Re: [Ql-Users] Stella
Nothing is happening with Stella. First this document was not intended for publication. Thierry Godefroy insisted to do it. Then in fact Stella is a concept for a range of operating systems. Tony kept telling me that it would be more efficient to develop hardware first and then dedicated OSes rather than try to port monster OSes to different devices. Let us find a billionaire who would like a real "smart" phone and who could pay for 10 good programmers during a year, and then Stella could become something. I have also come to the conclusion that not only money but also language is a major brake to evolution. Google "Performance Impact of Lock-Free Algorithms on Multicore Communication APIs" and try to read it. This paper more or less comes to the same conclusions as Tony and a few others. And then the authors conclude that existing systems should be patched... But where are the "managers" who can understand this jargon? I think that they do not exist. Arnould On Wed, 22 Mar 2017 10:13:42 -0500, Dave Park wrote > Tony > > So, what *IS* happening with Stella? > > With quiet deference, not personally knowing your policy on > sacrifices, > > Dave > > On Wed, Mar 22, 2017 at 2:18 AM, Urs Koenig (QL) > <q...@bluewin.ch> wrote: > > > Tony Tebby wrote: > > > 5) The only real barrier is ignorance. The story of Android is > > illustrative. If, in > > > 2005, Google had known that they could have developed an entirely new > > > operating system and had it up and running sooner than trying to kludge > > > something out of Linux, would they have bought Android Inc. for $50M? Of > > > course not, but they did not know. > > First, glad to read from you again! > > > > Having to deal with all kind of Windows and Linux systems in my > > professional > > life, I must say that the pain is not big enough for most people and the > > industry to rethink and restart. That's how human function, look at cars or > > electricity for example. Even with global warming and GAU's like Chernobyl > > and Fukushima rethinking and revolution are slow and with hurdles. > > > > Anyhow, I still spend approx. an hour a day to keep your legacy alive. The > > QL/E distribution - made with my limited skills and capabilities - is an > > offspring which is a handy thing to run, experience and show > > what-could-have-been. At least those 500+ completed downloads since April > > 2015 prove some interest is still there. > > > > http://sinclairql.net/repository.html#QLE > > > > Urs > > > > ___ > > QL-Users Mailing List > > > > -- > Dave Park > Sandy Labs > d...@sinclairql.com > ___ > QL-Users Mailing List ___ QL-Users Mailing List
[Ql-Users] QL
http://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20120601.gif Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Interesting uses for QL parts
I have said this before but Laurence Reeves was a master of this sort of programming. His QL Forth was under 4k of machine code I think. Tony Why was? Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Digital Precision Super Forth (+ Reversi)
If this can help, here is the command for ghostscript to merge pdf files (I use Ubuntu Linux, but I believe it also works in windows) gs -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -q -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sPAPERSIZE=a4 -sOutputFile=finished.pdf file1.pdf file2.pdf file3,pdf Even when I do not merge files, I always use it to reduce the size of the scanned files by a factor of about 4. Arnould On Mon, 13 Jun 2011 12:47:13 +0100, Neil Riley wrote Rich It would appear that the photocopier in work does rather more than just photocopy! it has the option to email as .pdf's also!! Four .pdf's should be sitting in your email inbox, did a quick trial run to my work email and that seemed to work. Fingers crossed. Neil ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Announcement about the future of Ser-USB
On Tue, 12 Apr 2011 16:18:53 +0100, Adrian Ives wrote Urs, File transfers to and from FAT format devices will still be possible using the File Manager, but a native QDOS driver will not now be supported. There is one massive limitation with the standard QL hardware that cannot be overcome anyway, and that's the fact that it can only support 4800 baud with one stop bit. This means that even when the driver is working it is so slow that transferring anything larger than a few small text files is a painful experience. Hans Peter Recktenwald was not happy with the QL's serial driver. He developped SIMSER and his code can be freely reused. Can be found on this site: http://morloch.hd.free.fr/smsq/ and a short description in english here (more detailed in german though): http://globalfilesearch.net/download.aspx?path=romeo-klive.nvg.ntnu.no/pub/sinclair/ql/utils/simser.zip Maybe it could be worth to test this with your Ser-USB driver? Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Announcement about the future of Ser-USB
On Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:11:27 +0100, Adrian Ives wrote Arnould, Thank you for this. The last time I looked at simser I couldn't find an English translation, and had other things to deal with, so I set it aside; but this helps a lot. I will take a look and see if it can be applied to this problem. Adrian And I just found that the zip file on Dilwyn's site also contains english information but in a doc file http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/utils/index.html Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Qemulator
On Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:23:47 +, Tony Firshman wrote copying exercise for Winchester Research Unit Another great QDOS feature I discovered which saved loads of time. I used: 5 CLS 10 FORMAT ram1_mdv1_ 15 WSTAT ram1_ 30 WCOPY ram1_ to flp2_f05_2_ 35 STAT flp2_ 40 ed 30 I did the ED 30 so I could edit for the next mdv. Now what I didn't expect was that after down arrow to save the line, when I pressed ESC there was another implicit RUN! OK 'RUNenter' isn't a load of typing by itself, but when one has maybe 350 microdrives it IS, especially as sometimes one has to run dozens of times to eventually read some files. Excellent! It really works. But is it by design or by chance? Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] Back on topic (was Re: Today Apple ...)
On Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:46:48 +0100, Anton Preinsack wrote Sad, but true. Another reason why the Q60 deserves a relaunch...;-) Anton Am 30.01.2010 um 22:26 schrieb de...@q40.de: The iSlate and Z88 do not run QL programs. So not relevant. Derek It is only yesterday with all this buzz on the ipad that I realized that Steve did it again! The iphone and now the ipad are not multitasking, here an extract from the SDK instructions: Only one iPhone application can run at a time, and third-party applications never run in the background. This means that when users switch to another application, answer the phone, or check their email, the application they were using quits. If interested also look at this link, where you will be informed that 76 MB of memory is a little bit low for multitasking: http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/03/13/iphone-20-sdk-the-no-multitasking-myth/ Why did I write Steve did it again? Because he already did it in 1984. They had the Lisa, there was Unix, but the systems that worked and sold en masse were not multitasking: they were the first MacOS and MS-DOS. However I am amazed that he did it again, and that he was right again. Again it is this non-multitasking system that works and sells better than Symbian (message passing multitasking) or Win-CE (posix like multiprocessing) systems. Why did I write Back on topic? Because I understood about 10 years ago that the multitasking QDOS/SMSQ-E is in fact a multitasking system (time sharing as TT would say) that, from the point of view of the user jobs and thus the point of view of the applications programmers, behaves more like a monotasking system than a multitasking system. And yet, as we all know, it multitasks very well. QDOS/SMS-E is now more than 25 years old, but is it still 25 years ahead of today's time? I think yes and I believe that this is why it never had and will not have a stable commercial niche in the foreseeable future. In fact it is clear that systems developers love the complexity of posix-like multiprocessing/multithreading environments: it is because it secures their workplace and their wages. And BTW I did not dream this, one of them, system programmer at ABB robotics, wrote exactly this to me. Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] ql-mac Lucerne show - the youth hostel
On Mon, 7 Sep 2009 15:38:50 +0100, Dilwyn Jones wrote Alternatively, try www.villamaria.ch (German only...Google translate has mixed results shall we say) If you try www.luzern.com that site will let you book online and list hotels by price etc, even giving you maps of Lucerne. Dilwyn In Switzerland hotels are terribly expensive. So are youth hostels, but then the prices are those of youth hostels, and they provide excellent quality. Moreover I have the experience of the youth hostel in Lucerne, I was there for 2 nights in the summer 2005 with my motorbike when there were catastrophic rains all over Switzerland, and it is not so bad a remembering as it could be. Google Jugendherberge Luzern or go to http://www.youthhostel.ch/ and everything is also explained in english. If I can come I think that I will stay there. Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Copying files from QL to PC
On Wed, 3 Jun 2009 16:52:47 +0200, Marcel Kilgus wrote aup...@dsl.pipex.com wrote: I think what's going on is that there's a combination of characters within the file body that is being interpreted as an EOF (ctrl-z). Yes, you can't transfer binary files this way as there is no way of knowing when the file ends. You'd have to abort the COPY command manually, but IIRC copy then discards the things it has written. copy mdv1_filename to ser1h on the QL side and type com1 filename on the PC side plus manually aborting using CTRL+C when the file is completely send might do the trick, I'm not sure. Alternatively if text transfer works reliably one could encode the binary files in base64, send it over the link and decode it on the other side. I've written some SBasic procedures to do this but there'd still be some more work needed for this. Marcel I did something like this in 1986/87 but only for pure ASCII text files. After the file was copied over, the PC still needed an end of file control code to understand what happened, CTRL+Z I think, wich had to be sent manually with something like: OPEN#3,SER1... PRINT#3,CODE(you will find the code of CTRL+Z) CLOSE#3 or with more modern systems you can use BPUT for example. Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Copying files from QL to PC
On Thu, 4 Jun 2009 11:07:08 +0200, Marcel Kilgus wrote Arnould wrote: I did something like this in 1986/87 but only for pure ASCII text files. After the file was copied over, the PC still needed an end of file control code to understand what happened, CTRL+Z I think, wich had to be sent manually with something like: That's what the z in ser1hz is for, no need to do it manually. Marcel Ah OK, mystery solved 20 years later... Thanks :) Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] hypertext query
