George Gwilt is having problems with his emails to this group. They appear to be disappearing in cyberspace. I promised him I would forward this on his behalf:
From: gdgqler Sent: Monday, December 05, 2011 3:20 PM To: Geoff Wicks Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] A runtime version of QPC2? ***ORIGINAL EMAIL*** On 28 Nov 2011, at 19:56, Marcos Cruz wrote: I'd like to share some thoughts and an idea about QPC2 (what Marcel may tell if it's feasible or not). SBASIC is a great tool, powerful enough but still comfortable, and SMSQ/E provides many of the features normally needed to write modern programs. Since I returned to the QL, I have started some new projects in SBASIC. Even if my main motivations are fun and learning, and the programs will be published as free and gratis software when finished, sometimes I think it's a waste of time because nobody will buy QPC2 (or Q-emuLator + SMSQ/E) just to try them... In the case of my favourite projects, text adventures in Spanish (a small community), the potential QL users in Spain that would like to try such a game are two or three... If the same game was written for a popular platform, and could be executed almost out of the box, there would be dozens of potential players (what means also more eyes to look at the code and contribute bug fixes or ideas). There is a gratis demo of QPC2. But it's inconvenient for programs that need to save and restore the current position between game sessions (well, the player could hibernate the whole host system with QPC2 running). And anyway QPC2 is not easy to setup and use for people who even don't know what a QL is. (The same applies to Q-emuLator; I mean, not the QL emulators are the problem, but the concept of an emulator itself, combined with the special issues of the QL platform). I realized this when, some months ago, I announced a new SuperBASIC program to the Spanish community of interactive fiction (http://caad.es). In order to try my program, some people installed the demos of QPC2 and Q-emuLator following my detailed loading instructions, but they never had used a QL before and after many doubts and problems I had to write a more detailed guide on how to boot QL programs with both emulators and different file formats (http://programandala.net/es.artículo.2011.05.30.arrancar_programa_de_ql). Even then, the task was not simple for people who just want to double-click (or "command-line") the file and play, without tinkering with the uncommon issues and needs of that QL thing they never heard of. That's why recently I've been thinking about the benefits of a "runtime version" of QPC2 with the following features: * Easy to boot SBASIC programs with, in plain source or WIN files. * No limitation for running one SBASIC program. * Limitations to make it impossible to use it for programming. * Config files (would be great). And something like this: QPC2.EXE path\my_progam_bas QPC2.EXE path\my_progam.bas QPC2.EXE path\my_program.win QPC2.EXE path\my_program.cfg If the parameter is a WIN image, the system mounts it as WIN1_ and run the boot file; if the parameter is a SBASIC file, its directory is mounted as DOS1_ before running. QPC2 doesn't have config files yet, but they could be used to boot too. Of course additional parameters may be used. And there's the question about the screen mode. The runtime QPC2 would not have the limitation the current demo has, but it could not be used for programming. The registered version would be still needed for any serious work; and the demo version would still be needed to try QPC2 before registering. The actual limitation of the runtime version could be a useless SBASIC command line, or something similar (making certain keywords useless, only one SBASIC task, limiting the number of tasks...). Just to illustrate my general idea: If I write, let's say, a program in Python, the user has to install a Python interpreter into the system (with the optional libraries needed) and give one single command, that's all. If QPC2 could be used that simple way to execute SBASIC programs, I think I'm not the only one who would feel more motivated to write some software for the "outside (real) world", that way promoting the language itself and the platform. In my opinion, SBASIC so far is useful (or even usable) only for registered QPC2 and SMSQ/E users. I suggest this idea for QPC2, not for Q-emuLator, because QPC2 provides a whole and modern QL environment, while Q-emuLator has a very different approach. Anyway, the Q-emuLator's new file format, QLPAK, makes it much easier to use QL software for people not familiar with the platform, what is the point. I guess things are not so easy as I think (or hope), and maybe the way QPC2 and SMSQ/E boot makes all this impossible. I just wanted to share and discuss the general idea. ***GEORGE'S RESPONSE**** If QPC2 were freely available at no cost the difficulties of the demo version would, of course, disappear. How could a free version of QPC2 be possible? I would guess that not many copies, if any, of QPC2 will be sold in the future. That being so, it might be worth while offering Marcel a sum of money in place of these. This could be attractive to Marcel if he reckoned that it was worth more than he would get from the future sales. It would, I suggest, be of interest to the present body of QLers in that it may well attract new users and give the QL a new lease of life. Where would the money come from? Again I have a suggestion. It seems that QUANTA have some funds which they have considered using on projects. If that is still the case then "freeing" QPC2 would be a project to be considered. George _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
