Paul Marwick wrote in a message to Jack Stein:

 JS> OS/2 Commander doesn't seem to have a problem with long filenames
 JS> here, or FILES.BBS entries?  What kind of problems, maybe I'm missing
 JS> something. He will display file descriptions in the other window from
 JS> a FILES.BBS _or_ a 4OS2 description file, they both work here as
 JS> described?

 PM> Try this... echo something > this_is_a_long_name. Then put
 PM> the OS/2 Commander cursor over the new file name and press
 PM> CTRL-F10. This is the result... 

 PM> Error 05 occurred in module OS2COVL3 at address 0027:0F73

I never used that facility myself, since I run OPUS and it doesn't use a
Files.bbs and I don't have any long filenames on my bbs.  I tested it though,
and although it works fine copying an 8.3 file and its files.bbs entry, it
blows up with long filenames in the files.bbs.  Is there another files manager 
that does this at all?  To me, this is an extra that would be used mainly by
sysops running an OS/2 BBS that carries files with long filename.  That
generally is not done because many, most bbs's don't handle other than 8.3
files.  

It does copy the file though, just not the FILES.BBS entry.

It's still a bug though, but looks like it stays that way.

 PM> It will do the same if you try and copy a file with a long
 PM> name and a FILES.BBS entry, or if you try and move the same
 PM> file.

But it has no problem copying and moving files with long filenames, just not
when you are trying to copy a long filename file AND its FILES.BBS entry.

 PM>> failure to read most self-extracting archives, 

 JS> Which file manager handles more self-extracting archives?  Most file
 JS> managers don't handle them at all, in fact most don't handle regular
 JS> archives let alone self-extracting ones.

 PM> In this day and age, I would reject _any_ file manager which
 PM> doesn't handle archived files. 

Me too.

 PM> As to which handle self-extracting archives, FC/2 does a good 
 PM> job, and InspectA does a reasonable job (apart from the fact 
 PM> that a number of self-extractors will cause InspectA to fail). 
 PM> OS/2 Commander claims to be able to read sel-extractors 
 PM> (pressing CTRL-A is suppoed to do it), but I've so far found 
 PM> only one out of dozens that I've tried that it can read. All of 
 PM> them could be read by FC/2.

OS2C claims to handle ZIP, ARJ and LHZ self-extracting archives, and it does,
perfectly.  Which other ones does FC/2 handle?

 PM>> odd behaviour after viewing files within archives,

 PM> This one is not easy to reproduce, because it only happens
 PM> sometimes, and I don't know what triggers it. However, on a
 PM> number of ocasions, after viewing a file within an archive
 PM> (probably mainly text files), when you attempt to exit from
 PM> the archive by going to the top of the archive and pressing
 PM> return, OS/2 Commander will attempt to execute one of the
 PM> programes within the archive. Sometimes with disasterous
 PM> results. Trouble is, it only does it sometimes, and I have
 PM> not found any way of triggering the problem reliably (:-)).
 PM> When this happens, the only way to exit from the archive is
 PM> to use the left-arrow key. 

I've seen this happen myself, I think it's related to the sorting order in the 
directory.  If you re-sort the listing with Ctrl-F1 it fixes itself.  You will 
notice when this happens, the two ".." denoting the parent directory is not at 
the top of the listing.  This is a bug for sure, but like you said, hard to
duplicate.

 JS> I've been using OS2C for years, and thats about the only two 
 JS> "bugs" I've noticed, both are very minor.  I generally don't 
 JS> use his editor anyway, and he doesn't really expect you to use 
 JS> his, he allows 2 other external editors plus his assigned to 
 JS> hot keys, so that one is a non-problem.  

 PM> Well, I've only been using OS/2 Commander for a matter of a
 PM> month of so, but the problems I encountered are sufficient
 PM> to ensure that I would not pay for it, not unless it was
 PM> still under development and there was some procpect of the
 PM> problems being fixed.

There are some bugs, none that would preclude me from using it.  Most of them
are quite obscure.  Another one you haven't mentioned is cutting and pasting
from the command line.  For some reason, and I'm not certain it is OS2C fault, 
I can't cut and paste to the OS2C command line any more.  I'm pretty sure this 
used to work, so I don't know what happened.  I saw that Bat mentioned this
also, so maybe it is a problem with OS2C.  It is the only one that particulary 
bother me.

 PM> Well, for the things I need, FC/2 still has a little way to
 PM> go. It does not have the FILES.BBS handling features, which
 PM> I really do need. For the rest, it is solid and has fewer
 PM> bugs. So I've gone with it, hoping I can talk the author
 PM> into adding a few features that I need. Even it I have to
 PM> pay an extra fee to have them added...

I probably would do the same, considering FC/2 is very close to OS2C in
features, and it is still being developed.

 PM> The fact that a progrma is still under active development is
 PM> rapidly becoming the most important consderation,
 PM> unfortunately. I have become tired of spening money on
 PM> software only to find that it is abandoned a little while
 PM> later. A bit like OS/2 itslef, I guess...

I blame the whole mess on IBM, MS, INTEL, ZIFF-DAVIS and the DOJ.  A clear 
case of a giant cartel run amuck, screwing the public at will, and the DOJ too 
corrupt to do anything about it.

                                              Jack 
--- timEd/2-B11
140/1