Re: [Ql-Users] Programming project request...
Afternoon all, how about a commandline tool which can automatically delete a whole directotry tree with all files in it? :-) Go to Dilwyn's website and download the source code for Winback. (A hard disc backup tool wot I wrote!) In there is a utility called something like build_directory_tree_bas - but don't quote me. In that utility, there is a recursive Superbasic routine to walk a directory tree and add the directory name(s) to a list of data statements in a program (that the utility generates) to rebuild the full directory tree before doing a restore. I'm certain that the code in that recursive routine coun be easily modified to delete all the non-directory files and then the directory. If you find that too easy, re-write it in assembler! :-) Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Programming project request...
Hi Dave, The main problem I'm having with the ATC sim idea is that I would need to design and use a custom miniature font, and then draw it somewhere else, then AND/OR it into the video display to allow planes to overlap, since there's no transparent backgrounds in QDOS. Does OVER 1 (or OVER -1) not work for you? area, so... To get ten planes and the beacons and the flight tags and the strips up is hefty. Also, the average QLer is now in their 40s or 50s, and won't publicly acknowledge their eyesight isn't as good as it used to be yet. I will, I'm 50 and my eyes are failing now. I have reading glasses for reading (!) and screen work. Well, it's either my eyes or my arms are shrinking! Someone suggested I do an eBook reader. Any merit to that? The EPUB (popular) ebook format is basically zipped up XHTML files. So you would need to write an XHTML browser first then tag on the EPUB stuff. You would need to be able to handle links and images etc. I was thinking of doing one in assembler under the PE at some point in the future - most of the EPUB readers of a software nature on Linux (where the source is available) make lots of calls to support libraries. So they would need converting too. SNIP Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] WMAN queries
Hi George, 1. The expected use of the hit routine is to call WM_MHIT by JMP WM_MHIT(A2). Yes, I read that - I don't understand why, if this is the case, I can have a hit routine that is expected to jump back into the WMAN code to handle it internally. Why not just call WM_MHIT internally anyway? 2. The manual says that WM_RPTR does, among a lot of other things - if in application window call hit routine next read pointer A program in which ahit0 prints HIT on a hit (SPACE) and resets the application window on a DO (ENTER) but ignores everything else looks normal in execution but shows the constant reentering of ahit0 when run under QMON. Yes, My original posting showed a test hit routine that I am using. It shows exactly how many times the hit routine is called for an application sub-window! Just moving the pointer over the window causes a lot of hits! Still, I'm learning new stuff! I suppose that a PE application could be written in such a way as to use a SCR_ channel for normal program output (my HIT counter for example) rather than using a dedicated sub-window, however, I'm not sure what would happen if I did so, and then moved it around the screen! I have a funny feeling I'd end up still writing to the previous location! Maybe an information window would be a better idea. Worth investigating I suspect. Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Programming project request...
Evening Dave, Does OVER 1 (or OVER -1) not work for you? *blush* See, told you the memory was duff! That's why I'm doing this! :) Well, you've been away for a while! ;-) Anyway, I haven't done much SuperBasic programming for a long time now, what little QL programming I get to do is purely for the Assembly Language series in QL Today - so it's mostly in Assembler. I forget stuff as well. In fact, and George will laugh at me for this, the other night I was trying to assemble a program with a movem (Move Multiple) instruction in it, I had two actually, and both failed to assemble. I was doing this: movem.l d1,d3-d5/a0,a2-a3,-(a7) ... movem.l (a7)+,d1,d3-d5/a0,a2-a3 I simply could not see what I had done wrong. I had to get my 6800x programmers manual out and then it was obvious: movem.l d1/d3-d5/a0/a2-a3,-(a7) ... movem.l (a7)+,d1/d3-d5/a0/a2-a3 :-( The mark-up is easy, I'm glad yo think so! ;-) I'm thinking of iframes and CSS etc, EPUB files have their own style sheets as well. but the handling of graphics would be a challenge for me. Me too! They'd have to be maintained in position and scrolled etc. I suspect it's not all that impossible, Dilwyn's Page Designer did something similar, I'm sure. Also, some books are password protected and have encryption and I have no idea how the QL is for standard encryption systems. Ah yes, DRM. I have an eReader from iRiver, it's great. I only have a couple of DRM'd books so far. Most of my stuff is for work and are PDF based, but I use Calibre (for Linux, Windows etc) to hold my library on my laptop where reading PDFs is much easier, and I can convert them to EPUB as and when required. Funny how a couple of us should be thinking of an eReader at almost the same time. ;-) Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] WMAN queries
Evening George, The definition of each application window has a pointer to its hit routine. Users can use that either to call WM_MHIT directly or to do something else. This is more flexible than simply having WM_MHIT called internally. Yes, I understand that (now). Thanks. I suppose that a PE application could be written in such a way as to use a SCR_ channel for normal program output (my HIT counter for example) rather than using a dedicated sub-window, however, I'm not sure what would happen if I did so, and then moved it around the screen! I would not advise this! You may not be able to set this new window outside the limits already set by the PE software. That is, however you define the SCR window, it may appear inside the current PE limits of your program. Probably best I don't attempt this then, especially as I'd have to figure out a way of opening the SCR_ channel to a location on the screen that is in absolute positioning while my application will most likely be drawn at the current pointer position. How to marry the two! Maybe an information window would be a better idea. Worth investigating I suspect. I am sure that information windows are a better bet. However, with an application window you have the possibility of having a different pointer for your window. That would be more difficult for an information window. I think I almost always use information windows for displaying - - - er - - information. Well, I know I can print easily to an information window, I've done it for years (or was that years ago?) in Easymenu developed programs in SuperBasic. As long as I remembered to set the channel to the information window before printing! I think the use of an application sub-window for program output is acceptable and do-able, just the fact that the code in the hit routine gets called so frequently means that the code is going to have to be extremely efficient and not do any processing it doesn't have to. I feel a lot more experimenting coming on! Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Programming project request...
Evening Malcolm, An ebook Reader, would actually be quite cool, and up to date ... a QL like Kindle ... :-) . I guess it could be called Qindle? I'm afraid that the Kindle format for it's books is proprietary and, as far as I can tell, undocumented. Most eReaders can handle EPUB format which is open and documented here: http://www.idpf.org/ Scroll down the page to the section 'What is EPUB, .epub, OPS/OCF OEB?' and there are three links, one to each part of the standard. Have fun! Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Programming project request...
On 24/01/11 20:46, Norman Dunbar wrote: http://www.idpf.org/ That's a bit technical, Wikipedia does it in a more manageable style at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB. Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] WMAN queries
Hi George, On 22/01/11 10:22, gdgqler wrote: I think you have to test at the start of the hit routine ahit0 what key was pressed. Any key at all pressed while the pointer is in the application window will cause the hit routine to be called. D2 will contain the uppercased keystroke with SPACE, ($20), converted to 1 and ENTER ($0A), converted to 2. So, if you wanted pressing M to do add to the count of hits you should check that D2.L = $4D. I'm not bothered by which key causes the counter to go up by one - it's a simple demo to show an application sub-window in action. I just found it odd that certain things causes a HIT while others seemed to cause two. I may, if I can be bothered, adapt the code to dump the registers on the first and second hit and print them out to screen on the subsequent ones - just to see the contents of the registers on entry to the mysterious hits. On the other hand, I may not! ;-) Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] OT - Proposed cut to BT broadband charges in rural areas
Hi Rich, What amazes me is how they can still claim up to 8Mbps service when the vast majority of houses (except in cities) seem to get a lot less - Welcome to the worldo slightly unscientific claims. Much loved by the woo trade in health supliments, and Gillian McKeith, Patrick Holford etc - who use words to con people into parting with their hard earned cash for little or no benefit in return. Read Ben Goldacre's blog (Bad Science) or better still, his book. Basically, up to means anything from minus infinity through to the quoted figure. Only one person needs to get the quoted figure to make it accurate and all the rest who get less are still legally covered because they are in the up to band. It's a con. Much like hard disc manufacturers quoting Gigabytes when they really mean gigabytes. 1024*1024*1024 seems to be quoted but actual capacity is less as they are talking about 1000*1000*1000. Advertising - legal lies! Cynic? Me? But of course! after all my 8Mbps which is promised by Talk Talk / Sky / Orange etc Remember, 8 Mbps is not promised, only up to - that's the con. SNIP Sorry - enough of a rant just somedays I wish we could have just installed a massive QL network between all the houses! Isn't there a limit of 64 devices on a QL network? Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] WMAN queries
Morning all, I've written a small demo program to show the things that happen when an application sub-window is hit in a PE program. The program has a window containing a single application sub-window. The hit routine does nothing more than this: ahit0 movem.l d1/d3/d5-d7/a0/a4,-(a7) ; Save the workers moveq #0,d1 ; D1.W = Application sub window number moveq #0,d2 ; D2.W = Ink colour ; A4 already set to Working definition jsr wm_swapp(a2) ; Set channel id (A0) to the subwindow movem.l a1-a2,-(a7) ; A1 gets corrupted lea hit,a1; Text string to print move.w ut_mtext,a2; Print string vector jsr (a2) ; Print the message lea hitter,a1 ; Hit counter location move.w (a1),d1; Hit counter value addq.w #1,d1 ; Increment counter move.w d1,(a1); Save counter move.w ut_mint,a2 ; Print integer vector jsr (a2) ; Print it movem.l (a7)+,a1-a2 ; Restore movem.l (a7)+,d1/d3/d5-d7/a0/a4 ; Restore the workers moveq #0,d0 ; No errors rts ; Strings and things go here hitter dc.w 0; How many times have I been hit? hit dc.w hit_e-hit-2 ; Hit message dc.b 'HIT: ' hit_e equ * Now, when run I notice the following foibles: 1. The hit code is called when the pointer enters the sub-window, and each time it moves within the sub-window. 2. Pressing the TAB key, which activates the sub-window, the counter increases by TWO and not one. 3. Pressing the F1 key also increases the count by two. 4. Other keys, I have not tested everything, increment the counter by one. There are no menus or anything in the sub-window, it is used simply as a display area by the program, aub-window menus come in a later article! Another question, I only have a single sub-window. If I comment out the call to WM_SWAPP in the hit routine, I still see my output in the sub-window, but it is not cleared before hand. (I can live with this) but when I was writing PE stuff using SuperBasic and EasyPTR 3, I always had to set the channel to the sub-window (or info window or whatever) before I could write to it. So, My further queries are: 1. Do I need to call WM_SWAPP if I only have one sub-window or can I assume that the channel id always refers to the sub-window regardless unless I explicitly set it to a loose item or whatever? 2. If I have two or more sub-windows, does the channel id, by default, point at the first - I haven't tested this yet - If I don't call WM_SWAPP? Thanks. PS. The above has been noticed running on QPC under Wine on Linux. I'm attempting to run it under Windows (in an emulator) to see what happens there! -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Ql-Users Digest, Vol 83, Issue 31
