Re: [Ql-Users] C68 with asm keyword support?
Thanks Derek, I was kind of afraid that recompiling would be the answer - but was feeling lazy and hoping that there was a precompiled distribution available somewhere Cheers, Petri On Sun, Apr 3, 2016 at 10:42 PM, derek <de...@q40.de> wrote: > Hi, > > According to the C68 documention, the asm keyword is not part of ANSI C > and is not enabled by default. The reason that it would produce > non-portable code. > > But if you recompile the C68 compiler you can enable the -asm option to > yes. > > > Regards > > Derek > > > ---- Original message > From: Petri Pellinen <p...@iki.fi> > Date: 03/04/2016 20:25 (GMT+00:00) > To: ql-users <ql-us...@q-v-d.com> > Subject: [Ql-Users] C68 with asm keyword support? > > Hello everyone, > > the C68 version available on Dilwyn's site does not seem to have the asm > keyword support configured (or I don't know how to activate it!). Tried the > "-asm=yes" switch mentioned in the documentation but got the message: > "option '-asm=yes' not reognised" error. > > Is there a version of C68 somewhere that has been built with the asm > keyword support? > > Kind regards, > Petri > ___ > QL-Users Mailing List > ___ > QL-Users Mailing List ___ QL-Users Mailing List
[Ql-Users] C68 with asm keyword support?
Hello everyone, the C68 version available on Dilwyn's site does not seem to have the asm keyword support configured (or I don't know how to activate it!). Tried the "-asm=yes" switch mentioned in the documentation but got the message: "option '-asm=yes' not reognised" error. Is there a version of C68 somewhere that has been built with the asm keyword support? Kind regards, Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List
[Ql-Users] QDOSMSQ Wiki - thank you!
Hi Norman (and everybody else contributing to the QDOSMSQ wiki), Having spent some time lately messing about with Qdos using assembly I just wanted to take a moment and say a *big* Thank you for creating and maintaining this enormously useful wiki page. The code samples are especially good and clarify a lot of things immensely. The wiki complements Mr Pennell's good but sometimes rather terse book The Sinclair QDOS Companion nicely. Example: reading the book, I was quite confused about how to take advantage of user heaps. Five minutes on Qdosmsq Wiki changed that, the sample code was extremely helpful! Kind regards, Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] DEV_ device and Q-emuLator
Hi Wolfgang, many thanks, that works on the Q-emuLator! Happy New Year! Petri On Wed, Dec 31, 2014 at 1:58 PM, Wolfgang Lenerz w...@wlenerz.com wrote: Hi, I forgot, it's on dilwyn's site,; toolkit section, sub. Have fun Wolfgang ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] DEV_ device and Q-emuLator
Hi Tobias, thank you for that piece of infomation, tested and works! Cheers, Petri On Wed, Dec 31, 2014 at 7:21 PM, Tobias Fröschle tobias.froesc...@t-online.de wrote: Petri, The dev_ device needs HOTKEY System 2 to work on bare-bone QLs. (That is where the „not implemented“ comes from, and, in my opinion, an omission from the manual) Once you load that, everything should work as needed. Happy New Year to all, Tobias Am 31.12.2014 um 14:13 schrieb Petri Pellinen p...@iki.fi: Hi Wolfgang, many thanks, that works on the Q-emuLator! Happy New Year! Petri On Wed, Dec 31, 2014 at 1:58 PM, Wolfgang Lenerz w...@wlenerz.com wrote: Hi, I forgot, it's on dilwyn's site,; toolkit section, sub. Have fun Wolfgang ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] DEV_ device and Q-emuLator
Season's greetings, everyone! A quick question: has someone been able to successfully use the DEV_ device driver on the Q-emuLator? If yes, how? I downloaded the driver from Dilwyn's site but when I lrespr the dev_rext extension I get the error message not implemented while using the JS ROM image. Also tried Minerva 1.97 but no joy with that ROM, either. I also tried the REDIRECT extension to get a similar thing (DEV1_ - MDV7_) going but it doesn't quite seem to fit the bill since it won't expand arbitrary additions to the alias. I.e if I do this: REDIRECT DEV1_ TO MDV7_ I can do: DIR DEV1_ and I correctly get the directory listing of MDV7_ but I can't do: WSTAT DEV1_A_ Since the redirect driver only does a specific match of an alias, not a begins with - the result being that wstat tries to stat a file named dev1_a_ in the current data_use destination. Are there any other options to get a virtual device that I can point to an arbitrary destination working on the Q-emuLator? Cheers, Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Paruse Partyp
Hi Francois,
having only recently started looking into TK2 I found your question
quite interesting. The documentation in the TK2 manual is rather
spartan on the subject but to me it seems that the PARTYP function
takes a name rather than a position parameter.
Parameter substitution seems to be interesting in SuperBasic.
Somewhat surprisingly this is legal:
10 print t('foo')
1000 def fn t(a)
1010 print a
1020 ret 0
1030 end def
will print foo even though the parameter a is not declared as a string
In this case PARTYP(a) inside fn t will actually return 1 because
parameter a of the function at call time was substituted with a
string.
If you call t(a) like this: t(2) PARTYP(a) will return 2.
Need to delve deeper... More questions than answers now. But a rather
fascinating aspect of TK2 and SuperBasic for sure.
Cheers,
Petri
On Sat, Nov 29, 2014 at 4:04 PM, François Van Emelen
francois.vaneme...@telenet.be wrote:
Hi all,
(Is there still someone listening here?)
Three questions
1. Can someone tell me why the values printed for PARTYP and PARUSE in lines
240 to 350 are always 2?
Is there something wrong with these functions or am I missing something?
100 :REMark test return values of par_use,par_typ,parnam$
110 REMark string
120 pay$=Belgium
130 REMark array
140 DIM
langue$(2,10):langue$(0)=Dutch:langue$(1)=French:langue$(2)=German:
150 REMark float
160 keyboardcode=32
170 REMark integer
180 a%=1
190 PRINT TEST_PARAM(pay$,langue$,keyboardcode,a%):PAUSE
200 :
210 DEFine FuNction TEST_PARAM (p$,l$,k,i%)
220 :
230 :
240 PRINT PARNAM$(1) :REMark prints 'pay$' as expected
250 PRINT PARTYP(1) :REMark prints 2 :shouldn't that be 1 -string
260 PRINT PARUSE(1) :REMark prints 2 :shouldn't that be 1 -variable
270 PRINT PARNAM$(2) :REMark prints 'langue$' as expected
280 PRINT PARTYP(2) :REMark prints 2 :shouldn't that be 1 -string
290 PRINT PARUSE(2) :REMark prints 2 :shouldn't that be 2 -langue$ is an
array
300 PRINT PARNAM$(3) :REMark prints 'keyboardcode' as lexpected
310 PRINT PARTYP(3) :REMark prints 2: correct - keyboardcode is a float
320 PRINT PARUSE(3) :REMark prints 2::shouldn'tthat be be 1 -string
330 PRINT PARNAM$(4) :REMark prints 'a%' as expected
340 PRINT PARTYP(4) : REMark prints 2 :shouldn't that be be 3 - a% is an
integer
350 PRINT PARUSE(4) : REMark prints 2 :shouldn't be be 1 -variable
360 REMark the values for partyp and paruse are always 2:why?
370 RETurn What's wrong?:
380 REMark the returned value is not important here
390 :
400 END DEFine TEST_PARAM
2. Is there a way to find out how many languages are supported
(English,French,..)?
3. Once we know which language is active (with language($), can we access
the strings containing the days of the week
and the string with the names of the months?
Some help would be appreciated.
François Van Emelen
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Re: [Ql-Users] OUT NOW!
Urs, thanks for the heads-up! Had to buy it from the US store because for some reason the UK store does not deliver Kindle editions to Finland. Amazing that she went through the trouble of retyping and republishing the whole thing. Petri On Mon, Nov 3, 2014 at 8:21 PM, Urs Koenig (QL) q...@bluewin.ch wrote: http://www.qlis30.org.uk/#Jan QL forever! -- http://www.qlis30.org.uk http://www.qlis30.org.uk http://www.youtube.com/QLvsJAGUAR http://www.youtube.com/QLvsJAGUAR https://plus.google.com/104042128125238901905/posts https://plus.google.com/104042128125238901905/posts Sinclair, QL, ATARI, JAGUAR, NUON, APPLE more... Ever wondered what QLvsJAGUAR is about? http://www.qlvsjaguar.homepage.bluewin.ch/QLvsJAGUAR.html ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QLis30 pledge...
Good evening, I just sent 50% (£ 25.00) of my £50 pledge. Will follow up with the rest of the amount if necessary. Looking forward to meeting fellow QLers in Edinburgh. Kind regards, Petri On Tue, Oct 7, 2014 at 8:04 PM, Dave Park d...@sinclairql.com wrote: Hello all! The QL is 30 event is upon us and it is time for us to meet our pledge commitments. The good news is that the event was organized a lot more economically than was originally thought. For that reason, and allowing for the QUANTA match on donated funds, it is expected that we only need to raise HALF the amount we originally pledged. Here is a reminder of the pledges that were made: Sandy Electronics / Dave Park£150 Mark Martin £ 30 Petri Pellinen £ 50 Doug L £150 Jiří Doležal £ 50 Kenn Van Hauen £ 70 TOTAL£500 Quanta Match £500 Available: £1,000 I have forwarded £75 (50%) now, and if the 50% pledges fall short, I'll make an additional top up donation immediately after the event, when the donations have been tallied. Your donations need to be submitted to the following PayPal address: *treasu...@quanta.org.uk treasu...@quanta.org.uk* If anyone has an objection to using PayPal, you can email treasu...@quanta.org.uk and make an alternative arrangement. Thank you everyone for pledging! Dave On Tue, Feb 4, 2014 at 10:16 AM, Dave Park d...@sinclairql.com wrote: Currently: Sandy Electronics / Dave Park£150 Mark Martin £ 30 Petri Pellinen £ 50 Doug L £150 Jiří Doležal £ 50 Kenn Van Hauen £ 70 TOTAL£500 Quanta Match £500 Available: £1,000 Now, who would like to organise an event? The risk is now very low. :) Dave Sandy Electronics On Tue, Feb 4, 2014 at 9:47 AM, Kenn Van Hauen vanha...@mac.com wrote: I am happy to contribute the remaining £70. Kenn Sent from my iPhone On 4 Feb 2014, at 15:26, Dave Park d...@sinclairql.com wrote: In light of this fabulous email from QUANTA, The pledge tally now stands at: Currently: Sandy Electronics / Dave Park£150 Mark Martin £ 30 Petri Pellinen £ 50 Doug L £150 Jiří Doležal £ 50 TOTAL£430 Quanta Match £430 Available: £860 Thank you QUANTA and everyone else so far. Just £70 more and we'd hit £1000! Dave Park Sandy Electronics On Tue, Feb 4, 2014 at 2:35 AM, John Gilpin thegilp...@btinternet.com wrote: Further to your emails Re: [QL-Users] QLis30 pledge..., I have great pleasure in advising you as follows: At a meeting of the QUANTA Committee on Sunday 02/02/2014, the topic of a Workshop to celebrate QLis30 was discussed and it was decided that if, due to Rich Mellor's ill health, we (QUANTA) will not be able to support his venture in Cambridge, then we would like to add our name to the QLis30 pledge such that we will match the fund up to a maximum of £500. It was also decided that QUANTA may offer further support by attending the event to show a QUANTA presence. This came about after much discussion regarding QUANTA's willingness to support such an event and how much we should be prepared to spend in order to differentiate between over-spending and not wanting to support both of which have received some criticism of late on this list. As we do not continually monitor this email list, please address any further correspondence tocommit...@quanta.org.uk - thanks. Kind Regards, John Gilpin. QUANTA Treasurer. treasu...@quanta.org.uk mailto:treasu...@quanta.org.uk On 06/01/2014 19:23, Dave Park wrote: Hehe, ok. Thank you even more! Currently: Sandy Electronics / Dave Park£150 Mark Martin £ 30 Petri Pellinen £ 50 Doug L £150 TOTAL£380 I think that is getting close to a good incentive for someone to organize a show, now. On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 12:04 PM, extdgl42 externa...@earthlink.net wrote: -Original Message- From: Dave Park d...@sinclairql.com Sent: Jan 6, 2014 10:33 AM To: ql-us...@q-v-d.com Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] QLis30 pledge... Mark, Petri, Doug, THANK YOU! Doug, I translated
Re: [Ql-Users] Ethernet chit chat...
