Week of (USBMSD) digital still cameras

2009-10-04 14:26:49 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

The next week is dedicated to collection of info about compatible/non-compatible digital still cameras (USBMSD). Our database contains 123 records only. Major part of the models are not manufactured anymore. Post new reports using the web-form.

Please, post additional information:

• Name of camera
• VendorID:ProductID
• What is the name of directory (fullpath) with photos in your camera?

Genmac: additional drivers

2009-10-04 13:57:04 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

Genmac - drivers for network adapters. Doug Bissett collected additional drivers for Genmac (working in UNSUPPORTED mode)

Download the package from os2voice.org server

GenMU-0-0-5.WPI

• Broadcom Gigabit [14E4:1693]
• Atheros Wlan AR5007EG/AR242X [168C:001C]
• Attansic Fast Ethernet [1969:2048]
• Intel 10/100/1000DM [8086:104A] - corrected
• Intel 10/100/1000 GT [8086:107C]

GenMU_TEST-0-0-5-1.WPI:

• + Intel(R) PRO/1000 PL [8086:108C]

The users are interested to know:

• How to setup Intel 4965 a/g/n? the adapter goes to sleep (?) in several hours of work.

Additional links:

• Genmac homepage
• Site about Genmac (unofficial)
• Discussion of Genmac

eComStation Babylon

2009-09-26 19:55:03 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

New site is available for eComStation users. eComStation Babylon - information how to adopt eCS to your language, links to vocabularies, codepage tools.

Questions to users (post the information via web-form)

• How to enable spanish/french/.. language in eComStation English International?
• Do you have vocabularies for eComStation? spanish <> japanese ? german <> french, ..

e-ball Awards 2009

2009-09-26 19:05:27 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

We are confident that to stimulate the development of software, it's necessary reward programs, not developers.

That's why we are going organize the "e-ball awards" together with www.ecomstation.com site

Submit your nominations within following categories:

• Best eComStation Application
• Best WorkPlace Shell Application
• Best eComStation Utility
• Best eComStation Widget
• Best eComStation Driver
• Best eComStation Developer Tool
• Best eComStation Game
• Best eComStation Scientific Computing Solution
• Best eComStation Student Product
• Best Technical Article for eComStation Developers

Post your nominations via web-form (Send the name of program, category, homepage, why is it best?)

ATTENTION: We talk about programs created (or updated significantly) during 2009.

Warpstock Europe 2009 -- calculate the advantages

2009-09-23 13:54:48 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

Warpstock Europe 2009 is coming (November 13 to 15, 2009, Stralsund, Germany)

You are right, the cost of the trip to Stralsund may be very high for you. 300 EURO.. 500 EURO.. 1000 EURO.. or more.

What is the reason to spend so much money?

A. Are you going make a presentation?

The conference is a good chance to

• demonstrate your applications to the users
• present success story of eComStation usage;
• share your libraries with other developers;
• learn new eComStation technologies and share the knowledge with other developers;
• present own concept of OS development;
• inform developers which software and drivers should be created;

B. Moreover, the visit of the conference gives you:

• Networking
  • You are meeting with other users and developers from different countries, different cultures;
  • If you are a developer, then you are meeting with your clients. Ask them what do they need;
  • Meet the users from your city and region. The conference may help you create Local User Group;
  • Get fresh news and secret information when chatting.
• Income/experience
  • The visit of Germany is good for your experience, you can see how german people are working, why they are so productive.
  • You are collecting information what is the trend of OS/2 development. This helps you safe the efforts and don't spend then time to fake goals after return to home.
  • If you are a designer then watch the design of german houses, clothes, banners
  • Improve your english(/deutch/dutch), no need to buy tutorials of english language
  • You are mobilizing while preparing for the conference. You are generating more ideas, more code while preparing for D-Day.
  • Present your program to sell it
• Vacations
  • If you don't have a report then interpret the trip as short vacations

Full list of conferences

eCo Labs - more tasks

2009-09-22 04:38:51 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

eCo Software is obligated to fulfil the obligations and deliver improved shareware products. One of the methods - create additional modules and utilities to enforce main projects.

eCo Labs is a fund to attract new developers to eComStation. We are trying to share the income with standalone developers; stimulate the development of new PM-controls and libraries. Moreover, we are going update the portal for developers and enrich it with links and libraries.