Morning Dilwyn, It does seem to be related to speed variation - now it's stabilised at about 1.8mbs we're watching Silent Witness as I write, although this desktop PC won't play successfully, the little netbook alongside has suddenly started playing OK after a restart of Windows. Every now and again it pauses for a few seconds to catch up, so it's not perfect but quite acceptable. Yippee - at last!! I've found that even with fibre broadband, some streaming video content pauses for a couple of seconds to buffer the next bit. What I do is hit the start button, then almost immediately, hit the pause button. That way, I get a progress-o-meter telling me how much of the video is buffered on my laptop and where I am in the video. When the buffering gets about half an inch further over than the where am I indicator, I un-pause and start watching. Usually, this prevents too much pausing while viewing. I don't use iPlayer at all, so I can't help. I've got Virgin Media on demand so I can watch iPlayer on my TV! Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Contact search
On 11/01/11 04:27, Tony Firshman wrote: What a pity *true* sub-directories were not possible. That is where DOS and successors really win. What a struggle it is copying file systems, and one often hits the length limit. I've had a rant or two about this myself - http://qdosmsq.dunbar-it.co.uk/blog/2009/05/whats-wrong-with-this-file-system/ On my BBS I have many obscure directory names for that very reason. The real snag with the limit is all appears OK on the local system until one adds a network path! As far as I remember, the IO_OPEN call doesn't take the network and/or device name into consideration, but I'm happy to be wrong. I remember having to fix WinBack to allow a user to make a backup to N2_flp1_ for example. I was originally checking for file name lengths of 36 characters. Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL SD/MMC-Card interface survey
Hi Peter, On 11/01/11 11:15, Peter wrote: what would be your favorite style for an SD/MMC card harddisk for the QL? D) Internal interface, replacing a microdrive(!) Can easily be bolted inside the case, after a microdrive was removed Plugs into CPU socket or maybe other place Works for me! The major problem I had with adding stuff to my QL was the number of bits hanging out the four corners! I had a Miracle Hard drive in the ROM slot, Trump Card and Gold card (not at the same time) hanging out of the expansion slot, I had a 4 way floppy drive adaptor hanging off those, and so on. Anything that fitted inside would have been great! Especially as, once I had floppies and hard drive, I always removed the microdrives anyway. Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Sir Clive Sinclair today on TV
On 03/01/11 16:07, Rich Mellor wrote: Ermm. Of course, if he could access the website or send an email, he wouldn't need the help.. eminds me of what happens when I start up a PC at work that is supposed to run headless. Without a keyboard attached at bot time, the message that appears is Keyboard not found. Press F1 to continue. Go figure! Happy New Year everyone. Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today
On 31/12/10 19:18, gdgqler wrote: My copy of QL Today arrived a few hours ago - today. This means that I can have fun reading it instead of having to celebrate Hogmanay! Mine arrived here on 31st 12 as well. I read it in the bath last night! Something I can't do with the PDF version ;-) Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Quanta mags
Morning Dilwyn, On 30/12/10 17:10, Dilwyn Jones wrote: I'd be interested in finding out who hasn't yet received their PRINTED Quanta magazine. It's not just Quanta. My QL Today is still not in my sticky little hands! And I'm not really all that far from Chester! Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Tables
On 31/12/10 12:47, Dilwyn Jones wrote: Does anyone know of any software that will convert a html table into auto-spaced plain text? I'm trying to convert some HTML tables into plain text columns for the QL. Most HTML-text converters just put a space between columns in the table, with the result that the text looks awful. It'd be a big job to do this by hand (scan table, pass 1, find all TR and TD tags and keep a record of the longest in each column, scan 2, extract the text and pad each one with spaces), and although I'm sure I could write such a converter, why do so if there's already QL code to do just that? Don't forget, when you find a table, there is a possibility that there is another table embedded in between the TD tags! So, you'll have to get recursive! Theres a PC program here http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/htmlastext.html that allows Simple tables can be delimited by spaces, tab characters, commas, or CRLF so it's probably not what you need. Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Tables
each one with spaces), and although I'm sure I could write such a converter, why do so if there's already QL code to do just that? And then you have cells with COLSPAN and/or ROWSPAN to cope with! And table captions :-) Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Tables
On 31/12/10 13:22, Norman Dunbar wrote: each one with spaces), and although I'm sure I could write such a converter, why do so if there's already QL code to do just that? And then you have cells with COLSPAN and/or ROWSPAN to cope with! And table captions And then the stuff that can't be represented as is : quote, amp, gt, lt etc . These will need translating out of the text first before checking the lengths. I'm seeing more and more reasons why, perhaps, there are so few converters that actually cope! Cheers, Norman. PS. I promise not to put any more downers on this thread! -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Qprint was Snow and mail
Afternoon Bill, the cost of ink bugs me (alternatives seem unavailable too). Have you tried cartridge doctor for cheap cartridges and/or refills for your Lexmark? They might make it less painful. cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Snow joke
On 21/12/10 15:05, Dilwyn Jones wrote: It's so quiet, with everyone locked in by snow, everyone is either (a) stuck on the roads, or (b) busy digging themselves out, (c) using their QLs like mad while locked in the house, or (d) using my snow simulation of a couple of weeks ago. Ssh! Can't you see we're all sleeping here! ;-) -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Snow joke
On 21/12/10 15:38, Dilwyn Jones wrote: * WAKE UP NORMAN * ;o) I can't, I'm at work! ;-) -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] M$ Haiku Poetry
On 10/12/10 12:19, Dilwyn Jones wrote: -6=invalid channel ID. You close the window after writing to it, twit! Should that be before? ;-) Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] VMware
Evening Bryan, I see that we're running QL under VMware. Kubuntu was put on my laptop as an example of how VM works, but I don't know the process. Can someone kindly enlighten me on on the detail procedure to install the QL (or any other program for that matter) to run under VMware. To install a system under vmware you first to create a new vm, supply a few parameters and then install a guest operating system. This will be what was done to install kbuntu under vmware. In order to run a QL under vmware, you could either: Install wine on kbuntu and run QPC under wine. This should work as I run my QPC under wine on OpenSuse 11.2 and it works fine - except for floppy disc access, but as my new laptop has no such thing as a floppy, I'm not actually bothered. The other option is to create a vm, install Windows onto it as a guest OS, and then run any of the QL Emulators within the guest Windows OS. I personally use Oracle's VirtualBox (not the OSE edition by the way) to run an Xp emulation from time to time. QXL works perfectly under that as well. I don't, however, run vmware so I'm unable to help much I'm afraid. One question though, the machine you have that is running vmware with a guest install of kbuntu, what is the OS for the host? Is it Windows or Linux of some different flavour? The host OS is the one running vmware, the guest is the one running under control of vmware. Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Hard directories
If you use WinBack to create a backup, there was a (useful) utility which took a snapshot of the directory structure, built a new SuperBasic file (called Make_directory_bas I think) and you would run this first against a new disk prior to a restore. It made life easier as the restore would put the files back into the correct location, as opposed to having all the files live in the top level directory and then make_dir everything afterwards. That way of doing it resulted in huge piles of holes in the directory structure and doing DIR WIN1_ would result in quite a substantial delay as the DIR code skipped over all the holes. Of course, if you didn't use WinBack's utility to build the tree, then you are slightly stuffed I'm afraid. :-( Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] A small machine code program...
On 27/11/10 17:53, Tobias Fröschle wrote: Puts() needs #includestdio.h or at least defining correctly! It should, for the sake of art, but doesn't need to. Hmm. Not declaring a function, even one returning int (the default return type) is listed in my book of common C mistakes. Main() always returns int. Main always takes two parameters int and char **. It should, to generate anything maintainable, but doesn't need to. C allows you to ignore return values. I know it allows me to do so, but just because I can do something doesn't mean that I should! ;-) Seriously, I agree. But the fact that main() is not returning a value is not the same as ignoring one, because it's the OS that should get the return from main() not some other part of the C program itself - which happily lets you, as you say, ignore return values. I can do even better (alas, not on the QL - And: I'll probably never get employment as a Java programmer): Neither will I I'm afraid, I loathe and detest Java with a vengeance! Too many problems at work caused by too many [bloody] java programmers (I use the term loosely) who reinvent the bloody wheel in java every single program they ever write. Sometimes I despair! I wonder how the fizzbuzz program would be written using quantum computing - which knows all the answers before you even ask the question! Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] A small machine code program...
This meets all Rich's requirements: -- The rules are simple - write out the values 1 to 100 on screen If the value is divisible by 3 write 'FIZZ' after the number If the value is divisible by 5 write 'BUZZ' after the number If the value is divisible by 3 and 5 write 'FIZZBUZZ' after the number -- Nothing about having to stop at 100 (8-)# But, I'm sure the request was for assembly language programs, not SuperBasic? Hence the subject line in this thread? Just a thought! ;-) Cheers, Norman -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] A small machine code program...
On 26/11/10 21:48, Tobias Fröschle wrote:
main(){for(;;i++){puts(!i%3)?FIZZ:(!(i%5)?BUZZ:));}}
Error!
Puts() needs #include stdio.h or at least defining correctly!
Main() always returns int.
Main always takes two parameters int and char **.
Your main() function doesn't return a value.
The correct (?) version would then be something like:
#include stdio.h
int main(int argc, char
**argv){for(;;i++){puts(!i%3)?FIZZ:(!(i%5)?BUZZ:));}return 0;}
Slightly longer now and I still haven't #included the header for puts()
to work correctly.
Plus, do we count the bytes in stdio.h as part of the program? I rather
suspect we should.
Reducing it to the minimum would be:
int puts(s)
char *s;
int main(int c, char
**v){for(;;i++){puts(!i%3)?FIZZ:(!(i%5)?BUZZ:));}return 0;}
or
int puts(char *s);
int main(int c, char
**v){for(;;i++){puts(!i%3)?FIZZ:(!(i%5)?BUZZ:));}return 0;}
:-)
And is of course way more readable, structured, object-oriented and
modern as well.
Indeed! ;-)
Cheers,
Norman.