I remember very well that there was an article somewhere in the QL literature (QL World? Quanta? Quasar?) about someone developing such a software eventually for sale later. It was well before internet hypertext and I was fascinated by the principle. But I think that this software never became commercial. I don't remember anything else though, like software title or author's name.. Arnould On Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:14:19 +0100, Dilwyn Jones wrote Dilwyn, a poke in a different direction , then: In the late eighties/early nineties, when C68 entered stage, there were attempts to port the TeX/LaTex typesetting system from Minix to QDOS. The term hypertext would certainly apply to this (but in a different sense), and it has references to a compiler as well. Whether the attempts ended up with working code, however, I do not recall. Regards Tobias Ah, thank you Tobias, this ties in with something else the correspondent mentioned. I'll pass on this message to Terry - I hope he finds this useful. I now remember correponding briefly with Ralf Rekoendt about the TeX system back then. Dilwyn Jones = Original message follows: Hi Dilwyn, Many thanks for the information from Timothy. The software I was talking about was in use about 10 years before the web appeared. The idea of Hypertext was in discussion from around 1965, long before the Mac's Hypercard. Many of us were using software that had 'Hypertext' in its name in the early 80s. I can date it because I was one of the earliest QL users and I was programming in it before the IBM PC came of the market. This software enable one to write books or documents (only for use on one computer) that had a clickthrough feature so that you could click through to learn more about something (like a wiki) or even make a jump to a different document. I remember it was written in C and I remember early discussion about the idea of object orientation at that time (a friend at Lancaster Uni had just written one of the early PhDs on object orientation based on ADA I think the only softwares to use OO at the time). The QL software I remember was very similar to the hypetext software called GUIDE (written at a uni in the south of England) and I'm waiting for my brain to come up with the author! Many thanks again from here in Australia, Best regards, Terry ___ 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] Hi Resolution Colour Graphics on a Standard QL?
On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:13:51 +0100, Rich Mellor wrote It is good to see that progress has continued and the sources now released for QL - Dithvide, which allows the standard QL to display high resolution colours - see http://omega.webnode.com/products/sinclair-ql-dithvide-2/ This should be supported - wonder if anyone would be interested in writing a game using these techniques? The sample pictures are good! I did not know that my old QL was able to display such screens! Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Cobra5329
But first, you'd have to have a full 68k emulation on the coldfire going - which is not an easy task in itsself. Regards Tobias I know. Here is what Marcel wrote into this list on 3. Dec. 2004 about converting the source code of SMSQ/E to Coldfire which has an instruction set that is a subset of the 68k instruction set as well as developing a 68K emulator for Coldfire. This came after a (very) long presentation by Nasta: Hm, it IS worse than I imagined. Marcel At this occasion we also had the very last comment by Tony Tebby into the list. Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Cobra5329
On Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:58:21 +0100, pgraf wrote Hi Derek, Just to save you time and money: All ideas to just buy an existing Coldfire board and get QL software run natively are bound to fail. All the best Peter Another path would be to try to adapt just SMSQ/E + SBasic + some other tools like C68 and Turbo and forget about QL compatibility, at least in the beginning of such a project. I wonder how many thousands of hours of work this would mean. Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Cobra5329
Yes Malcolm, We already know this, it was the subject of the (long) email of Nasta at beginning of Dec. 2004. The only difference: 3 years later there is a board with everything built in to tinker. It only lacks V4 core of the Coldfire. But this seems to be very annoying to say the least, as Nasta already had pointed out and Peter now confirms. Arnould On Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:14:28 +, Malcolm Lear wrote Hi Arnould This link is quite interesting. http://www.microapl.co.uk/Porting/ColdFire/ Malcolm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Cobra5329
No answer to this message neither to a couple of older ones. Did anybody receive one of them? Arnould On Sun, 24 Feb 2008 13:18:59 +0100, Arnould wrote I know that a little more than 3 years ago Nasta came to the conclusion to use V4 Coldfire to possibly port SMSQ/E. But then there is this interesting platform named Cobra5329 which could be bought today to tinker: http://www.sentec-elektronik.de/532099982512f6403/53209998251462643/53209998cd0e8c016/index.html and http://elmicro.com/de/cobra5329.html If first URL too long, then search for cobra5329. What to think about this? Arnould ___ 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] Cobra5329
