The Warp Wishlist

The Warp Wishlist is now available at this netlabs.org wiki page with permission from their maintainer.

Visit also de Ideas wiki page.

=The Top Ten Wishes=


 * A commercially supported, full featured GCC port, at the same code level as that of the equivalent Linux package (see "Mind Your Language", below)
 * Great tools for converting applications written for Win32 or for XWindows into GUI native PM apps such as the extraordinary project Everblue from Netlabs, which should make it easier and much faster to bring applications originally written for the Linux and Unix platforms to OS2/eCS).
 * A "Ready for eCS" certification process (to go with the logo) for hardware and software - to enable eCS buyers to see whether products are certified to work with their eCS system BEFORE they purchase them. Four criteria for this logo might be (a) installs to optional drive locations using WarpIn or something better (such as an RPM-style package manager); (b) available in all the same NLS versions as eCS; (c) fully supports the InnoTek-Font Engine for OS/2; (d) uses the SysTray API from ErOS2; and (e) has been updated within the last twelve months.
 * Bootable JFS, though this file system may be seen as "too alternative" for desktop use by John Q Public (or in any SOHO account unfamiliar with AIX) it lets us walk away from HPFS and FAT16 boot drives, thereby reducing the number of required filesystems to one (like the ubiquitous Win* platform) - IBM already supports booting AIX and Linux from JFS, so how come they're dragging their collective feet on facilitating the code changes needed for bootable JFS to become a reality on OS2/eCS ?
 * The ability to easily install, load and run ubiquitous Win32 applications (eg MS Office XP) that the average business has already paid for, and prefers to keep using, without the need for any Windows licenses on our PCs ( CrossOver Office  gives Linux and FreeBSD users this ability already).
 * Develop eCS 2.x as the first Desktop Virtual LAN (DVL) for x86 PCs. The idea is to virtualise a complete heterogenous LAN consisting of two virtualised workstations and a virtualised file and print server machine.  The virtual server machine could run generic Linux and Samba, first virtual workstation would run eComStation 1.2 and the second virtual workstation could run Windows NT or Win2000 (see "other wishes" - below).
 * The latest release of the Sun Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE) platform. A native OS2/eCS port of Java 1.41 is available from Golden Code Development Corporation, while Innotek has released their own Java 1.42_05 product, which uses their unique Odin technology to run unmodified Win32 Java code from Sun
 * The seamless integration of the Innotek Web Pack Plus for OS/2 and Castlesoft Colour Manager into the base eCS 1.x and future 2.x products.
 * A media player, like the very impressive WarpVisionGUI project that is packaged with whatever license is needed to legally play back commercial DVD movies.
 * Support for fourteen NLS versions; eg English, German, Dutch, Russian (available) plus French, Spanish, Italian, Portugese, Swedish, Trad Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hungarian and Klingon (as soon as commercially practicable).

=The Programer's Cauldron=

Our platform of choice needs constantly improving tools. The very sophisticated cross platform wxWidgets GUI application development framework is a good example of what is available for OS2/eCS. Other steps forward may include :


 * Continued development of the potentially very important OSS Eclipse Java IDE for the OS2/eCS platform (brought to you by Netlabs )
 * Increased C99 and C++98 standards compliance for compilers and tools running on OS2/eCS.
 * Regular updates to the EMX runtime, to keep it feature compatible with the latest GNU C compilers available on mainstream Linux distros such as Xandros.
 * A new edition - dusted off and scrubbed clean of anachronisms of the pre-MCP2/eCS era - of at least one mainstream book that focuses on the unique aspects of the OS2/eCS platform
 * A versatile, full featured Help File authoring package such as Hypermake by Martin Vieregg (shareware) or VyperHelp by Mektek (commercial)
 * Feature sets equalling those available on the fascinating-Linux, solid-NetBSD-and occasionally notorious-Win32-platforms today.
 * A native OS2/eCS 32-bit parser and editor for XML and SGML files (gX from Untravelled Sphere).
 * Add support for compression of LX executables to the OpenWatcom C/C++ linker.
 * An annual OS2/eCS developer seminar - held immediately after, and in the same city, as a large IT event unrelated to OS2/eCS. Seminar attendees can reduce their time away from the office and, perhaps, charge their airfare to the non-OS2/eCS event that they needed to attend in that city anyway.
 * Add Intel SSE1 and SSE2 instruction set enhancements to the OpenWatcom compiler
 * A port of the modern, standards compliant Comeau C and C++ tools to OS2/eCS (commercial).