Malcolm, using the W5300 is really easy since it is a TCP stack and not an ethernet interface. Essentially you write high level command bytes to the command register (e.g. open, close, send) and read/write data from/to the w5300 memory buffers. The w3500 takes care of all the rest. On Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 5:55 PM, Malcolm Lear malc...@essex.ac.uk wrote: I'd agree the physical package should be fine, I've even hand soldered those without problems. If the Wiznet really has a socket level interface I'd seriously consider it. I'd have thought just about all the QL's resources would be used up doing what the W5300 co-processor does and may be a reason an ethernet interface hasn't appeared before. Although the code argument is persuasive is it not true that a large part of that codes functionality would be performed by the W5300. On 15/04/2014 15:09, Dave Park wrote: Yes, Malcolm, the interface is at the socket level. Both of the devices have some pros and cons. I am still open to suggestions for other options. One thing I am not concerned about is the pitch and number of pins on the WS5300 or any other device. I don't hand solder SMD boards. I use a solder mask to apply paste, position the devices then flow them in an oven. I have done a fair amount of QFP100 and 1mm BGA work with no problems. Although the WS5300 is technically superior as a device (it is more modern, it acts as an ethernet co-processor) the work that has already been done with the CS8900A is very important. Without the work being done on drivers, extensions for languages, etc, it doesn't matter how fly the device is. The CS8900A has some support already. Peter, could you outline what is available for the CS8900A, please? This is why I have opened up the discussion. I dread these discussions :) but I am sat here with two equally good choices for two very different reasons. The WS5300 is a very persuasive CHIP, and the CS8900A has some very persuasive CODE. Since CODE is such a big problem... If the CS8900A is chosen, we'll have a less capable or future-proof device that has much work already done. If we choose the WS5300, it maybe has an extra ten years of useful life but we have to start from scratch with supporting code. That's the balance. On Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 3:48 AM, Malcolm Lear malc...@essex.ac.uk wrote: Hi, I would think the most important criteria would be to choose a solution that reduces the software load on 68K. It seems after a brief look at the data sheets that the W5300's interface is at socket level, is that right? Malcolm On 14/04/2014 22:39, Dave Park wrote: I have been presented with two good contenders for an ethernet solution for the QL. There might be others; I am open to suggestions and may add more to the list. I would like there to be a *polite, friendly, respectful, constructive*debate about the relative merits of the two devices. Once you have expressed a view, that's enough. No need to restate it, unless you add something further. It is very important that discourse be *focused entirely*on solving the problem of getting ethernet onto the QL. Please read the data sheets and form an opinion about which would perform better on a QL at 7.5MHz or a SGC system at 25 MHz. There is already a TCP stack in existence; whether you wish to use it or not is a matter for you - one of the chips is a microcontroller that has its own stack. Here are the contenders: Wiznet WS5300 http://www.wiznet.co.kr/UpLoad_Files/Re ... _V128E.pdf versus Cirrus Logic CS8900 http://www.cirrus.com/en/pubs/proDatash ... 00A_F5.pdf If there is a clear consensus, I will assemble some functional prototype boards using the favored device, then send boards and documentation out to a limited number of people who express an interest in doing development work with them. There would be some gentle conditions: 1. You'd join a developer mailing list and report occasionally on progress you'd made to the other three people and me. Others could join the list to provide feedback, etc. The list would allow you to self-co-ordinate your efforts within the group. I would not be the boss of you. I would not own your work. There is no schedule or deadline. 2. Anything you do, once reaching a state of development greater than alpha, would be open source and freely distributable. A GIT repository or similar would be nice. 3. I would, upon release, host information and downloads at SinclairQL.com so people can explore the code or develop it further. If anyone develops anything to a point that it becomes possible to add ethernet to a future board, or standalone, I would work out a way to produce them for the community. If not, you can keep the card as a curio/plaything/collectible, or send it to someone else who has shown an interest. So, let's begin, shall we? ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [Ql-Users] QLis30
I'd love to attend. Kind regards, Petri On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 7:11 PM, Geoff Wicks gtwi...@btinternet.com wrote: However the information we would really like is an approximate idea of attendance, ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Developer assistance request.
Nice thing about the W5300 is that it has a TCP/IP stack implemented on the chip which makes the driver *much* simpler to implement. One interesting question regarding this whole conversation is: what is meant by a driver here? Does driver in this context mean a SuperBasic device interface? I.e. something along the lines of open #3,tcp_www.bbc.co.uk_80 Or does it mean a POSIX compliant socket library? Or something else? On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 3:22 PM, Dave Park d...@sinclairql.com wrote: Hi Peter, In all cases, I would like to go for compatibility with other systems. Drivers are a huge obstacle, so any kind of progress is a head start. I did a quick read of the datasheet, and I can see that this device does have a couple of advantages over the WS5300 - the onboard MAC eliminates a serial EEPROM. Obviously, we're at the very earliest stages of development, so it's quite easy to change direction at this time. Are you interested in open sourcing the work you've done? Dave On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 3:12 AM, Peter pg...@q40.de wrote: On 20 Jan 2014 at 20:05, Dave Park wrote: We are also looking for anyone interested in working on development of an ethernet driver. We're looking closely at the WizNet 5300. The datasheet is here: http://www.wiznet.co.kr/UpLoad_Files/ReferenceFiles/W5300_DS_V128E.pdf For your information: The Q68 already has a prototyped and finished PCB using the CP2200, communication was successfully tested on packet level. http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/CP2200.pdf The CP2200 has only 48 pins and a simple 8-bit bus suitable for QL purposes. It is 5V tolerant. Using the CP2200 would allow similar or even identical drivers. Peter ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm -- Dave Park Sandy Electronics, LLC d...@sinclairql.com ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Developer assistance request.
Richard Zidlicky's document QDOS TCP/IP and socket functionality at http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/docs/manuals/socket.html seems to propose that most of the POSIX-type functionality be implemented as an extension to standard Trap #3 calls with D0 values $50-$7B inclusive mapped to socket API calls. Does anyone here on the mailing list know of possible conflicts with other drivers if this proposed scheme was used? On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 4:05 PM, Dave Park d...@sinclairql.com wrote: Good questions, Petri. Given the structure of C, SuperBASIC and Minerva/QDOS in general, I think it's important to have at least a functional subset of the POSIX socket API. However, while that would bring functionality it would be strictly in the realm of the experienced programmer. The great thing about the QL is it's a wonderful tinkerer's machine. Being accessible from C and SuperBASIC would make use of ethernet not just for the elite, but a widespread pass time. We'd see a glut of multi-user games, web browsers, mail programs, web servers all easily accessible and modifiable. At that point, anyone can contribute. The addition of ethernet to the QL is as much about community development as it is about functionality of hardware. This is so important that if we reach a point where there's a workable driver I would build and sell ethernet cards for black box QLs at a loss, just to get them into as wide use as possible. However, until there's a meaningful expansion ROM image, it's a no-go. On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 7:39 AM, Petri Pellinen p...@iki.fi wrote: Nice thing about the W5300 is that it has a TCP/IP stack implemented on the chip which makes the driver *much* simpler to implement. One interesting question regarding this whole conversation is: what is meant by a driver here? Does driver in this context mean a SuperBasic device interface? I.e. something along the lines of open #3,tcp_www.bbc.co.uk_80 Or does it mean a POSIX compliant socket library? Or something else? On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 3:22 PM, Dave Park d...@sinclairql.com wrote: Hi Peter, In all cases, I would like to go for compatibility with other systems. Drivers are a huge obstacle, so any kind of progress is a head start. I did a quick read of the datasheet, and I can see that this device does have a couple of advantages over the WS5300 - the onboard MAC eliminates a serial EEPROM. Obviously, we're at the very earliest stages of development, so it's quite easy to change direction at this time. Are you interested in open sourcing the work you've done? Dave On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 3:12 AM, Peter pg...@q40.de wrote: On 20 Jan 2014 at 20:05, Dave Park wrote: We are also looking for anyone interested in working on development of an ethernet driver. We're looking closely at the WizNet 5300. The datasheet is here: http://www.wiznet.co.kr/UpLoad_Files/ReferenceFiles/W5300_DS_V128E.pdf For your information: The Q68 already has a prototyped and finished PCB using the CP2200, communication was successfully tested on packet level. http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/CP2200.pdf The CP2200 has only 48 pins and a simple 8-bit bus suitable for QL purposes. It is 5V tolerant. Using the CP2200 would allow similar or even identical drivers. Peter ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm -- Dave Park Sandy Electronics, LLC d...@sinclairql.com ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm -- Dave Park Sandy Electronics, LLC d...@sinclairql.com ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Developer assistance request.
Thank you George, that's an interesting piece of information. Kind regards, Petri On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 5:51 PM, George Gwilt grggw...@gmail.com wrote: On 21 Jan 2014, at 15:41, Petri Pellinen p...@iki.fi wrote: Richard Zidlicky's document QDOS TCP/IP and socket functionality at http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/docs/manuals/socket.html seems to propose that most of the POSIX-type functionality be implemented as an extension to standard Trap #3 calls with D0 values $50-$7B inclusive mapped to socket API calls. Does anyone here on the mailing list know of possible conflicts with other drivers if this proposed scheme was used? Trap#3 $50 to $5E, $60, $61 and $68 are used for GD2 colours. George ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Developer assistance request.
On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 6:12 PM, Peter pg...@q40.de wrote: Petri Pellinen wrote: Nice thing about the W5300 is that it has a TCP/IP stack implemented on the chip which makes the driver *much* simpler to implement. I had a working native TCP/IP stack plus applications a decade ago, so in my case, the easier way is trying to reuse that. That's very impressive. It's a shame that the solution was not more widespread. As always, I can not promise when I can finish something. So if you have already implemented a lot of things around the W5300 and plan to finish soon, don't let my info regarding the CP2200 hinder you. Ok... Based on that comment it seems that for clarity's sake I have to state the following explicitly: I am *not* associated in any way with Dave's project. I had two motivations for posting my reply to Dave's message: 1) To point out a reason I personally chose the W5300 chip for a home project - this difference between the discussed chips was not stated in earlier emails so I thought it might add information to the discussion 2) To express my general curiosity about what a driver means in this case since this was not 100% clear to me. Also, I am NOT advocating the use of any specific chip for any purpose whatsoever. And following your cue, I'm also not making any promises or offering any implementations around any chipset. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Developer assistance request.
