Re: [Ql-Users] USBWiz Driver Update
Well I am definately interested in purchasing such a device, have you considered putting this forward to the Quanta Commitee to get it off the ground commercially? Lee Privett - Sent from my Laptop running XP but emulating the QL using QPC2 - Original Message - From: Malcolm Cadman q...@mcad.demon.co.uk To: ql-us...@q-v-d.com Sent: Sunday, February 06, 2011 8:36 PM Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] USBWiz Driver Update In message 001c01cbc23b$b4caf510$1e60df30$@acanthis.co.uk, Adrian Ives adr...@acanthis.co.uk writes Hi Adrian, Yes, using the USBWiz is a good idea. A new hardware project always creates interest. PS - This list is getting very busy, too. Just catching up on over 100 emails ... :-) I have no idea if anyone is remotely interested in this project to attach USB devices to a QL using a small card called a USBWiz. This device presents a serial interface and accepts AT style commands to communicate with many classes of USB device. I started working on this last year, but was delayed by some family problems and a move to another part of the country. My prototype hardware is a little black block that connects via a serial lead to a QL or Hermes serial port. The box has an SD card slot and two USB ports. In the past two weeks I have turned my original prototype driver inside out (not a trivial task, no wonder I missed an errant me equ 0 statement). The first version suffered from problems encountered when trying to do serial I/O while in supervisor mode (in effect, a driver on top of a driver). Today I successfully completed a test which involved writing a text file to a native QDOS format SD card, then reading it back again. The new driver switches to user mode to do asynchronous I/O over the standard serial port driver through an I/O queue which is managed by a Queue Manager job. In this it is very different from other device drivers and so will need a lot more testing. Not the least of which under QDOS as the driver has been developed under SMSQ. The framework is also in place to support real time communication with the driver core through a pipe mechanism. This is intended to allow queries to be sent to the driver, as opposed to its devices; a variation on a paper that I read about the possibility of implementing meta devices on the QL. Some time in the future I envisage a USB thing to act as the interface to this feature. Anyway, that's where I am. The new device driver has the name USB; USB1 is the SD card slot, USB2 and USB3 are the ports which can mount standard external hard drives or memory sticks. It reads and writes, but the format routine still needs completing (formatting is currently done with a S*BASIC utility) As well as the native QL driver I also have a File Manager which needs no driver (only a free serial port) and can read and write FAT format SD cards and USB hard drives. This software also supports the automatic saving and retrieving of the QDOS 64 byte header. This program currently runs in menu-driven character mode, but it is my intention to migrate it to a GD2 compliant pointer app in the very near future. 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? -- Malcolm Cadman ___ 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 game release! - TRON legacy light cycles 2D
Ralf Reköndt wrote: Nice to see 8-). We were years ahead, weren't we? Also nice to always see the Syntax font. That's real QLing. Yes, years ahead at least in operating system, industrial design and CI. Sinclair had a style which in todays ITC world only Apple can compete. No wonder a Jonathan (Jony) Ive - one of the lead designers of Apple - went to the same design school as Rick Dickinson. I try my best making authentic videos. BTW: I fear, the game does not run on an Emulator. The boys in the back told me that it runs on almost everything which is QDOSMS. On fast systems it is unplayable, even the menu is to fast to handle on such systems. I like playing it on the original black boxes or under Q-emuLator with QL speed. Cheers, Urs ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Approaches to parsing in SuperBASIC
On 06/02/11 20:14, Plastic wrote: I don't have anything - restarting from scratch. Jan Jones' SuperBasic book is online at http://www.speccy.org/sinclairql/archivo/docs/books/qlsbtdh.pdf - the quality of the PDF is about as good as the original print run. :-) I bought this book years ago from Quanta, and was completely horrified by the quality of print. Nothing to do with Quanta of course, just a commercial book that looks like it was run off on a dot matrix printer! The download is 2.2 MB, it is not text searchable at all and is pretty cr4p. However, it's better than nothing! Just! Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Approaches to parsing in SuperBASIC
I never felt RIGHT$ was clumsy, because it was easy and as Phoebus will tell you, I do like to be spoon-fed ;) I do remember missing it so much when I got my QL. Hi Dave, I can't let you go wanting. I've never used RIGHT$ myself, but I guess this implements it correctly. 10 DEFine FuNction RIGHT$(x$,n):RETurn x$(LEN(x$)-n+1 TO):END DEFine Cheers Malcolm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Finally a reply