In fact I find it interesting because this future proof processor has everything to possibly develop a less than $50 SMSQ/E based machine. This target being production cost (not selling price) for a few hundred or more machines equiped with case and LCD display. With this idea, that Cobra5329 could be considered a sort of existing prototype. And of course SMSQ/E (+ Superbasic + C68 + an assembler + EasyPtr + QDT + ???) for this board may be sold for a few hundred $ or Euros per licence. OK, only dreaming... Arnould On Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:35:38 +, Derek Stewart wrote I got this as well, the specification look good. The main problem is who will write the software to drive the board. Derek Wolfgang Lenerz wrote: On 26 Feb 2008 at 12:43, Arnould wrote: No answer to this message neither to a couple of older ones. Did anybody receive one of them? Yes, I got it, I just don't know what to say about it... Wolfgang ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] Cobra5329
I know that a little more than 3 years ago Nasta came to the conclusion to use V4 Coldfire to possibly port SMSQ/E. But then there is this interesting platform named Cobra5329 which could be bought today to tinker: http://www.sentec-elektronik.de/532099982512f6403/53209998251462643/53209998cd0e8c016/index.html and http://elmicro.com/de/cobra5329.html If first URL too long, then search for cobra5329. What to think about this? Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] Working sotware (was Re: fast find)
After long technical studies of what was done in the past (ie before 1983) Tony Tebby did software that worked (and still works). That Marcel managed to make QPC work on top of Windows is a kind of miracle. Arnould On Tue, 8 Jan 2008 00:33:34 +, Roy wood wrote There are two parallel threads here. On the one hand people complaining about Windows and on the other people struggling with Linux, which, to the uninitiated, it a maze of undocumented and unhelpful commands. Does this not posit a hypothesis : i.e. no one writes software/OS that works - except perhaps Marcel. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Tops-10, SMP, NT and QDOS (was 2.5 inch HD)
On Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:51:35 +, Norman Dunbar wrote Hi Dave, Dave Walker wrote: Modern machines have hyperthreaded CPU cores, so you are more likely to load multiple applications and still get decent performance if you have lots of memory available. A good theory, in practice it is let down by either the design of the Core Duo chip or the OS not utilising things properly - I'm not sure which. In a Core Duo, all accesses to the Input Output sub-systems *must* be done by the first core and only by the first core. I read this about a month ago in one of the mainstream computer comics - can't remember which one now that I need to. Apparently, core 1 says to core 0, stop that and service this I/O request for me, so core 0 has to comply, so anything running on the first core is interrupted while it passes on I/O requests for the second core, and the second core is delayed in processing I/O while it hangs around waiting for the first core to pay attention! An interesting design I thought when I read it. Cheers, Norman. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm Hello, It is interesting to see that this was all done already in the past, see: http://www.inwap.com/pdp10/paper-smp.txt Also see this interwiew of Bill Gates and notice how he says that the PDP10 was a fantastic machine: http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/comphist/gates.htm#tc4 That was when he was allowed to use a PDP-10 at nights, thus when he was about 12. Further research show that this early TOPS-10 timesharing single processor OS did work internally like the QL's QDOS. However UNIX was free within universities, hence was successfull, and Digital Equipment favored its VAX line of OSes, based on similar algorithms than UNIX. That lead them to the end within about 20 years. In the meantime Microsoft had grown enough with a ugly but _working_ monotasking system (MS-DOS it was named) and could hire a technical leader at DEC. Bill hired the chief designer of the VAX products which lead to NT, 2000, XP, Vista etc.. instead of those great developers of that fantastic Tops-10. The right technology was killed a second time. Sinclair Research and Tony Tebby came about 15 years after DEC and did reinvent the wheel but was not successfull either. As I am optimistic I think that the better technology wins in the end, but it must come at the right time (the story of gas vs electric engines in cars). So it must be reinvented many times. IMHO it is definitely not Linux... Happy new year Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Tops-10, SMP, NT and QDOS (was 2.5 inch HD)