Hi Tobias, that's entirely right, thanks for pointing that out! On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 7:48 PM, tobias.froesc...@t-online.de tobias.froesc...@t-online.de wrote: On second thought, maybe not. Obviosly no one will want to set a color on a TCP channel nor will anyone want to send a packet to a high-res screen channel. -The overlap doesn't hurt. Tobias -Original-Nachricht- Betreff: Re: [Ql-Users] Developer assistance request. Datum: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 18:37:49 +0100 Von: tobias.froesc...@t-online.de tobias.froesc...@t-online.de An: ql-us...@q-v-d.com ql-us...@q-v-d.com In this case, it would be interesting to know how QPC can implement both TCP/IP and GD2 high-color? My QPC manual says: This manual won't go into the details of the interface, however, as the interface is mostly compatible to the uQLx implementation Maybe Marcel can shed some light on that? Regards, Tobias -Original-Nachricht- Betreff: Re: [Ql-Users] Developer assistance request. Datum: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 16:51:42 +0100 Von: George Gwilt grggw...@gmail.com An: ql-us...@q-v-d.com On 21 Jan 2014, at 15:41, Petri Pellinen p...@iki.fi wrote: Richard Zidlicky's document QDOS TCP/IP and socket functionality at http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/docs/manuals/socket.html seems to propose that most of the POSIX-type functionality be implemented as an extension to standard Trap #3 calls with D0 values $50-$7B inclusive mapped to socket API calls. Does anyone here on the mailing list know of possible conflicts with other drivers if this proposed scheme was used? Trap#3 $50 to $5E, $60, $61 and $68 are used for GD2 colours. George ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QLis30 pledge...
On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 5:02 PM, Mark Martin storycraf...@gmail.com wrote: On Sun, Jan 5, 2014 at 12:39 PM, Dave Park d...@sinclairql.com wrote: *List of pledges:* *Sandy Electronics / Dave Park£150* Mark Martin£30 Petri Pellinen£50 I wish it was as easy as throwing money at the problem but I know that there is unfortunately a very substantial amount of work that needs to be done in addition to securing the financing. Being stranded here in the European version of the Outer Hebrides I feel awkward not being able to contribute something concrete (such as actual work) but I do hope that these pledges would function as a motivation for some group of people to organize an event because I would love to attend. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Ql is 30
I would be very tempted to come over for a QL30 event in Edinburgh. /Petri On Mon, Nov 11, 2013 at 8:01 PM, jms1 j...@supanet.com wrote: SQLUG could probably find a location and maybe pay for the hall in Edinburgh or even possibly Glasgow. Would be somewhere different and attract people both from the continent and Britain? Who would come? ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today + DVD
Received over here in Finland as well. Having been away from the QL scene for many, many years it is wonderful to have a comprehensive library of all back issues. Also, QPC2 is amazing, never tried it before. Thank you very much to everybody involved! Best regards, Petri On Thu, Sep 19, 2013 at 8:38 PM, Geoff Wicks gtwi...@btinternet.com wrote: On 19/09/2013 18:17, Dilwyn Jones wrote: On a personal note, as the first editor of the magazine, it was so nice that the last words on the back cover of the very last issue were in Welsh, not sure of that was a subtle and personal note or not, but in case it was (and knowing Geoff it might well have been) thanks for that and for the number of times my name appears in this last issue. Dilwyn Jones # It was Jochen you have thank. I objected to the last two words on the grounds that there were no known QL-ers in Wales, Best Wishes, Geoff Posted from a reinforced bunker at an undisclosed destination. __**_ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/**smsqe.htmhttp://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QLwIP
Mark, if you are interested I have a prototype board for the original QL that runs TCP/IP. Due to time constraints with my company I have not been able to work on it for the past year. It uses a chip that has the TCP/IP stack embedded so there is no need to implement that part on the QL. Before working on the adapter I ported http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UIP_(micro_IP) on the QL and ran it over a serial connection. The serial ports on the QL being what they are I quickly wanted to explore other options. I have tested the prototype board by implementing a DNS lookup client for name resolution and a NTP client to synchronize QL's clock from a network time server. Both work well. There's quite a bit of work to be done and if someone is willing to contribute I will be happy to share what I have done so far. I have *no* commercial interest whatsoever and am happy to open-source everything. Feel free to email me if you would like some further information. Best regards, Petri On Sun, Sep 15, 2013 at 2:07 PM, Peter Graf pg...@q40.de wrote: Mark Martin wrote: Could it be licensed under an open source license? GPL planned. That's hopeful. What can I do to encourage or support that? Thank you. Unless you are a very familiar with drivers, C language and networking, owning a native hardware with ethernet - I have no idea what you could do. Even digging QLwIP out, making myself familiar with it again, and introduce someone else costs so much time that we'd have to forget the other projects I mentioned. There are ethernet cards for Q40 and Q60. QLwIP supports them. I was hoping for broader support of hardware. It's a broad base to begin with, though, isn't it? There's QL original hardware, QXL, Q40/Q60, Amiga/Atari emulators. Software emulators. Software emulators use the TCP/IP stack of their Windows/Linux host, so don't need QLwIP. Original QL and QXL have no ethernet hardware, they could use QLwIP with SLIP over the serial line, but that's not of much practical use. About Amiga/Atari emulators I have no idea. I doubt there is even a single user who would use internet on that. Peter ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] A few short topics...
Evening Norman, thank you for the chance to read your articles about assembly language programming also in the future! I have a strange fascination for the subject and it's wonderful that you have the stamina to share knowledge. Best regards, Petri On Wed, May 29, 2013 at 4:12 PM, Norman Dunbar nor...@dunbar-it.co.ukwrote: Afternoon all, 1. Assembly Language Mailing List. With the coming demise of the printed version of QL Today, and the fact that I'm part way through the Assembly Language series, I've set up a mailing list on my web site so that anyone wishing to complete the series can sign up and I'll email you when I have an article ready to download. The plans at the moment are: * Upload a PDF of the series so far, in one PDF book. However, because the tools I use can also create html, ePub and such like, I might be convinced to add a couple of extra formats. This work is pretty much done, and the main book may be appearing soon. * Upload each new chapter as and when I complete it. There will be no spam on the mailing list, the only emails you will get will be to advise you of a new chapter being available. You can sign up at http://qdosmsq.dunbar-it.co.**uk/mailinglisthttp://qdosmsq.dunbar-it.co.uk/mailinglist. Indeed, you can unsubscribe as well. You will be required to enter your forename and surname please. This isn't going to be used against you, only to try and stop spam-bots signing up. (I get a lot of that I'm afraid!) I've updated by website http://qdosmsq.dunbar-it.co.uk with the details of the mailing list, so there is a link there as well - just in case. My final article in (the printed) QL Today has details as well. 2. Does SMSQ Need a Monitor Built in? On a completely different matter, I'm thinking that it might be a good idea (depends on your point of view of course) to have a built in monitor system in SMSQ/QPC etc. Ok, I can hear the screams from the developers even as I type, but I think it would be useful to have something along the lines of QMON or JMON built in to the OS, so that any time something went belly up in an exception(al) manner, we'd get some clue as to why. Just a thought - I appreciate that a certain (a lot) of work would probably be required, but to be honest, I don't see why it was never actually part of the OS to begin with. 3. Dave Park, Joomla QL Today replacement. Has anyone heard anything more about Dave Park's new venture in setting up a Joomla system so that QL Today could carry on as an electronic system instead of paper? Last I heard he had Joomla set up on one of his servers and hadn't yet made the URL available. Right, that's me done. 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.htmhttp://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Test email
Speaking of recursion... This is probably old news to everybody but there is a nice Google Easter egg: Googling recursion gives you a Did you mean 'recursion' link :) On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 6:12 PM, George Gwilt grggw...@gmail.com wrote: On 14 May 2013, at 16:06, Norman Dunbar wrote: More or less. I was really wondering why QDOS doesn't have a vector setting long words to ASCII when suddenly - ping! - there was this ignorable email which I inadvertently sensed out of my eye's corner. Aha, I see. You inadvertently sensed it, and accidentally replied! :-) I think the problem is because the instruction to ignore it is at the bottom. However, it matters not. If you obey the instruction to ignore it, then obviously, you didn't ignore it. Thus, we enter Dilwyn's recursive ignoring it scenario! I'm having a bad day! Ah! I now see the problem. I must have ignored the instruction to ignore the email - or part thereof. Does that count as recursion? George ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Caps Lock
Yeah Java is kind of ugly in that sense, unless one is willing to take the hit of using JNA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_Native_Access to get access to KeyboardUtilshttp://jna.java.net/javadoc/platform/com/sun/jna/platform/KeyboardUtils.htmlwhich supposedly gets the job done in a fairly portable way. Petri On Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 8:22 PM, Wolfgang Lenerz w...@wlenerz.com wrote: Le 14/02/2013 17:21, Dilwyn Jones a écrit : SMSQmulator doesn’t seem to change sv_caps at all. Means standard QL caps lock indicators don’t work on those systems. Yup. There's no reliable way to get the caps lock status from Java, sorry. Wolfgang __**_ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/**smsqe.htmhttp://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Caps Lock
Hi Tobias, You are right, that is the way that works in quite a few environments but apparently not everywhere so it is not entirely reliable. Petri 14.2.2013 21.48 Tobias Fröschle tobias.froesc...@t-online.de kirjoitti: Am 14.02.2013 um 20:15 schrieb Wolfgang Lenerz: Le 14/02/2013 19:57, Petri Pellinen a écrit : Yeah Java is kind of ugly in that sense, unless one is willing to take the hit of using JNA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_Native_Access to get access to KeyboardUtils http://jna.java.net/javadoc/platform/com/sun/jna/platform/KeyboardUtils.html which supposedly gets the job done in a fairly portable way. ** shudder ** Öhm, it's quite some time when I was working as a Java developer, but how about Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getLockingKeyState(KeyEvent.VK_CAPS_LOCK); ?? Tobias ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Plastic Feet for Sinclair QL
On Sat, Feb 2, 2013 at 11:04 AM, Rich Mellor r...@rwapservices.co.ukwrote: Does anyone have spares of the plastic feet used to raise the back of the QL ? I keep being asked for these, but unfortunately I don't have any left (and neither do Quanta)... Do people want original parts or would a copy of the original be sufficient? I'm wondering how much it would cost to 3d-print copies of the feet... /Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SMSQmulator
Hello everyone, is it possible to run the trial version of QDT under SMSQmulator ? Best regards, Petri On Sun, Jan 20, 2013 at 7:41 AM, Wolfgang Lenerz w...@scp-paulet-lenerz.com wrote: Hi all, SMSQmulator, the SMSQ/E machine emulator under Java is now out. You can find it at : www.wlenerz.com/SMSQmulator. (Please note that, the site running under linux, this address is case dependent - g!). Have fun with it. Wolfgang __**_ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/**smsqe.htmhttp://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SMSQmulator
Hi Wolfgang, it's a very nice looking QL desktop project: http://www.jdh-stech.com/QDT/qdt.html and Ian, thanks for the info. I'm trying to install the demo version right now. Best regards, Petri On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 9:50 PM, Wolfgang Lenerz w...@scp-paulet-lenerz.com wrote: Hi The simple answer is yes. I have been running the full version of QDT with no problem. Just a little slow but usable, at least on my system. What is QDT? Wolfgang __**_ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/**smsqe.htmhttp://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SMSQmulator