--
Norman Dunbar
Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd
Registered address:
Thorpe House
61 Richardshaw Lane
Pudsey
West Yorkshire
United Kingdom
LS28 7EL
Company Number: 05132767
___
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Re: [Ql-Users] List of QLing 'Terms'
Morning Tony, Well the A6 road is not a means of transport, so surely he meant the Audi in the first place (8-)# Sigh! My feeble attempt at humour goes wrong! :-( George said that the A6 could bring to mind a *superior* means of transport. I attempted a joke in reply that if it wasn't a *superior* mode of transport, it could be an Audi! Meaning, in essence, that the Audi (that George hinted at) isn't superior. Cheers, Norm. [ExComedian] -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] ED disk copying
On 11/11/10 14:34, Dilwyn Jones wrote: if anyone is willing to have a go at helping him out, please get in touch with me and I'll put you in contact with him. I'd help, but while I think I still have my ED drives - but I'd need to check - I don't have a gold card any longer. Sorry. Cheers, Norm. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QLiberator
Morning Dilwyn, On 28/10/10 20:32, Dilwyn Jones wrote: ... and I was never sure after using SBASIC if I'd killed the QLiberator job or just buried it under the BASIC windows. Did you try using the JOBS command from TK2? ;-) ducks and runs Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] ED drives
Morning Dilwyn, On 28/10/10 20:22, Dilwyn Jones wrote: Does anyone know if a PC fitted with a 2.8MB floppy drive can read QL ED disks (3.2MB) in an emulator such as QPC? I don't know, sorry. I suspect what would happen is that either the drive would fail to recognise the floppy or the discs would only be usable at 2.8 Mb capacity. Unfortunately, the above is only a guess. Sorry. In a slightly similar vein. I was clearing out my underground office the other day (still not finished) and came across a number of these 3.2 MB ED floppies. As I no longer have a Gold Card, they are of no use to me. There are about 10 or so (probably) brand new and unformatted plus a few that I use(d) to Winback my old system. Who knows what's on them - but they've been used only once. (I can't use or delete the contents as I have no drives!) If anyone wants a few for the price of a jiffy bag and stamps for postage, give me a shout. I have about 15-20 in total. I didn't count them though so there could be slightly less or slightly more. Don't be greedy, if I get lots of requests for these, I'll do it on a first picked out of the random hat manner and I'll try to give as many as I can to each person. Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Hrm
Morning Per, On 25/10/10 22:52, P Witte wrote: Did anyone say anything? Or was that just the latest viagra spam that went through the shredder? I never spoke! It's been quiet in here for a few days, I thought I might start things up again by asking Jochen why we never get a QL Today in pdf format. ;-) Then again, perhaps it's better that I don't - he's already told us quite a few times. Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Hrm
Morning Jochen, Indeed - all has been said - and support for the Bridge module is ZERO simply no supporters. After that, the thread went completely quiet. But I never said never ... Well, I couldn't offer support for the bridge as (a) the description of it was all in German which I cannot read (I'm afraid and ashamed to say) or understand. Indeed again. And it is pretty sad to see that Urs' effort did not get feedback either... and it dates back about 2 weeks already. I gave feedback! Honest, I did! At least, I'm sure I did! (Note to self, check the archives!) In fact, I gave the feedback that Urs had produces a nice bitmapped PDF which I was able to extract text from and create a smaller (ie a few pages rather than the whole of issue 1) PDF where the text was text and not an image. Which I thought was the problem - Calamus creates bitmapped PDFs which are huge and we really need text based ones which are much smaller. Just this quick reply, then I'm out for this week - extremely busy (taxes 2009 have to be finished by Sunday). Good luck. I've not long finished mine for end of year. Just got my Company Tax bill in as well. Sigh! Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today today
On 11/10/10 16:04, Urs Koenig (QL) wrote: Jochen allowed me to share a sample issue with you guys for further discussion. Here's issue 1 of volume 1 (May/June 1996): http://www.cowo.ch/downloads/1996-05_QLToday_V01I1.pdf http://qdosmsq.dunbar-it.co.uk/downloads/QLToday.pdf The above pdf is a 1.1 Mb text based version of the first few articles in the one uploaded by Urs. All I did was downloaded the 50.5 MB file and using Okular, highlighted the text from the articles, copied to a file (it did a pretty nifty OCR on the fly!) and then inserted the text into Scribus. A quick and slight tarting up followed. Time taken - about an hour. And I've never used Scribus before! Most of which was defining text and paragraph formats. I'm just discovered Master Pages - which might make life easier! Enjoy. Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today Volume 15 Issue 1
On 06/10/10 13:32, Jochen Merz wrote: The situation has not changed since Norman tried it 3 days ago without success. Afternoon gents. The latest situation with the PDF version is as follows: I have downloads a trial version of the Calamus program for Windows and I've run it with a small test file provided by Jochen. * I really really hate the program! However, the interface is as was on the Atari, so I can't really complain. Jochen, on the other hand, seems to do quite well with it! * I also installed a number of PDF printers and each time I try to create a PDF, the 15 pages start printing and then the CPU hits 100% for a couple of hours. This is totally unacceptable in my opinion. * Printing one page to PDF works, but takes far too long as well. * The PDF created is a massive file, for one page it is about 4.5 Mb which implies a certain amount of bitmapping is going on. This too is unacceptable. * The full 15 pages eventually filled my disc! * There do not appear to be any programs that can extract the contents of a Calamus data file (*.CDK) although the versions of Scribus greater than 1.3.5 are supposed to be able to import Calamus Vector Graphics files, version 1.3.7 doesn't appear to be able to display them or print them to PDF. Sigh! So, at the moment, creating a PDF from the Calamus program is not a viable option at all. Jochen doesn't want to spend time (undertsndably) learning a whole new system (Scribus for example) in order to produce the magazine. He's also not keen on Open Office, unlike me, and tried it out for a customer only in the last couple of months. Granted hsi troubles were with the conversion of Word documents and not with creating a magazine - but that's where we stand. As I've mentioned previously, my own Docbook to PDF version of all the QL Today Assembler articles, created a file of about 890Kb for 220 plus pages (110 plus actual A4 pages), most of them full of text and with very few screen dumps. So it can be done. Docbook is not the best way to create a regular magazine though! It's quite intensive - unless we can get evertone to create their articles in Docbook format of course! (There are special editors like XML Mind's XXE that allow you to use What You See Is Almost What You Get but it's still a steep learning curve and suitable for WIndows or Linux and not the original QL. I'm not giving up though. ;-) I'm pretty sure I can do it in Open Office - somehow - but as I only use this for the off letter for my business (so far) I've got a bit of a curve myself! I'll be keeping on trying and I'll let you know how I get on. Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today Volume 15 Issue 1
PS. I too would like a PDF copy as my collection (from issue 1) is getting too big for the space available! I'd still subscribe to the paper copy and get the PDF as well! Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today Volume 15 Issue 1
Hi Malcolm, Unfortunately I've not been keeping up with this thread, but is there not a version of Calamus for the PC? Would this not have PDF export? There is indeed. I have it. It doesn't have an export to pdf command. The export command, as far as I've been able to use it, exports to one of two formats - Calamus Text or Ascii Text. You can only export text frames in this manner, not images. It appears that you need to select all the text frames individually as well. Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today today
On 04/10/10 09:49, SMSQ - Jochen Merz wrote: Hello Bryan, may well be - but in order to use a DTP program properly, you need to learn a lot. It took me months to get used to all features I use in Calamus 20 years ago and I simply do not have the time to learn how to use a new, complex program. According to the Scribus WIKI, Calamus files can be read into Scribus. http://wiki.scribus.net/index.php/File_formats_that_should_be_supported_by_Scribus_%28wish_list%29 So you should be able to continue creating QL Today in calamus and have **someone else** with the time and inclination, create a Scribus file from your calamus output. Wonder if it works? Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today today
Ah well, we tried. I mistakenly thought that Scribus could import Calamus document files, but it was actually Calamus Vector Graphics files. I have tried (you need Scribus 1.3.5 or greater) and although it does import these files, it doesn't display them in the document or the output pdf. This is a shame but it looks like Scribus is not going to help us out here. :-( Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today today
On 04/10/10 10:17, SMSQ - Jochen Merz wrote: I wonder too if it works - and how - especially as the fonts I use are licensed to my Calamus serial number. If anyone wants to have a go - I am happy to provide a small CDK file containing only a few pages, to keep it small. Yes please. I've just installed the latest Scribus on my laptop, so I'll happily try it out. Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today today
Afternoon Wolfgang, That should take all of 6 minutes: 1 minute : take the staples off put pages them in my scanner. 2 minutes scan even pages 2 minutes scan odd pages 1 minute prepare PDF... I could do that when QL Today gets here. I could do that as well with my scanner here, or even better, at work with the big one. However, that would build a PDF with bitmaps for pages - be they PNG or TIFF etc - and we want to avoid that. To me, a PDF file containing magazine text, or book text etc, should be: * Searchable - bitmap pages are not. * Copy paste'able. Again, bitmap pages are not. * Small! So, we only need the scanner to get the pages as images for an OCR to extract the text - I'm not sure how an OCR would treat the two column arrangement on some pages - and then use the text to build a new PDF file that is all of the above. As I mentioned, my 228 page pdf book is currently 890Kb in size, so a copy of QL Today with 40 pages could be somewhere around 160KB which is pretty good even if you are running an internet connection on a 56K modem! (I used to download the entire binary and source discs for C68 from Dave Walker when I was the Quanta C68 Librarian on a 1440 Modem. That was a task for Sunday afternoons when dial up was cheap rate!) I wonder if it's possible to get hold of the entire set of (possibly unedited) source files, in whatever format they come in, for one issue of QL Today just to see how much work is needed and how big the finished PDF will be. I have experimented with Open Office and it makes the use of mixed single and double column page formats - as in the latest QL Today - simple. Design the document on single page layout, select the text you want in two columns and Format-Columns and pick two, set the gutter size, OK. Job done! No need for fancy publishing software, and a PDF can be created by clicking one button. And the generated PDF is all of the above as well - searchable, cut paste etc. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Geoff and Jochen *must* create a PDF, I'm simply saying that it should be possible and the created files will not need to be bitmapped pages and extremely large with poor quality. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today today
Evening all, QL Today arrived in miserable damp and grey Leeds today. I've read most of it already! On the subject of electronic vs. paper copy, electronic would certainly be convenient for archiving... Yes, I have a point on that very matter too. As you may well know, for a number of issues recently, I've been writing a series on Assembly language. What you might not know is that I'm working on a book where I've taken all the episodes and screen shots etc, and collected them into a book created in XML using Docbook and processed to give a reasonably nice PDF file. The book is configured as double sided, A4 sized pages, ready to print. Looking at it just now, it's 228 pages long - so 114 actual physical pages, assuming that there are no blanks - which there are. How big is the file, uncompressed I hear you wonder? 890KB. Less than 1MB in total. Now I realise that there are PDFs and there are PDFs and Geoff's comments about each page having to be a bitmap will indeed make the issues massive, but I'd be pretty sure that there's bound to be a way of getting actual text into the PDF. Some ways that I know of are OCR scanning the bitmaps to produce text - soemthing I'm having to look into for work at the moment. If I come up with something handy, I'll let you know. Another way is the fact that the files supplied to Geoff and Jochen (and Bruce?) and text based and could, most likely, be converted to Docbook XML format quite simply - at least, on Linux anyway. I'd be willing to have a go at doing an example QL Today in PDF format, just to see how it could be done and how big the resulting file would be. As they say on Top Gear how hard can it be? Just a thought. And, for those of us with a eReader that takes ePub files, guess what, Docbook XML source files can be output in ePub format too. That's another project I'm having to deal with at work. Wish me luck. Cheers, Norman. PS. Please excuse the following, it appears that by law, I must add it on to any communications going out from the company or from the company equipment. Guess which laptop I'm using to type this? -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Countdown time
Evening Geoff, Just a reminder that the deadline for QL Today is next Tuesday 10th August. I believe you already have an article of mine to publish, however, I am working on the next one! Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Ql-Users Digest, Vol 76, Issue 52
On 01/07/10 06:31, Rich Mellor wrote:
Although I have not seen the MasterBasic sources (and I am sure Davide
will correct me if I am wrong) - it uses the Turbo Toolkit commands for
deciphering the tokenised program in memory.