... and for those interested another link that I just found on the same subject, by a woman and another Tony http://www.inwap.com/pdp10/usenet/smp Notice how the spin lock was invented! Hello, It is interesting to see that this was all done already in the past, see: http://www.inwap.com/pdp10/paper-smp.txt Also see this interwiew of Bill Gates and notice how he says that the PDP10 was a fantastic machine: http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/comphist/gates.htm#tc4 That was when he was allowed to use a PDP-10 at nights, thus when he was about 12. Further research show that this early TOPS-10 timesharing single processor OS did work internally like the QL's QDOS. However UNIX was free within universities, hence was successfull, and Digital Equipment favored its VAX line of OSes, based on similar algorithms than UNIX. That lead them to the end within about 20 years. In the meantime Microsoft had grown enough with a ugly but _working_ monotasking system (MS-DOS it was named) and could hire a technical leader at DEC. Bill hired the chief designer of the VAX products which lead to NT, 2000, XP, Vista etc.. instead of those great developers of that fantastic Tops-10. The right technology was killed a second time. Sinclair Research and Tony Tebby came about 15 years after DEC and did reinvent the wheel but was not successfull either. As I am optimistic I think that the better technology wins in the end, but it must come at the right time (the story of gas vs electric engines in cars). So it must be reinvented many times. IMHO it is definitely not Linux... Happy new year Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[ql-users] QDT: how many jobs
Hello, For those who use QDT: how many jobs run during a typical working session? Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[ql-users] Eindhoven June 16
Hello, Who foresees to go to Eindhoven on June 16? Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [ql-users] QXL... and WMOV
On Wed, 14 Mar 2007 11:46:34 +, P Witte wrote silvercreekvalley writes: As I'm fairly new to the QL scene, I am amazed by the number of new QL users these days... And how did you, new QL users, this quite hidden mailing list? To move the program's windows interactively, enter the command WMOV and move the pointer to some location and press enter. To quit the second instance of Sbasic enter QUIT. Is this new? It doesn't work in my QPC 3.21 (OK my QPC is maybe outdated, but it works well for my current needs) Arnould, Paris, France ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [ql-users] XChange bug
About the backscroll bug in Quill Ive never had the problem with Abacus, only Quill (which I forgot to mention). I could have thrown the QL out of the window because of this bug. This was 20 years during my studies. My workaround was to edit my texts in an editor and use Quill only for formatting and printing. Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [ql-users] Is Goldfire vapourware? I don't fhink so
... but it seems to be a very long term project. In a few words: I was there, in Croatia, in May 2004 and Summer 2005. I intend to go again this summer. My project is: I want Nasta to make a very low cost QL. At this moment I am not really interested to see a QL based on the very latest fastest possible Coldfire, but this would be a beginning. And I am ready to invest more than 1000 Euro. And I believe other people would also invest some money in a well prepared project. The fact is that Nasta is certainly our man to do the hardware, but right now he must live and he has already too much to do for his employer. Because he currently develops electronics not based on his knowledge of the QL and he regrets it. However his employer is also quite interested in a low cost QL for his own use, this is sure. The second problem that he explained to me is not design of a board but industrialisation. As a matter of fact there is a mechanical problem: modern surface mounted chips require toolings and machines that is readily available in the far east, but there they are not interested by low production batches. So he wants to find a supplier interested and able to manufacture small batches in Europe. And even possibly in Croatia. Last summer this seemed to be his major problem even if he had an idea... In the meantime Nasta had told me that we could try to find some sort of development board, pay it and lend it to Marcel to try to adapt SMSQ/E to the Coldfire (Coldfire emulator of the 68k). But IRC he did not go very far into this direction as a board made by Freescale (I believe) would be usable from a software point of view, if only the connectors were bigger to be able to adapt monitor, keyboard, serial connection etc.. Mechanical problem again. AND anyway I do not know if Marcel could be interested. Marcel? So you see, there is some hope. However I must also say that, after 2 years, if nothing comes out of this, I will try to find a better paid job in my world company, and if this happens I would not be very available for this project any more (In France my employer is forced to take me back at the same wages as long as 2 years later if creation of a company fails, the sort of advantage our youth is fighting for in the streets). Arnould, Paris, France On Sat, 08 Apr 2006 16:32:40 +0100, Tarquin Mills wrote The lack of any sounds on this list suggest that Goldfire, even in planning form, is not ready and never will be, probably thanks to being based on the Coldfire CPU. While I look forward to being corrected, my hopes have faded :-(. Tarquin Mills (Chairman) ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [ql-users] Today 20 years ago...