Hi Wolfgang, the demo can be downloaded from http://smsq.j-m-s.com/qdt/qdt.htm /Petri On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 10:07 PM, Wolfgang Lenerz w...@scp-paulet-lenerz.com wrote: Hi Petri, it's a very nice looking QL desktop project: http://www.jdh-stech.com/QDT/**qdt.htmlhttp://www.jdh-stech.com/QDT/qdt.html Ah, of course, yes, thanks. Where can one get the demo? Wolfgang __**_ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/**smsqe.htmhttp://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QLay Linux
I looked into this on xubuntu 12.04.1. Long story short: needs a recompile against current libraries. A bit more detail if someone is interested: readelf -a QLAY | less tells us that the binary needs /lib/ld-linux.so.1 INTERP 0xd4 0x08d4 0x 0x00013 0x00013 R 0x1 [Requesting program interpreter: /lib/ld-linux.so.1] and ldd QLAY shows that an older libc shared library is requested. libc.so.5 = not found I then checked if the current versions work with the binary by creating symlinks with old version names to current libraries: sudo ln -s /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc.so.5 sudo ln -s /lib/ld-linux.so.2 /lib/ld-linux.so.1 Trying to run QLAY now produces the following error: ./QLAY: symbol lookup error: ./QLAY: undefined symbol: __setfpucw which makes sense as __setfpucw does not exist in current glibc versions: http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/online/pages/man3/__setfpucw.3.html So, the current library distributions won't work with the old binary and a recompile is necessary. The source package does not seem to contain a Linux Makefile so some work would be needed to recompile. Best regards, Petri On Tue, Jan 22, 2013 at 5:08 AM, Timothy Swenson swenso...@sbcglobal.netwrote: I just downloaded QLAY and tried it on my Lubuntu 12.4 system. I'm getting the same odd error that the user reported. I made sure that the file was executable, so I did a 'chmod 777 QLAY'. When I did './QLAY', I got the same no sure file or directory. The command 'strace ./QLAY' did not show much. Basically, an execve call was made and it returned ENOENT, which is the same as no such file or directory. There was an llseek system call that returned ESPIPE or Illegal seek. I've never seen Linux or Unix not find a file like that. The file system can see the file. I can chmod the file. I can cat the file. I can rename the file, but trying to execute it, the file can't be found. One suggestion is that the user download the source code and see if he can build it himself. I just tried it and had a number of compiler errors. If the user is not a C person, he may not get it to compile. Has anyone successfully compiled QLAY lately? The source code was last touched in 1999, so it might be a little rusty. Another option is for the user to try the DOS version using DOSBOX on Linux. DOSBOX is great for running old DOS software. I've run stuff that was created in 1986 and it ran fine. Tim Swenson __**_ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/**smsqe.htmhttp://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QLay Linux
On Tue, Jan 22, 2013 at 5:08 AM, Timothy Swenson swenso...@sbcglobal.netwrote: Another option is for the user to try the DOS version using DOSBOX on Linux. DOSBOX is great for running old DOS software. I've run stuff that was created in 1986 and it ran fine. That's a great idea, I tried it on xubuntu 12.04.1 dosbox and it ran fine. /Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SMSQmulator
Hi Wolfgang, thank you very much for making this available! Just a note: I was not able to run this under JRE on Windows 7, got error about not being able to load fonts when starting. With a full JDK environment I had no problems. Best regards, Petri On Sun, Jan 20, 2013 at 7:41 AM, Wolfgang Lenerz w...@scp-paulet-lenerz.com wrote: Hi all, SMSQmulator, the SMSQ/E machine emulator under Java is now out. You can find it at : www.wlenerz.com/SMSQmulator. (Please note that, the site running under linux, this address is case dependent - g!). Have fun with it. Wolfgang __**_ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/**smsqe.htmhttp://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SMSQmulator
Hi Wolfgang, yes unfortunately I still see the same problem BUT I also see the same problem with another piece of java software that I just downloaded so it starts to look like it really is some kind of a JRE configuration problem on my machine. This is very weird since some packages work well while others don't. I'll take a look later and see if I can find the culprit. Thank you for taking a look and apologies for bringing this up before doing a more thorough check on my machine with other SW. Best regards, Petri On Sun, Jan 20, 2013 at 4:41 PM, Wolfgang Lenerz w...@scp-paulet-lenerz.com wrote: Hi Petri, I've uploaded a new version, could you check whether the same problem is still there? Thanks Wolfgang __**_ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/**smsqe.htmhttp://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] .co.uk domain, where to register?
We use gandi.net at work. .co.uk domains seem to cost 7 euros per year through them. Cheers, Petri On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 11:56 AM, Urs Koenig (QL) q...@bluewin.ch wrote: Morning all, I intend to register a .co.uk domain and host the site at my swiss hosting partner. Questions: 1) Is there an official .co.uk domain name registrar or is any company allowed to sell .co.uk domain? 2) If there's more than one (which I assume), which one would you propose. Many thanks for any feedback. Cheers, Urs - http://www.youtube.com/QLvsJaguar http://www.youtube.com/QLvsJaguar Sinclair, QL, ATARI, JAGUAR, NUON, APPLE more... ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Sinclair QL running a qualification test for a space component
Thank you for sharing this, Francois. It was a very interesting read! I studied space hardware technology as a secondary subject at the university so this story brought a smile to my face. I recall thinking at the time that space hw engineering must be a glamorous field. Having read your story... well, it seems I already had all the necessary glamorous tools at home :) Have a great weekend! /Petri On Fri, Nov 23, 2012 at 8:13 AM, Francois Lanciault francoislancia...@hotmail.com wrote: Hi group, here is a short story for you this morning: My trusty QL is controlling a test setup built to qualify a new component for space use as we speak. To make the story short, I work for a company that build satellite and other space hardware. Two weeks ago, one of our design failed during an official life test in the lab. We made some changes to the design and we are about to restart the test soon. But I found out that changing the material of the failed part for a different type might be an even better solution. After talking to my boss, he said that we have no time to qualify that new material before the official test. His other objection was that a new test setup was needed to mechanically bend the part made of the new material for many thousand cycles before he would even consider it. There was no time, and no money. You need to understand that a setup like that usually cost a few $1 and take about a month to built, program the test computer etc. The day after I told my boss: I WILL test this solution. Give me 24 hours to built the test setup, and it will cost you nothing. I agreed with a smile. 24 hours later, the test was running. I use scrap flight parts, a couple of brackets and a lot of Meccano parts. For the actuator, I use a small $20 servo-motor that I had for a robotic project of mine. I also had the controller for the servo. This controller can be attached to a simple serial port. That is where the QL comes into play. I needed a computer to control the amount of bending, the timing, the large quantity of cycles and able to log everything. I also needed a computer that was easy to program, as I started to work on the program at 23h00. Because the QL is the computer I know best, the program was finished 2 hours later. The next day, when I installed everything in the thermal chamber, I must admit that it looks a bit foolish. But it did work. I closed the door and set the temperature to -50degC. Everybody knew it would not last through the night. But this morning I opened the chamber and it was still running great, 25000 cycles later. When I left work it was at 4 cycles. Anyway, It is fun to see my QL in a lab running this test, and I thought you might like it. The other thing that I like is that I can work on my 3D game at lunch time :-) Have a nice day! François ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QLToday arrived
Arrived in sunny Espoo, Finland this afternoon. 21.6.2012 22.07 Ralf Reköndt ralf.rekoe...@t-online.de kirjoitti: Not here in Germany...8-(. - Original Message - From: peet vanpeebles Mine arrived today, I liked the little joke on the front cover! :) __**_ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/**smsqe.htmhttp://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today arrived today
Hello, the latest issue made it to Finland today. The content was great! Lots of very interesting pieces and Norman's article on Gwasl libraries was exactly what I needed as I was too lazy to sort out the details myself :) Thank you to all of you who put the issue together! Best regards, Petri On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 6:48 PM, thorsten herbert thorsten_herb...@hotmail.com wrote: Hi all, just got my issue of QL Today this morning. Great issue with plenty of 42 pages !! Thanks to all involved .. Best, Th ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Ethernet/TCP/IP card prototype version 2
Thanks Dave, I sure will need help with the PCB so your offer is much appreciated! /Petri On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 12:13 AM, Dave Park plasticu...@gmail.com wrote: This is fantastic. If you'd like any help with the PCB, let me know :) Dave On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 4:10 PM, Petri Pellinen p...@iki.fi wrote: Hi everyone, in case anyone is interested, there's a pic of the second prototype version of an ethernet / TCP/IP expansion card for the QL available on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/petrip/6883064083/ Fresh off the production line, it was finished tonight :) And the amazing thing is that it actually works. To me, the hardware side of things was the scary/educational part of the project. Now I feel confident that this prototype can be used as a nice starting point for prototype v3 with an actual printed circuit board. I was forced to take a long (10 months!) break from all hobbies due to hectic personal/business life but finally had some time to put this second version together. Now that I have hardware that can actually be handled without fear of tearing a wire loose I can concentrate on the software side of things. I have the source code for a rudimentary socket layer interface for the WizNet module (the TCP-IP-on-a-chip on the board) and will try to compile something with it. A very simple command line HTTP client would probably be an interesting starting point as that would open up all kinds of possibilities (file download, REST client, etc). Best regards, Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] Qimi schematics + board
Good afternoon everybody, Qimi schematics seem to be available online at http://dilwynjones.topcities.com/qldocs/qimi.html . Is the board layout also available somewhere? Best regards, Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Qimi schematics + board
Hi Dave, I converted the pic file in the zip into a bmp, see here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/petrip/6858386833/ But it would be interesting to see what the circuit board layout is. By the way, if the picture is not in the public domain then please let me know and I'll remove it. I'm just assuming it is since it can be downloaded from Dilwyn's (old?) site. Cheers, Petri On Sat, Feb 11, 2012 at 7:16 PM, Dave Park plasticu...@gmail.com wrote: I didn't see a schematic in that zip file... What is the filename? Dave On Sat, Feb 11, 2012 at 5:04 AM, Petri Pellinen p...@iki.fi wrote: Good afternoon everybody, Qimi schematics seem to be available online at http://dilwynjones.topcities.com/qldocs/qimi.html . Is the board layout also available somewhere? Best regards, Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QLToday V16 I2
Arrived in Finland today. Thanks! Petri On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 4:34 PM, Gerhard Plavec gerhard.pla...@gmx.atwrote: Same for me :) Gerhard François Van Emelen schrieb: Hi Jochen, Found QLToday V16 I2 in my letterbox this morning. Thanks Jochen. Have a fine day, François Van Emelen __**_ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/**smsqe.htmhttp://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm __**_ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/**smsqe.htmhttp://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Huge Sinclair repository on DVD out now!
Finnish Postal Service delivered today. My first ever QL Today. Now I have 15 years of catching up to do :) Great magazine, thank you to everybody involved! Best regards, Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] well, it's finally gone!