From memory, it cannot look at an external program file - it only works
on the Basic (or multibasic) loaded on the QL.
I wrote soem code a while back to detokenise a QSAVED program. This is
in the same for at as the internal format. Dilwyn recently took my code
and updated it to handle SBasic stuff like Binary, hex and
(new?)Floating point values - or similar - so maybe it's on his website?
If not, I'm sure he would be happy to let you have a copy.
Actually, the attached file is indeed the code, hope it helps.
Cheers,
Norman.
1000 REMark _SAV file decoder
1005 :
1010 CLS
1015 PRINT 'SAV File Decoder'\\
1020 INPUT 'Which _sav file ? ';sav$
1025 IF sav$ = '' THEN STOP: END IF
1030 :
1035 initialise
1040 decode_header
1045 IF NOT quit
1050decode_name_table
1055decode_program
1060 END IF
1065 RELEASE_HEAP float_buffer
1070 CLOSE #3
1075 :
1080 DEFine PROCedure decode_header
1085 LOCal head$(4), name_table_length
1090 quit = 0
1095 OPEN_IN #3,sav$
1100 head$ = FETCH_BYTES(#3, 4)
1105 IF (head$ 'Q1' CHR$(0) CHR$(0)) AND (head$ 'Q1' CHR$(2)
CHR$(192))
1110 PRINT head$, head$(1);head$(2)!!CODE(head$(3))!CODE(head$(4))\
1115 PRINT sav$ ' is not a SAV file, or has a new flag.'
1120 CLOSE #3
1125 quit = 1
1130 RETurn
1135 END IF
1140 name_table_entries = GET_WORD(#3)
1145 name_table_length = GET_WORD(#3)
1150 program_lines = GET_WORD(#3)
1155 max_name_size = name_table_length - (4 * name_table_entries) /
name_table_entries
1160 :
1165 PRINT sav$
1170 PRINT 'Number of name table entries : '; name_table_entries
1175 PRINT 'Name table length: '; name_table_length
1180 PRINT 'Number of program lines : '; program_lines
1185 PRINT
1190 :
1195 DIM name_table$(name_table_entries -1, max_name_size)
1200 float_buffer = RESERVE_HEAP(6)
1205 quit = (float_buffer 1)
1210 END DEFine decode_header
1215 :
1220 DEFine PROCedure decode_name_table
1225 LOCal x, name_type, line_no, name_length, name$, lose_it$(1)
1230 LOCal num_procs, num_fns
1235 num_procs = 0
1240 num_fns = 0
1245 FOR x = 0 TO name_table_entries -1
1250 name_type = GET_WORD(#3)
1255 line_no = GET_WORD(#3)
1260 name_length = GET_WORD(#3)
1265 name$ = FETCH_BYTES(#3, name_length)
1270 IF name_length 1
1275lose_it$ = INKEY$(#3)
1280 END IF
1285 IF name_type = 5122 THEN num_procs = num_procs + 1
1290 IF name_type = 5377 AND name_type = 5379
1295num_fns = num_fns + 1
1300 END IF
1305 PRINT x;' Name type = '; HEX$(name_type, 16) ' ';
1310 PRINT 'Line number = '; line_no ' ';
1315 PRINT 'Name length = '; name_length; ' ';
1320 PRINT 'Name = ' name$ ''
1325 name_table$(x) = name$
1330 END FOR x
1335 PRINT 'There are ' num_procs ' PROCs'
1340 PRINT 'There are ' num_fns ' FNs'
1345 END DEFine decode_name_table
1350 :
1355 :
1360 DEFine PROCedure decode_program
1365 LOCal x, type_byte, program_line
1370 :
1375 REMark WORD = size change
1380 REMark LONG = $8D00.line number
1385 REMark rest of line
1390 :
1395 REPeat program_line
1400 IF EOF(#3) THEN EXIT program_line: END IF
1405 line_size = line_size + GET_WORD(#3)
1410 IF line_size 65536 THEN line_size = line_size - 65536: END IF
1415 IF GET_WORD(#3) HEX('8d00')
1420PRINT 'Program out of step.'
1425CLOSE #3
1430STOP
1435 END IF
1440 PRINT GET_WORD(#3); ' ';
1445 line_done = 0
1450 REPeat line_contents
1455 type_byte = CODE(INKEY$(#3))
1460 SELect ON type_byte
1465 = HEX('80'): multi_spaces
1470 = HEX('81'): keywords
1475 = HEX('84'): symbols
1480 = HEX('85'): operators
1485 = HEX('86'): monadics
1490 = HEX('88'): names
1495 = HEX('8B'): strings
1500 = HEX('8C'): text
1505 = HEX('8E'): separators
1510 = REMAINDER : floating_points
1515 END SELect
1520 IF line_done THEN EXIT line_contents: END IF
1525 END REPeat line_contents
1530 END REPeat program_line
1535 END DEFine decode_program
1540 :
1545 :
1550 DEFine PROCedure multi_spaces
1555 :
1560 REMark $80.nn = print nn spaces
1565 :
1570 PRINT FILL$(' ', GET_BYTE(#3));
1575 END DEFine multi_spaces
1580 :
1585 :
1590 DEFine PROCedure keywords
1595 :
1600 REMark $81.nn = keyword$(nn)
1605 :
1610 PRINT keyword$(GET_BYTE(#3));' ';
1615 END DEFine keywords
1620 :
1625 :
1630 DEFine PROCedure symbols
1635 LOCal sym
1640 :
1645 REMark $84.nn = symbol$(nn)
1650 :
1655 sym = GET_BYTE(#3)
1660 PRINT symbol$(sym);
1665 line_done = (sym = 10)
1670 END DEFine symbols
1675 :
1680 :
1685 DEFine PROCedure operators
1690 :
1695 REMark $85.nn =
Re: [Ql-Users] USB Floppy Disks and The QL Future
Yes, OK then ... what will be the 21st Century specification of this Linux based laptop ? No need to be practical, right now ... just dream what it might be . Well, if you put it like that, I still have no idea! However, a few thoughts, or rambles? MC68 processor and lots of RAM. Floating Point Unit built in - keeps George happy! ;-) RAM disk, Floppy disc, Hard disk - a proper one, not a pseudo one like we have at the moment. Proper file system where the set up is like, or better then I have documented here: http://qdosmsq.dunbar-it.co.uk/blog/2009/05/whats-wrong-with-this-file-system/ - obviously backward compatibility mode would be included, but as a separate module. A proper (!) windowing system, like Windows if necessary, that is easy to use, set up and control. Resize by dragging borders (I know George has a demo - but it should be built in). Judging by Tony Tebby's rants against Unix, in QL Toady, I better not mention it in any way! ;-) Not that I was going to. Dual boot - Linux or QPC. Networking built in as laptops etc already have. Proper Ethernet (gigabit) and not some mash up designed by Sinclair. Proper character sets using unicode as and where necessary, one codeset fits all! A decent pile of software - C and C++ compilers - I know we have an extremely good C compiler already thanks to Dave Walker and his brother - Assembly language of course and SuperBasic. probably doesn't need changing for the 21st century - they got it right! Decent sound, able to play all known codecs - MPx (if you must), Ogg, FLAC, etc. Video and image abilities. HTML and CSS as standard. Etc etc. You name it, if it's already on Linux, then the QL21 should also have it! And so on. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] USB Floppy Disks and The QL Future
On 20/06/10 10:13, Billy wrote: But an Ipad - no, what do you do with a hi tech dinner plate when not using it, too big to go in your pocket, even the most confirmed medallion man would think twice. It doesn't do flash, which puts about 70% of the internet out of reach. It doesnt do HD quality. it doesn't do multi-tasking. It's not a phone (which is a blessing, you'd look pretty stupid holding one of those up to your ear!). There's a decent web site somewhere out there in internet-land with the title the 10 missing bits of the iPad or similar. It also has a call action against it in the US, already. It was advertised as being internet ready and the website the used was shown to work. Unfortunately, Apple didn;t mention that the image was a mock up because the web site in question used Flash - which the iPad cannot display. The new ads show the flash bit as unavailable. Up North here perhaps we could fit one onto a flat cap, Norman could of course disguise one as a sporran, although there was that hooha about radiation with phones, might need lead undergarments. A true Scotsman never wears anything under the kilt - lead or otherwise! ;-) Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] USB Floppy Disks and The QL Future
On 20/06/10 11:01, Dilwyn Jones wrote: A Scot with an iPad up his kilt? ooer missus, I hate to think! Now Dilwyn, we wear the sporran on the outside of the kilt. It's a glorified handbag/purse. There are no pockets on a kilt, so you have to put your wallet, chewing gum, loose change etc somewhere! Mine is a dead horse. That's what it is made from. And sterling silver of course! My wife, Alison, complained (jokingly) at the price I paid for it when I bought it as she's never paid that much for a handbag! Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] USB Floppy Disks and The QL Future
On 20/06/10 19:56, Norman Dunbar wrote: It also has a call action against it in the US, already. He should have wrote (!): It also has a CLASS action Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] USB Floppy Disks and The QL Future
On 18/06/10 00:15, Tony Firshman wrote: I have that set but it doesn't spell check. Looks like a bug (3.0.4). That's interesting Tony. Roy on Windows and you on Mac and me on Linux, all using 3.0.4 (I think Roy mentioned 3.0.4) and only Linux can spell check as you type. Spooky! Works fine for me here. Thankfully. My only problem with it is when the words I type are correctly spelled/spelt but they are the wrong words! Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] USB Floppy Disks and The QL Future
On 19/06/10 20:00, P Witte wrote: But surely you see that it could spell then end of the Personal Computer, in which case the next great thing becomes significant and not merely a fad. They said that COBOL was dead. it lives on many many years after it's alleged demise. The reaosn being, there are still far too many apps written in COBOL to be rewritten in TNGT (The Next Great Thing). COBOL is still with us, 10 years after the Y2K problem. Think about how many laptops, desktops and so on there are, even tablets and netbooks. The clouds (grey and miserable usually!) will not take that away. The applications may run on the cloud servers and the data may reside there too, but people sill still have DVDs to watch, CDs to listen to/rip to MPx/OGG/FLAC or whatever, emails to send etc. The desktop PC, like COBOL, is not dead - and won't be for a long time. The issues you raise regarding privacy and security will be solved, otherwise this idea will vanish (until needed on some other occasion). The issue I have are simple, I don't *know* that my data are safe in the cloud. I don't know that the competitors I have cannot see my data. it's true I don't want to have to pay for all those servers when I can get space and rent someone else's, but I will never *know* how secure they are. Equally, when the cloud hosting company goes bust - where is my data and applications? Do I get them back? Or am I stuffed up beyond all recognition. My business could depend on it! SNIP Of course there will be thousands of old fogeys, like me, and perhaps you, who wont take to all that jazz, but will continue to issue our curses and incantations over strange black boxes from another era, nay, civilisation. There may well be old fogeys, like me and you ;-) but I don't think that ludditism will be the reason for not taking up the next fad. That doesn't mean to say lots of people won't be taking it up - after all, look how many iPads Apple have sold - and, as Darran pointed out, they are basically good looking but useless cr4p! Still, I have a DropBox account, and find it very handy. Yes, but you are Joe user and not Big Joe Company. DropBox isn't really the cloud, it's off site storage. Really. Its like a folder in Explorer except its located in the Cloud. Come on! It's located in the cloud. It's located on a server somewhere on the other end of your internet connection. That's all. Companies have been using this sort of technology for years. It's was never called the cloud back then. That's simply a bit more marketing hype - call something we already use by a trendy new name and watch the money roll in! I used to have some free disc space at Demon. It was there when I logged in on any computer, from any location. Granted it wasn't a drive mapped in explorer - but I have a network drive here that I can access from anywhere on the internet - but it's not cloud! It's network attached storage. I'm too much of a cynic I'm afraid to fall for the hype. I copy there is immediately replicated across all my PCs and physically reside there, as well as in the cloud. If my house burns down with my computers and backups I can still access