Marcel Kilgus wrote, on 23/Feb/11 12:21 | Feb23:
Adrian Ives wrote:
But what I would really like is some kind of document that sets out a list
of things that fall in the category: "This should work under QDOS, it says
it should, but it doesn't … but we went ahead and fixed it in SMSQ"
Where does it say it should work under QDOS? I guess this wasn't
consciously "fixed" in SMSQ/E, it's probably more a side effect of the
new implementation. And documenting all possible side effects borders
on the impossible, unfortunately.
This is not just for me, but for any other poor sod who has to try
developing system level code to run under both platforms. This is
not the first time that I've encountered things that should work
under QDOS but don't, yet they work fine under SMSQ.
Supporting QDOS is a pain, yes. That's why I usually just don't do it ;-)
Further down my list is to start testing under Minerva. I'm dreading it. :(
Actually, Minerva was a damn good OS, you'll probably have much less
trouble there than with any QDOS version. Seeing that Minerva is free
now I cannot think of a single reason why people even with old black
boxes still use QDOS (nostalgia excluded).
I second that absolutely.
I do hope Lau is listening.
I saw at first hand how meticulous Lau was in sorting out QDOS bugs.
There were many added features as well of course. The one that rescued a
vast number of QLs I repaired was his ram check and error display. The
ram check is writing rom images into ram, and reading back. He seeded
this. Why? Well if a zero is written to a dead ram bit, zero is
*always* read back, even if the bit is dead.
I have mentioned this before but it is worth repeating. It is a classic
example of how bad the QDOS ram check is. Phil Borman released a free
Quanta version of QL Terminal. People reported it crashed if a
directory modification was tried. It turned out he used a ramdisk and
there was a dead bit in ram that was not picked up by QDOS. Minerva
picked it up, and identified the failed chip.
Incidentally I don't think Lau is getting his emails at l AT bergbland
DOT info. This is the one I have and is shown on the web. If anyone is
in touch with Lau could they ask him to email me.
Tony
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