And when exactly did you join this CompuServe you speak of? The Internet is cool and everything but nothing beats the handshake sound of a 300 baud modem :) Cheers, Petri On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 11:56 PM, paul paulh...@ameritech.net wrote: I finally let go my CompuServe account, after being 'connected' from before the Internet was as we know it now. Back then it was strictly text based! No Pretty pictures! no www, So ends an era for me! -- Paul Holmgren Mine: 2 57 300-C's in Indy Hers: 05 PT GT R/T HO Stage 1 Hoosier Corps L#6 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QLSD (WIP): ROM board featuring a SD socket to allow the QL to use SD/MMC cards
That is very, very impressive. Was that QL running a GoldCard? Is Minerva a requirement or will this thing support QDOS? /Petri On Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 8:16 PM, Miguel Angel Rodriguez Jodar miguel.an...@zxprojects.com wrote: Hi! I've working on it the last two weeks. The hardware is almost finished (I may be switching to another, more capable, CPLD if the current one doesn't fit all my needs). It's an external ROM board, with EPROM for firmware (to be written), CPLD configured to act as an SPI interface, and a SD/MMC socket. Miscellaneous electronics include an integrated oscillator (50MHz at present), and a 3.3V LDO regulator. I'm finishing low-level routines so once they are well tested, I will move on to the next software level (filesystem, driver access, etc). Until now, I present to you a demo of the read speed achieved with a white-brand SD card, and a 640KB (should work on an unexpanded too) QL with Minerva 1.98 . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78xtsEKW4Lw This video is the last one uploaded to Youtube up to now. Previously I have uploaded two more videos showing basic read tests using different speeds, and comparing the results with the one obtained using a regular floppy drive. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0XvKy8wb-g -- McLeod_IdeaFix (www.zxprojects.com) ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Finland User Group
Hi, I'm a Finn but I'm not aware of an active User Group over here. Anything I can help you with? :) /Petri On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 12:28 AM, Lee Privett lee.priv...@gmail.com wrote: Does anyone know if there is a QL Finland User Group? Lee -: Back to the QL :- ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Finland User Group
Wow, the RAM piggyback job on the QL he has acquired is a mess. It's going to be a *lot* of work to remove those babies :) http://www.flickr.com/photos/9020837@N07/5657527093/sizes/l/in/photostream/ On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 10:30 PM, Lee Privett lee.priv...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Petri, there is another of your countrymen on the QL forum who is having a few problems with a recently purchased QL, I said I would see if there was someone close who might be able to help. Here is the link. http://www.qlforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2t=134sid=382cea9389c7989d5bbb29f3cdd66baa Lee -: Back to the QL :- - Original Message - From: Petri Pellinen To: ql-us...@q-v-d.com Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2011 8:28 AM Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] Finland User Group Hi, I'm a Finn but I'm not aware of an active User Group over here. Anything I can help you with? :) /Petri On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 12:28 AM, Lee Privett lee.priv...@gmail.com wrote: Does anyone know if there is a QL Finland User Group? Lee -: Back to the QL :- ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] ser-usb
On Tue, Apr 26, 2011 at 6:14 PM, Tony Firshman t...@firshman.co.uk wrote: I am keen to see this put into production. Adrian has done a great deal of (frustrating) work on it, and feels that there is no real interest in it. I hope he can be proved wrong. I second that. I participated in the beta and must say that Adrian has produced an impressive piece of software. It's really unfortunate that he had a rough time struggling with the limitations of the plain old QL. I believe this greatly added to his frustration. But he managed to come up with innovative ways of working around the limitations and produced a useful set of tools that now sadly will not see daylight unless there is more interest in his solution. Being able to read/write usb memory sticks formatted with QDOS was really useful at least for me. The slow speed of the native serial port was not that big of a deal since my use cases were essentially transferring small files between a PC and the QL. I should also add that all through the beta period Adrian was very helpful and responsive. He literally fixed bugs within hours of discovery. Now, if anyone has a spare Hermes up for grabs please let me know :) /Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] One for the QL Collectors out there
Indeed it was :) They are the guys who brought Genuine People Personalities to the market, i.e. Marvin, the Paranoid Android :) On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 12:33 PM, Dilwyn Jones dil...@evans1511.fsnet.co.uk wrote: Something just occurred to me - wasn't Sirius Cybernetics some company in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or something like that? Dilwyn Jones ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] One for the QL Collectors out there
Norman, your brain agrees with the QL User Guide Concepts section. I wish I had a memory like that. /Petri On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 9:48 PM, Norman Dunbar nor...@dunbar-it.co.uk wrote: If my brain hasn't let me down again, I'm pretty sure that 'k' defines the length of the keyboard buffer for this channel. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Memory
peek_l(163872) I believe contains address of end of RAM. /Petri On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 4:27 PM, Lee Privett lee.priv...@gmail.com wrote: I have a JM basic system and I am trying to check the memory it has before and after I plug the expanderam card in. No joy as far as I can determine, keywords in QDOS but I seem to remember a Peek somewhere, anyone? Lee - Back to the QL- ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] [ql-users] Backplanes...
Hi Tobias, thanks for your thoughts on this. And your guess on Pennell's solution is correct :) Very interesting piece of information about driver shadowing. Obvious, once you think about it but I hadn't thought about it :) Cheers, Petri On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 11:20 PM, Tobias Fröschle tobias.froesc...@t-online.de wrote: Well, I don't have the Pennel book, so don't know his recipe - But would expect he recommends scanning the potential expansion port ROM start candidates for a valid ROM header and mimicking the correct initialisation sequence (i.e calling initialisation routine at x+6 and linking in Basic procedures at x+4. So what could go wrong: Waste of memory - All drivers need to allocate at least a 40+ bytes driver linkage block plus any additional scratchpad memory they need. So if you initialize a driver twice, memory of the first is potentially lost. (The driver as such won't be called twice, because drivers may very well shadow each other, only the first one that tells the system it has recognized its device name will actualy be called (This is one of the mechanisms used by the PE to 'hide' the original con_ driver) Waste of CPU: Drivers linking in a polling or scheduler loop might very well do that twice, same for an external interrupt routine. Polling or scheduler loops just waste CPU. External interrupt routines hooked in twice shouldn't hurt (but probably wasting CPU as well), as an interrupt routine should really clear the interrupt source befor it returns. BTW all of the link traps have no failure exit - they will just link in whatever routine they're asked for. Same goes with SuperBASIC extensions - just a waste of memory - the last one hides the others. This would be one typical usage of a thing: When a driver is initialized, it could check for existance of its correspondent thing and gracefully exits without further initialisation if it's already there. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] [ql-users] Backplanes...
On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 9:05 PM, Daniele Terdina danieleterd...@hotmail.com wrote: Didn't Sinclair ROMs have a bug preventing usage of all expansion slots except for the first one? Being a re-newbie I also have (I hope!) a few related questions : This might be a FAQ so apologies in advance if this subject has been beaten to a painful death many times before Is the section Peripheral ROM problem in chapter 9 of The Sinclair QDOS Companion still relevant? Andrew Pennell outlines a procedure to work around the early QDOS bug where only the first peripheral routine is discovered. Should this workaround still be applied to make sure all peripheral drivers get initialized properly? Does the workaround actually *break* things with newer QDOS versions and more recent peripherals? Cheers, Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] A Landmark Moment for the Ser-USB Driver!
Congratulations Adrian. Is this the USBWiz module you are writing the driver for? http://www.crownhill.co.uk/product.php?prod= Best regards, Petri On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 1:06 PM, Adrian Ives adr...@acanthis.co.uk wrote: This morning at 10:50 GMT the latest version of the driver, running under a QDOS JM ROM, successfully loaded a file into the MasterSpy editor without crashing. This issue has been bugging me for days, but was finally traced to some errant mode swapping code that allowed an IOSS retry to happen when the process that was being retried hadn't actually surrendered control. Now, all I have to figure out is why an S*BASIC INPUT statement causes a hang under QDOS but not under SMSQ . unless the driver's Asynchronous Read facility is turned on. ;) I'm still planning for a test release mid March, when anyone who has a USBWiz that they can connect is welcome to try it out. Adrian ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] [ql-users] Backplanes...
I would be interested in buying one. The DIN connectors seem to be rather expensive so I'm a bit concerned about the price. A kit instead of a finished assembly would also be nice. Four slots would probably be optimal for my use. Can't answer your other questions since I have never used one before :) /Petri On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 5:26 PM, Plastic plasticu...@gmail.com wrote: Hi all, I have been asked off-list if I could make some backplanes. I have a stack of the connectors already, so, if there was demand, I could do this quite easily. The questions are: Is there any demand for this? Is there any deficiency or design issue with previous ones that needs correcting? (clearances? support? clean power?) How are they normally used/oriented? How could they be improved? How many expansion ports does your backplane have, how many do you use, and how many do you wish you had? Maybe people could send me photos off-list of their backplane set-ups so I can see what people are doing! Dave ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] SGC's and availability? (was Re: Gold card battery...)
Yeah, a SGC would be a nice item to have. There was one up on ebay some weeks back and the winning bid was a ridiculous amount of money. Something along the lines of 200 GBP if I recall correctly. I like the idea of a ql network interface on a PC, especially if there was QemuLator support for it... /Petri On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 9:20 PM, Mark Martin storycraf...@gmail.com wrote: It seems like, from reading the previous thread, that quite a few folks out there have GC's and SGC's. Q40's and Q60's as well. Is anyone selling a SGC by chance? Or a Q40/Q60? Also, on an unrelated note, I've been trying to find details on the QL network (QLAN) interface -- I was thinking about building an interface from one of my other computers to transfer files to/from. Does anyone have any detailed schematics or protocol specifications they could share? Has anyone made anything in this regard already? Thanks, Mark ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] USBWiz Driver Update
Hi Adrian, if this would work on a standard QL I would very interested in a commercial product. Best regards, Petri On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 8:13 PM, Adrian Ives adr...@acanthis.co.uk wrote: So, my question is this: Is anyone actually interested in me devoting more time to finish this project? If (and it is still an if) the driver can be brought to a release-stable state, is there interest in a commercial product based around this? ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] GWASL and LIB instruction?