My QL was 20 in November 84. I don't remember the exact date, but I still have the invoice somewhere in the handbook. It was version JM imported to France by a non official reseller. It still works well. Including the microdrives. Arnould On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 09:37:17 + (GMT), Stephen Usher wrote Well, actually, it was 20 years ago tomorrow, but why wait.. I also got my QL then. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[ql-users] Wikipedia and QL nostalgy
There is a whole lot of information about the QL etc in the english version of Wikipedia, for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_QL and a link to this text that I did not know: http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/computers/ql/ql_sst.htm and also this one: http://www.jan-jones.co.uk/index.html Who did all this work? Different people? Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[ql-users] Win apps from QPC
IIRC it is possible to start windoze applications from QPC. Can somebody remind me how? Is it possible to feed the win keyboard buffer from QPC in order to type in passwords? Can QPC start a number of applications in turn? Reason: I am fed up to spoil 3 minutes every morning to start my working environment. 220 days/year x 3 min/day x 25 years / 60 min/hour = 275 hours when I get chance to stop it. And this is without time to start the PC (it is already switched on, I only need to log in). And please, I do not want to study autoexec.bat or equivalent windoze stuff... Thank you in advance Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[ql-users] Next Eindhoven show
IIRC the next Eindhoven local show is on Saturday 15. October. Am I right? Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [ql-users] A4 or A5
On Thu, 4 Aug 2005 18:55:43 +0100, gwicks wrote Just a pity there was scarcely any reactions from members about the preference for A4 or A5, Best Wishes, Geoff I prefer A5 for historic reasons. But I stack them open, ie in A4 format, so it is not so important anyway. Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [ql-users] QL Eindhoven
On Sat, 18 Jun 2005 09:51:46 +0100, Tony Firshman wrote Hallo from the internet connection at the Eindhoven meeting (courtesy of Sjef vdm) Tony Hello, I am not there because of a tight budget and nothing to see from Nasta: I am still extremely interested by a low cost hardware QL successor even if it does not get the maximum possible speed However in exchange I will send an order for at least QDT and maybe Qword which I wanted to buy today. Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [ql-users] QL Eindhoven
On Sat, 18 Jun 2005 14:03:45 +0100, Tony Firshman wrote Here are photos from the show, uploaded via the internet connection: http://firshman.co.uk/photos.htm Jean-Louis: je t'ai vu sur les photos. T'aurais pu penser me tlphoner avant d'y aller comme un voleur. J'aurais pu le faire aussi tu me dira.. Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
RE: RE: [ql-users] Just an idea for a new Product.....
About USB keys with emulators: Well, the Spectrum one we are doing has taken Dixons by storm, they are very excited about it. I know the Emulator DVDs and CDs are popular too in mainstream stops. So let you do a QL one with the Spectrum emulator.. Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [ql-users] Just an idea for a new Product.....
Getting back on topic... I would be interested in the DVD, but, as I am limited to plain vanilla QDOS emulation (uQLx, QLAY), because, I can't justify the outlay for QPC2. (I'm not saying that it's over-priced, but in a limited and shrinking market, no selling price can be a commercial proposition, so better surely to drop the price and get some new sales than leaving it at a price where it costs a comparable price to complete linux distro, complete with professional manuals, and 6 cds or so of applications, or an oem version of Windows)..so, I assume that much of the DVD would be of little interest to me. So, the questions are: how much would you want to sell it for, and would you structure it in such a way that it would be obvious to me which progs would not work under QDOS? Jeremy Should be sold with QPC at a good price, shoudn't it? Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [ql-users] SERNET revisited
That explains why I thought that it was part of SMSQE Arnould Yes, I know, but as a free Sernet comes with SMSQE ?? I didn't even know that! Wolfgang :-) then look at your qpc2 - program disk :-)) wolfgang WebMail / Magic OnLine http://www.magic.fr ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [ql-users] Visit to Switzerland
Hello, Any time for me. As shops close on 4 O'clock, it could even be 5 or 6 O'clock for me. Arnould On Mon, 7 Feb 2005 21:27:44 +0100, Dent wrote Hi Elisabeth and I could come to Sursee on Saturday. What time do you suggest? Jon. - Original Message - From: Koenig Urs [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, February 06, 2005 4:26 PM Subject: AW: [ql-users] Visit to Switzerland Hi I would be around on Saturday or Sunday for a chat as well. I could offer our company offices in Sursee as host. Would really be nice to see you, Jon and hopefully others! Urs WebMail / Magic OnLine http://www.magic.fr ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: AW: [ql-users] Visit to Switzerland
