12 Jan 18 03:25, I wrote to Robert Wolfe:

It (and NetMgr, etc) was open sourced in November 2000 (released as ART_SRC.ZIP), and that code contains about a year's worth of changes
from the original author since his 1995 release, including (unfinished, IIRC) code to port it to Windows NT:

http://bbs.ozzmosis.com/art_src.zip

I don't recall if it actually builds, and at this point it still has Y2K bugs.

Some sense of deja vu here as I may have looked at building the OS/2 version years ago but don't recall getting very far.

Good news: After about an hour I got the OS/2 version to build using Watcom 10.5. OpenWatcom 1.9 should also work, but I haven't tested it.

Bad news: Building it required removing the nodelist lookup code as it depends on the proprietory (and evidently still closed source) Mix C Database Toolkit. Most of this stems from the unnecessary complexity of the old V7 nodelist format, although having said that, IIRC the OS/2 version of BinkleyTerm can work with V7 nodelists and is entirely open source. Still, whoever decided on that format all those years ago was a complete masochist.

Good news: It runs!

Bad news: It does indeed still have Y2K bugs which require fixing, but this isn't difficult provided they can all be found again.

Good news: I'm inclined to put the source on GitHub.

Bad news: The OS/2 version crashes on startup when there are more than ~127 columns in the OS/2 Command Prompt window. It looks like it's using unsigned short in the code somewhere instead of unsigned int.

Bad news: I can't get the Watcom Debugger to show the source code to allow me to step through the code. I'm probably doing something wrong. The OpenWatcom build might work though.

--- GoldED+/BSD 1.1.5-b20170303
* Origin: Blizzard of Ozz, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (3:633/267)

12 Jan 18 19:05, I wrote to all:

Bad news: It does indeed still have Y2K bugs which require fixing, but this isn't difficult provided they can all be found again.

Good news: I'm inclined to put the source on GitHub.

Well, I'm not sure anyone really cares much, but I did.

The branch I've been working on is called 'ng'.

https://github.com/zoomosis/artware/tree/ng

Over the years I'd completely forgotten what an absolutely mess some of the code was. Especially timEd.

Anyway, at this point it's possible for anyone to rebuild NetMgr & timEd for OS/2 from the source now on GitHub using OpenWatcom 1.9.

Windows versions of NetMgr and timEd can also be built, but timEd in Windows is
completely unusable due to bugs in Gerard van Essen's incomplete code that I'm not able to easily fix.

Also beware the Y2K bugs haven't been patched on the source on GitHub.

Once those are patched, potentially the Windows version of NetMgr (which has JAM support) could be used under WINE in Linux but I'd advise people to test it
first.

The build environment requires that drive letter X: points to the root of the ARTWARE directory.

In Windows you can use the SUBST command with UNC paths:

subst x: \\server\src\artware

In OS/2 life is more complicated as the builtin SUBST command only works in OS/2's DOS box. Instead you need to download and install SUBSTP, then mount the
root of the UNC path on a drive letter:

net use s: \\server\src

then use SUBSTP:

substp x: s:\artware

From here, assuming OpenWatcom 1.9 is installed properly, you can rebuild Gerard's MSGAPI:

x:
cd \api

then type "nt" or "os2" to build it.

Likewise, NetMgr can be built the same way (cd netmgr, etc).


I had to rewrite the makefile for timEd because OpenWatcom 1.9's wmake didn't support the old makefile syntax.

timEd can now be rebuilt with:

x:
cd \timed\build
wmake OS=OS2

(or OS=WIN for Windows, OS=386 for DOS4GW)

At some point I'll probably fix the makefiles properly to get rid of the drive X: requirement and just have the build process work on relative paths.

--- GoldED+/BSD 1.1.5-b20170303
* Origin: Blizzard of Ozz, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (3:633/267)

17 Jan 18 13:14, I wrote to all:

Over the years I'd completely forgotten what an absolutely mess some of the code was. Especially timEd.

Anyway, at this point it's possible for anyone to rebuild NetMgr & timEd for OS/2 from the source now on GitHub using OpenWatcom 1.9.

Windows versions of NetMgr and timEd can also be built, but timEd in Windows is completely unusable due to bugs in Gerard van Essen's incomplete code that I'm not able to easily fix.

Also beware the Y2K bugs haven't been patched on the source on GitHub.

I don't know if there was ever an announcement made in this echo when Gerard ceased development on timEd & NetMgr, but I sort of get the impression he threw
his hands in the air once he realised he was in over his head with porting timEd to Windows. (Apologies for the mixed metaphors.)

I may have said this years ago, but in hindsight it seems irresponsible that he
never released Y2K-patched versions of his software, at the very least for the people that actually paid money for it.

It took Tobias Ernst and Wilfried Brinkmann to come up with binary patches, with the last release (ARTFIX07.ZIP, to my knowledge) in October 1999. Gerard would not release all the source code until a year later.

End rant :)

--- GoldED+/BSD 1.1.5-b20170303
* Origin: Blizzard of Ozz, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (3:633/267)