Thank you, Norman, much appreciated! I guess I need to start subscribing to QL Today... It suddenly makes perfect sense :) I guess I can edit the SYM file to only export the labels I want to expose to other modules to hide internal-use-only labels? Best regards, Petri On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 10:47 AM, Norman Dunbar nor...@dunbar-it.co.uk wrote: Morning Petri, Ummm how would I calculate an offset to a routine compiled inside this _BIN from the _ASM I'm copying it into? Include the SYM file created when the lib file was assembled. here is an example from a recent article on Easy PEasy (QL Today V15 issue 1): ; ; Pull in the Easy PEasy stuff next - code routines and sprites. ; in win1_ass_pe_peas_sym_lst lib win1_ass_pe_peas_bin in win1_ass_pe_csprc_sym_lst lib win1_ass_pe_csprc_bin The SYM file defines the offsets into the LIB'd file as offsets from the current location. 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 Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Air Traffic Control Sim
Hi Dave, being a private pilot and an ATC sim fan myself this is a very interesting project. Looks like a nice initial concept. Are you going to share the source code for this somewhere (github, sourceforge, ...) ? Maybe couple of different types of aircraft and related performace values. Would add nice flavour when you can't tell a Cessna to maintain a 2500 fpm climb ;) Or tell a LearJet to slow down to 80 on the final. Best of luck with the project and especially your recovery! Cheers, Petri On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 12:49 PM, Plastic plasticu...@gmail.com wrote: So, I have started on my ATC project. I thought I'd document here my struggles, learning, and how I did it. I'm hoping it'll engage other BASIC programmers in discussion, and maybe you (yes, YOU!) will help me if you can see me getting stuck. Please remember this is primarily an exercise in improving and restoring my mind after a bump on the noggin. I'm fighting against some short term memory problems. I'm using the Mac version 1.0 of Q-Emulator, and SuperBASIC on JS ROMS with TK2. I'm writing it to run at standard QL speeds, and to run at a consistent speed on faster hardware. So far, I have written out a table of some of the variables I need, and their valid ranges, and how I will auto-generate pseudo-random flight numbers, altitudes and speeds for various aircraft profiles. Next, I will work out a co-ordinate base for a local airport. I have chosen Bergstrom because it is local to me, and I know where all the beacons and VORs are. I have decided that there are hard bits (it's a technical term) in this project for me (I know to some of you, these will be trivial, but to me, the solution isn't obvious): 1. I'll be keeping the aircraft, their altitude, speed, direction, intended alt, speed and direction, etc, in a large DIMmed array that can hold 10 aircraft. Landed or departed aircraft will be removed from the array and any newer aircraft will be scrolled up one spot. Like in real life, the oldest aircraft is always at the top of the stack. There will be inbound and outbound aircraft. Inbound aircraft will be announced and placed at the edge of the screen, and outbound aircraft will originate from the runway when given flight instructions and clearance to take off. The aircraft must always maintain separation of 1000 feet altitude and 3 miles horizontally. Checking all the aircraft against each other to see if any violate airspace of others, or have collided, might be hard to code. 2. I need to write a command parser to accept input from the user, namely instruction for flights. There is a standard way of doing this and I will follow this. This means I need to accept input and add it to a stack, then when it is entered I need to parse it to ensure valid, rational input. Once I know it is within bounds, I need to carry out the action, i.e. instruct the aircraft to follow the instruction. 3. I need to write routines for landing aircraft. Once instructed to land, I need to detect when they cross the glide-slope, and get them to follow it to landing, land, then remove themselves from the stack. 4. I need to write a ticker... No matter the speed of the hardware, the game should run at the same speed. This means events should be triggered at an interval, complete (even on the slowest hardware) before the next interval. This interval should ideally be 1 second, but could be 2 seconds. Despite the ticker, the input routines need to continue unaffected. Responsiveness of keyboard input is essential. 5. I need to plot this on a 512x256 screen. I can't let flights go off the edge of the screen. 6. I need to detect valid landings of arrivals and proper exits of departures. 7. I'd like to add an element of realism where planes, including departures, can declare emergencies. Well, those are the hard bits I can see up front. I can foresee earning a little money next week, so maybe a compiler will be in my future? I'd prefer an easy compiler over a good compiler. I would also love to have an external USB floppy so I could save my stuff somewhere other than my OS X HD... Maybe later... In the mean time, I'll work on this and keep sharing. Hopefully it'll work out. Dave ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] OT - News clip - free Wi-Fi hotspots
On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 1:11 PM, Rich Mellor r...@rwapservices.co.uk wrote: I am lucky to get 2GB download speeds, so if someone else was using that, and it halved to 1GB that would be very noticeable! Holy smoke, Rich! I thought my 100 Mbps drop to the house is fast ;) /Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] GWASL and LIB instruction?
Good evening everybody, what is the correct way to use the LIB instruction with GWASL (the lite assembler) ? From gwasl_text in the zip archive: LIBfilename This copies the (binary) file filename to the _BIN file. Ummm how would I calculate an offset to a routine compiled inside this _BIN from the _ASM I'm copying it into? I would like to break down my project into several _ASM files and compile these separately into _BIN files and then create a main _BIN that includes the other ones and orchestrates. Or would it be a better idea to ditch GWASL and go for as68 from the c68 package? Many thanks in advance for any advice. Best regards, Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL SD/MMC-Card interface survey
--- On Mon, 17/1/11, Peter pg...@q40.de wrote: To those who prefer option D: * How important would it be to keep an original microdrive functional? I would very much like to have one functional microdrive. * How important would be speed? Not important for me. But would be *very* nice to have something that works without GC/SGC on the original machine. Cheers, Petri ___ 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, very interesting idea. I think someone on this thread said it well that anything is better than nothing but to me option D) sounds most compelling. Best regards, Petri On Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 1:15 PM, Peter pg...@q40.de wrote: Hi all, what would be your favorite style for an SD/MMC card harddisk for the QL? I can _not_ promise to really make a piece of hardware available, but it would be nice to know, just in case... A) External interface, plugs into parallel port of SuperGoldCard Pro: - Interface also works on Q40 and Q60 - QL Case doesn't need to be openened - Easy reconnect from one machine to another - Hot-plugging might work - ROM-Port remains usable Con: - Slow data transfer through parallel port handshake lines B) External interface, plugs into QL ROM port Pro: - QL Case doesn't need to be openened - Faster data transfer - Onboard Driver ROM - Works on QL without GoldCard / SuperGoldCard Con: - ROM-Port occupied - Complex hardware C) Internal interface, plugs into CPU socket Pro: - Fastest data transfer - ROM-Port remains usable Con: - QL Case needs to be openened - Only GoldCard/SuperGoldCard machines 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 Pro: - SD/MMC-card can be plugged in like a cartridge - Looks cool - Very QL-style - ROM-Port remains usable Con: - QL Case needs to be openened All the best, Peter ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] TCP_ and SCK_ driver documentation?
On Tue, Dec 21, 2010 at 1:43 AM, Peter Graf pg...@q40.de wrote: I would proably use cheaps EEPROM with registered MAC from Maxim oder Dallas to obtain unique addresses. This was a great tip, thank you Peter! For a hobby project, registering an OUI is prohibitively expensive but a 0.50 euro ID chip with a manufacturer-registered MAC address is a nice solution. Best regards, Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] TCP_ and SCK_ driver documentation?
HI Anton, thank you for your kind words. If I actually get this to work then it will be all open source / open design so anybody can build one :) Cheers, Petri On Sun, Dec 19, 2010 at 1:23 PM, Anton Preinsack a.preins...@preinsackfilm.com wrote: Hi Petri, interesting project, please keep us informed. I would definitely buy such an ethernet card! Anton Am 18.12.2010 um 16:13 schrieb Petri Pellinen: Hello everyone, as part of my quest to create an ethernet card for the original QL I'm looking at the existing TCP implementations to get ideas about the interface to the devive driver. Looking at QemuLator's release notes ( http://terdina.net/ql/VersionHistory.html ) I see a mention of QDOS tcp_ and sck_ device drivers. Are these documented anywhere? In case anyone is interested I have a working prototype board based on the wiznet 5300 chip. Before refining the hardware implementation further I want to take a look at the software side. Fortunately, the W3500 has a rather simple (but powerful) programming model so the device driver implementation looks fairly straightforward. On a related note, does the JS ROM contain a machine-specific unique identifier somewhere? Would be helpful for MAC address generation. Thanks in advance for any help/pointers! Best regards, Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] TCP_ and SCK_ driver documentation?
Hi Peter, the plan was to use locally administered MAC address space (bit 2 of the first octet set to 1) which can be assigned by a local network administrator. But maybe this is not the case? Cheers, Petri On Mon, Dec 20, 2010 at 7:03 PM, Peter pg...@q40.de wrote: Petri Pellinen wrote: On a related note, does the JS ROM contain a machine-specific unique identifier somewhere? Would be helpful for MAC address generation. To roll your own address might not be a good idea. For each Ethernet MAC, the address has to be unique worldwide, and should therefore be registered. If I remember correctly, the IEEE charges a one-time fee of more than $1500 to provide address space. So you probably want to look for a chip where the manufacturer has already done the registration and provides the MAC address for you. I use the CP2200 for this reason. And external network cards for the Q40/Q60. All the best, Peter ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] TCP_ and SCK_ driver documentation?
Hello everyone, as part of my quest to create an ethernet card for the original QL I'm looking at the existing TCP implementations to get ideas about the interface to the devive driver. Looking at QemuLator's release notes ( http://terdina.net/ql/VersionHistory.html ) I see a mention of QDOS tcp_ and sck_ device drivers. Are these documented anywhere? In case anyone is interested I have a working prototype board based on the wiznet 5300 chip. Before refining the hardware implementation further I want to take a look at the software side. Fortunately, the W3500 has a rather simple (but powerful) programming model so the device driver implementation looks fairly straightforward. On a related note, does the JS ROM contain a machine-specific unique identifier somewhere? Would be helpful for MAC address generation. Thanks in advance for any help/pointers! Best regards, Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] TCP_ and SCK_ driver documentation?
Thank you Marcel! /Petri On Sat, Dec 18, 2010 at 5:35 PM, Marcel Kilgus ql-us...@mail.kilgus.net wrote: Petri Pellinen wrote: Looking at QemuLator's release notes ( http://terdina.net/ql/VersionHistory.html ) I see a mention of QDOS tcp_ and sck_ device drivers. Are these documented anywhere? http://www.kilgus.net/qpc/socket_toc.html First implementation was in uQLx source code, which is freely available. On a related note, does the JS ROM contain a machine-specific unique identifier somewhere? Would be helpful for MAC address generation. No. Marcel ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] C68 from 1994?
Hi Peter, did you try emailing Dave Walker directly and asking for the older binaries? He was extremely helpful when I had a question about a compiler option. All the best, Petri On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 2:02 PM, Peter Graf pg...@q40.de wrote: Hi again, does someone still have C68 binaries and libs from around 1994? A private email with ZIP-file(s) would be great. ... or better: Does someone still have the PDQ C compiler? Thanks, Peter ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Peripheral of the day
On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 3:14 PM, Tony Firshman t...@firshman.co.uk wrote: Norman Dunbar wrote, on 27/Oct/10 13:03 | Oct27: On 27/10/10 10:59, Tony Firshman wrote: http://uk.farnell.com/multicomp/mc-nove/board-atmega328-arduino-duemilanove/dp/1813412 Not a bad price! I got mine and a starter kit for about £50 all in. I always wanted a breadboard when I was younger and playing with electronics, couldn't ever afford one back then. The Arduino stuff is amazing, I really can't wait to start playing with those. I share Norman's history with breadboarding: always wanted to do it but first couldn't afford it and then didn't have the time. superHermes looked very like Petri's for a long time. Considering how critical and fast the main data link to the QL was, it was quite amazing it worked at all. It's actually very comforting to hear that comment about superHermes! So I'm not the only person fooling around with a jumble of jumper wires before committing to PCB:s. I also was concerned about the relatively high clock speed on the QL expansion bus when connected to the breadboard but quite a few people on various discussion forums seemed to agree that a breadboard should be able to handle approximately 10 MHz before the capacitive effects of the rails on the breadboard start to kick in. /Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] Peripheral of the day
Hello everyone, just to lighten the mood here with all the talk about doing the taxes and so forth... I thought to amuse you with something totally ridiculous. Here's a pic of of a prototype of a wonderful new peripheral for the QL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/petrip/5118906714/ And yes, it actually does something. This bad boy can display a byte decoded as BCD on its glorious two digit LED display: http://www.flickr.com/photos/petrip/5118293873/ Showing the result of poke 99072,66 :-D Learning electronics with the QL is loads of fun. There was a *lot* to learn for a software guy just to be able to do this one simple thing in hardware. Now that the hard part of interfacing with the QL is halfway there (no reads yet, just writes...) rest of the way to a fully working ethernet adapter should be easy ;-) Really looking forward to replacing pretty much all of the 74xx logic circuitry with a single Xilinx CPLD and starting to work towards hooking this baby to an Arduino microcontroller. Next week's agenda is building a JTAG adapter for the Xilinx chip so that I can program it. Whoops, need to learn Verilog first. Well, that's part of the fun :) Cheers, Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Peripheral of the day
On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 12:44 AM, Tony Firshman t...@firshman.co.uk wrote: I am *sure* you know the significance of '42' - the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything. Well I had to think of a number for the demo, didn't I ;) Douglas Adams was approached by a student who said he had found out the logic behind it. 42 in base 13 *is* 54 in decimal. What a coincidence said Douglas Adams Hah, hadn't heard that one before! Good one, Tony. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] Cumana disk interface pinout?