What's new in eComSTation 2.0? Dialog fonts

2009-09-15 13:45:05 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [eComStation@yahoogroups.com]

Alex Taylor said in eComStation@yahoogroups.com RC7 includes a new feature which may not be obvious, so I'm making a small announcement about it... because I would like testing and feedback on it.

For users who are too impatient to read the long description below, the exective summary is this: you can now dynamically change the font used on (most) dialogs throughout the system, without suffering from clipped text on controls (up to a point, at least). The WPS properties notebooks are exempt from this, sadly; it mostly applies to secondary dialogs. Read the details below for a description of the feature, its limitations, advantages, and disadvantages.

All versions of eComStation have included redesigned dialogs based on Richard Castle's superb 'Dialog Enhancer' product. The main features of these dialogs have been (a) improved layout of controls - generally intended to make them more attractive, more user-friendly, and/or more space-efficient; and (b) standardized use of the 'WarpSans' font.

These dialogs have received incremental updates (various bugfixes and minor tweaks here and there) over the years. However, RC7 marks the first major overhaul of the entire system, and so testing and feedback would be much appreciated.

The major change is this: most of the dialogs are NO LONGER hard-coded to use 9.WarpSans as the font. Instead, they are designed with the system default font (usually System Proportional). This was done for two main reasons:

• eStyler 1.1 (introduced in eCS 2.0) includes a feature to set all dialogs to a user-defined font (at least for dialogs which don't have any specific font coded). This is set (during eCS installation) to 9.WarpSans by default. So it's no longer necessary to set every individual dialog to use WarpSans.

  Moreover, because this feature allows users to set potentially larger fonts for all dialogs, it made more sense to (re)design the dialogs for use with System Proportional, which is one of the largest fonts available. Thus, you can set the dialog font (in eStyler) to System Proportional or anything smaller, and text should still display correctly.

• I was persuaded, in no small part thanks to Jim Read, that designing dialogs for WarpSans was a bad idea... because it causes the dialogs to become completely munged up if the PM default dialog font is ever changed. By this, I'm referring not to the eStyler feature, but the built-in PM_SystemFonts key "DefaultFont". Changing this key sets the dialog font system-wide, but unlike the eStyler feature it also changes the default dialog unit (DU) size, causing all dialog controls to shrink if the font size is smaller than System Proportional. (Jim pointed out that he recommends all his users set this key for various reasons, and that it's automatically set by some video drivers as well.) It, or a close equivalent, is also set automatically (indeed, it cannot be UN-set) on all DBCS versions of OS/2.

Basically, designing all dialogs for System Proportional will avoid the problem of dialog controls being cropped if DefaultFont is ever set or changed.

In summary, most secondary dialogs are no longer coded to use 9.WarpSans. (The improved layout derived from Dialog Enhancer is still present, although of course it had to be reworked a bit in some cases.)

I fully anticipate this to be a rather controversial change, but it was not something I did lightly, or without carefully considering the various ramifications. I was convinced, in the end, that this was the most advantageous approach, regardless of its corresponding disadvantages (for which, see below).

ADVANTAGES

• You now have much more complete control over the appearance of dialogs.

  Specifically most secondary dialogs can now use almost any font, without causing clipped controls. up to a point, at least. You can set this using eStyler (if you don't need to use a font larger than System Proportional), or the PM "DefaultFont" key if you don't mind the system-wide rescaling of dialog controls this causes. (The latter may result in problems with third-party applications, so I personally recommend using eStyler.)

  This should be useful to users with vision problems, or those running on extremely high video resolutions.

• Systems which have the "DefaultFont" key set in OS2.INI should no longer see clipped text on dialogs.

DISADVANTAGES

• Since all dialogs must now 'work' with fonts as large as System Proportional, almost all dialogs are necessarily much larger than they were, and the spacing of controls is sometimes rather wide (though not generally as wide as they were in the original, unmodified IBM dialogs).

  In particular, when the default font is set to 9.WarpSans (or another small font) using the eStyler method, controls on many dialogs may seem unusually widely-spaced. Some users may find this annoying, although I have generally tried to design the dialogs such as to minimize the phenomenon.

  (Using the "DefaultFont" method will largely avoid this problem.)

