" about the mouse behaviour? Which mouse do you have?


: 	The accelleration threshold is too high, no matter the mouse
: 	(we have it on systems with MS and Logitech mice, all different
: 	versions).

Actually, I have a different problem. I have a Logitech Cyberman, which
functions as a 250 dpi mouse. Under OS/2, it either runs too fast (when
slider is set to [-------|]) or to slow on the next lower setting.
([------|-])

Anybody know how to make it smoother?
______________________________________________________________________
Jeff Kirvin                        Proud member of Team OS/2!
lunatic@asylum.hq.af.mil
Disclaimer: I do _not_ speak for the United States Air Force...

Alok K. Dhir (adhir@betelgeuse.iagi.com) wrote:
> How about a format program which writes a bootsector program more user-friendly
> than the current one.  I, for one, really _hate_ having to reboot just because I
> accidentally booted with an OS/2 formatted floppy in the drive.  Even MS-DOS 
> allows you to remove the disk and retry the boot...and its been that way for 

That's one reason for boot sector viruses getting so popular. One puts a non
bootable infected diskette in drive, gets the message 'non system
disk..[snip]' user removes the disk and presses a key. This way the virus is
still in memory and infects the HD.


--
japa@mits.mdata.fi                     | Don't worry, be happy!
jpatanen@hit.fi                        | Finger for PGP public key

In article <2gcmif$k24@prime.mdata.fi>,
Jani Patanen <japa@mits.mdata.fi> wrote:
>
>That's one reason for boot sector viruses getting so popular. One puts a non
>bootable infected diskette in drive, gets the message 'non system
>disk..[snip]' user removes the disk and presses a key. This way the virus is
>still in memory and infects the HD.

But what if the virus traps CAD?  Should power-off be required?

Ren
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Nothing I say really means anything anyway....              Ren Maddox
Email address ---------------------------------------> lhmaddox@bnr.ca

rsrodger@wam.umd.edu (R S Rodgers) writes:

>In article <hatton.757645387@cgl.ucsf.edu>,
>Tom Hatton <hatton@socrates.ucsf.edu> wrote:
>>rsrodger@wam.umd.edu (R S Rodgers) writes:
>>>	BETTER MOUSE BALLISTICS.  The current ones are awful.
>>
>>Just curious, since I don't find it a problem - what, precisely, is
>>"awful" about the mouse behaviour? Which mouse do you have?

>	The accelleration threshold is too high, no matter the mouse
>	(we have it on systems with MS and Logitech mice, all different
>	versions).

I didn't notice anything when using both Win and OS/2 earlier, with
respect to amount of movement required to kick in accelerated pointer
movement (Logitech First Mouse). Perhaps wrist exercises are in order
:-) :-)

Apparently at least having more control over mouse ballistics would be
useful.
-- 
Tom Hatton
hatton@cgl.ucsf.edu
(415)-476-8693

I have another one which seems not been included in the list.

If I install a new windows programm and I want to be able
to run that programm in seamless mode I have to I have to
invoke (in german: Anwendungen umstellen - sorry, do not
know what this is called in english) the database where
all applications which are represented as wps-objects
are stored.
If I then choose search for windows-apps, I get back all
the programms already installed plus my new one.

At that place I want to be able to deselect all marked
programms and then select the new one.

What I actually have to do is to deselect all those
programms (and there a lot) one by one leaving the one
I want to install as wps-object selected.
That is a waste of time.

Oliver
* Z-Netz: O.Heidelbach@Telemail.zer.sub.org  *
* Internet: oheiabbd@fub46.zedat.fu-berlin.de *

Well, here are some things I'd like to see.  In case some IBM'er is
logging all these... :-)

1) I would actually like to be able to have Presentation Manager more
distinct from the rest of OS/2.  Right now I run that nifty ShiftRun
program to laod OS/2 with PM.  However, I'd like to 'shutdown' PM
WITHOUT shutting down *all* of OS/2.  Maybe, just shutdown to a
fullscreen CMD.EXE.  And optionally type 'pm' or something to load it
back up.  This way: you can change video resolutions without rebooting
OS/2 (at least wholly).  Also, if you just want to quickly check email
or something, you can use a text-mode comm program or whatever for
*quick* work without having to wait for PM, then WPS to come up.

On the RS/6000s at our school, you login in text mode, but type 'xinit'
to load XWindows.  You hit Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to kill X.

2) I would like some configurability or the scrollbars.  Change the
looks, or placements.  Also, optionally put the 'up/down', 'left/right'
buttons *togather*, say, in the bottom right corner of the scrool bar.
This way, you can click to move the scroll bar in opposite directions
without moving the mouse as far.  Yes, the Amiga now has this, but so
what, some might want it.

3) Include a nice text-mode editor.  How hard could it be to make a
text-mode clone of DOS's EDIT.EXE?  It's a nice quick easy text mode
editor. 

4) Of course, include a process lister/killer, command line file finder
(see there 'whereis' program), aliases and file completion for CMD.EXE.
Hey, I just like using a command line.  It's quick.  

5) For three-button mice, would it be possible to have a selection of
what the middle button can be set to?  Or have it 'record' a 'macro' of
actions to later perform?

--

Dan Stephenson
dano@srl01.cacs.usl.edu

Default insert mode on the command line would be great.  This could
be a setting for os/2 sessions.