Re: [Ql-Users] USB Floppy Disks and The QL Future
Rich Mellor wrote: I would also like a java based Sinclair QL emulator and perhaps that would be a project which Quanta could help fund the development of - it would attract a much wider audience and enable demos of programs to be played online to show what the QL is capable of. There are already Java based emulators for the Amiga - perhaps someone could use this core, or even see if they can get the QL emulator to run on the Java based Amiga emulator. I think the idea of using a platform independent system to run an emulator to be a good idea, though it does add another layer of indirection and a performance penalty. After all, it's a virtual processor/machine running within another virtual processor/machine. For those who like hardware, maybe building upon the work done in the Linux world would be an interesting way forward, e.g. writing a bare-metal M68K virtual machine on top of an ARM (I know, it's an Acorn derivative ;-)) machine which is already available. I found the following web article interesting with regards to keeping Acorn RISCOS alive. Maybe the same hardware could help keep the QDOS and derivative OSs alive?: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/25/riscos_beagleboard/ Steve -- --- Nostalgia isn't as good as it used to be. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Vintage Fair
Rich Mellor wrote: Well, I was there representing the QL and other sinclairs, plenty of people talking about the QL and asking about its capabilities and differences from the Spectrum. Quite a few people walked off with Quanta and QL Today magazines and subscription forms, so hopefully, there may be new subscribers. Over 1800 people attended over the 2 days, so I am sure I did enough to spread the word! I was there and visited a number of times on the Saturday. I was slightly tempted by the Minerva board... You can see a selection of the photos I took via Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=182145id=514863999l=4dea135e34 Steve -- --- Nostalgia isn't as good as it used to be. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] USB Floppy Disks and The QL Future
Rich Mellor wrote: I would also like a java based Sinclair QL emulator and perhaps that would be a project which Quanta could help fund the development of - it would attract a much wider audience and enable demos of programs to be played online to show what the QL is capable of. There are already Java based emulators for the Amiga - perhaps someone could use this core, or even see if they can get the QL emulator to run on the Java based Amiga emulator. I think the idea of using a platform independent system to run an emulator to be a good idea, though it does add another layer of indirection and a performance penalty. After all, it's a virtual processor/machine running within another virtual processor/machine. My original suggestion for the QL In A Browser was intended more as a portable option - where I could use my QL from abrowser wherever I happened to be at the time (no comments please!). I accept what you say about the speed overheads, but it was really only intended as a facility to use a QL in a browser, nothing more than that. For those who like hardware, maybe building upon the work done in the Linux world would be an interesting way forward, e.g. writing a bare-metal M68K virtual machine on top of an ARM (I know, it's an Acorn derivative ;-)) machine which is already available. I seem to remember that Urs mentioned something on 11th June discussed at the Austrian QL meeting called a QCF card (QLCompact Flash), a bare bones Linux computer on a flash card for the ROM port. I'm not sure if this was meant to be running a QL emulator and so become a super-QL-on-a-QL (he mentioned the QXL.WIN etc) or simply a plug-in Linux computer for the QL. Either way, it sounded interesting and certainly one way to go forward. Dilwyn Jones ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] USB Floppy Disks and The QL Future
In message 4c27117d.20...@lingula.org.uk, Stephen Usher st...@lingula.org.uk writes Rich Mellor wrote: I would also like a java based Sinclair QL emulator and perhaps that would be a project which Quanta could help fund the development of - it would attract a much wider audience and enable demos of programs to be played online to show what the QL is capable of. There are already Java based emulators for the Amiga - perhaps someone could use this core, or even see if they can get the QL emulator to run on the Java based Amiga emulator. I think the idea of using a platform independent system to run an emulator to be a good idea, though it does add another layer of indirection and a performance penalty. After all, it's a virtual processor/machine running within another virtual processor/machine. For those who like hardware, maybe building upon the work done in the Linux world would be an interesting way forward, e.g. writing a bare-metal M68K virtual machine on top of an ARM (I know, it's an Acorn derivative ;-)) machine which is already available. I found the following web article interesting with regards to keeping Acorn RISCOS alive. Maybe the same hardware could help keep the QDOS and derivative OSs alive?: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/25/riscos_beagleboard/ Hi Steve, Nice link ... :-) Chris Curry and Clive Sinclair originally worked together, and then split with the Acorn/Sinclair rivalry ( friendly though ). Coming back to together with a common hardware platform - the ARM chips - would be interesting. RISCOS Open is a nice idea, too, to take forward the development. Interesting to hear that is now happening. I still use my Archimedes ... :-) Would that work for an QDOS/SMSQ/E Open ... ? Anyway, something needs to get done. -- Malcolm Cadman ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] The QL Future
Good evening, I've actually been thinking more about this over the day... Malcolm Cadman wrote: Hi Steve, Nice link ... :-) Chris Curry and Clive Sinclair originally worked together, and then split with the Acorn/Sinclair rivalry ( friendly though ). Coming back to together with a common hardware platform - the ARM chips - would be interesting. RISCOS Open is a nice idea, too, to take forward the development. Interesting to hear that is now happening. I still use my Archimedes ... :-) Would that work for an QDOS/SMSQ/E Open ... ? Anyway, something needs to get done. Indeed Well, I see that there are two issues with the QL legacy, one which gives a QL-like experience (i.e. SuperBASIC etc.) and emulation for running old programs. Now, for the former, I can see a niche market just waiting to be filled. Firstly, read this link: http://www.osnews.com/story/23464/Why_Johnny_Can_t_Code Then, thing back to the BBC programme, Electric Dreams, the 1980s episode (unfortunately not now available to view): http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n59t4 The boy was amazed by the BBC micro, as was his friend. They loved to be able to make the machine do what THEY wanted it to do quickly and easily. (As opposed to the current crop of OSs which ALLOW the user to do what the application developers thought that the user SHOULD do and no more.) So, I envisage the following in this case, a re-implementation of SuperBASIC, extendable but basically the same as the original, developed using a cross-platform graphics toolkit, such as QT (which runs on UNIX/Linux, MacOS and Windows and has a mobile version too, useful later, see below). In its basic form, you could even have it use the raw, whole display. This could actually lead on to a second stage, the almost instant on Linux/QL hybrid. Replace the Linux init process with this SuperBASIC interpretor (plus display driver) and the system would boot within a couple of seconds, be it ARM based or Intel it doesn't matter. Now for the clever bit... when you called EXEC or EXEC_W the program being referenced would be looked at and its type determined. If it is a QDOS program then a virtual machine would be started with a QDOS compatible OS inside and the program would be run in that. If it were a native Linux binary then it would be able to be run as well, as would a SuperBASIC program. Writing the SuperBASIC application as a stand-alone application, running within other windowing systems should be the priority but with a thought to developing the kiosk-mode version for a later QL-like, (pseudo-)instant-on system. i.e. the best of all worlds and standing on the shoulders of the Linux developers, who have done all the hard hardware work and using commodity hardware. Thoughts? Steve -- --- Nostalgia isn't as good as it used to be. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