On 6 Feb 2011, at 21:07, Malcolm Cadman wrote: In message 4d45ec4b.7030...@sbcglobal.net, Timothy Swenson swenso...@sbcglobal.net writes On 1/30/2011 10:48 AM, Malcolm Cadman wrote: Were Officers to be elected, directly, at an AGM, it would open the door to someone incompetent to get voted in, or some collusion to take place. Interesting, as California State code for Non-profits pretty much specifies that members vote on officers and the board. It is only the members that can make any changes to the By-laws. I'm guessing that the AGM is the same as a General Member Meeting. Most non-profits have one every year for elections. In one non-profit I'm involved with, rarely does a regular member attend these meetings and only the Board members show up (even with the required notification sent out). Hi Tim, I think that we are talking about the same thing. The full membership attends a General Meeting of Members ... in the UK called an Annual General Meeting (AGM), as it is held once a Year. The general membership are there to see the people being put forward for the Committee (Board). However, suppose at the AGM a member puts themselves forward for the Treasurer ... and all the other members present then vote for that person. Yet, the member voted in has not demonstrated any competence for the Position . see the problem? The Committee (Board) cannot then function. Usually you can't put forward new proposals at an AGM. Only business listed in the Notice of the Meeting can be transacted. However, the problem of ordinary members proposing and electing non competent people is real. When I have had anything to do with such situations I have seen to it that the Committee or Board or whatever you like to call it put forward what they consider competent candidates. But allowing members to propose other candidates if they want. If that fails, it is also usual to have the power of co-option so that the right person can be appointed later. I would have thought that elections are normally to the Committee or Board and not to a post within the Committee. In other words the members would not normally elect a Treasurer. Perhaps the entire constitution of Quanta needs altering. George ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Approaches to parsing in SuperBASIC
The download is 2.2 MB, it is not text searchable at all and is pretty cr4p. However, it's better than nothing! Just! Cheers, Norman. I'm slowly sorting this book out, so it will be searchable. However it's a bigger job that I first imagined. A version that matches the user guide format would also then be possible. Cheers Malcolm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] USBWiz Driver Update
Do you have a BOM for the hardware? A schematic? Or is it only ready-made boards, and if so, what is the bulk cost? How do you plan to make this into a product? Is that your plan? Dave On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 2:33 AM, Lee Privett lee.priv...@gmail.com wrote: Well I am definately interested in purchasing such a device, have you considered putting this forward to the Quanta Commitee to get it off the ground commercially? Lee Privett - Sent from my Laptop running XP but emulating the QL using QPC2 - Original Message - From: Malcolm Cadman q...@mcad.demon.co.uk To: ql-us...@q-v-d.com Sent: Sunday, February 06, 2011 8:36 PM Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] USBWiz Driver Update In message 001c01cbc23b$b4caf510$1e60df30$@acanthis.co.uk, Adrian Ives adr...@acanthis.co.uk writes Hi Adrian, Yes, using the USBWiz is a good idea. A new hardware project always creates interest. PS - This list is getting very busy, too. Just catching up on over 100 emails ... :-) I have no idea if anyone is remotely interested in this project to attach USB devices to a QL using a small card called a USBWiz. This device presents a serial interface and accepts AT style commands to communicate with many classes of USB device. I started working on this last year, but was delayed by some family problems and a move to another part of the country. My prototype hardware is a little black block that connects via a serial lead to a QL or Hermes serial port. The box has an SD card slot and two USB ports. In the past two weeks I have turned my original prototype driver inside out (not a trivial task, no wonder I missed an errant me equ 0 statement). The first version suffered from problems encountered when trying to do serial I/O while in supervisor mode (in effect, a driver on top of a driver). Today I successfully completed a test which involved writing a text file to a native QDOS format SD card, then reading it back again. The new driver switches to user mode to do asynchronous I/O over the standard serial port driver through an I/O queue which is managed by a Queue Manager job. In this it is very different from other device drivers and so will need a lot more testing. Not the least of which under QDOS as the driver has been developed under SMSQ. The framework is also in place to support real time communication with the driver core through a pipe mechanism. This is intended to allow queries to be sent to the driver, as opposed to its devices; a variation on a paper that I read about the possibility of implementing meta devices on the QL. Some time in the future I envisage a USB thing to act as the interface to this feature. Anyway, that's where I am. The new device driver has the name USB; USB1 is the SD card slot, USB2 and USB3 are the ports which can mount standard external hard drives or memory sticks. It reads and writes, but the format routine still needs completing (formatting is currently done with a S*BASIC utility) As well as the native QL driver I also have a File Manager which needs no driver (only a free serial port) and can read and write FAT format SD cards and USB hard drives. This software also supports the automatic saving and retrieving of the QDOS 64 byte header. This program currently runs in menu-driven character mode, but it is my intention to migrate it to a GD2 compliant pointer app in the very near future. 