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ARPSTOCK --- Timur Tabi presented the Win32-OS/2 Project at last year's Warpstock.  The Project, quite simply, runs Windows 95/98/NT ("Win32") programs on OS/2.  Last year Timur demonstrated an early beta which successfully loaded and ran a Win32 program --- full speed, on OS/2.  The software is downloadable for free from the Win32-OS/2 web site.

           This year, for Warpstock '98, Timur was back.

           You have to remember that Sander van Leeuwen and his team are essentially writing a new version of Windows 95/98/NT which runs on top of Warp.  That's a pretty big task.  Some of the functionality has already been developed by IBM; the Win32-OS/2 Project is taking care of the rest.

           New in the current version of the converter is on-the-fly conversion (you used to have to create converted .EXE's and .DLL's, and then run the new .EXE), support with at least a stub function for almost all functions (those SYS2070 and SYS0127 error messages are now a thing of the past), Quake 2 by Id Software now runs (on certain hardware only), Borland .EXE's now work, and there are lots of miscellaneous enhancements (see the Win32-OS/2 web page).

           DLL's are fully supported now; they can be loaded at run time through the .EXE, or at any time on program demand.

           You still need a Windows machine somewhere so you can do an initial install of the software you want to convert.  The initial install creates the .EXE's and .DLL's; you then move these files to your OS/2 machine for use.  This machine can be somewhere on your network if you wish.

           There are still some problems which need to be resolved.  COMCTL32.DLL, which has some enhanced video functions, isn't supported yet.  Lotus Windows apps use COMCTL32.DLL.

           There's also a "64 MB" boundary --- OS/2 can't load anything above 64 MB without "fixups" in the .EXE file.  Most .EXE's have fixups, but Microsoft Word doesn't.  The .EXE "fixups" tell the loader how to load the program.

           And the 512 MB boundary is still with us.  OS/2 only provides 512 MB of memory per process.  Since Microsoft Word forces itself above 512 MB, it can't be loaded.

           Finally, there's no change for device drivers.  They can't be converted.  Likewise for 16-bit applications; you'll have to continue to run them under Win-OS/2.

           Timur also covered what's coming, and made a startling announcement.  The source code for portions, or perhaps all, of Win32-OS/2 will be released to the public.  This ties in with the use of an existing code base called Wine, which is already under a public license.  To use Wine, the new code based on it must be placed under the same license.

           The source code release won't happen for a few months yet, because it's not completed.  Watch the Win32-OS/2 web site for future details.

           Also coming is COMCTL32.DLL support.  One programmer is currently dedicated to this DLL's conversion, and a small part of it is already converted and working.  Timur offered no time frame on the conversion's completion.

           And Mr. Tabi offered a multimedia incentive for using the converter right now.  It seems that the converted MP3 module works better than the native OS/2 version.

           The current version of the software is A0.04 (Alpha 0.04).

           For other Warpstock '98 articles see the Warpstock '98 Article Index.

The Win32-OS/2 Project, http://www.os2ss.com/win32-os2/