For me it is perfect. I will be there. 3 hours is a lot of time as my main interest is to speak with Jonathan. But if you bring a SMSQ/E system then I would be happy if it could send me a Hello email. Arnould On Tue, 8 Feb 2005 11:42:08 +0100, Koenig Urs wrote Hi all I suggest this coming Saturday Feb 12th at 2 O'clock, so we will have about 3 hours for our meeting. Location: http://www.bisonsystems.ch/de/public/unternehmen/filialen/sursee.htm OK? Urs WebMail / Magic OnLine http://www.magic.fr ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [ql-users] Toolkit II
TK2 copyright will not expire until at least 2010 (I believe that it was made available in 1985) however IIRC TK2 has been released to the public by TT... Of course I may be wrong on the latter. (TT?) IIRC the TK2 version that is on Dylwin's emulators CDROM is OK to use with emulators. I had asked this TT and Jochen, but Dylwin should know better. Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.quanta.org.uk/mailing.htm
Re: [ql-users] Question on SBASIC job trees in SMSQ/E
You can always alter the owner once you have started a job. Yes, but in Sbasic, how? Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [ql-users] Question on SBASIC job trees in SMSQ/E
It is the first time I use such features, and after 20 years of readings about QDOS, I had the impression that both 'test' jobs would have belonged to 'launcher'. I don't think most people would want it this way. This would mean that you couldn't write startup scripts that EX other jobs as the job would be killed at the end of the script. Marcel I understand. Of course in that case it would be easy to never kill the startup script. And what about a version of EX that would allow to launch jobs working in parallel to the others (ie not blocked as with EW until end of processig), but daughters of the launching one? Would it be complicated? Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [ql-users] Question on SBASIC job trees in SMSQ/E
What you want is that the EX'd prog be owned by the launcher job, which uis what I definitely wouldn't want. The only solution I can see would be a new keyword. How about EX_M (EXec with Me as owner)? This could be a trivial change that I could build into the next version of SMSQ/E. Would that solve your problem? Exactly !!! I had just sent my last message when yours arrived ! Wolfgang Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [ql-users] Operating Systems
SMSQ/E is mostly so easy to use because it has never even heard of the words security concept (does the mail count as OnTopic now? ;-) ) And if I understood well my discussions with TT, this was exactly his target in 1983: no security stuff for a very small personal computer because it is not needed, not wished and it would complicate things for the user as well as for the programmer. Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List
[ql-users] Philips USB chip
I lost the URL for the Philips USB chip. I don't know how. Can you resend it? Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [ql-users] Nasta
ZN a écrit: Now I get to be the subject on an email list ;-) - well, there is always that first time, i suppose ;-) [snip] Regards, Nasta Hello, I know how painful it is to receive all this spam. Fortunately I receive only ~50/day and 80% are send to other [EMAIL PROTECTED] users. So this flood is relatively easy to filter (I asked them 3 times if they were hacked or if they sold the adresses: no answer..). Do you have another email that is easier to use? Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [ql-users] Nasta
A possible project being investigated is a board that would in essence be a QL replacement, that could fit into the old case (or a much cmaller one), would include extra frills and in essence be a all-in-one machine, is a board based on the aforementioned 68VZ328 Dragonball. There was talk of this on the list before, but at that time there was no source for the CPUs. Note that this board would be far less powerfull than a GoldFire (or Q60) - think of it as a 66MHz GoldCard with loads more RAM and Aurora+ style graphics, but would be a simple and quite cheap solution for a replacement QL for non-power users ;-) especially if I can find a market for it elsewhere and sell it under the guise of something else (which I think I may be able to do). And now questions about this 68328. You talk about the VZ version. But according the motorola web site there is the 68SZ328: The MC68SZ328 (DragonBall Super VZ) microprocessor, the fourth generation of the 68K-based DragonBall family of products, is designed to save system designers time, power, and cost. Requiring less board space, it allows for reduced pin count and fewer programming steps when designing products. The major differences between previous versions of DragonBall processors and the new Super VZ are an improvement in system speed, TFT color LCD support, an A/D converter (with touch panel control), an MMC/SD host controller, a DMA controller, embedded SRAM, a USB device controller, and an I2C interface. It has a lot of things on board, even 100 kb of memory not mentioned in the extract above. And it is reasonably fast: 10 MIPS against about 7 MIPS in the 24 MHz 60020 based Super Gold Card (if I understand how to do the calculation :) But do you know more about the USB interface? I do not know the exact terminology, but IIRC what you already wrote here, it is not the same in the PC and in accessories. Is it a real USB port like in PCs? (I know the sotware problem of drivers, it is not the question). And: is it available in reasonnable quantities, ie about 50 units? Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [ql-users] One last try...
