What is GRIP?
The name "GRIP" is actually an abbreviation of "Graham Relf Image Processor." Graham has written the program for his hobby astrophotography. It started as with everything very simple and that's just grown into what it is today and the good thing about it is that we can enjoy it for free. Graham, thank you! It is definitely worth a visit to his site. There are many interesting facts, tips and tricks.

Grip on an eComStation machine with Open JDK


Installing GRIP
The program has moved up to Java version 7 and I'm allowed to redistribute the version I have. This version is not the last version for Java version 6, I didn't get the latest in time and Graham doesn't keep older copies. I have version 12.6.24 available for download. Because help has been upgraded too, you can also download the "Help files and API" for version 12.6.24.

Graham has provided for an universal zip file. Create a folder(directory) on the hard disk called "Grip". Copy all "Jar" files from the zip to this new folder(directory). The file "run.bat" is "out of the box" not suitable for OS/2-eCS. If you have downloaded the help files you can copy the folder(directory) "help" from the zip file directly into the folder "Grip".

GRIP can make use of JRAWIO from Tidal wave and this makes it possible to read RAW files from the main camera brands. The homepage of JRAWIO gives somtimes (loading) errors. Therefore the file "it.tidalwave.imageio.raw-1.6.1.jar", together with the conditions, are included in the zip file GRIP-eCS.zip and must be present in the folder (directory) "Grip".

Copy the contents of the file GRIP-eCS to the folder (directory) "Grip". Create a new program object. Enter at Path and filename "[drive: GRIP]\Grip\GRIP.cmd". In the tab Session use check "OS / 2 window" box, "Running as an icon" box and "Close Window to end program" box. In the tab General you can enter "GRIP version 12.4.3".

The used cmd file
The latest version can be operated with not too many tricks in Open JDK under OS/2-eCS. The menus do not always work well when multiple windows are open. Solution is to close or minimize a window. I have a GRIP.cmd created with the following contents;
@echo off
set path=[drive: java]\JAVA\JAVA160\bin
set BEGINLIBPATH=[drive: java]\JAVA\JAVA160\bin
set CLASSPATH=[drive: GRIP]\Grip\GRIP.jar;[drive: GRIP]\Grip\jai_imageio.jar;[drive: GRIP]\Grip\clibwrapper_jiio.jar;
[drive: GRIP]\Grip\it.tidalwave.imageio.raw-1.6.1.jar 
[drive: GRIP]
cd [drive: GRIP]\Grip
java -Xms512m -Xmx768m net.grelf.grip.GRIP
I use 2 separate partitions, one for Java and one for GRIP with the files created by this program. The references used in the cmd file;

  • [drive: java] = station with Java
  • [drive: GRIP] = station with GRIP

should be replaced with real drive letters. Save the file and rename it to GRIP.cmd. This file is copied to the GRIP directory. Furthermore, different paths?, adjust according to your needs.

Download
In the file the discussed cmd file (all drive letters are set to C :), it.tidalwave.imageio.raw-1.6.1.jar with the terms and OS/2 GRIP icons: GRIP-eCS.zip.

revision July 29, 2014