• Because of the potentially disruptive nature of setting the "DefaultFont" key, SBCS versions of eCS use the eStyler method by default. However, this of course depends on eStyler being installed.

  If you don't install eStyler, dialogs will therefore display using System Proportional, which you may find large and ugly. This also means that most dialogs will be limited to System Proportional during parts of the OS installation (before eStyler gets installed).

  (Conversely, for various technical reasons, DBCS versions of eCS will use the "DefaultFont" key (or rather, its DBCS equivalent) and have the eStyler feature disabled by default.)

• Another point worth mentioning is that listbox controls don't seem to react very well to having their font changed by eStyler: you tend to get artifacts from scrolling at the bottom of the list control. For this reason, I had to retain the hardcoded WarpSans on a couple of dialogs, notably the system File dialog.

  It should be pointed out, however, that this problem was present (mostly in third-party applications) even without my changes to the system dialogs, so it's not actually a problem with this redesign.

  (Actually, I've recently discovered that setting the LS_NOADJUSTPOS style on the listbox may eliminate this problem, so I will probably experiment with using that in future updates.)

I should also note that dialogs where the font is actually set to WarpSans programmatically (like all the WPS system properties notebooks) will still be WarpSans, regardless of your font settings... but they should receive the other advantages (i.e. no clipped text with "DefaultFont").

(However, I've noticed something very interesting about the WPS properties notebooks. It seems that the font is hardcoded to WarpSans, but the point size is actually dynamic to some extent. I discovered this after installing my "10.WarpSans" font (available on my website), and all the WPS properties notebooks now have larger 10-point text on my laptop (1400x1005) ...except, noticeably, the ones from XWorkplace, which do appear hard-coded to 9-point.)

Finally, let me add that the avoidance of clipped text is entirely dependent on me having properly re-tuned all of the dialogs. If you do find a system dialog with clipped text, please report it to me so that I may correct it.

Translate applications to russian

2009-09-10 18:08:56 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

We offer to russian speaking users translate popular applications to russian language.

• Animated mouse pointers
• Search Plus
• XWLAN
• NetDrive

Please remind us which applications/utilities to translate?

The debugging of Flash player 10 continues

2009-09-10 11:08:43 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [Martin Iturbide, http://www.os2world.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,63/topic,1862.msg12795/topicseen,1/#new]

It is not a final product yet. Still needs some work but it looking good. It crashed my browser from time to time, and sound didn't work for me, but the youtube went smoothly.

Changelog
==========
28.03.2009:
 - odin (mscms): added mscms dll (required for Flash 10).
 - odin (kernel32): added missed apis for Flash 10
 - odin (urlmon): added missed apis for Flash 10 (stub)
 - plugin: removed unneeded XPCOM/JNI code. Decreased DLL size 3 times

01.04.2009:
 - plugin: Fixed Odin search via ODIN environment variable
 - odin (kernel32): Memory autocommit added to exception handler
 - odin (comctl32): added additional check for NULL pointer of DPA_GetPtr()

26.04.2009:
 - odin (kernel32):reworked autocommit. now its tries to commit page when
   other autocommit workers are done (for example - dib section).

12.05.2009:
 - fixed flash10 video

15.06.2009:
 - Wrapper now works only on registered ECS 1,2 and higher systems

16.06.2009:
 - Created WARPIN installer

21.07.2009:
 - Added Adobe license agreement to installer
 - Fixed text and other GUI elements dissapearing
 - Fixed crashes and freezes in different conditions

How to prolong the subscription? (for users)

2009-09-08 13:04:47 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

eComStation.RU site offers to users write the reviews of software (and exchange to eCS subscription). What kind of reviews? Comparison of applications/utilities, how to join 5 applications to pipeline, etc.

This offering should make users participate in the life of the OS, share knowledge with other users, attract new users.

ACPI 3.17 + ACPI tools

2009-09-07 19:49:59 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

Information for users with modern computers (manufactured in 2004 and later)

A. Updated files:

• ACPI 3.17 (eComStation 2.0 RC7) is uploaded to BETAZONE. Please join testing of ACPI 2009 (else it's impossible to get stable version)
  • ACPI Heavy - .wpi package, automatical setup, CONFIG.SYS update
  • ACPI Fast upgrade - to upgrade previous version
  • ACPI .zip, ACPI APM .zip

  How to reduce power consumption? Download ACPI kernel (BETAZONE) - reduces noise and prolongs battery life

• Users with AMD CPU - please collect information using PowerNow utility (more details in readme file)
• ACPI Setup is updated (BETAZONE) - easy setup of ACPI.
• ACPI DB is aimed to analyze the progress of ACPI drivers - ACPI homepage -> Toolkits, utilities.