Hello everyone, I received my shiny 23 year old Cumana disk interface for the QL yesterday and am now trying to wire it up to a 'modern' 3.5 pc floppy drive... So far, the results have been mediocre at best. I have QDOS-formatted a DD floppy on the Q-emuLator but when I hook up the drive to the Cumana interface on the QL I can't read or format the floppy disk. The drive is obviously selected when I do a dir flp2_ (or dir flp3_ depending on whether I use untwisted or twisted slot on the cable) because the indicator light in the front panel goes on but I get a not found error when doing a dir and format failed when trying a format. I did a bit of research on the pinouts and it seems that the standard shugart interface is anything but standard, There seem to be quite a few variations of the signal assignments in the machines of the eighties. One interesting article by a fellow Finn is over here: http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/diskstepper.html On Dilwyn's site there is a Cumana manual which does not document the pinout on the i/f card and a Generic disk interface manual which does have a pinout diagram. The interesting bit in this diagram is pin 16 which is listed as load head whereas on the pc floppy drives pin 16 is used for Motor on B. Even more interestingly, the generic pinout diagram does *not* have a motor on pin at all ! Does anyone know if the pinout in the generic document also applies for the Cumana interface and whether pin 16 really is load head on the QL? If this is indeed the case and there is no separate motor on signal on the QL interface then I guess I need to do a bit of wiring to enable motor on when I get a drive select signal. Best regards, Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Cumana disk interface pinout?
Thanks Tony You are right in assuming modern drives are seen as flp2_. It may have a DS jumper somewhere if you want flp1_. These now are generally solder jumpers on the pcb, but it may have external links. One of my three drives does have the solder pad to change the setting but I would be perfectly happy with a flp2_ :) Maybe the interface is simply not working or (more likely) does not like the drive. It also is worth trying with an old drive - I bet London Quanta have some, but maybe you are in Italy! I tested with three quite recent drives and none of them worked properly in either slot so it might very well be the case that the i/f card doesn't like the drives. I guess I'll have to try to find an older drive somewhere or sort out the pin assignment and see if there is something that can be done on that front. The Cumana manual does offer this bit of information which may or may not be relevant with the new floppy drives but I'm not yet sure what the implication is: It is a requirement that disk drives used with this version of the disk driver should be set to have the motor on when provided with a 'motor on' signal and there is a disk in the drive. Drives which turn the motor off when the drive is not selected will not give reliable service. The above paragraph is the reason why I would be interested to know which pin on the Cumana i/f provides the motor on signal :) I'll see if I can plug in a multimeter to see what happens on the pins when the card accesses the drive. Cheers, Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL to VGA, Ethernet
Hi Peter, thanks for sharing your experiences, very interesting stuff. There also seems to be an ethernet shield or a daughterboard module for the Arduino microcontroller platform which is based around the Wiznet W5100 chip which Miguel mentioned. This combination would be an interesting prototyping environment since it has all the ethernet circuitry and a TCP stack out of the box. The only real integration to the QL would be the bus interface electronics between the QL expansion slot and the arduino board, a bit of microcontroller s/w for the QL side, and the card driver which would be a fairly straighforward bit pushing engine because all of the configuration and h/w control is done on the microcontroller. It's going to be very interesting to try out, there is still a lot to do but it should be good fun :) Cheers, Petri On Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 5:03 PM, Peter pg...@q40.de wrote: Hi Petri, thanks for sharing your experience with the GBS-8220 video converter. I have ordered it myself now. The vertical jitter seems common to all external converter solutions I have seen or heard of. To overcome that problem we'd probably need a QL specific development. A few remarks regarding ethernet: If you go for a solution without Microcontroller, I would not recommend the Microchip ENC28J60, but the Silabs CP2200, which has less power consumption, and seemed easier and more robust to implement from both driver and hardware side. I tested both, but this info is about three years old, so there might be even better chips by now. Before you put much work into the hardware, try to make sure what your goal is on the software side. Eight(?) years ago I implemented a full multitasking native TCP/IP stack for the QL and ran it on Q40/Q60 with NE2000-compatible chip. This software called QLwIP (derived from lwIP, other free software, plus self-written code) provided a full-featured sockets library which contained enough functionality to actually run native email, webbrowser, webserver etc. I proved that the above applications worked in real life, but I did not finish and release my work because of licensing issues that prevented me from adding that (open source) code to the (proprietary) operating system SMSQ/E. For a long time I waited for a Minerva port to the Q40/Q60 so I could complete the job, in vain. Adding support for the CP2200 IOT support the old QL would be small in comparison to the overall work already done. Nowadays I doubt how much of the knowledge I still have left. So many years - and I get older :-) Also I doubt wether I still have the time. So my work is not totally lost, I considered a QLwIP release with QDOS Classic, but that's a dead end and has severe disadvantages compared with Minerva. One of them is, that QDOS Classic doesn't run on the QL. I conclusion, your approach to run the TCP/IP stack on an external microcontroller which then allows a simple, stream-oriented approach on the QL side, seems much more realistic than the ones which involve a native TCP/IP stack. It might not be very stylish to run the stack outside the QL, but still better than having nothing. All the best Peter ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Cumana disk interface pinout?
On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 2:09 PM, Tony Firshman t...@firshman.co.uk wrote: I reckon you would be *far* better off if you could find a Gold Card or SuperGoldCard. They were much superior, with faster processor and added ram. Yeah, I know... On the other hand, I'm looking at this as a retrocomputing hobby and part of the fun is just messing around with the original hardware. The disk interface would really just be a convenience. At some point in time I might be tempted to obtain a second QL and go crazy with all the mods and expansions including some variant of the gold card :) Tony /Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Cumana disk interface pinout?
Thanks, I actually had some 720k disks from way back so didn't have to use the tape trick. I salvaged yet another floppy drive from one of the old carcasses at the office and this one actually works! It seems that the cumana interface is very finicky about the kind of drive it talks to (which is totally understandable for a board from the 80's). So it seems that pin 16 indeed is motor on on the cumana interface and the problem was not the pinout. I don't know what the moral of the story is but I'm a happy floppy-drive using qler :) Thanks to everyone for tips and suggestions! Best regards, Petri On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 8:52 PM, Al Feng alf...@juno.com wrote: FWIW. I think that you will probably be able to FORMAT the 3.5 disk via the Cumana interface if you _cover_ the indexing hole and thereby ensure that the dumb device isn't confused when it tries to format the HD disk as a 720K disk ... On Tue, 5 Oct 2010 10:52:05 +0300 Petri Pellinen p...@iki.fi writes: Hello everyone, I received my shiny 23 year old Cumana disk interface for the QL yesterday and am now trying to wire it up to a 'modern' 3.5 pc floppy drive... So far, the results have been mediocre at best. I have QDOS-formatted a DD floppy on the Q-emuLator but when I hook up the drive to the Cumana interface on the QL I can't read or format the floppy disk. The drive is obviously selected when I do a dir flp2_ (or dir flp3_ depending on whether I use untwisted or twisted slot on the cable) because the indicator light in the front panel goes on but I get a not found error when doing a dir and format failed when trying a format. I did a bit of research on the pinouts and it seems that the standard shugart interface is anything but standard, There seem to be quite a few variations of the signal assignments in the machines of the eighties. One interesting article by a fellow Finn is over here: http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/diskstepper.html On Dilwyn's site there is a Cumana manual which does not document the pinout on the i/f card and a Generic disk interface manual which does have a pinout diagram. The interesting bit in this diagram is pin 16 which is listed as load head whereas on the pc floppy drives pin 16 is used for Motor on B. Even more interestingly, the generic pinout diagram does *not* have a motor on pin at all ! Does anyone know if the pinout in the generic document also applies for the Cumana interface and whether pin 16 really is load head on the QL? If this is indeed the case and there is no separate motor on signal on the QL interface then I guess I need to do a bit of wiring to enable motor on when I get a drive select signal. Best regards, Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm Mortgage Rates Hit 3.25% If you owe under $729k you probably qualify for Gov't Refi Programs http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4cab66385feaa1f559m07vuc ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL Today Volume 15 Issue 1
On Mon, Oct 4, 2010 at 7:39 PM, Jochen Merz jm...@j-m-s.com wrote: Hard to deliver to the UK by WALKING ONLY ... There's a tunnel nowadays ;) Which means that since we drive on on the wrong side of the road here on the continent we should probably soon switch to the left :D /Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Ethernet adapter for QL ?
Nasta, thank you for taking the time to write this - wonderful information! On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 3:09 AM, Z N zeljko.nasta...@zg.htnet.hr wrote: Maximum data throughput on 10Base ethernet approaches about 800-900k bytes/second. Well, the good thing is that it takes around 0.1s to fill up the main memory of the original hardware at this speed :) Anyway, seriously speaking - what I really had in mind is a replacement for the PPP over serial connection setup which I currently run. Main use for me would be non-throughput intensive applications like a small web server, web clients and interactive applications like telnet. less than half if it's done by an ordinary 68008 CPU. Unless a very simple communication protocol was adopted, the ethernet would run quite slow and while doing that, bog down the CPU considerably. I agree, that's why I thought a microcontroller based board would be optimal, essentially hooking up a more powerful cpu to do the heavy lifting and leave a very thin driver layer on the ql side. This guy has a nice writeup which might serve as one possible starting point: http://www.tuxgraphics.org/electronics/200606/article06061.shtml that a packet has been sent or received. Here we get back to the inadequacies of the ROM port - no interrupt line. There is one on the expansion port Based on all the information from you and Miguel the expansion port definitely looks like the way to go. DSMCL can over-ride any decoding internal to the QL, on ANY address. This was really interesting stuff that defnitely was not in the documents I found so far. which are actually used by the software to access these registers - if I recall correctly, it's 64 bytes at the very beginning, starting from address 18000. The Sinclair QDOS companion seems to agree with you :) However, the choice of address is not straight-forward. Hardware like the TC, GC, SGC use some addresses in this area to decode their own on-board hardware. Unfortunately I do not recall off the top of my head exactly which ones but something about the top 256 bytes rings a bell. Hopefully someone has the details on the addresses in use by those. 3) Mimic the OS initialization scheme using the initialization data normally found at the beginning of a (presumed) ROM in the ROM slot. It may be possible to do this by manipulating register values passed in the initialization of the external interface, but I would not recommend it as the init code is different in various OS versions - besides, what the OS does on init is quite well documented and not too difficult to emulate, so better keep things clean and compatible. There seems to be a writeup on this in The Sinclair QDOS Companion. Don't know if the procedure outlined there still applies with the newer ROMs, etc. Done! With your instructions, easy as pie :) Cheers, Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] Ethernet adapter for QL ?
