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April 2001
Mr. Know-It-All has the answers to even the really tough questions.
Question:Mr. KIA, you have written several articles on how to use Real Player and Odin. Has there been much change?Answer:Both RealPlayer and Odin have changed since I last wrote about them and the changes are for the better. Odin, as expected, has had the most significant changes. Both are easier to install and work better for most users. RealPlayer is now at version 8 and includes several new features. Odin does not yet have a release number but is significantly more stable, supports a richer set of the Win32 API's and has several significant new features.Perhaps the most significant external change is that the win32k.sys device driver is now stable and is highly configurable. Many users now no longer need to use pe.exe to invoke Win32 programs. There is a new utility, win32kcc, the win32k control center. This utility configures win32k.sys from the OS/2 command line. Win32K.sys features can be turned on and off as needed to suit special case programs. No rebooting is required. Installation is now simpler. Odin releases are now available in WarpIn WPI format. The WPI installation script for Odin can update config.sys and initialize the Odin .ini files for you. These operations no longer need to be done manually. For the tweakers among us, the ZIP releases are still available. The Odin release now includes an auxiliary installation tool, Odininst.exe. This tool initializes the registry and .ini entries required by Odin. It is no longer necessary to update these manually. If you update to a new release of Odin and it does not seem to run correctly on your system, run Odininst to ensure that you have settings for all the required entries. There is yet another new utility, OdinApp. OdinApp is a sort of Hello World Win32 application. It's purpose is twofold. It installs several enhanced Win32 DLL's and it tests your Odin installation. The defect reporting process has been formalized. There is now a standard form for reporting defects. This makes it easier for users to provide a useful description of the problem. This in turn makes it easier for the developers to locate and correct the problems. eGroups was bought by Yahoo, so the OdinUsers mailing list is now hosted at Yahoo Groups This is still the best place to go for reporting problems and getting assistance with Odin. In the near future, the release schedule for Odin will be changing. This is subject to change, but there will probably be weekly stable releases and daily developer releases. This is an indication that the Odin project is maturing in is getting close to being a feature complete, beta level project. The developers deserve great praise for the work they have done. IBM too deserves thanks. They have quietly supplied the Odin team with enhanced DLL's and other support. One item that unfortunately has not changed yet is that RealPlayer still only works as a Netscape Helper Application. It can not yet be used as a plug-in. However, with the progress Odin has seen, this too may change in the future. The WarpIn installer is available at the WarpIn Home Odin releases and the utilities mentioned here are available at Odin Home A visit to Netlabs Home will show you the many other fine projects that the Netlabs group is developing and supporting. Happy listening.
OS/2 is his specialty and sharing solutions is his passion Mr. Know-It-All lives in Southern California.
P.O. Box 26904 Santa Ana, CA 92799-6904, USA Copyright 2001 the Southern California OS/2 User Group. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. SCOUG, Warp Expo West, and Warpfest are trademarks 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. |