=Mind Your Language=

The OS2/eCS platform is well supported by languages and associated toolsets today and, due to the generally thankless work of many gifted OS2/eCS programers, the available choices are constantly improving. Languages and application development tools ready for your next OS2/eCS project include :


 * C and C++ options include OpenWatcom C/C++ 1.2 (free) and the commercially supported Innotek GCC 3.2 for OS/2
 * Pascal options include the Netlabs OpenSibyl project, Virtual Pascal for OS2 and Free Pascal for OS2
 * REXX options include ObjectREXX, (Open Sourced by IBM) Watcom VX-REXX (find it on eBay) and Regina-REXX (free)
 * Java is well supported on OS2/eCS. For a powerful multiplatform Java IDE that runs great on OS2/eCS, try NetBeans (free, open source).
 * Ada is available for OS2/eCS with GNU Ada 95 (free)
 * PHP your tool of choice ? Then here's PHP 4 (free)
 * Perl one, knit two ? The PRIMA Toolkit is a multi-platform GUI application development tool available for the OS2/eCS platform.
 * Python handlers will love Python 2.3.4 (free)
 * Fortran coders can get productive with OpenWatcom Fortran 1.2 (free)
 * Smalltalk for big results ! Try the modern, well regarded IBM VisualAge Smalltalk.

=Must Have - Features and Applications=

Much of the best software available for OS2/eCS today is available at no cost under open source licences. However, large commercial users often prefer to pay for a commercially licenced product (eg. StarOffice) rather than use free software of equal quality ( eg.OpenOffice.org 1.2 ), perhaps because of the legally enforcible obligations commercial software licences may place on software vendors. Having such choices is great ! Whether "running native" or utilising the very sexy Odin subsystem, there are some standard / mainstream applications that OS/2 and eCS need to support in order to offer aid and comfort to Windows survivors taking those hesitant first steps toward a brighter, less costly x86 alternative.


 * Support for ACPI, without which OS2/eCS may cease to be a viable OS on future mainstream PC hardware.
 * A "single pass" unified installer that lets end users Doubleclick once to install mutually compatible versions of Sane/2 and Tame/2 to any directory nominated.
 * Integrated WPS folder views for many archiver formats (like ZIP, RAR, ARJ, etc) - should be similar to the implementation in Object Desktop, but inherit the extensions from e.g., XWorkplace ( eZIP ).
 * Enhancements to both the Presentation Manager (GUI) and command line (CLI) user interfaces, in particular, a robust new 32-bit command interpreter to replace the archaic IBM 16-bit CMD.exe that still ships with every copy of OS/2 and eComStation sold.
 * A "single pass" unified installer that lets end users Doubleclick once to install both Ghostscript for eCS/OS2 and GhostView to any directory nominated.
 * Provide support in OS2/eCS for the X500 and DCE standards and for Kerberos authentication.
 * A cool GUI internet dialer out of the box with a modern feature set (like ISDNPM) - the new eCSCoNet in eComStation 1.1 has banished DOIP to a museum. Also available are the deservedly popular InJoy Dialer (character based) and SafeFire PPP/Links
 * A single sign-on facility, to obtain secure access from OS2/eCS to files and resources on Unix, Windows, Netware, Linux and Mac OS X servers - either over a LAN or across the world.
 * ALL configuration info to reside in a readable and editable set of files, saved in one known place (i.e. x:\System\OS2\ini).
 * Full support for reading and writing more modern Adobe .PDF documents within OS2/eCS word processors.
 * A highly scalable mail server with IMAP4 support - (CommunigatePro - Commercial).
 * Better support for PalmOS PDA devices ( JSyncManager by Brad Barclay - free GPL ).
 * Project scheduling software with Gantt charts ( so far, there is PTime/2 by Wolfram Schmid ).
 * An up to date Citrix ICA Client such as the very professional OS/2 Kit for Citrix ICA Client 7.100 Release 1 from Innotek GmbH.
 * A native, full featured, bloat-free equivalent to MS Outlook - to ease transition from the high-cost Windows environment to OS2/eCS for price sensitive corporate users (the Lookout/2 project).