OK, I'll go on record to subsidise this at the tume of 100 . Anybody else? Wolfgang You can count on me. However apparently the money would be welcome, but he has no plans to relocate (see Nasta discussion). Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [ql-users] Nasta
The USB interface is not a USB 'HOST' but rather a USB endpoint. I.e, a SZ328 system with propper software support becomes a USB device, rather than a host (or, to use simpler terms, a controller). As such, this port will not be able to accept other USB devices directly, although there appears to be a way to do this using some sort of a USB bridge device, something which is commonly used in USB to USB networking cables, for instance. Specs on this are very difficult to find. I have only seen it referred to in a completely unrelated document (for a Cirrus - Crystal MP3 player chip), where this approach is used to connect USB mass memory devices. Exactly, that was underlying idea: use of the USB port provided with of that chip for mass storage, and more specifically, use the USB flash memory keys around that are cheaper and cheaper. But it is not possible. Here the best sum up of a few hours of comments reading and browsing through the USB 1.1 specifications ( www.usb.org ): USB is a very asymmetrical protocol; the roles of the host and the targets are very different. (Some specific examples: *all* data transfers are initiated by the host; the host sends a SOF token once per millisecond; the host is in charge of enumerating the device tree, reading each device's descriptor, and polling any devices whose descriptors request it. The target simply listens, and responds to requests, except for a very few situations such as wakeup-from-sleep.) So the conclusion: I still hope that it may be feasible to interface flash ram or rom cartridges to the 68SZ328, but it will not be through the USB *device* port that they provided. Or maybe yes, but outside of any industry standard by using very special tinkering. Let it be. ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [ql-users] One last try...
Dave P a écrit: Hi all... Timing is a bit off, but this isn't an April Fool joke... :) I have been working on a business venture in embedded computing. It involves computing for environmental controls. For this I have specified a hardware reference platform with minimal requirements that are quite high. I am now sitting on standard ARM 7500 complete system boards with the following spec: 64MHz EP7500FE ARM system on chip (200/400 MHz options) 2x 72 pin SIMM for FPM or EDO memory, up to 256MB. Three ROM sockets, 2MB flash, supports 6MB max. Parallel port, serial ports, floppy Dual channel IDE ATA/33 Integrated video: 800 x 600 @16.7M 1024 x 768 @32K 1600 x 1200 @256 Any user-customizable resolution/frame rate selectable. Integrated 10BaseT Ethernet Integrated ESS audio. 16 bit ISA slot Real time clock I2C bus I am now at the point of needing to obtain or create a basic OS and filesystem for my product. I have no real need to create anything, as Linux or BSD are available... but... [snip] Is there any demand/need for this? Pretty much you have to speak up now either way, or the project won't start... I discussed many years about this with Tony Tebby. And think I know his answer: what money do you have to pay him for that job? I tend to believe that this is the right reaction. So after you did the hardware (I think that needed some money to do), do you have the budget to start/finish the sotware? Then you could count on Tony and something much better than QDOS/SMSQ/E (possibly with a SMSQ/E emulator as a bonus). Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [ql-users] Eindhoven, QL Today Renewal and NEWS
Nope, sorry. Any Paris show anytime ? We thought of one last year. However I recall two years ago you were one of the few visitors. I brought Bruno Coativy some imperial sized dies (thread cutters) to make 1/4 tripod bolt. That was the sum total of the 'QL' trading there. We did not see any of the French user group leaders I was there, but you had already left How many people on this list would come to a Paris show at the end of October? I know Bruno would come - he is not on the web, but uses my BBS regularly. I would attend, earlier than last time Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [ql-users] The QL in 3D (first real thread on new list)
Dilwyn Jones a écrit: Sorry, I did not make it clear enough, I mean true 3D (funny coloured glasses, panoramic displays etc) not 3D Graphics. Please sign my petition and get the QL back in the high street (see sig). -- Tarquin Mills Ah, I see, those red and blue specs you get with some films. And of course you know that early game, Wanderer, for the QL, which did something like this. I even have it here somewhere whith the plastic glasses. But I never was excellent as seeing 3D that way. And I find games boring, so I still own it, tried it once about 18 years ago and never looked at it again... Arnould ___ QL-Users Mailing List
