SCOUG OS/2 For You - February 1998

Q. Dear Mr. Know-It-All,

I use a RAM drive to store files that I use quite often (mostly small utilities and REXX command scripts), so that I don't need a huge PATH statement that points to the 30 or so directories where all these files are located. I just have one additional entry in the PATH that points to the RAM drive. I'm quite happy with this. However, as the number of utilities and REXX scripts that I've got increases (I've got 572 of them as I write this), the RAM drive is starting to get pretty big. OS/2 is pretty smart; is there another way to accomplish what I'm doing, and free up the RAM drive memory for other uses?

A. You might be even happier with TVFS, the Toronto Virtual File System. It's a virtual disk which allows you to pick both single files and entire directories and have them appear on a new, "virtual" disk drive. So, for example, if you had a file C:\HEREIAM and a directory D:\BLAHBLAH, you could have them both appear on drive E: (or whatever the new TVFS drive is).

This is a very powerful tool. Suppose I needed to write a report which was going to take me two weeks, and I've got a number of documents scattered around my computer that I'll need to refer to as I'm writing. I can set up a new virtual directory on the TVFS drive, and that virtual directory will have all of those documents for me to use! When I'm working on the report, I just open that one directory and get to work. (No hunting around for the proper files every time I need them -- they're all there.)

The TVFS files aren't copied, as you're doing now with your RAM drive. They're still in their original spot. But you see a "shadow" of them on the new TVFS virtual drive.

For information and to download various flavors of TVFS, see http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Way/3792/tvfsrm.html (TVFS_RM GUI), ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/diskutil/tvfslink.zip (TVFS Link), ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/diskutil/tvfs210.zip, and ftp://ftp.pc.ibm.com/pub/pccbbs/os2_ews/tvfs.txt and tvfs.zip.

Q. Dear Mr. Know-It-All,

We have some "legacy" VX-Rexx programs that we're updating. There might be a more recent version of VX-Rexx, but I can't find any info on it. Where'd it go to?

A. VX-Rexx is a handy program. It's currently owned by Sybase (800/879-2273); list pricing is $99 for VX-Rexx version 2.1, $299 for the Client Server Edition, and $199 for the Object Development Kit. You can order directly from Sybase, or have your favorite software vendor special-order it for you (it might be a few bucks cheaper that way).

One caveat -- Sybase is ending VX-Rexx sales and support later this year. It's a mature product and works fine, so if you want it, buy it now.

SCOUG is a trademark of the Southern California OS/2 User Group.
OS/2, Workplace Shell, and IBM are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.
All other trademarks remain the property of their respective owners.