=Some Priority Applications for Porting=


 * Adobe Acrobat 6 - while GSView or ePDF can do the job (mostly), Mac and Windows ex-users will forever insist on using the latest version of a product they have known and used for year after year. For the moment, Innotek are offering release four of their OS/2 kit for Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.05 and release one of their planned OS/2 kit for Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.1.
 * Ximian Evolution and Ximian Connector. Evolution is a highly regarded open-source MS Outlook look-alike, now fast gaining users on the Linux platform. Ximian Connector allows non-Microsoft clients to connect to an MS Exchange Server.  Novell "loved it so much, they bought the company".  For OS2/eCS to fit easily into mainstream corporate networks, something like these two GNOME based products need to be ported from Linux and/or Solaris as a high priority.
 * Macromedia Flash 7 Player, not yet available for OS2/eCS, as the hard working team at Innotek are yet to obtain a licence (is this because of high cost ?).
 * RealPlayer 10 - needed mainly for the same reasons as Acrobat 6. The Helix DNA client has been open sourced by RealNetworks, which should lead, in time, to an OS2/eCS port of this versatile media player. Maybe it is not needed, but Windows refugees would sorely miss it.
 * Intuit Quicken - because it is nearly ubiquitous and its absence is a show-stopper for many SOHO users, who have all their financial skills/records tied up in this one, simple to use product.
 * Niku Workbench, a modern full featured alternative to Microsoft Project. It's code has recently been released under the GPL (see OpenWorkBench ) - free
 * VirtualDub, a multimedia editor, with useful features for everyone with a digital video or still camera. Can you port OpenDub to OS2/eCS ?  (free GPL).
 * Port XLib to OS2/eCS Presentation Manager to swell the flow of applications written for Linux and Unix that can be adapted with relatve ease to run on OS2/eCS (eg. project Everblue, from Netlabs)
 * VideoLan, is a full featured open source cross-platform media player and streaming server with a plethora of Codecs and skins - is the toolset needed to port this great looking application to OS2/eCS available ?

=Kernel Desires=

Not so long ago, OS/2 was arguably less crash prone than other x86 choices (notably Win9x), but in more recent times WinXP and some Linux distros have reversed this lead. Key GUI architecture decisions taken over ten years ago by the designers of PM and the WPS make it impossible to terminate some failing processes, including the WPS and PM themselves. If OS2/eCS is to retain support from its current users, let alone attract new users, increased stability for PM and the WPS and a bullet-proof process killer are essential OS enhancements.


 * Multiple asynchronous input queues - the OS/2 Holy Grail - without this, process-killers often fail.
 * A new 32-bit command processor (4OS2 by JPSoft - newly free and being actively maintained, or 32-bit Command Interpreter by JdeBP - Free)
 * A more capable Graphics Rendering Engine - a prerequisite to provide all applications with (optional) anti-aliased fonts for low resolution monitors (i.e. unable to show 104 dpi on a CRT or 114 dpi on a TFT display).
 * The ability to utilise multiple virtual CPUs on Intel processors with its Hyperthreading feature.
 * Support for AMD's x86-64 CPU (64-bit superset of the IA-32 architecture)
 * Support for AMD's 3DNow! instruction set
 * Support for Intel's SSE1 and SSE2 instruction sets.
 * X11/Motif API's (XFree86/OS2 project - Free, HOBLink X11 - Commercial).
 * Remove the 31 character font-naming limitation - to ease document exchange and interoperability.
 * Symmetrical Multi-Processor (SMP) support for both Client (eCS with the SMP Pack) & Server (IBM WSeB)
 * Better hibernation support - support for JFS/LVM, SCSI, HPFS, etc
 * Elimination of the former 512MB limit for memory addressing (already fixed in IBMs MCP and Serenity's eCS 1.0 or above)
 * Allow "mounting" a device under an arbitrary path name ( as in Windows 2000 and WinXP )
 * IBM completes (or releases for others to develop) SOM 3.0 in the form initially released as a beta in Februrary 1996, thus providing a CORBA 2 compliant object request broker for OS2/eCS. [The System Object Model (SOM), is an IBM implementation of CORBA  and forms the base on which the WorkPlace Shell (WPS) is built. The WPS in OS/2 4.52 and eComStation still uses the outdated, less capable IBM SOM 2.1 ]

=System Security "Out of the Box"=

There have been at least four products or projects which delivered multiple-user functionality (eg. desktop prefs/settings are determined by a user's login ID) to OS/2, but none of them has ever been distributed as a part of the base OS, in the way that Microsoft has for Windows since at least 1995. For lack of distribution with the base OS, this product category has stagnated on OS2/eCS. The lack of even the most basic multiple-user features "out of the box" makes OS2/eCS almost unique on x86 - but not in a good way ! A number of valuable projects will let us eliminate this deficiency :


 * Security/2 is now a requirement to run OpenSSH/2 and is currently expected to form a part of eCS 2.x product
 * For more secure connections, installation of OpenSSH/2 by default (instead of rLogin and Telnet).
 * Better security - C2 while connected to a network (based on extending SES in Warp 4.x)
 * For rusted-on IBM branded OS/2 users, multiple user features are offered with MultiDesk by Cristiano Guadagnino - Free
 * Access control (IBM Secure Entry and (perhaps in future) Sesame by Golden Code - Commercial)
 * Filesystem with password encryption of all data stored - as with NTFS
 * Anti Virus options with modern virus scanning engines (Norton Antivirus by Symantec, Viruscan by McAfee or the very popular Virus Control by Norman Data Defense Systems Inc.)
 * An easy to install and use firewall application based on Stateful Packet Inspection technology.
 * Strong file encryption/decryption with both VIO and (in future) PM interfaces (TeaTime/2 by Daniël de Kok).

