On Mon, 01 Jan 2001 03:31:41 -0500 (EST), Thomas Mueller wrote:
Hi Thomas -
>Now I feel inclined to switch to a newer database program like MySQL or
>PostgreSQL, or maybe DB2 for Linux, rather than figure my way through dBASE 5.
>
Over the long haul, the world is moving to SQL databases, which I think would make the
dBASE5 learing curve unappealing unless you need it for a specific reason. With the
'big' SQL databases, like DB2 & Oracle, there is a big time learning curve. At least
in
OS/2, there is a native program called dBExpert which you can use as a 'front end' to
DB2, and it will handle either xBASE or DB2 databases. On the Linux front, I am not
aware (currently) of any equivalent, although with IBM's committment to 'nix there
could
be one coming. Or if you just want to fool around without much of a learning curve,
you
could get Paradox (older versions dirt cheap on dBay). There is a 4.5 for DOS and 5.0
for Windows that are file compatable. They both have pretty graphic front ends and
let
you do advanced querys without much effort. The 5.0 Windows 3.1 version also lets
you go back & forth between dBASE and Paradox file formats with a click or two.
>How does Netscape 4.6 for OS/2 perform for you? Netscape 4.04 for OS/2 crawls
>for me. I have Cx486DX2-S at 66 MHz with 20 MB RAM, not a good bet for DB2.
>
Netscape 4x is a BIG MEMORY HOG on any operating system. 4.6 is actually better
than 4.04 in terms of speed, but it does so by grabbing most of your cpu & process
time. Your best solution would be to pick up some more RAM. 32 MB simms are very
cheap out there as everyone moves to PC100 & PC133 RAM, and generally speaking,
on the net you will notice better speed improvements with RAM over newer processors.
>Do you run DOS Internet programs in an OS/2 Warp 4 VDM? I find downloading with
>56 K modem is much slower, like 40% the speed, that way than under straight
>DR-DOS 7.03. Arachne running online in OS/2 Warp 4 VDM seems to crunch the disk
>much more than under DR-DOS 7.03 with NWCACHE.
>
I haven't used OS/2 DOS for internet connections, preferring native apps. I have
heard
from some folks that do that you can seriously tweak the OS/2 dos properties settings
to get good throughput. I know that OS/2 itself can handle high speed connections,
because in our user group we have one member who uses Warp Server to handle
high volume real time telephony connections to satellites & such. I do know that on
my
main system with a triple boot (OS/2, PCDOS7 & NT4Workstation), Arachne 1.69 is one
heck of a lot slower using packets than Netscape 4.61. This system is a direct
connect
DSL one, however & I don't know about 56k modems. If I get a chance, I'll try Arachne
in a dos box & see.
>OS/2 newsgroups have a lot of activity for a dead OS, and I was amazed by the
>activity in comp.os.cpm. But activity in comp.os.msdos.mail-news is just a
>trickle, less than one message a day.
>
Yes. The money has moved to the Winx world, and the folks who love computers
seem to be moving to Linux/BSD. For those of us who love OS/2, the good news is that
xFree86 runs well on OS/2, so we have very quick ports of most of the GNU freeware
programs like SANE & GIMP & device drivers. There seem to be a number of folks
who use Warp & Linux, for example. I don't think DOS is dead; it works too well. But
the
development emphasis has definitely moved on.
>What is this presentation manager stuff for DOS? I thought Presentation Manager
>was part of OS/2.
>
Whoops! You're right. The actual Corel program is called 'Presentations'. It is a
DOS
equivalent of PowerPoint. It also comes with a Corel DOS shell (Graphical interface,
kinda) & editor.
>How do you use PMMail as my main e-mail client for both NT and OS/2 through a
>shared partition? What file system?
I keep a couple of shared FAT16 partitions in the extended logical partiton. On one
of
these, I have a directory that contains both the OS/2 and Windows versions of PMMail.
This way you can share the same directory structure & have access to the same email
under both Windows & OS/2 even though you are booting different operatins systems.
It works really neat for me. I have kept my PCDOS partition mostly for running text
mode versions of PowerQuest's Drive Image & Partition Magic. Playing with those
puppies, I really like to work close to the hardware. I also keep my favorite
programmers editor (Vedit+) for DOS around, some utiltiies & the WordPerfect Suite.
Recently I discovered Arachne & decided to see about a direct internet connection
under DOS. After all, its when your system crashes that you need to be able to ftp or
url
to technical solutions :-).
Tony Butka