my data from anywhere. This is exceedingly useful, I agree. But it's NAS, not cloud. Cloud should become inaccessible, I still have copies across my computers. Privacy? I only store zipped and encrypted files in DropBox unless I decide to share. Beware, if you mean your zip files have a password, do a quick Google for cracking zip passwords and be worried. I advise you get hold of something like Gnu Privacy Guard, crate yourself a pair of keys and use that to encrypt your data. Encrypt with the public key and decrypt with the private key. It's a lot safer than trusting a fairly easily broken zip file password. At work, and since before the Tax Man lost 29 million names, addresses and bank details, we have been using GPG (Gnu Privay Guard) on Windows and Linux to encrypt all data being sent off site. Each vendor must supply us with a public key before we will send them anything. A couple have refused, but when they didn't get the data, they soon capitulated! (I can be a right stubborn b'stard when I want to and when I'm protecting my sensitive data - I'm stubborn!) So its not all bad. It may not be the final word in computing paradigms, There's never going to be a final word in paradigms. When one has been here for 30 seconds, it's so last week! Think Ruby On Rails - where's that nowadays? but you dont NOT take the ferry because youre convinced that in ten years time therell be a bridge. B*gger! No wonder I never got across the water! ;-) Equally, it doesn't mean you have to be on the maiden voyage either. Think titanic. These DropBox guys dont at present seem to want to program you or rifle through your private papers. Yes, maybe. But do you really really know that 100%. You and I have no idea what happens to your data when you don't control it. I suppose they make their
Re: [Ql-Users] USB Floppy Disks and The QL Future
On 18/06/10 00:42, Roy Wood wrote: It was the threading that I was referring to. Turnpike would put thum into subject threads but Thunderbird just puts them in a long, jumbled, list - just like Outlook! Well, mine are threaded, by subject, threads start with the initial posting and new stuff is added in date order, beneath. Oh and 'Reply' and 'Reply to list do the same thing. Maybe I have not set it up right but I don;t log on here much - except this week. Reply replies to the sender. Reply to List replies to a list or newsgroup. In the case of this list, the sender and the list are one and the same. In the case of the Oracle-L list I subscribe to, reply to sender send the email back to the poster and not to the list, reply to list does the opposite - oracle-l gets it, not the OP. (Well, the OP gets it from the list but not directly from me.) It's not you and not TBird that is at fault, it's simply the fact that the sender is the list in this case. That is ticked but does nothing. Also, if you check th ebox that says 'check spelling before sending you get an empty box when you try to send which says ;check word' but has no word in it. Tony on the Mac has a similar problem. I'm on Linux and I don't have either of the problems you mention. We are both on 3.0.4. I presume you are on Windows 7 and the same version? Funny how Linux is the only one that works. Free software is like that too sometimes, I agree. Mind you, commercial software is just as bad. Now, funnily enough, I was discussing this last night with 6 people in the Dive Club BSAC or PADI? I'm an old BSAC myself. because they all had various IT problems. All but 1 said they found the ribbon to be a far better way of accessing the functions (as do I) than the old menus system. I have to admit I tried it for a week a while back and hated it. Not just because it was different, just because it seems to take up an inordinate amount of screen space! I was ahead because, having come from a HOT_KEY enviroment I learnt the keyboard shortcuts. always amused me when you press 'CONTROL/V' and text appears and then PC dummies go 'How did you do that?' I use quite a few shortcuts myself too. It saves having to reach for the mouse, click, then type, then mouse, then . But also think usability. Jonathan Hudson wrote some great programs but no front ends so few people used them. They were not marketed so fewer people knew they existed. I have to admit to using a couple of JH's programs and it was true, there were no bells and frills. He was the master of minimalist programming I think. Not in the apps themselves, just in the frills department. I only occasionally heard of them though and that's when I got around to trying them out. They were never advertised at all as far as I remember. SNIP There you could not resist replying again - even though I have just driven back from a songwriting session in London. Now you have my full admiration there Roy. I do admire people who have talent - music, crafts or whatever. I have very little I'm afraid. I can play my digeridoo (now that gave the spell checker a headache!) as long as I don't have to circular breathe - I have yet to master that little nicety. Good luck with the songs. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] USB Floppy Disks and The QL Future
George, The current trend appears to be towards Cloud computing, Aha! But how do you program for this? Cloud is the latest marketing paradigm/buzz word to hit the IT world. Like most other next great things it will pass and fade from memory. All it means is that instead of you or your company owning a pile of servers onto which you install and run stuff, like Oracle databases, WebLogic app servers and so on, huge companies like Amazon and (possibly) Google own the servers and you rent space on them as and when you need. You pay by the time used and if you need, say, to run a training course, switch on a few more processor cores (or whatever) and pay the extra for that training course only. The problem is, all your data is on Amazon's servers - do you know that Amazon are making the security work? How safe is your data? Who else can see it? It's fine under certain circumstances, but personally, I don't trust it. However, I have become very cynical with the IT business - having been in it far too long - and all these next great things that so far, have all come to nothing! Best avoided. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] USB Floppy Disks and The QL Future
Evening Roy, On 16/06/10 20:32, Roy Wood wrote: Right, if you want to read what I am replying to you will have to go back to Norman's eloquent reply to my . well you get the picture. Eloquent? I've never been called that before! ;-) I fear I was a touch spartan when I referred to free software. Indeed, that's what started me on rant number one! I do use Firefox and some of the add-ons for that and there is a wonderful free application for Windows call 'Irfan View' which has the dual attribiutes of combining the fastest graphics viewing program I have found (for Windows) with a lot of useful functions and a great little front end for the scanner. I'm currently in the process of trying to get approval to use this utility at work. Government work and geological processes move at roughly the same speed. Irfan View is an excellent utility. I am typing this in Thunderbird (which I don't really like but Turnpike, which dealt with these lists much better, will not run on W7. Funnily enough, I never got to grips with Turnpike when I first started up with Demon. Thunderbird has been my email client of choice since it came out. I do admit to problem with version 3 and those damned smart folders (a bit like Word's Smart quotes in a way, neither of them are smart in the slightest!). Tony had similar troubles until I told him how to get back to normal folders. (Click the or arrows on the first tab until the caption says all folders - job done!) I'm not sure what you mean when you say that TBird doesn't handle these lists very well, mine is fine - I view the lists threaded and in descending date order. Works fine. I have not found how to turn on the speal chucker which is a pain because I can't type fro toefef - there see what I mean ? I have a similar problem. But even after about 30 years in IT, I still look at the keys when I'm typing, not the screen. For spell chequeing, there's a button at the top of the write window that spell cheques the selection or the entire email. To spell as you type, edit-preferences (on Linux anyway - mayne tools-options on Windows) then Composition, spelling tab and tick the enable spell checking as you type. To be a tad serious, what I meant was that, as a generalisation, a commercial program has to try to go that extra inch to look a bit better, be a bit more usable and generally sell itself, True, but as someone who has done work on commercial software in the UK and for a company in the US, the vast majority of the changes come about through the marketing department and not from the users. Bug fixes yes, trendy new .net layouts and whatever the current paradigm is, that's what marketing want. And that's regardless of the effect it has on the product. Free software is like that too sometimes, I slightly disagree this time! Most free software is done when it's done. The bells and whistles of, say Word's ribbon add little to the functionality of the application. Free word processors don't tend to go for the fancy look and feel, over and above what is necessary. In most cases! but very often it stops when the author thinks it should - not the user. The other aspects of commercial software are that it gets more advertising because someone is trying to sell it and, if it sells well it gets updated and improved because there is the feedback loop of getting a bit of cash for what you do. True, but see above under Marketing. In my view it all ground to a halt when there were no more new commercial programs. If there is no money coming back you can't afford to go to foriegn or far away shows so no shows so.another, less pleasant, feedback loop. Well, I only ever made enough money out of the QL to raise my tax levels by about £20 quid a year. That was at the height of my popularity. When I said the QL was a business machine I meant that was how it was marketed. Yes, that was a point I made as well, it never really had a real home or niche, like the Spectrum and ZX-81. Sold with a suite of office oriented programs and more expensive than the spectrums of the time it was aimed at the business user more than the gamer. Exactly, and it was not really of much use business wise. (I don't recall saying it was a 32 bit machine). You didn't, I did. I was ranting about the lack of a real home for the QL from day one, and mentioned that it was supposed to be 32 bit and wasn't. Marketing again! There were games for it but nothing the retro gamers would chop their left arm off to play again. True, not a sign of Jet Set Willy or Manic Miner. Scrabble was about the only game I played frequently. Until I got my Miracle Hard Drive - and then it refused to run! My point was that, if you are going to try to introduce people to the QL you will need something good- better than what we have now. Exactly. And we agree 100% on this fact. Nothing we have on the QL will impress a MAC or PC user and many of the QL programmers decamped and
Re: [Ql-Users] USB Floppy Disks and The QL Future
