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Microsoft OS/2 SDK 12-15-1987

All documentation has been moved to the C binaries diskette under the
OS2DOC subdirectory.

Problems:

Information about this release of the MS OS/2 SDK release can be obtained
from the DIAL bulletin board.  Below are some last minute caveates:

Binary and Dyna-Link Libraries (DLL) must be from the same version. DO
NOT MIX VERSIONS !

There are three install programs - INSTAID, INSTIBM and INSTMS. What is
the difference between these three ?

    All three install programs generate compatible versions of MS OS/2.
    The difference lies in the names of the directories created and the
    location of the system files. The MS OS/2 installation program, INSTAID
    (misnamed INSTALL in the documentation) and INSTIBM create two
    directories, OS2 and SPOOL, then copies system files to OS2 and the
    root directory.

    The alternate install, INSTMS, creates several additional directories
    and distributes the various files among them. This configuration is
    recommended for application program developers. The directories created
    by this method are described in the Microsoft Operating System/2 Setup
    Guide.

I have a PS/2 machine and when booting from the Installation Diskette the
machine just freezes. What's the deal ?

    If you have a PS/2 machine with an ESDI hard disk (i.e. 71MB or larger)
    the default disk driver must be changed. You simply copy the Disk01.ESD
    to Disk01.SYS and then re-boot the machine. The bottom line is that
    if you have a low level formatted hard disk and try the instaid program
    with the wrong disk device driver your machine will freeze.

When I installed the latest release of OS/2 with the dual boot option
the autoexec.bat file is not executed when I switch to the 3.x box
for the first time. What gives?

    With Dual boot, to avoid conflicts, the names of Config.Sys and
    Autoexec.Bat are changed to Config.OS2 and Autoexec.OS2.  This
    can be overcome by copying the parts of Autoexec.Bat that you
    desire into the Autoexec.OS2.

When running Win 2.0 in the 3.x box, Terminal, the Win 2.0 disktop
app, cannot connect to COM1. I get a message from the app stating
it can't connect. However, if I use another Async comm product it
does work. Ideas?

    There is a little utility called SETCOM40 that (dis/en)ables the
    comm ports for the real mode box.  Other programs are probably
    rude and don't follow the protocol to determine if the port is in
    use or not.


I have an EGA card listed with in the MS OS/2 SDK installation notes, yet
my machine doesn't run OS/2 correctly, what is the problem.

    If you're experiencing EGA problems with a valid EGA card call
    manufacturer to determine if EGA ROMS are up to date.

The installation guide is confusing, can you give me three easy steps to
installing the SDK?

    Sure.  First, put the program diskette into your machine and reboot it.
    Follow the instructions.  If you have a new machine, first format the
    hard drive, then reboot with the program diskette.

    Second: copy the files \OS2DOC\INPUT.EXE and \OS2DOC\INSTSDK.CMD from the
    TOOLKIT diskette to the root of your hard drive.  Run the program INSTSDK
    and answer its questions.

    Thats, all.

I selected the root directory for installing the SDK portion of this kit.
All of the directories were built, however none of the files were copied
there.  What gives?

    The installation script has a bug.  If you are in a subdirectory and
    specify the root of your hard drive it will make the directories in the
    correct place, but copy the files to the directory that you are in.

When I created the SDK with the INSTSDK.BAT using DOS, the OS2INIT.CMD
contains real mode paths. What's the deal ?

    Command mode batch processing does not allow for very elegant parsing
    of the environment. As a result, you will have to edit the resulting
    autoexec to remove real mode references. A second alternative is to
    install the SDK using OS/2.

Some of my demo programs that worked with the previous SDK now die with a
stack fault.

    The minimum thread stack recommended is 2KB. More is needed if you
    use the stack very much.

The C compiler can't find libraries

    C compiler libraries have to be built before linking will work.  See the
    hard copy readme included with this kit.  Execute the program LIBBUILD
    without any command line arguments for instructions on how to build
    libraries. The procedure to build all models with the floating point
    emulator is as follows:

    1. make sure your os2init.cmd file is set up per the installation notes.
    2. cd to the library directory
    3. enter the following command:

        for %i in (s m c l) do libbuild %i em %LIB%

    Libbuild will create the libraries needed by the C compiler for the
    (s)mall, (m)edium, (c)ompact and (l)arge models with the floating point
    (em)ulator package.


PS doesn't run, I get a system fault.

    PS and profiling will GP fault unless the developers kernel is installed.
    See the relevant sections of the hard copy readme.

MS OS/2 clobbered my MS-DOS system

    When using the MS installation aid and setting a dual boot configuration
    if you try to re-install, you will clobber the previous dual boot
    information.  I.E. it won't work.  To preserve your original version of
    dos, re-sys dos to the hard drive, then re-install OS/2 using the
    installation aid and select dual boot.

My bound programs don't run anymore

    Tools and utilities that were bound (BIND) with the previous SDK may
    not load and execute on this version of OS/2.  The fix is to simply
    recompile and bind the executable.

How can I get my environment set in new screen groups?
Programs started by the program selector have no environment set.
My program cannot be started from the program selector.

    When you "start" a new screen group the file "os2init.cmd" is run by
    the CMD processor.  You can put your environment initalization stuff
    in there.

    If you are starting a program from the program selector, the file os2init
    is not run by the CMD processor.  The way around this is to leave the
    pathname name blank and put the following line in the argument line

        TITLE       foo application

        PATHNAME    C:\CMD.EXE       (This could be left blank)

        PARAMETERS  /c c:\os2init & foo.exe

    If you put '@echo off' as the first line in os2init.cmd this
    all works really nicely.

What is a Matrox disk drive?

    Oops, that was intended to be Maxtor.

The color switches for the editor SDKED have changed, what are they?

    The editor has changed radically, the color switches are completely
    different. all are just standard hex attribute bytes now, i.e. "0F" is
    black background, intense white forground.

        ; error color
        errcolor:c
        ; color of current window "foreground color"
        fgcolor:1A
        ; color of "highlight" in searching
        hgcolor:21
        ; "information" color on status line, textarg color
        infcolor:
        ; "status" color
        stacolor:0F
        ;

Confidence Testing Corrections

    Step 7 : Select the MS-DOS Command Prompt, not COMMAND.COM as indicated.

    Step 11: Select OS/2 Comand Prompt 1, not THREADS Screen Group, as
             indicated.

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