> My question pertains to OS/2 and programming for it.
> I use DOS at present, but will be "upgrading" to Windows and learning
> Visual Basic. Is there a language/environment/instruction set for
> programming OS/2?

"Upgrading" to windows?  Visual Basic?

Windows is a dos program.  Some programs are run by other programs, the way
edit.exe in dos 6.0 is run by qbasic.exe.  Windows is one such program that
runs under dos, and runs other programs under it.  Windows has a lot of
speed and stability problems because it runs under dos.  These problems are
fundamental to dos, and are not solved by Windows 95, which still runs
under dos (and if you don't believe me, make a win.bat file in your root
directory and reboot.  It'll be executed instead of win.exe, and you'll
wind up at the dos 7 command line.)  Windows will never be able to use
multiple CPU's at once the way OS/2 SMP already can, and will have a
limited life span as PC's become more like mainframes due to advances in
hardware.

OS/2 programming is mostly done in C and C++.  I believe IBM has a version
of visual basic for OS/2, but I've never even looked at it.  (It may not
have been released yet.  I have no idea.)

There is a free C/C++ compiler for OS/2, called the EMX development
package.  This is available from any "hobbes" ftp site
(ftp.cdrom.com, hobbes.nmsu.edu, etc...) in the directory unix/emx9a.  The
file containing the compiler itself is emxdev.zip.  Additional files
contain the docs, sample programs, utilities, the source code to the
compiler, additional libraries (graphics and such), and other stuff I have
yet to look at.

The file libref.doc contains the complete library reference.  (Descriptions
of all functions that come with the compiler's libraries.  Sufficient
information to do multi-threaded programs.)

The programming model for PM applications is similar to windows programming
(you have your .def file, and your resource compiler, and windows send
messages to other windows.)  But you still have to learn some new stuff. 
Text mode apps are (as usual) much easier to learn.  If you're moving from
dos, I'd recommend learning how to make multi-threaded text mode apps
before tackling the PM programming model.

Rob
 
--- Xblat