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? -- Malcolm Cadman ___ 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] Approaches to parsing in SuperBASIC
If it helps any, I have a period of 6 months plus of medically-enforced non-work, so I have LOTS of free time. I would be happy to convert books to PDFs in the style of the manual, if they are in the public domain or if I have permission from the rights holder. I have already made it a project for the future to re-do the manual, make it into a searchable website, etc. Dave On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 4:02 AM, Malcolm Lear malc...@essex.ac.uk wrote: The download is 2.2 MB, it is not text searchable at all and is pretty cr4p. However, it's better than nothing! Just! Cheers, Norman. I'm slowly sorting this book out, so it will be searchable. However it's a bigger job that I first imagined. A version that matches the user guide format would also then be possible. Cheers Malcolm ___ 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] Approaches to parsing in SuperBASIC
On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 3:41 AM, Norman Dunbar nor...@dunbar-it.co.ukwrote: On 06/02/11 20:14, Plastic wrote:I bought this book years ago from Quanta, and was completely horrified by the quality of print. Nothing to do with Quanta of course, just a commercial book that looks like it was run off on a dot matrix printer! I understand she writes romance fiction now. I bet those books are much better quality. Dave ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Approaches to parsing in SuperBASIC
On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 1:44 AM, Tobias Fröschle tobias.froesc...@t-online.de wrote: Am Sonntag, den 06.02.2011, 17:56 -0600 schrieb Plastic: Let me play with some code and see what I come up with over the next couple of days. I think I can be a lot more computationally economical, but my code will not flex easily to other cases, whereas your code is applicable in a lot of other cases. Dave, you sure can use this however you like. It's been posted to a public mailing list and thus considered public. And I'm sure I've built some nasty bugs in there for you to chew on. I've run the code through TURBO, for example, with the result that the parser is always off by one char in the line, need to have another look into it, that's interesting. Tobias, I am working on a method that splits the input into target, verb, quanta, modifier by simply splitting the string at the spaces. Then, I can simply check the rationality and meaning of the verb, quanta and modifier and aim it at the target. It's not 'sophisticated' but it appears it will execute a lot more quickly. One of my main burdens is I'd like to keep the screen update tick at once per second. Worst case, once per two seconds. Therefore, it would be good if all screen redrawing and one parser run can occur within one second. Can it be done without compiling? I don't know. I'm sure going to try to make it happen though! I hope there aren't any parts of plain old QDOS that aren't supported by Turbo. One thing that simplifies the program a LOT is TURTLE GRAPHICS! I need to draw trails for each plane to show heading and speed. Turtle gfx seems to be the most concise way to do it at this point. I may need to write something faster but more verbose later, but for now, it very neatly and simply solves the problem ;) Dave ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Approaches to parsing in SuperBASIC
Just a suggestion - if you are going to work on producing a better version of the manual then I would suggest that PDF is NOT the best format. It does not tend to display well on modern ereader type devices, and does not support features such as text-flow if font sizes are zoomed. I would suggest that a format such as epub is better, and failing that the standard fall back of word format. It is easy enough to create PDF files from these formats, but going the other way is much harder and sometimes impossible. If you had a book in epub format then a program such as Calibre can easily convert it into HTML suitable for use on a web site. Dave Walker Tel: +44 (0)1707 652791 Mobile: +44 (0)7999 218953 Web: http://www.itimpi.com Skype Id: itimpi *Sent from my iPad* On 7 Feb 2011, at 10:21, Plastic plasticu...@gmail.com wrote: If it helps any, I have a period of 6 months plus of medically-enforced non-work, so I have LOTS of free time. I would be happy to convert books to PDFs in the style of the manual, if they are in the public domain or if I have permission from the rights holder. I have already made it a project for the future to re-do the manual, make it into a searchable website, etc. Dave On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 4:02 AM, Malcolm Lear malc...@essex.ac.uk wrote: The download is 2.2 MB, it is not text searchable at all and is pretty cr4p. However, it's better than nothing! Just! Cheers, Norman. I'm slowly sorting this book out, so it will be searchable. However it's a bigger job that I first imagined. A version that matches the user guide format would also then be possible. Cheers Malcolm ___ 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] Approaches to parsing in SuperBASIC