On 15/06/10 23:29, Roy Wood wrote: Hi Roy, good to hear from you. Hope you are well. I know that there are a whole bumch of 'free software' guerillas out there That'll be me then! ;-) but no free software has ever matched the commercial stuff - sad as that may be. Forgive me, but that is total bullsh*t! I presume you use the internet then? What's running most of it is not commercial software, but Apache, PHP, HTML, XML etc. Note, nothing there out of Redmond - there are a few IIS servers out there serving up web pages, I grant you, but last time I saw the official figures, over 70% of the internet was running on Apache. Apache is free and as I have to look after both it and IIS at work, guess which one I *don't* have to spend much time with? (Clue: It's not IIS) Linux too, which I know from the past you simply don't like, that's free and much more reliable than Windows. I presume you have heard of Microsoft's Express editions of SQL Server (that's like a database!), Visual C++, Visual Basic et al - they are free and of decent enough quality - they are just restricted versions of the production versions after all. Oracle, that's commercial, it's also free in the XE version. Free for commercial, non-commercial or any use you like, without a need to pay (huge!) sums of money to Oracle. Firefox, Opera - decent standards compliant browsers, IE8 - still not CSS compliant, never has been and I suspect, never will be. Thunderbird too. Need a free (open source) database? Try Firebird, PostGresSQL (Spelling?) - the list of quality free software is quite substantial. Now, there are only a few examples there, but all are free (as in no-cost, not necessarily Free as in you are free to do with it as you please) and all, with the exception of SQL Server (!), are quality. Ok, rant over. I agree with most of your other comments though. The QL is dead, long ago. It was dead really before it started out in life in my opinion, but that never stopped me having 5 of the damned things! It was a 32 bit machine, erm no it bloody wasn't! It was a business machine - fraid not. The QL never knew what it actually was - unlike the Spectrum and ZX-81 (my other Sinclairs) which did have their own niche in the market. There is no point, really, in bringing it back to life - it never had one to start with! I think QUANTA was well named, Tinkerers, that's what we QL users are really. We tinker with a machine, making it do things it was never designed to do, and we have fun! I agree that some poeple ran a business using the QL - doing so, probably taught them the meaning of make a backup - mine used to hang every time the fridge or freezer turned on, most irritating. The PC has never done so. If we try to raise the QL above the hobby and tinkerer level, we won't attract new users (in my opinion) simply because, as you say, you can do word processing, spreadsheets, graphics, photos, databases, video editing, programming in dog knows how many different languages, just about anything in fact. (Ok, maybe not magazine production, quality music or real graphic artistry - you'd most likely use a Mac for that) but the quality is far superior to anything the QL can provide. But then again, the QL is circa 1984 and this is 2010 and Moore's Law still applies. Mind you, I'd love to see a PC doing so well with only 32KB or ROM and 128 KB of RAM! And as for Windows 7, don't start me off again! It's being heavily advertised on TV at the moment. How wonderful that I can save mouse clicks by only having to click once to launch a program - gee, I've been doing that on Linux since at least 2001. And auto aligning windows please, get real. Linux (X11) always has done! And these are the best bits of Windows 7? I have it on this laptop, and I'm sticking with Linux. That's my opinion, you probably think otherwise, that's allowed too! I do get a tad teed off when people slag off Linux or Windows without giving it proper thought and without trying it. (Not accusing you of this by the way - I don't know how long you tried Linux for, or how long ago!) They are two different ways of doing what you want to do, if something works for you, stick with it and be happy. That's what I've done. I remember a long time ago you complaining that what you hated about Linux was having to use the root account to do things and your own account for normal work. Welcome to secure computing - I happen to work with may systems and each has an admin account of some sort, even Windows these days. (Although on XP, the administrator account is supplied with no password! Guess why so many XP boxes are running as zombies now?) However, as I said, each to their own. If it works, so be it. I will never abandon it completely because it taught me a lot of the fundamental principles of computing. I have a lot of affection for it and for many of the people in the QL community because we did all those shows and we went through all that but you have to take off the
Re: [Ql-Users] The QL Future
On 12/06/10 19:49, Malcolm Cadman wrote: Design and make a new 21st Century successor to the QL ... :-) Not wishing to be the bear in the ointment here, but that suggestion - while a grand one - will no longer work. In my opinion, back in the 80s fine, there were lots and lots of computer companies all vying to be the best. These days, since IBM created the PC then the PC is really all that there is. Even the notebooks/netbooks are mini-PCs with nothing more than a different processor. The days of creating a new fabulous and different computer are long gone - similar to the Betamax Video recorder - you could create a much better one nowadays, but nobody would buy it because things have moved on - for better or worse. We are basically stuck with the PC. All we can do is to continue to help Marcel keep QPC on the market, selling well and frequently enough to keep him updating it. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Website makeover
Evening Dilwyn, No. The style sheet changes let me change a lot of things very quickly. Meaning I can spend more time on the QL contents, less on the maintenance of appearance etc. That's the entire raisin d'etre of CSS. You can easily change the entire website look and feel without affecting the content! The only niggling bit is that Firefox browsers seem to ignore the font setting (sans-serif fonts specified but it always uses Times New Roman). This might be because you have it configured to use a TNR font instead of the one on the page or specified in the style sheet? (amazing what you can achieve in HTML layouts with just simple tables!). And even better what you can achieve without tables and with a little more CSS. Check out the CSS Zen Garden for a load of ideas. http://www.csszengarden.com/ Like I said before, it was pressure from my son which made me do this. Not that I'm getting old, you understand (50 in April 2010) but I remember when he was born! Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] The QL Future
Evening Urs, Currently there are just a few documents, 41 videos and 1000+pictures online. My main backlog is the documents which many of them were already scanned (single pages) but need to be glued into single PDFs. Are they scanned as image files (Ok, possibly a stupid question!) because I create a few PDF files from a DocBook source, and I suspect i could easily (oops!) write a small shell script to read a list of files in a directory and create an XML DocBook page embedding each file and then pass the whole lot through FOP to create a PDF file. Let me know if this is helpful and I'll see what i can do. Enjoy the FIFA world cup! No thanks! I'll enjoy the F1 on Sunday instead! I'lll be supporting an English Team (ok, partially New Zealand!) as I support McLaren. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] The QL Future
Evening all, SO are you content to see the QL disappear into oblivion OR are you going to do something about it? Well, I write articles for QL Toady (for no payment by the way) and hopefully, that helps keep the QL - in any shape or form alive. I also have the http://qdosmsq.dunbar-it.co.uk website as a subdomain of my business website to document the internals of QDOS and SMSQ. It too is a Wiki and while a number of QL names have joined the Wiki - which you don't actually have to do to read it - only myself and George Gwilt have so far contributed. This mailing list is probably the most frequently populated part of QL-Dom - and even here goes deathly quiet at times. My Articles in QL Toady are a mystery to me. Not that I don't know what I'm writing (well, most of the time I do!) but the lack of feedback from almost everyone in the entire world - I sometimes feel that I'm writing for three people - Me, George and a chap called Hugh Rooms who called me to task some time back and made a contribution to the Assembly series. Every time I ask for feedback, the silence is deafening. When I have time I certainly hope to add to the QL Wiki. Perhaps I might even become a main contributor! At the moment George, you are the main contributor to my Wiki as well. So, I have to agree with John's comments - are you content to see the QL disappear into oblivion, OR are you going to do something about it? Well, I used to follow the ZX-81 and then the Spectrum and then the QL - learning all that I could about these enigmatic little machines, but lets face it, we are all very similar to those old codgers who keep old steam railways alive. They too are getting fewer and fewer each year! The QL is dying, but we are doing what we can to keep its little heart beating as long as we possibly can. Without Marcel and QPC, I think it would have bean dead in the water years ago. Other opinions are available, of course, but they are wrong! ;-) (That last bit was intended as a joke, no flames or replies necessary!) One last point, no-one makes money from the QL any more do they? It's a hobby now, that's all. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL search engine
Evening Dilwyn, Works perfectly on Firefox 3.6 running on Linux with not an ActiveX in sight. Looking at the code you have added to make it appear, there's no sign of any activeX anything. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Sinclair QL Disk Format
On 08/05/10 10:41, Rich Mellor wrote: Does anyone have the details of the standard Sinclair QL disk format for a DSDD disk: I have recently put this very information on the QDOSMSQ website at http://qdosmsq.dunbar-it.co.uk/doku.php?id=qdosmsq:fs:dsdd in case anyone (else) is interested. Rich already knows though! Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Minerva Manual
Tony, Dilwyn, Best to stop this now before the puns get *too* bad, though. I agree, no mower! Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Miss Quoting, or Mess
Evening Tony, On 11/04/10 20:58, Tony Firshman wrote: SNIP He he - V3 now has the yellow bar suggesting I add the attachment, That is a mighty easy to code but useful feature. Yes, it looks for the word 'attached' or others that you can configure in preferences-composition-general-keywords button. SNIP Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Miss Quoting, or Mess
Evening Tony, in case you still have problems with Smart (!) folders: Smart Folders combine mailboxes from multiple accounts. Access Smart Folders either by selecting View | Folders | Smart Folders from the menu, or by clicking the forward and back buttons (which will cycle through all folder views) located in the top right corner of the Folder pane. To revert to the standard view (of folders groups under accounts), select View | Folders | All from the menu, or use the arrow buttons in the top right corner of the Folder pane. A load of my favourite addons have gone - like bcc and size of attachments. For BCC, click the blank column (the first one) underneath the one you have currently set to TO - it changes to TO as wll. No, click it again and select BCC from the options displayed. (To, CC, BCC etc). I can't help with attachment sizes yet! It has also messed up the attribution (see above). Can't help here yet either - I never pay any attention to the attribution line! Also the 'reply' and 'reply all' button is not on the program toolbar any more - I have to right click. On Linux it's: View-Toolbars-Customise. On the dialogue that appears, drag buttons off the dialogue onto the toolbar (in my case, between the message list and the preview pane) and lo, the reply and reply all (etc) buttons are restored. HTH Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Miss Quoting, or Mess
