🚀 go-pugleaf

Doug McDonald writes:

> Now that OS/2 is now, officially, unequivocally, vaporware, how
> does one program it? What does a set of the necessary tools (i.e.
> C and Fortran compilers and an assembler and th enecessary linker and
> libraries) cost? Where does one get them?

That was an unintentional typo, I hope.  With the official release of
OS/2 2.0, it drops from the list of vaporware products.

As for tools, they abound.  I have in front of me the WATCOM literature
on their 32-bit C and FORTRAN compilers.  The educational pricing for
the latter is $250 and it is supposed to provide access to all system
functions in 32-bit OS/2.  It will ship later this month after they've
verified proper operation under GA.  Call 800-265-4555 for more information
(and let it ring a few times -- they tend to answer after five to eight
rings, in my experience).  The reviews of the earlier versions (for 32-bit
DOS extender environments) have been good, and the package includes a
profiler, make utility, debugger, and so on.

The Borland C++ compiler is coming later this year.  The IBM C Set/2
compiler should be available soon.  I believe there are a couple of other
C compilers in the works (Zortech?).

Finding programmer's reference books for the Workplace Shell is a different
matter.  Maybe somebody else can shed some light on this.  Petzold's book
on programming the Presentation Manager might be a good place to start.