I took a screenshot of my eCS 1.0 desktop, with some of the UI enhancements slated for version 1.1 [link|http://consultron.ca/screen.png|here]. Here are a few of the notable features in the screenshot:

• The eCenter (along the top) has some functions similar to the taskbar in Windows, as well as offering the ability to drag and drop objects to it for easy access. For example, you can drop a folder on to it and then browse through the folder as a menu. There are quite a few widgets available for the eCenter, including tcpip network traffic monitoring, PC Health monitoring (ie- temp, fan speed, etc) and so on. Also, there is a widget called RexxGuage which permits people to easily develop plugins for the eCenter using rexx.

• The Pager in the lower left hand corner is the virtual desktop interface. Windows can be dragged using the right mouse button from one window to another, or even moved within its window from the pager. The colour schemes and fonts used in the pager are configurable by the user.

Some of the other things you see in the screenshot are addons to the desktop that aren't part of the eComStation release, but are easily available:

• The toolbar along the right and along the bottom are two Launchpads, which was a feature introduced with OS/2 Warp version 3. I've enhanced them with an addon called Bubblepad, which provides flyover names when you move your mouse over the buttons, and also allows for configurable border sizes and so on. The one along the bottom contains templates; this allows me to create objects by simply dragging them to the desktop. The ones I have down there are for a Program Object (similar in principle to a Shortcut in Windows), a Folder, a Customer Data Folder (a template I created that has the "usual" data files I need when I open a new customer on my system), an Invoice document, and a copy of my company's letterhead. This allows me to create a letter whenever I want by simply dragging and dropping the object to its intended location.

• The widget along the bottom is called the Sysbar/2 Pipe Monitor, which comes with a fair number of widgets, and can be programmed with rexx for more.

The program you're looking at is [link|http://www.bitchx.org/pm|PMBitchX], an Internet Relay Chat client... though the latest version is available from [link|http://hobbes.nmsu.edu|Hobbes] as it has a new maintainer now. I should note that PMBitchX is fully congruent with the latest release of the *nix version.

Again... if you have any questions, feel free to email me at the address in my .sig.