• If previous version of ACPI works for you then test the latest one, post the report for ACPI DB
• If previous version doesn't work, new version works then post this information to ACPI DB
• If you have a problem with boot/work then post the report to ACPI bug-tracker
• how to test notebook? list of tests -> Group 2: Test running machine

C. Additional information:

• BETAZONE
• ACPI homepage

Week of USB touchscreen

2009-09-06 23:22:53 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

How to get support of USB touchscreens in eComStation? If you have an USB touch-screen in the office (or your friend or neighbour owns), please grab USB log, send the model name and the log to the developers - web-form (Example; How to grab the log? eComStation: USB Dock, USBRes; Linux: USBView; Windows: USB Deview, USB View)

The next week is dedicated to collection of info about compatible/non-compatible touchscreens. Our database contains 19 records about touchscreens only, Post new reports using the web-form

This information is important for developers of solutions based on eComStation. (a) Solutions page, b) Developers of POS solutions in DevCon)

Homepage of eComStation PC

eCo Shop - increase of sellings

2009-09-03 00:53:38 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

Best-sellers of eCo Shop:

• Subscription to eComStation - access to the OS updates
• eComStation FAQ book - The brochure with questions and answers about eComStation (russian language) // english version is available from Mensys

Added new products to eCo Shop

• Qt4 Sponsor units

Updated products (APeCS):

• PMMail, NeoWPS, Emperoar TV, DVD/CD Toys

QT4 status update

2009-09-02 16:47:28 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [AROA Business Software Solutions, Silvan Scherrer]

Finaly it's done the beta is available! For the complete port there is some work to be done. But the beta will give a good overview on what we did so far. The Qt4 GA milestone will be set in the next days to the targeted date. We will also port some Qt4 Apps, to see/show how good the beta is.

At http://svn.netlabs.org/qt4 its described how to download the beta.

Look at the Qt4 Trac at netlabs, there is the roadmap and the milestones shown. If you want to see also the completed milestones view this page

I'm very confident, that the project succeeds. But to get there we still need some sponsor units. To buy sponsor units please follow the link Mensys shop

To see the actual sponsored units look at http://qt.netlabs.org

Many thanks to all who helped to get Qt4 reality.

Solutions based on eComStation

2009-08-31 20:16:37 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

eComStation may attract new users if it's commercially successful.

OS/2 (eComStation) is alive while people are using and improving the system. The developers of solutions ensure long life for our operating system because computers with OS/2 make money for their customers year by year. The developers bring new industrial technologies to OS/2, feed support service, fill OS/2 with unique features to keep the solutions competitive.

What's new: (homepage of solutions!)

• Added link to web-site: Prolong the life of your OS/2-based ATM fleet with eComStation
• Added reference to Touchvoice Corp -- CTI (Computer Telephony Integration)
• Added reference to Massimo's web-server solution.
• New page "Customers" - post information about your company there (if your company is using 2 or more licenses of eCS) [Name, web-site, comments]
• Help us enumerate areas of usage for: "eComStation - universal system"

Why should you write the story today?

• You should do this to protect your investments made into OS/2 platform.
• OS/2 users are located in different countries and cities. They will read the story because of OS/2 word :) And spread the information about your company and products among own colleagues.
• The developer of the operating system will get information about your requirements and improve OS to satisfy them.
• Your story gives stimulus to thousands of users, developers and companies.
• It's easy. Solution story is based on usual product flyer.

Your participation:

• Businessmen - publish new story for Solutions page
• Tech.specialist -- write the story about eComStation in your company.
• The developers may join the development of Point-of-sale toolkit
• OS/2 fans - You can support the development of libraries for solutions via DevCon project -> Budget

Where to collect solutions? www.ecomstation.ru site is hosting Solutions list since 2002. Yyou can publish german, dutch, english texts there.