On 11/04/10 20:17, Norman Dunbar wrote: It has also messed up the attribution (see above). Can't help here yet either - I never pay any attention to the attribution line! Maybe I can help, well, Mozilla can: http://www.mozilla.org/support/thunderbird/tips and scroll down/search for Change the reply header. IGNORE the bit about user.js etc, just go to : Edit-Preferences-Advanced. On the General tab, click the Config Editor button. In the filter, type reply_header and the result is the various fields that you can edit. My setting for mailnews.reply_header_type is 2 which gives the attribution line On DD/MM/YY HH:MM, Norman Dunbar wrote:. Cheers, Norman ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Cakking Dilwyn
Evening Dilwyn, It's only taken until today for me to realise that the 'cakking' was a TF mistype of 'calling'... where I come from,Cakking is not calling - it's having a poo! :-) Cheers, Norman. Off to Egypt for a week. Alison needs (!) another holiday! ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Cakking Dilwyn
On 31/03/10 17:59, Rich Mellor wrote: I would prefer bottom quoting - that is the default in Thunderbird! If I may offer an opinion too... If we choose the standard bottom posting then we can read the salient points of the conversation from the top downwards - like reading a newspaper or book etc. Mind you, that does rather depend on people trimming out all the cruft and leaving only the salient points! I'm Thunderbird too. (Well, I'm not a big green thing with small stubby wings, but you get my drift!) Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today Volume 14 Issue 3 is on its way to allthe readers
On 22/03/10 19:56, Dilwyn Jones wrote: Actually, the wyn part of my name means holy, noble or bright (or various synonyms of...) and I'm sure various comments will be passed on that too... I shall refrain from comment! ;-) And did you know Windows was so-called because you ended up throwing the machine out of them. And before anyone asks, my old habit of throwing PCs out through the window ceased a while back, luckily! Do what I did and turn the tables around completely. Install Linux and throw windows out of your PC. :-) Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Sinclair QL Farmer - A challenge
On 13/03/10 21:53, Rich Mellor wrote: Does anyone fancy a go at cracking the copy protection on Sinclair QL Farmer? I get it to work partly on q-emulator - in that it draws the first screen, but then it resets the QL - I am stuck as to why this one does not seem to work! I might have a go Rich. Cheers. Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QPC2 v3.33 - Formatting a Win Drive
Evening Rich, Is there a minimum size for a QXL.WIN file? 1MB or lower? From my website, http://qdosmsq.dunbar-it.co.uk/doku.php?id=qdosmsq:fs:qlwa ,it seems I determined that 1MB is the smallest drive possible. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Storing QL Floppy Disks
Evening Malcolm, This discussion has brought to light to some useful tips ... well done to all of you who contributed ... :-) Can someone write it up for QL Today, and for the Quanta magazine ? Yes, if you want to - feel free. The information on my web site is freely available to all. I assume you were asking for permission to write it up? Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QPC home directory
Evening Malcolm, Consider it passed on. Thanks Norman that's just what I was after. I can now unzip QPC2 along with my PCBCAD program into any PC directory and get it to boot and run without any reconfiguration and no QXL.WIN file!!! You are very welcome. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Storing QL Floppy Disks
Evening Rich, Thinking about it - which emulators can use a qxl.win file maybe we just need a smaller subset of this which would be floppy disk size? Can someone please share the details of this format? go to http://qdosmsq.dunbar-it.co.uk and there is a section on QL filestystems. I have documented the QXL/QPC hard disk there. The direct link to the article itself is http://qdosmsq.dunbar-it.co.uk/doku.php?id=qdosmsq:fs:qlwa (Hopefully that stays all on one line!) Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Storing QL Floppy Disks
Evening Rich, Does anyone know of any standard floppy disk imaging software for the QL - to make a single file on the PC for example, which would be the equivalent of a floppy disk which all emulators could read / write to ? Might be an interesting little project if anyone is interested How about, on Linux I admit : dd if=/dev/floppy of=image_file.ql bs=512 count=1440 Count can be 2880 and whatever it is for ED drives - I forget! The file produced is a direct image of the floppy disc and can be read (and written) by the ctools utility. I **think** that for DOS you use rawwrite and rawread (or similarly named utilities). Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Qemulator
On 23/02/10 10:41, François Van Emelen wrote: For Quill docs I use Norman Dunbar's QSTRIPPER. It is fast easy to use and it can save in TXT, HTML, DOCBOOK XML and PDF format. Accented vowels are converted correctly. Hmmm. I'm glad to hear that someone (other than me) is using QStripper - I think it's quite a nifty little program and it is being updated from time to time. Slowly, and occasionally! One thing it doesn't do, yet, but I'm in the process of making it do, is to preserver tab settings for each paragraph. Unfortunately, that's only going to work in TXT format I'm afraid, the remainder don't honour tabs (XML/Docbook and HTML especially) - one day maybe! Give me a shout if there's anything you want fixing! Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QPC home directory
On 23/02/10 17:10, Dilwyn Jones wrote: Does anyone know if it's possible within QPC2 to find the dos directory that QPC itself was executed from i.e. C:\program files\QPC\ Got asked that in an email today, I thought it might make an interesting helpline type FAQ if anyone knows how! What i do is define DOS8_ to be the setting ./ (dot slash) which seems to work. On Windows anyway which is what I expect you to be using Dilwyn! On Linux, under wine it needs to be changed from ./ and I use the directory selector button to navigate to the directory where I executed QPC from. IN my case it is /media/CRUCIAL/qpc3v33 which wine changes to something like c:\qpc3v33\. Regardless, dir dos8_ gives a listing of the qpc directory. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QPC home directory
Evening Dilwyn, Thanks Normal, I'll pass the info on. Hmmm. I've been called a few things in my time, but normal was never one of them - for obvious reasons. ;-) Cheers, norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Peter Graf
Evening Anton, Does anybody has a valid Email-address of Peter Graf (Q60) for me? Peter just posted an email to the developers' list, the email he used is pg...@q40.de. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SAV files
Evening Dilwyn, On 03/01/10 19:20, Dilwyn Jones wrote: Does anyone have information on the format of _sav basic files (as used by Liberation Software's QSAVE utility and the equivalent command in SBASIC)? I'm thinking that I might have some information somewhere. However, I once wrote a SB program to decode a _SAV file and 'print' the output in SuperBasic - I was attempting to write a librarian program that could extract procs and FNs from a _SAV (plus dependencies) and write them out as normal SuperBasic code. (ASCII in other words!) If I can find the code I'll send it over. Failing that, Jan Jones or Tony Tebby's docs have all the details - a _SAV is simply a tokenised SUperBasic program in the format it is stored internally in the 'program file' area. George will probably know all the details from his work on the Turbo stuff. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Reindeer quiz - ANSWERS
Evening all. Glad you enjoyed my little quiz! ;-) Over here there are (or were) at least three I knew I'd have/be in trouble with you Per! Yksi, Kaksi, Kolme (1, 2, 3 in Finnish) See what I mean? A female called Rudolf? Fraid so. The song is wrong - much like the wartime favourite there'll be blue birds over, the White Cliffs of Dover ... written by an American (who's name escapes me) who had never been here and assumed that because he saw Bluebirds in the US, everyone had them. There are no Bluebirds in the UK. Actually, you can buy them down at the market over here. A media-savvy reindeer, as Santa's surely must be, would know that. So, Rudolf *is* male, and bought his antlers? to laugh and call him names - so that's two. No others are mentioned! Except, I may be wrong on that score, as pointed out elsewhere. Hmmm, different version of the song perhaps? All wildly off topic, of course ;o) Tis the season to be jolly! Per (Eats shoots and leaves) Like all good vegetarians. In Scotland, where I come from, vegetarians *are* food! ;-) Happy New Year folks - back to work tomorrow. Groan! Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SAV files
Dilwyn,
attached is a file that decodes a SAV file - as promised. Hope you can
read my code after all these years!
Cheers,
Norman.
1000 REMark _SAV file decoder
1005 :
1010 CLS
1015 PRINT 'SAV File Decoder'\\
1020 INPUT 'Which _sav file ? ';sav$
1025 IF sav$ = '' THEN STOP: END IF
1030 :
1035 initialise
1040 decode_header
1045 IF NOT quit
1050decode_name_table
1055decode_program
1060 END IF
1065 RELEASE_HEAP float_buffer
1070 CLOSE #3
1075 :
1080 DEFine PROCedure decode_header
1085 LOCal head$(4), name_table_length
1090 quit = 0
1095 OPEN_IN #3,sav$
1100 head$ = FETCH_BYTES(#3, 4)
1105 IF (head$ 'Q1' CHR$(0) CHR$(0)) AND (head$ 'Q1' CHR$(2)
CHR$(192))
1110 PRINT head$, head$(1);head$(2)!!CODE(head$(3))!CODE(head$(4))\
1115 PRINT sav$ ' is not a SAV file, or has a new flag.'
1120 CLOSE #3
1125 quit = 1
1130 RETurn
1135 END IF
1140 name_table_entries = GET_WORD(#3)
1145 name_table_length = GET_WORD(#3)
1150 program_lines = GET_WORD(#3)
1155 max_name_size = name_table_length - (4 * name_table_entries) /
name_table_entries
1160 :
1165 PRINT sav$
1170 PRINT 'Number of name table entries : '; name_table_entries
1175 PRINT 'Name table length: '; name_table_length
1180 PRINT 'Number of program lines : '; program_lines
1185 PRINT
1190 :
1195 DIM name_table$(name_table_entries -1, max_name_size)
1200 float_buffer = RESERVE_HEAP(6)
1205 quit = (float_buffer 1)
1210 END DEFine decode_header
1215 :
1220 DEFine PROCedure decode_name_table
1225 LOCal x, name_type, line_no, name_length, name$, lose_it$(1)
1230 LOCal num_procs, num_fns
1235 num_procs = 0
1240 num_fns = 0
1245 FOR x = 0 TO name_table_entries -1
1250 name_type = GET_WORD(#3)
1255 line_no = GET_WORD(#3)
1260 name_length = GET_WORD(#3)
1265 name$ = FETCH_BYTES(#3, name_length)
1270 IF name_length 1
1275lose_it$ = INKEY$(#3)
1280 END IF
1285 IF name_type = 5122 THEN num_procs = num_procs + 1
1290 IF name_type = 5377 AND name_type = 5379
1295num_fns = num_fns + 1
1300 END IF
1305 PRINT x;' Name type = '; HEX$(name_type, 16) ' ';
1310 PRINT 'Line number = '; line_no ' ';
1315 PRINT 'Name length = '; name_length; ' ';
1320 PRINT 'Name = ' name$ ''
1325 name_table$(x) = name$
1330 END FOR x
1335 PRINT 'There are ' num_procs ' PROCs'
1340 PRINT 'There are ' num_fns ' FNs'
1345 END DEFine decode_name_table
1350 :
1355 :
1360 DEFine PROCedure decode_program
1365 LOCal x, type_byte, program_line
1370 :
1375 REMark WORD = size change
1380 REMark LONG = $8D00.line number
1385 REMark rest of line
1390 :
1395 REPeat program_line
1400 IF EOF(#3) THEN EXIT program_line: END IF
1405 line_size = line_size + GET_WORD(#3)
1410 IF line_size 65536 THEN line_size = line_size - 65536: END IF
1415 IF GET_WORD(#3) HEX('8d00')
1420PRINT 'Program out of step.'
