OS/2 FAQ

I have promised everyone some undocumented features, and this post lists them.

It also lists some workarounds that are NOT in the README.

ITEM NUMBER 1 IS THE ONLY SUPPORTED THING IN THIS POST

Please read this post!

1. Lines in images

   Some machines might still experience white lines in images, even after following the FixPak 6 instructions in the README. If you do, use the following REXX CMD to add another entry to your INI File:

   /* */
   call RxFuncAdd 'SysLoadFuncs', 'RexxUtil', 'SysLoadFuncs'
   call SysLoadFuncs
   
   call SysIni 'USER', 'FixPak', 'Shift','2'
   

   If you still have the problem, try changing the '2' to '1'

2. Viewing source in an editor, using AIM, Host On-Demand, or Netcaster

   OK, the following CMD file is a catch all for all of the above. First the CMD file: ns.cmd

   /* IniName points to the location of your NSCP.INI */
   /* Change NSDir to the directory where NS40 is installed */
   /* Change InstallDrive to the drive where NS40 is installed */
   /* Change en to be the two character identifier for your browser */
   IniName = 'C:\OS2\NSCP.INI'
   InstallDrive = 'C:'
   NSDir = InstallDrive||'\NS40BETA'
   InstallDir = NSDir'\Program'
   NSVersion = '4.04 (en)'
   call RxFuncAdd 'SysLoadFuncs', 'RexxUtil', 'SysLoadFuncs'
   call SysLoadFuncs
   
   /* Add ini entries for Netcaster */
   call SysIni IniName, 'Netcaster', 'CurrentVersion', NSVersion
   call SysIni IniName, 'Netcaster-'||NSVersion, 'Install Directory',
   NSDir'\Netcast'
   /* Add ini entries for Host On-Demand */
   call SysIni IniName, '3270', 'CurrentVersion', NSVersion
   call SysIni IniName, '3270-'||NSVersion, 'Install Directory',
   NSDir'\3270'
   /* Add ini entries for AOL Instant Messenger */
   call SysIni IniName, 'AIM', 'CurrentVersion', NSVersion
   call SysIni IniName, 'AIM-'||NSVersion, 'Install Directory',
   NSDir'\AIM'
   
   /* Add Registry entries for View Source */
   call SysIni IniName, 'Registry',
   '\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\viewsource','URL:View Source'
   call SysIni IniName, 'Registry',
   '\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\viewsource\shell',0
   call SysIni IniName, 'Registry',
   '\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\viewsource\shell\open',0
   call SysIni IniName, 'Registry',
   '\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\viewsource\shell\open\command','C:\OS2\E.EXE'
   

   Now how to use it:
   Install Netscape on windows, copy the contents of NETCAST, 3270, and AIM directories to the appropriately named directories under where you installed NETSCAPE:

   NETSCAPE\PROGRAM
   NETSCAPE\3270
   NETSCAPE\NETCAST
   NETSCAPE\AIM
   

   Note that these three products are NOT supported, but feel free to try. Note that the AOL pulldown will just launch AIM.EXE in the AIM directory, so you can put anything there.

   Once you have added the View Source entry, you can modify the settings for it in the Preferences->Applications.

3. Misc undocumented OS/2 features:

   All these are entries you can add to your PREFS.JS file to do various things. Have fun experimenting:

   • If we see a web page with Arial, Helvetica, we pick Helvetica if this preference is true user_pref("os2.arial_pref", false|true);
   • Specify a wave file for new mail sound. REMEMBER double backslashes! user_pref("os2.mail.sound","C:\\MMOS2\\SOUNDS\\GOTMAIL.WAV");
   • Prevents ALL filename mangling when downloading (dots and extension) if set to false user_pref("os2.replace_dots", true|false );
   • Turns off URL bar completion if set to false user_pref("os2.url_completion", true|false );
   • Causes User Defined Encoding to use default codepage of OS/2 if set to true. On Russian systems, this allows you to see 866 web pages. On default OS/2 systems, you can see 850 pages.
     user_pref("os2.use_oem_charset", true|false );

4. Other notables:
   • Viewing any language web page in Communicator
   • If you use Times Roman MT 30 as your font for ALL encodings, you will be able to see stuff in any language.
   • Chinese and Korean only work on FP 5 or later (I think)
   • Causing helpers to be launched by the WPS:
     If you check the application radio button when EDITING (not creating) a helper, but leave the application entry field blank, the item simply gets passed to the Workplace Shell. This can be used to launch Windows helpers with proper settings, as well as just letting the WPS handle all misc types.

5. Apologies

   Sorry all the drag drop still isn't there. It is our number one priority for the next version. As far as the click on load goes, Netscape deliberately broke that because of other bugs. We tried to fix it, but couldn't get it in in time. Next time. As far as the Collabra problems go, we couldn't get them to reproduce in the latest drivers. We hope they are fixed.

Hope y'all enjoy the product!

Mike Kaply
IBM Corporation
Technical Lead
Netscape Communicator for OS/2

(Дмитрий Платонов) Проблемы с русским в Коммуникаторе

Я получил ответ от Майка Капли (mailto:PSPMikeK@aol.com), ведущего разработчика Communicator. Ранее я сообщал ему о проблемах с кодировками при отправке писем и просмотре www-страниц. Он сообщил мне, что для корректной работы необходимо добавить в файл настроек PREFS.JS в Вашем пользовательском каталоге (NETSCAPE\USERS\ваше_имя) следующие строчки:

user_pref("intl.mailcharset.cyrillic", "koi8-r");

исходящие письма будут отправляться в кодировке koi8-r

user_pref("intl.accept_charsets", "koi8-r,*,utf-8");

www-серверам (тем, которые это поддерживают) будет отправляться запрос о том, что браузер предпочитает получать страницы в koi8-r (по умолчанию он зачем-то хочет iso-8859-5)

Я проверил всe это в своей системе с русским Коммуникатором и у меня всe заработало нормально. Желаю того же и Вам. м.