How to write Solutions story? Take the flyer of your product, add Introduction, add one-two paragraphs about advantages of OS/2 usage, add 2 advertisement photos/screenshots, 2 screenshots of back-end demonstating usage of OS/2. Use the web-form to send your contact information

eComStation 2.0 Silver Release available

2009-08-29 13:51:51 -- Eugene Gorbunoff [ecomstation.ru]

Serenity Systems International and Mensys BV are pleased to announce the immediate availability of eComStation 2.0 Silver Release.

This product is available for download to all registered users of Software Subscription Services for eComStation. For more information, please visit: http://www.ecomstation.com/subscription/

== WHATS NEW? ==

• 259 bugs were resolved, of which 174 'fixed', since the release of eCS 2.0 RC6a.
• over 1450 CVS commits were made, since the release of eCS 2.0 RC6a.

The most notable changes since RC6a are listed below.

New Features:

• Updated preboot menu system to allow target hardware selection.
• The trace (and other) files are now properly installed by clifi. This will produce more useful data in case the debug kernel is required.
• ACPI is now being installed in the form of a WPI package. This should make it easier to supply updates to an installed system later on.
• Added a Video Driver Wizard, which allows to switch between SNAP, Panorama, GRADD and VGA drivers on an installed system. This will make it easier for people to recover from video problems.
• Added GRADD reset option in preboot menu (via ALT-F1).
• Updated LLAECS: it now should work better and prevent problems with netbios over tcpip. The default dhcp timeout of 0 seconds has been reinstated, but now LLAECS waits until it has a valid DHCP lease (up to 30 seconds) before continuing. This should be less, as soon as a DHCP lease has been obtained.
• EVFSGUI (the Samba GUI) now properly detects the status of network connections. This makes the tool a lot more intuitive than before.
• ... and a lot more, see: http://ewiki.ecomstation.nl/ecomstation20rc7whatsnew

Updated Applications:

• Updated Firewall utility to 2009-08-05
• Updated DejaVu font package to version 2.29, now packaged as Warpin file
• Updated WarpIn to version 1.0.18
• Updated TIMESET to 1.0RC1
• Updated RSJ CD writer to version 6.02
• Updated setboot.exe to version 1.07
• Updated MEMDISK to version 2009.01.07
• Updated OS2CSM to version 2009.01.06
• Updated TAR.EXE to version 1.20
• Updated ARCVIEW to 2.02
• Updated eStyler to fix keyboard selection bug in reboot list
• Updated Lucide to version 1.2.1
• ... and a lot more, see: http://ewiki.ecomstation.nl/ecomstation20rc7whatsnew

== REPORTING ==

To increase the amount of user feedback we implemented a 'Feedback Wizard' which will be invoked automatically after installation. Please use it to submit the required details to the eComStation development team. If you want to manually start the Feedback Wizard, for example because you made a significant change to your configuration with different results, this can be easily done by clicking the Feedback Wizard icon in the Help Center. ('Desktop' -> 'Local System' -> 'Help Center')

For information on how to report problems related to UniAud, please refer to http://svn.netlabs.org/uniaud

When you create a new ticket, please always attach logs. You can create all the logs we need, by downloading this package: ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/uniaud/UniInfo.zip Please attach the zip file that Uniinfo creates to your ticket.

For information on how to report problems related to ACPI, please refer to http://svn.netlabs.org/acpi

Before raising a ticket, please read http://ecomstation.ru/projects/acpitools/?action=logs Collect all the data that applies to your issue and include it with the ticket.

For information on how to report problems related to Samba, please refer to http://svn.netlabs.org/samba

You are also welcome to join the TestTeam if you want to discuss this beta and future developments. See http://ewiki.ecomstation.nl/TestTeam for more details.

== DISTRIBUTION / CREATING CDS ==

This product is provided as a downloadable ISO file, this is a raw CD image that you can burn on CD-R media. For instructions on burning the CD image to CD please consult the PDF document howtoburncds.pdf in the same directory.

The file to download is: ecs20rc7_cd1_en.zip

== SOFTWARE SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES ==

Please note that although some subscriptions have expired by now, you are not required to purchase a renewal to obtain the GA version of eComStation 2.0.

More details can be found at http://www.ecomstation.com/subscription/

== ENJOY ==

We hope you will enjoy this new and improved version of eComStation 2.0 and ask you to provide feedback via the Feedback Wizard or the Bugtracking system.

More information on eComStation 2.0 Silver Release can be found here