My 'Subterranean Fudge' area is now housing the complete archive of Warped Software Reviews that I originally wrote and published under the nom de guerre of Subterranean Fudge-Maker, several years back when I was ensconced in the "3rd Floor" bower of the Land of Beyond site.

Actually, maybe 3rd Sub-Basement was more like it. Eh well, just think of it as sanctum sanctorum  for chilling out at a deep level.

More to the point, I am asking you to think of how and why these reviews remain so different in outlook and method from many computer magazines today, yet representative of the OS/2 world at its very best. The collection as a whole, though hardly cavernous in terms of sheer quantity or sweet with the smell of commercial success, is still important for historical reference by programmers and users, perhaps also social scientists, educators, ethicists, legal scholars, market researchers, or anyone interested in past and present software development, including reportage and knowledge of it by the general public as well as by industry journalists.

My OS/2-related pages in this area can be reached directly by bookmarking the URL of the 'Subterranean Fudge' entranceway. Let's take a general tour.

For all the pesky details about how and why I started fudge-making, please turn the page and clock back to the Foreword, where you'll find my original prologue from the Summer of '97 plus some new observations made wth bittersweet chocolate. Or if you'd rather just get a sugar high with plenty of nuts, then check out the last batch of Letters, featuring questions `n´ comments from my Warped minions and favourite binary-data-cooking instructors.

I invite you to submit your own earnest questions and comments about my reviews, other aspects of OS/2 software, and ongoing advocacy efforts, including web rings, link exchanges, and creative projects like my Warped Button Gallery, a colourful supplement to this section.

I especially want to encourage the OS/2 developers to get in touch with me so I may correct/update links etcetera for their programs. Their friends and fellow programmers can help by sharing this <http://www.dgwhiz.net/SubFudge/fudge.html> archive URL with them.

You might be wondering not only about validity of links but the relevancy of such "old" software. Please keep in mind the following points:

* If you just want  a current version's download link or programmer's address, you stand a good chance of finding it by using a search engine, then checking OS/2-related discussion forums, advocacy sites, public file archives, and similar sources. Such references originally cited by me in the reviews were naturally likely to lapse or move (since tempus fugit, i.e. time fudged it).

* However ,  I have done my best to add notations, when possible, regarding a program's latest version. Its release number, date, and download info were currently valid as of the day this page was uploaded. For the overall majority, the release turned out to be either a relatively minor update (one notable exception being XWorkplace's major differences over X-Folder) to the version I had reviewed a few months earlier, or a final fix of specific odd issues as development ceased in a year or two — but neither condition detracts from my evaluation of essential features.

* Yes ,  some final releases simply removed registration and/or usage limits. But just because time has passed or a developer's current address is not known, you should not assume a reviewed shareware program automatically was made available later for free, or that you can treat it as if it were open source or abandonware. A number of OS/2 apps, such as TrueSpectra's Photo>Graphics and Uwe Schlenther's WarpNote and BioGraph, to name some I reviewed, were indeed released as free but with closed source. The developers, themselves, are the only ones who have a right to set and change those conditions as they — not you, not me — deem fit to do.

* Sure, any normal person  can be tempted by anger to make programs like ColorWorks an example of how abandoned a user can feel when... oops, I guess I wasn't able to entirely resist making an example out of SPG, who reneged on their own license agreement, including tech support, only a few months after I had obtained their much-touted program with its overweight much-redundant manual. Phew! Good thing I've already reviewed Photo>Graphics instead. :-) I really tout it good, too.

Presented below in alphabetical order, each 'Subterranean Fudge' review link includes the developer's name and program's purpose. The links are set to auto-load within a secondary window and also can be opened manually using a new tab or other similar method, which will leave this top page here for you as a menu so that you may easily cycle through all the "Subtereviews" and their accompanying GIF screen captures.

Attribute Manager by Alessandro Cantatore. Easily add, edit, manage, import, copy/paste the contents of ordinary and Extended Attributes.

BioGraph by Uwe Schlenther. This innovative program charts your Physical, Emotional, Intellectual and Intuitional cycles known as the four biorhythms.

BlueMoon by Edgar Buerkle. More than just a calendar, it includes latitude/longitude plus accurate views of Earth, Moon and Sun along with date and local time.

Cyno's Editor by Chieh Cheng of Cynosure International. Try this cross-platform text editor to see if you're ready for Java and if Java is ready for OS/2.

File Freedom by Bruce Henry. Organize, move, zip and view files & dirs with a compact yet powerful file manager.

Folder Enhancers XFolder & Group Folder for the WPS. XFolder by Ulrich Möller lets you create your own context (drop-down) menus and sub-menus for your desktop folders. Use Dan Kehn's Group Folder to better organize your desktop folders by categorizing their program and data objects into custom-named groups.

Footprint/IBM Works Personal Information Manager by Footprint Software & Arcadia Technologies. This PIM integrates seamlessly with your favourite database, spreadsheet and word programs. (Requires installed modules from, but not use of, IBM Works office suite included for free on the Warp BonusPak CD.)

Gismo Colour Coordinating Utility by Ken Kinoshita. Easily sort, custom blend, and auto-copy/insert colour tags for your web documents and scripts.

HFS Utilities by Marcus Better. Yes, you can  share common text files e.g. e-mails and web documents between the different OS/2, DOS and Mac computer systems you use. (So I often say, "Interoperability never was as far away as people only assume it is today," and no, it has nothing to do with Sam's Rhyming Syndrome.)

HyperView by Michael Shacter. View text (ASCII, HTML) and word (old Ami Pro, Clearlook, DeScribe v2 through 5, MS Word, WordPerfect v5.x and 6.x) files, and extract contents from them.

Mixomat by Christoph Bratschi. Gain the upper hand over Creative Labs by relying on this sound mixer for 16/32 and 64 bit SoundBlaster cards.

Night Vision by Brian Simpson. Make a bright observation regarding this "planetarium program" with its 9,000-entry astral database based on Yale's Catalogue of Bright Stars and a location database of 10,000 cities, at least one of 'em near enough to your OS/2 desktop.

Pastry Box by Don Hawkinson. With just my first Warped review, I've managed to make a positive connection between sweets and software. The result is Pastry Box, combining features of a clipboard enhancer, text editor and even file utility.

Photo>Graphics by TrueSpectra, Inc. of Ontario. A full-featured drawing app for OS/2, using the company's own ColorWave engine for quick rendering of both vector- and bitmap- based images and multilayered text and effect objects, all within a resolution-independent and neatly-compressed project. Wow. Did I mention this commercial program is now freeware?

RAMFS by Karl Olsen. A "remote file system", RAMFS dynamically allocates memory to create IFS-based, single or multiple virtual drives, i.e. RAM disks, with EA and long filename support plus user-assigned drive letters.

WarpNote by Uwe Schlenther. Small, customizable sticky notes program with scripting to automate pop-ups, Blowfish encryption, look `n´ customization and German/English/French language support.

X·File by Michael Shillingford. This "Open File Dialog Fixer" enhances the open/save-as file dialogs, providing new buttons and context menus for drive letters and for file & directory histories, management and favourites.