There are many great OS/2 products worth raving about but possibly the most worthy are those that take advantage of OS/2's unique strengths. These need not always be massive multipurpose mega-suites and, in fact, rarely are. A much better example of the beauty and power of OS/2 is the mini-application or, more accurately, the WPS enhancement -- the software that doesn't try to be a whole new program, but instead makes the familiar OS/2 even more usable by adding functionality to it.

Some familiar examples of this type of application are Object Desktop and NPS WPS to name just a few. A not so familiar example, however, may be EBCScheduler v0.9, an absolutely magical WPS enhancement written by Earl B. Crowder which is currently free of charge but would be a bargain at any price!

Scheduling programs are not unique to OS/2 and EBCScheduler is not even unique in the OS/2 world. There are many schedulers available for Warp, from VXREXX based utilities to WPS enhancements similar in function to EBCScheduler. I know this because I have been testing out various schedulers for many months now, looking for the one that is just right. Until now I had not found one that was simple, unobtrusive and inexpensive enough (and that would run in Warp 4) to satisfy me. Then I found EBCScheduler.

As I mentioned, this little piece of magic works as a WPS enhancement, modifying the base WPProgram class of the WPS. What this means to you is that you practically don't have to read any instructions to start using it.

EBCScheduler adds a new "Schedule" tab (GIF, 7.6k) to the notebook of every program object on your system. (Optionally you can choose not to enhance your default program objects, instead installing a new class of "EBCScheduler objects" to allow you to schedule events, but there seems no reason to choose this option. Modifying the base WPProgram class on my system had no discernible adverse effects.)

With this "Schedule" tab, you can easily and intuitively schedule any program object to run at any time of any day with a fair amount of flexibility for regularly or irregularly recurring tasks. It couldn't be simpler!

Installation of this marvel is as efficient as its operation is. The "program" consists of one file (a DLL) which is installed (registered actually) by a simple command line executable. Deinstallation can be accomplished by the same executable. For a work in progress by a lone programmer, EBCScheduler is awfully well thought out and easy to use.

But the really amazing thing about EBCScheduler is that is just works. There is no "monitoring program" that needs to be run in your Startup folder, no central list of all the objects you've scheduled to run, it just works. In fact, there is no evident indication that your system is doing anything. But as soon as you set an object to be "scheduled" and close its properties notebook, bam! it springs to life at the specified time.

This is how software should work!

Again, EBCScheduler is a work in progress. There are still a few rough edges to the software and users with more demanding scheduling needs might not be satisfied by the lack of a logging feature or a central listing of all objects on the system scheduled to be run. But EBCScheduler is a dream come true for the casual user who needs to have a few tasks operating automatically on his or her OS/2 system.

Kudos to Mr. Crowder.

EBCScheduler v0.9

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