Hi Linda,

 LP> I just want to confirm that if I copy a file from an OS/2 32 bit
 LP> formated drive to removable media (eg. zip disk or floppy) that those
 LP> files can be used by DOS & if I copy a file from a DOS disk to the OS/2
 LP> drive that OS/2 can read it.

Yes to both questions. HOWEVER, you may need to think about EA's in this
situation. If the OS/2 created file has EA's (Extended Attributes) attached,
then they will be ignored by the DOS environment that reads that file. If the
DOS environment re-writes that file, then those EA's will be lost and will not 
be present when you read the file under OS/2. This may not be an issue if they 
are pure DOS applications that normally access those files, or the EA's are
for information purposes only and not important to the OS/2 processing of that 
file. 

A good example is using the OS/2 text editor "E" to edit AUTOEXEC.BAT. It will 
attach EA's to that file that indicate what type of text file it is (you are
asked for this info when "E" saves the file), but if you re-edit that file
using a DOS editor, then the EA's will be lost until the file is re-edited
using an OS/2 application that wishes to use EA's. In this particular
situation the EA issue is non-fatal, but this might not always be the case.

A good way to understand EA's better is to look at a REXX .CMD file on an HPFS 
drive. Here is one such file on an HPFS drive -

 9/01/99   9:43       1204        4298  psend.cmd

In this case the PSEND.CMD file is 1204 bytes long, and the EA's for it occupy 

4298 bytes. When this file is run, REXX checks to see if the main file
(PSEND.CMD) has been updated since the EA's for it were created, and if so it
automatically "re-compiles" the REXX script into the EA's, and then runs the
EA's. Subsequent runs of the .CMD file are fast because it has already been
"compiled".  As soon as the file date is later than the EA date, REXX
"re-compiles" it again automatically. 

Again, the EA's for REXX files are non fatal, they will be automatically
re-built once the file is run under OS/2, but they are a useful example of the 
relationships between files and EA's. They are a close cousin to the Macintosh 
concept of a Data FORK and Resource FORK for a file.

I hope this helps..........pk.


--- Maximus/2 3.01