=File System Support=


 * Better FAT32 and NTFS drivers - for large disks (NTFS utilities - Free, FAT32 drivers - Free)
 * Ability to boot the operating system from mainstream file systems such as NTFS, FAT32 and EXT2 (FAT16 and HPFS are at a developmental dead-end)
 * Add UDF-support for removable Magneto-Optical storage to the existing file system drivers.
 * Better support for VFAT long file names often used with Zip Disks and with plain Diskettes (VFATMon by Jason Stefanovich)
 * Read/write access to Macintosh disks (HFS drivers from Marcus Better - Now GPL on Hobbes)
 * Read/write access to Linux file systems (ext2-os2 drivers by Matthieu Willm - Free)
 * The ability to share a fast to recover 64-bit journalling file system (eg JFS2 ) with AIX and Linux.
 * The ability to boot from and read/write to the much admired XFS journalling file system.
 * Integrate TVFS support into the kernel (TVFS - Free EWS, version 2.11 is now on Hobbes)
 * A bullet-proof FDISK, display, analysis and recovery tool for disks and filesystems ( DFSee )
 * Logical Volume Manager (no reliance on drive letters, provides sophisticated drive spanning)
 * A database-like journalling filesystem with support for metadata (ie Extended Attributes) like BeFS in BeOS or like AFS in AtheOS.

=Drivers R Us=


 * IBM completes the KEE API to allow pure 32-bit physical device drivers (no more thunks, thanks!)
 * Drivers for the Broadcom BCM4401 chipset, as many mainstream laptops (eg. the Dell Inspirion 8600) use this Broadcom chipset for the integrated NIC.
 * Why not licence the surprising Panasonic USB drivers for DOS and include them in the eCS entry level product ?
 * A driver for a PCI sound card, any sound card, that supports the MIDI hardware connection. This can be via the joystick port, USB or Firewire or whatever.
 * A revolutionary video driver model (Scitech SNAP - Commercial & Free variants)
 * A universal driver for scanners (including USB 2.0 models) along the same lines as SNAP.
 * Better CD-ROM / CD-RW / DVDs device manager drivers ( JJSCDROM by Takayuki Suwa )
 * Better support for FireWire 800 and other new enabling technologies such as
 * Support for the Serial ATA standard likely to replace EIDE for PC hard drives within two years is already included in Version 1.6.4 of Daniela Engert's Danis506 drivers - Great to hear it !
 * Drivers for the proposed Serial Attached SCSI standard may be of special value to OS2/eCS users in future for attaching more demanding peripheral devices (such as scanners and disk arrays).
 * Better PCI sound card drivers (SBLive! driver - Free, Universal Audio drivers from Innotek - for IPA subscribers, or from eCS)
 * Better support for modern video cards (Scitech SNAP Graphics - Commercial)
 * Better support for IEEE 802.11g, 802.11b and 802.11a wireless networks (WLAN), including PCI cards and the general availability of drivers for IBM devices based on the Lucent Orinoco chipset.
 * Better USB 2.0 Scanner support - a serious deficiency today (USBScan.Sys will hopefully integrate with SANE/2 - Free and TAME/2 by Goran Ivankovic and Klaus Staedtler - Free)
 * Better USB 2.0 Camera support (USB on OS/2 site maintained by Martin Iturbide)
 * Better Serial drivers (SIO2K by Ray Gwinn - Shareware)
 * Better printer drivers (IBM drivers for postscript, inkjets, laserjets, and plotters - Free)
 * Better DVD, DVD-RAM / DVD-RW and CD-RW support (IBM's UDF 2.01 - for IPA subscribers, or from eCS, RSJ CD Writer - commercial)
 * Better TV card support for BT878-based cards (TVShow Project - from Kiev Elephant)
 * Better support for cable modems and xDSL (ISDNPM, treats cable modems like an NIC)
 * Support for USB 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0 (UHCI, OHCI and EHCI USB drivers - for IPA subscribers, or from eCS)
 * Support for multi-function Printer / Fax / Scanner / Copiers.
 * Support for Sis7012 and Sis7018 audio (hopefully to be provided in a future release of UNIAUD).
 * Updated DIVE, DART, and RTMIDI (for multimedia AND games)
 * Universal device driver porting kit - something like IBM Open32, only for drivers
 * Support for more and better joysticks with all their latest features (new joystick driver - Free)
 * 32-bit PC Card 5.0 support (CardBus drivers - for IPA subscribers, or from eCS)
 * 32-bit TCP/IP stack and applications (version 4.3.x - for IPA subscribers, or from eCS)
 * Enhanced support for removable media (LS120, LS240, Zip 250, Zip 750, Jaz, Syquest, etc.)
 * Support for modern optical and "wheel" mice (IBM drivers - Free, Amouse)
 * Support for the PCTel HSP56 audio modem chip.