Hello, hopefully everybody is having a great weekend. Might be a FAQ, but... has anyone developed an ethernet adapter for the original QL either as a commercial product or a hobby project? I am studying if it would be feasible to use the EPROM slot and create a module with something like Microchip ENC28J60 Ethernet controller and a microcontroller e.g. the ATmega168 to interface with a device driver on the QL side. I have essentially zero experience in building any kind of hardware interfaces but I think it would be a great hobby :) Best regards, Petri ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Ethernet adapter for QL ?
Hi Dilwyn, the bit about the EPROM slot being read-only is very interesting. The documentation in the technical guide and service manual are a bit vague around this subject but I didn't realize that the data lines on the connector would be one-way. The block diagram suggests that the slot's data lines would be one-way but the circuit diagram shows both the J1 and J2 slots' data lines directly connected to the CPU which would lead one to believe that the data lines would be two-way active on the ROM connector. My initial assumption was that a manner of memory mapped I/O would be possible through the slot. If someone has any h/w designs lying around I would be happy to colllaborate and pitch in on the dreaded driver side of things. I can definitely see why the Qx0 platform is interesting to a wide audience but, bitten by the retrocomputing bug, I would love to implement something on the original hardware. Being a S/W engineer by profession I'm very much in the dark about the whole microelectronics side of things so I have no idea whether this whole project is at all feasible but it's an interesting subject, nonetheless :) Cheers, Petri On Sun, Sep 26, 2010 at 7:00 PM, Dilwyn Jones dil...@evans1511.fsnet.co.uk wrote: - Original Message - From: Petri Pellinen p...@iki.fi To: ql-users ql-us...@q-v-d.com Sent: Sunday, September 26, 2010 4:42 PM Subject: [Ql-Users] Ethernet adapter for QL ? Hello, hopefully everybody is having a great weekend. Might be a FAQ, but... has anyone developed an ethernet adapter for the original QL either as a commercial product or a hobby project? I am studying if it would be feasible to use the EPROM slot and create a module with something like Microchip ENC28J60 Ethernet controller and a microcontroller e.g. the ATmega168 to interface with a device driver on the QL side. I have essentially zero experience in building any kind of hardware interfaces but I think it would be a great hobby :) Best regards, Petri If using the EPROM slot, you need to bear in mind that this slot is read-only - it is designed just for EPROMs to plug in. That said, people like Miracle Systems (and others) have used it as a write interface by using a special technique like a double read - the first read is an address (to write to) and the second read puts data on the address line somehow. I don't pretend to even half understand it, but I'm sure there are others on this list with more knowledge of the QL hardware than me. Do bear in mind that some QL add-on interfaces like Trumpcard use pretty much all available addressing space to provide more than the original design limit of 640K RAM. I think Nasta (Zeljko Nastasic in Croatia) once proposed a QL ethernet interface, and I think Peter Graf once suggested the possibilities of such an interface for Q40/Q60. Dare I mention the dreaded word... drivers ? This is where so many proposed hardware add-ons have fallen down over the years. Dilwyn Jones ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Ethernet adapter for QL ?
Excellent writeup, thanks Miguel! Your explanation does make it very clear why it is a read-only port :) I was guessing the double read mechanism would be something like you outlined below. It's actually a very clever trick. If you want help with the software side of things I'll be glad to help where I can. I don't have tons of 68k Asm experience but have written some stuff on it. Best regards, Petri On Sun, Sep 26, 2010 at 9:27 PM, Miguel Angel Rodriguez Jodar miguel.an...@zxprojects.com wrote: El 26/09/2010 19:40, Petri Pellinen escribió: Hi Dilwyn, on the ROM connector. My initial assumption was that a manner of memory mapped I/O would be possible through the slot. Of course, but you mast take into account that: - The ROMOEH signal goes active only with read bus cycles, not write cycles. - There's no R/W signal on the ROM expansion connector (although it would be possible to wire that signal on one of the unused pads). If you would decide to forget about the ROMOEH to perform true writes, you would find that there's no AS or DS signals available too, so you would only rely on the value of address lines to know when your device is being addressed. Besides, there's no way to signal the end of the bus cycle, as DTACK is not available too. So there's no way (AFAIK) a card plugged into the ROM expansion would know when a write bus cycle is about to happen. This is because odd techniques must be applied to perform a write using reads. One of them is, as explained, to reserve a region of the ROM address space (0C000-0) which will hold your device hardware registers. That region cannot be the last 512 bytes, i.e. 0FE00 - 0, because that region will be reserved for our write scheme. Let's assume you will need at most 256 hardware registers for your device (surely you will need far less than this). Let's say you want to put a value dd (8 bits) into the register numbered aa (8 bits). You first make a read bus cycle from address FEaa (and discard the result). Your device captures the LSB of that address from the CPU address lines and store it in an internal 8 bit address latch. Then, you make a read from address FFdd (and again, discard the result). Your device will take the LSB of the CPU address (actually the data you're going to write) and will write it into the device register pointed by the address register. Something like (not sure if this is correct assembly for 68000): move.l #$FEaa,a0 ; Where aa is the register number we want to write into. move.b (a0),d0 ; Discard the result in D0. move.l #$FFdd,a0 ; Where dd is the 8-bit value we want to write move.b (a0),d0 ; Discard the result in D0. ; Value dd has been writeen into register aa. For normal reads, we'd just use a standard approach. Let's say your hardware registers are mapped into addresses 0FD00-0FDFF . So, this will do the job: move.l #$FDaa,a0 ; We are going to read from register aa move.b (a0),d0 ; Read it and store the result in D0. If someone has any h/w designs lying around I would be happy to colllaborate and pitch in on the dreaded driver side of things. I can I've some ideas but I lack experience on writting 68k assembler and writting directory drivers. I've just bought the Advanced QL User Guide, and hope to have enough time to read it carefully and start making experiments. but, bitten by the retrocomputing bug, I would love to implement something on the original hardware. I have three original QL's, and no modern QL's, so if I do something, it will be for the original hardware. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Connecting a QL to a VGA Monitor
Hi everyone, thanks to Miguel's example I ordered a GBS-8220 rgb converter from jammaboards.com. I received the unit yesterday ten days after ordering and managed to build a cable and try it out. 512x256 works fine. Unfortunately my Samsung display has a 1280x1024 native resolution with no letterboxing available so the picture is not as perfect as it could be. The converter board's closest resolution match is 1024x768. Overall image quality is fair. There seems to be some vertical jitter every now and then but it could be either the cable (not premium and a very average soldering job...) or my QL which does not display a rock solid picture through SCART to a tv. My first impression is that the board is well worth the 39 USD it cost. The automatic scan worked perfectly once I figured out to connect composite, not vertical, sync from the QL to the sync input on the RGBS connector :) The occasional jitter does not bother me too much, the overall experience is still better than on the TV since I'm able to use 512x256. With a monitor that supports letterboxing the experience might be slightly better. I'm using an original QL with no extensions running a JS ROM. Cheers, Petri On Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 4:05 PM, Miguel Angel Rodriguez Jodar miguel.an...@zxprojects.com wrote: El 15/09/2010 14:17, Peter escribió: Miguel Angel Rodriguez Jodar wrote: On the other way, I've managed to work it out using a RGB-to-VGA converter, as used for connecting JAMMA boards to VGA monitors. Did you have to use the QL in TV mode or did full 512x256 work? Mmmm... I cannot remember... will try again this weekend, and will tell you. Which QL did you use? A standard QL, english keyboard, Minerva 1.98. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Supercharge
Thanks for the information, Dilwyn! Best regards, Petri On Fri, Sep 17, 2010 at 12:31 AM, Dilwyn Jones dil...@evans1511.fsnet.co.uk wrote: does anyone happen to have a copy of the Supercharge compiler? I have the original but it seems that 24 years have not treated the microdrive cartridges kindly. Both the original and the backup come up with bad or changed medium :( Best regards, Petri Supercharge was superceded by a compiler called Turbo, from the same publisher. However, after all these years, Turbo compiler is now freeware and maintained by George Gwilt - download Turbo, the toolkit, and manuals from http://www.jms1.supanet.com/SQLUG/gwilt/gwiltturbo.htm Dilwyn Jones ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] For your information: C68 documentation bug related to _Cinit
Hi everyone, the C68 compiler for QDOS is the bee's knees and I love it. I stumbled into a minor problem with it the other day and I thought to post this just in case someone else happens to run into it also. C68 compiler documentation mentions that it is possible to reduce binary size by about 12k if one doesn't need things like environment variables, command line parameters, etc. The documented way of achieving this is to declare the following at global scope: (*_Cinit)() = main; Well, since I'm targeting the original QL and want to squeeze out every kb possible I gave this a go and ended up with illegal instruction trap every time... I contacted Dave Walker who is one of the authors and he was extremely kind and helpful and took a look. It seems that this is a documentation bug. The correct vector to override is actually _Cstart: (*_Cstart)() = main; does the trick. Best regards, Petri A more detailed explanation from Dave below: == What I found is that your problem is actually a mistake in the documentation. The vector that is meant to be initialised to point to main() is the _Cstart one and not _Cinit as the documentation says. After making that change your program works as expected. I think that the reason for the confusion is that if you do not explicitly provide a value for the _Cstart vector, then the default for the _CStart vector is to point to the _Cinit label (which is the beginning of the code that carries out the initialisation of the full C environment - exactly the code you are trying to omit!). ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Ql-Users Digest, Vol 79, Issue 9
Thanks for the pointers, Dilwyn. And by the way, your web site is absolutely marvellous, a treasure trove of information! I think I will try the SCART connection just to see if I get a better picture and also to see if the picture changes when the QL warms up. I must say, 25 years ago I couldn't appreciate how advanced QDOS was for the time (multitasking, pipes etc). Then again, the local computer stores over here didn't carry the necessary books to learn all of that stuff and ordering them from abroad was a nightmare so it was next to impossible to find out about the inner workings of the machine. Last week, I managed to purchase a copy of The Sinclar QDOS companion - I wish I had had that book all those years back :) Thanks, Petri On Sun, Sep 12, 2010 at 1:01 PM, Dilwyn Jones dil...@evans1511.fsnet.co.uk wrote: I'm currently using the RF output but I ordered a converter board from Jammaboards to be able to hook the RGB output to a VGA monitor so that should help isolate the problem. Well, actually I won't be needing the TV output anymore if the converter board works as advertised but it would be nice to be able to fix the problem anyway. Petri Does your television have a SCART/Peritel connector? While you wait for the RGB converter board and take time to experiment with it, you might be able to get a slightly better picture via the SCART/Peritel connection to the television if you have suitable plugs (QL 8-pin DIN plug and a Peritel or SCART connector for the TV) There's an article about how to do this on my website at: http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/docs/hardware/index.html Tony Firshman (TF Services) has in the past supplied me with a ready-made suitable lead for the QL. I forget the price, although I think it was about 10 or 12 pounds plus our Value Added Tax (VAT). For me, anyway, this type of connection didn't give as good a picture as a proper monitor connection, but it was better than the RF picture. There is also the possibility of getting a second-user QL monitor. Microvitec in England have some refurbished QL monitors, according to a member of this list in March this year - the contact email address given was sales AT microvitec DOT co DOT uk . They have TTL-compatible LCD displays, though these cost a thousand pounds or more, and also have some of their old QL monitors. And I guess that both eBay and Rich Mellor's Sell My Retro sites might have QL monitors from time to time too. Dilwyn Jones ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
