Using Textpad in OS/2 4.52 or eComStation 1.2 OS.

[planetecs]

Running TextPad 4 in OS/2 or eComStation.

Introduction
----------
eComStation is an OEM version of OS/2 that IBM has licensed to Serenity Systems. eComStation (eCS) has
many GUI enhancements over IBM's OS/2. Like Linux, eCS has a growing open source following.

eCS is currently at version 1.2 which was released in the 3rd quarter of 2004. Homepage is
http://www.ecomstation.com

ODIN emulator
------------
ODIN allows on-the-fly translation of the Win32API to one that will work with OS/2 or eCS. Homepage is
http://odin.netlabs.org

What works in Textpad in eComStation using ODIN.

Pretty much everything works in the 32 bit works in Textpad version 4+ except the following:

Printing - Hangs the application.
-View In Web Browser - nothing happens.
-File compare works, but closing the dialog box exits textpad.
-Help does not work - probably cant find the Windows help facility.
-Entering license works if you first create the Registry Key \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Helios\TextPad 4\
-Drag and drop - nothing happens.
-Configuration of Associations do not stick but File Filters do.

Overall, thats not bad. The limitations are minimal. Even with these limitations, this makes
TextPad4 the best editor for OS/2 and eComStation.

Notes:
Since entering the license code crashes, you will have to enter your license code with regedit2.exe. If you export
your license from regedit.exe (in windows), you will have to add REGEDIT4 to the top line of the .REG file and remove
the Windows reference from line one. Then save it as a text file. View the file from within eCS or OS2 to make sure
it looks normal, then you can import it.

Registry Entry Notes:
----------------
Entries in the \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Helios\TextPad 4\ do get updated from within textpad.
Entries in \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Helios\TextPad 4\ did not appear to get created, so you can
import them if needed, however TextPad will operate without this entry.

For more information, see http://home.earthlink.net/~planetecs

[David Lowry]

I tried TextPad on eComStation using Odin in response to the suggestions on this topic. It worked very well, and I purchased a copy.

Here are a couple of notes on my experience to add to the original post:

(1) The registration worked fine using TextPad's directions for entering the registration key. Nothing more was necessary.

(2) The one thing that was problematic enough to stop me from purchasing a copy was that when I exited TextPad, the Odin loader would remain in memory. The next time I tried to use TextPad it either would not work or place another copy of the loader in memory - and eventually there would be problems with my system.

I found a work around: If I chose View>Toolbars>Customize and clicked on commands and cancel, TextPad would simply disappear leaving no Odin loader in memory. I set up a hotkey for Customize Toolbars. One key and 2 clicks ended the program. Of course, it is important to save documents first.

In other respects, TextPad has been quite stable using Odin and an excellent editor with the kind of features that I need.

[planetecs]

I have also noticed that sometimes PE.EXE would zombie out, while other times it did exit fine.

I've added a new page to my how-to section for textpad with additional things I find out and with other versions of ODIN at http://home.earthlink.net/~planetecs and go to the how-to page and look for TextPad.

For testing, I use an eCS 1.2 session with ODIN installed so I can tinker without messing up my primary system.

This way, I can copy DLLs from Windows to the ODIN\SYSTEM32 directory which sometimes solves the problems or gets me further along.

Recently due to a bad spot on my eCS hard drive, I had to reload and was getting a "bad or missing winspool.drv" error and Textpad stopped running. A few days later, I ran PMSEEK.EXE and found winspool.drv was a 16 bit windows driver which wont work. So I copied winspool.drv from a Windows2000 VPC session to ODIN\SYSTEM32 and it started working again,

Registration code entry worked, mosf of the settings worked/changed, but file associations did not save. I'm going to see if I can regedit xfer over from a Windows session on VPC. I've gotten some things to work by doing that. (I also got WinAmp to work although video doesnt work).

I'll also be checking at the ODIN group in Yahoo Groups (see netlabs.org) for some configuration that might improve its usability, but it works pretty good for being of foriegn extraction.

David Hart