1425CLOSE #3
1430STOP
1435 END IF
1440 PRINT GET_WORD(#3); ' ';
1445 line_done = 0
1450 REPeat line_contents
1455 type_byte = CODE(INKEY$(#3))
1460 SELect ON type_byte
1465 = HEX('80'): multi_spaces
1470 = HEX('81'): keywords
1475 = HEX('84'): symbols
1480 = HEX('85'): operators
1485 = HEX('86'): monadics
1490 = HEX('88'): names
1495 = HEX('8B'): strings
1500 = HEX('8C'): text
1505 = HEX('8E'): separators
1510 = REMAINDER : floating_points
1515 END SELect
1520 IF line_done THEN EXIT line_contents: END IF
1525 END REPeat line_contents
1530 END REPeat program_line
1535 END DEFine decode_program
1540 :
1545 :
1550 DEFine PROCedure multi_spaces
1555 :
1560 REMark $80.nn = print nn spaces
1565 :
1570 PRINT FILL$(' ', GET_BYTE(#3));
1575 END DEFine multi_spaces
1580 :
1585 :
1590 DEFine PROCedure keywords
1595 :
1600 REMark $81.nn = keyword$(nn)
1605 :
1610 PRINT keyword$(GET_BYTE(#3));' ';
1615 END DEFine keywords
1620 :
1625 :
1630 DEFine PROCedure symbols
1635 LOCal sym
1640 :
1645 REMark $84.nn = symbol$(nn)
1650 :
1655 sym = GET_BYTE(#3)
1660 PRINT symbol$(sym);
1665 line_done = (sym = 10)
1670 END DEFine symbols
1675 :
1680 :
1685 DEFine PROCedure operators
1690 :
1695 REMark $85.nn = operator$(nn)
1700 :
1705 PRINT operator$(GET_BYTE(#3));
1710 END DEFine operators
1715 :
1720 :
1725 DEFine PROCedure monadics
1730 :
1735 REMark $86.nn = monadic$(nn)
1740 :
1745 PRINT monadic$(GET_BYTE(#3));
1750 END DEFine monadic
1755 :
1760 :
1765 DEFine PROCedure names
1770 LOCal ignore
1775 :
1780 REMark $8800. = name_table$()
1785 :
1790 ignore = GET_BYTE(#3)
1795 ignore = GET_WORD(#3)
1800 IF ignore 32768 THEN ignore = ignore - 32768: END IF
1805 PRINT name_table$(ignore);
1810 END DEFine names
1815 :
1820 :
1825 DEFine PROCedure strings
1830 LOCal delim$(1), size
1835 :
1840
Re: [Ql-Users] SAV files
On 03/01/10 19:52, Norman Dunbar wrote: Dilwyn, attached is a file that decodes a SAV file - as promised. Hope you can read my code after all these years! Cheers, Norman. Sorry folks, didn't mean to send that to everyone. However, now you have it, if you want to use it, you'll need DJToolkit to be able to run it. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] Reindeer quiz - ANSWERS
I never said it would be a proper quiz by the way! * How many reindeer are employed by Santa? Two. * What are their names (Spelling need not be correct)? Rudolf and Olive. * What sex is the red nosed reindeer? Female. * Why do you say that? Only female reindeer keep their antlers throughout winter. Ok, maybe a bit of clarification is required for the answers to the first two questions above: Everyone knows abouit Rudolf, so that's one reindeer. The song of the same name has the words Olive, the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names - so that's two. No others are mentioned! ;-) So, two reindeer are in Santa's employ, Rudolf and Olive. ducks runs again Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Happy New Year
Happy New Year all. I'm a bit surprised that there has been no comment about the QL Today issue 2 which I sent out middle of December - or was the post too slow to deliver before Xmas? Not yet received in Leeds I'm afraid. Been snowing a little in the UK and that has (as usual) caused everything to grind to a halt. Sigh! This wouldn't happen in Scotland! ;-) grins, ducks and runs Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] A little linux joke...
On 12/12/09 13:44, Dilwyn Jones wrote: Q: How does a Linux guru make love? Brilliant!!! Cheers, Norman ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] More BASIC Queries
Evening all, Is there a way of getting say EXTRAS loaded without loading all the other 400+ 'keywords' contained in TK2? DJ_TOOLKIT has something in it to check if an extension is loaded - it's the CHECK() command (I think!!!) Also, in one of my past articles, I wrote about the Name List in SuperBasic (QL Today I mean) and gave a demo of how to list everything in the name list. Might help? Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] XTC68 Sources
Hi Derek, Is QT a good platform, I used to dabble a little in Linux. I like it, Dave Walker thinks it's a little harder to program that .net - I have no idea as I don't program .net. There are bots of QT that take a while to get your head around. It is, in many places, less easy to figure out that Borlan C++ Builder used to be. Dave has a point! I assume there is a Windows version... How about a QL version There are many versions available at http://qt.nokia.com/. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] XTC68 Sources
Evening Dave, QT might produce a portable result, but it is much harder to program. Well, I like it but I have to admit to not programming in .net (any language) so I can't really compare. It's a wee bit harder than Borland C++ Builder, for instance, but I like it. I have a couple of program running under QT on Windows (if I must!) and Linux - and the source code is exactly the same. I'm not an expert by any means though. I did try Fox Toolkit and wxWindows aka wxWidgets (Microsoft got stroppy!) and of the three I liked wxWidgets under wxDev-C++ which was so like Delphi it was quite strange! But that can't be run on Linux (wxDev-C++) so I went (back) to QT. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] XTC68 Sources
Evening all, ... As I said if you were interested in producing a Windows graphic front-end then feel free to go ahead. It should not be very hard to do using Microsoft .NET toolset. Or, even beter QT! Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] The Tebby Files
Hi Jochen, first, congratulations on getting maried - or is it your first anniversary yet! ;-) So send in your contributions as well, please :-)) I'm already typing mine up. I won't say exactly what I'm doing - it's a surprise. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] PCW closed down
Evening John in Wales, PS. Norman, it must have been BBC BASIC where you began? No, I never got into BBC Basic. It was General Purpose Basic that I was taught from PCW. Then I had to translate some of that into ZX-Basic when the ZX-81 arrived. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] PCW closed down
Urs Koenig (QL) wrote: Sad news for connoisseurs of UK's computing press. After 31 years Personal Computer World (PCW) magazine had to close this summer. The last issue was August 2009. In a word, sad. PCW taught me Basic programming long before I ever had a computer to actually type it into. When I got my ZX-81 I had to start all over again as it was a different dialect of Basic! Them were the days. I have to say, I shall miss it. Even though I'm probably responsible for its demise - I have only bought the occasional copy in the last few years - it's coverage of Linux was far too brief. Hopefully, I'm not the only one responsible! Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Digital C executables
Evening Tony, Tony Firshman wrote: Norman Dunbar wrote, On 30/07/09 21:41: ... read it. It's been a few years since I last read or wrote to the dick so it may be a bit flaky. That reminds me of the QL man (shall remain nameless, but he knows who he is (8-)# ) who said to Roy Wood once that I have my new hard dick in my laptop. Very nice typo. Thanks for pointing that one out Tony. As things turned out, my dick was indeed readable and I have extracted the files foe Digital C from said dick and forwarded them to Dilwyn - by email though - not on a dick this time! I'm sure that there must be plenty of jokes about floppy dicks and hard dicks as well - but I can't think of any at the moment! Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Digital C executables
Evening Dilwyn, At least you didn't send me a copy of a dickital C :o| And there was me thinking I had done! Ah well! ;-) Who is this Richard everyone is referring to anyway??? In my case, Richard Cranium! But, to be serious for a moment, Gerry Jackson explained to me that DP's rights to the C program have ended and as author he's given permission for me to put it on my website (when I get time...moving house later this month), at least until (or if) Gerry comes up with a new version of the compiler. Moving house? Away from Tal-y-Bont? While I do have the Digital C SE files, I need to go through them to check for anything which needs to be removed. The only thing I haven't got is the manual for it - anybody have a disk-based manual? I can cope with most QL file formats. As far as I remember, the manuals from DP were always on photo-copier proof paper and not in a text file. I have the printed manual only I'm afraid. :-( Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Digital C executables
Evening Dilwyn, I think I might have the executables for Digital C lying around somewhere. I'll have a look and see what I can find. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Digital C executables
Dilwyn, I don't have the original microdrive cartridges to hand _ i'm not sure if I still have them, however, I do have one of my old backup floppies. Unfortunately I can't read it with QPC under Linux - I still haven't finished writing my filesystem driver for QDOS floppies! However, I'll take the floppy to work tomorrow and see if I can still read it. It's been a few years since I last read or wrote to the dick so it may be a bit flaky. One question though, was Digital C on the Digital Package with all the disks by any chance - I can't remember off hand and the same problem above applies - I can't read the disc. (Yet!) Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QPC2 and Windows7
Derek Stewart wrote: Is this now a Microsoft Windows mailing list QPC Derek - is it Windows or is it QDOS? I'd say we let them in! ;-) Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Windows Viewer
Rich Mellor wrote: Has anyone written a windows program which can open Quill documents to display them on screen or print them? Qstripper on Dilwyn's web site? Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] uqlx-win32
Evening Phoebus, The proper solution for uQLx is for the graphics parts to be abstracted and maybe use SDL or something along the same lines, something that will enable native compilation under Windoze, MacOS etc. That would most likely be QT - in my opinion of course, other opinions are available - but may be wrong! ;-) http://www.qtsoftware.com is the place to go for a free development system that works (natively) on Windows, Mac, Linux and Unix. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] uqlx-win32
Evening Dilwyn, You'll need the Cygwin distribution to provide the Linux-like environment: www.cygwin.com Be careful, it can be a huge download of 50MB with 6,478 files to install as I found to my cost...oh to know what I'm doing with Linux and Cygwin :-(( Downloading everything by the sound of it! ... Go on, give it a go, then you can tell me what I'm doing wrong... ... Back to the drawing board I think...Only 36,195 files to uninstall! Ok, Cygwin as far as I remember gives you the opportunity to do a download only and to save the files in a given location. That is the best option. It doesn't install anything. I'm assuming you have downloaded everything under the sun as you have so many files to delete (simply go into the C drive and delete (shift delete) the cygwin directory - that's about the easiest way to delete it.) You should have only selected the stuff you need but that's half the problem. Unless the UQLX files mention the bits of Cygwin that you need - how do you know? Off the top of my head, you probably need the C and/or C++ development runtime files plus the base system and all of X (or XORG these days?). You need the development stuff to compile UQLX and the X/XORG files to run it in a graphical environment. Sorry I'm unable to help any further - I'm 100% Linux! Cheers, Norm. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
