In this issue I was to talk about some Warp users in Alberta, the western-most Prairie province, and also my home. But, this is summer, and if you've ever lived through a northern winter, or several, you'll understand that when summer comes, we go - outside. When summer high temperatures are 60 degrees (Celsius) higher than (some) winter highs and the sky is still sort of blue at 10pm we make the most of what we've got while we can. We'll catch up with what's going on in the next issue when everyone's got their annual sunburns peeled off and is starting to think about getting back to work. For this issue we'll have a look at how I take Warp on the road over five cities in three provinces.
Since the laptop and my desktop machine are essentially the same (486DX-33) I saw no reason why I couldn't treat the laptop as a small desktop machine, and so I've set it up to duplicate most of what I do with my desktop: write words, crunch numbers, manage lists, draw pictures, and talk to other machines.
As with all the other OS/2 machines I run, my laptop stays on all the time. OS/2's handling of my machine's Suspend/Resume and Hibernation functions means that I simply close the lid, pack it into my knapsack and cart it away. When I get a call that requires me to look up something on the machine I pull off to the side of the road, pull out the laptop, open the lid and I'm right where I was when I packed up.
However, there are three fundamental "allowances" you need to make when carrying OS/2 Warp or anything else on a laptop:
1. Not Enough Screen Space
Most laptops have only a 640x480 screen, and this can be a little too cosy if you want to keep more than a couple windows or folders open. There are really only two things you can do: make things a little smaller, and avoid having to open too many windows to get things done.
Wherever possible use a System VIO font, because they are designed to be legible at a wide range of sizes, especially the smallest. Fortunately I am graced with good eyesight; your tolerance may vary. Use the "Small" icon size for your Desktop and folders, and. I created my own Scheme in the Scheme Palette to make various appearance changes, like thinner window borders and brighter colours. Almost any patterned background bitmap will make text harder to read, so I use my standby "eye-saver" green for the Desktop, and a very light beige for folders.
Don't be afraid to rename Desktop objects to use shorter names so they pack together better. "OS/2 System" is a bit redundant when your "System" folder is on an OS/2 Desktop.
I put most of the functions I need on the LaunchPad, and a few of the most common in my Desktop menu. LaunchPad buttons open major collections of objects, and drawers contain references to often-used programs. I name text-mode sessions with characters that are close to my [Enter] key (like "]" and "\") so that I can use Ctrl-Esc to pick sessions easily.
There are some utilities that provide multiple "virtual" Desktops that let you segregate one or more open windows to their own Desktop. Your Desktop becomes one of nine (3-wide by 3-high), and generally your Desktop objects (Icons, LaunchPad, Clock) will follow you from Desktop to Desktop. Object Desktop, PC2, FileBar and ExtDesk are good examples.
2. RAM and Disk
The usual trade-offs apply as for any other system. See "Warp on a Shoestring" in the last issue for some ideas. Since laptop memory is more expensive than memory for desktop machines it's even more likely that you'll have less than the ideal. Dynamic file compression is even more useful on a laptop since it will probably have about half of what a comparably-priced desktop system would have.
3. Multiple Connections
This is the toughest one if you have to move around a lot and connect to a lot of different things. If you only need to connect to one place, then it may be enough to just have "Home" and "Road" versions of things like dialing directories. If you need to maintain an Internet presence on the road then there's no better way than through IBM Advantis.
When I first installed OS/2 Warp I wanted to keep my setup pretty basic because I had to show it around a lot and didn't want to deviate too far from the out-of-the-box setup. As handy as they are, alternate menu programs and Desktop extensions would hide what I needed to show and be too difficult to switch on and off regularly. Two tools that I added right away were CRON2 and BIGBEN. CRON2 does only a few things on this machine, the most important being a nightly backup of important files to a separate repository on the disk. BIGBEN announces the time every hour by playing a four-tone string.
I leave my icons arranged across the top of the screen, sorted by name. Everything is fairly small: icons, LaunchPad, Clock, and fonts. The folders use a 5-point System VIO font, while the command-line uses the 12x5 font size. Note the gap between the LaunchPad and the Clock: sometimes it's the only visible part of the Desktop, as is a small area in the upper-right.
On the LaunchPad I categorize buttons by function, and use text on the drawer buttons because small icons are often indistinguishable from each other. The "a" button, for example, opens up a folder called "Words" which contains any tools I have for working with words, while the "#" button is for "Numbers."
The Desktop menu has 8 of the most common functions I use (at the mouse pointer), and combined with the fact that my laptop has IBM's nifty TrackPoint mouse I can combine mouse-clicks with key-presses very easily.
The "\Root" window is my main command-line window, and the "\" happens to be the key closest to my [Enter] key, so moving to this window involves a simple [Ctrl-Esc]-\-[Enter].
"Process Status PM2" is an IBM-internal process monitor that shows a tree of all running processes (visible or otherwise).