That would be great, Dave. I'll carry on going through the book concentrating on getting a full text version for you. It would make a good replacement to the 'Beginners Guide' in the original manual. I've seen Jan a couple of times in Newmarket and if I have the opportunity I'll ask her if she's OK with a reformat. Cheers Malcolm On 07/02/2011 10:21, Plastic wrote: If it helps any, I have a period of 6 months plus of medically-enforced non-work, so I have LOTS of free time. I would be happy to convert books to PDFs in the style of the manual, if they are in the public domain or if I have permission from the rights holder. I have already made it a project for the future to re-do the manual, make it into a searchable website, etc. Dave On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 4:02 AM, Malcolm Learmalc...@essex.ac.uk wrote: The download is 2.2 MB, it is not text searchable at all and is pretty cr4p. However, it's better than nothing! Just! Cheers, Norman. I'm slowly sorting this book out, so it will be searchable. However it's a bigger job that I first imagined. A version that matches the user guide format would also then be possible. Cheers Malcolm ___ 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] Approaches to parsing in SuperBASIC
Morning all, On 07/02/11 10:34, Dave Walker wrote: Just a suggestion - if you are going to work on producing a better version of the manual then I would suggest that PDF is NOT the best format. It does not tend to display well on modern ereader type devices, and does not support features such as text-flow if font sizes are zoomed. I would suggest that a format such as epub is better, and failing that the standard fall back of word format. It is easy enough to create PDF files from these formats, but going the other way is much harder and sometimes impossible. If you had a book in epub format then a program such as Calibre can easily convert it into HTML suitable for use on a web site. I agree entirely. I use Calibre on my laptop to manage over 350 manuals and books that I need for my work, and I'm adding more almost daily. These are then copied over to my iRiver Story for use at work when I'm away from the laptop. PDF handling on all these gizmos is pretty bad, but I can read ebooks in this format by selecting reflow to convert on the fly to epub. It's not ideal as sometimes diagrams get butchered beyond all possible belief. I create all my own PDFs using Docbook XML and from that I can generate PDF/HTML/WORDML/RTF/EPub/Etc from exactly the same source file. Having said that, my iRiver does have problems with pre formatted text that extends too far right in some of my documents when using the Docbook sources to create ePub files. I can [easily?] fix it by setting better margins I suspect, but I haven't tried yet. It's in my todo list! So, my advice to anyone considering writing documents is simple, do it in Docbook. Do it once and create many different formats. Unfortunately the learning curve is not shallow, but it's not steep either! Have fun. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Approaches to parsing in SuperBASIC
I have already made it a project for the future to re-do the manual, make it into a searchable website, etc. Dilwyn supplies the UserGuide in PDF format on his QL On A Stcik system. It's already searchable. Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Approaches to parsing in SuperBASIC
On 07/02/2011 10:57, Plastic wrote: On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 4:34 AM, Dave Walkeriti...@ntlworld.com wrote: Just a suggestion - if you are going to work on producing a better version of the manual then I would suggest that PDF is NOT the best format. It does not tend to display well on modern ereader type devices, and does not support features such as text-flow if font sizes are zoomed. I would suggest that a format such as epub is better, and failing that the standard fall back of word format. It is easy enough to create PDF files from these formats, but going the other way is much harder and sometimes impossible. If you had a book in epub format then a program such as Calibre can easily convert it into HTML suitable for use on a web site. I agree with you. I said PDF just because it's the most accessible format. I use Pages and LibreOffice (was OpenOffice) on the Mac. If there's a good ePub tool I can use I would happily use it. Yes, best to keep to something that is Open Office compatible as the source file. Just about any other format can be created from that. Cheers Malcolm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Approaches to parsing in SuperBASIC
On 07/02/2011 11:00, Plastic wrote: On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 4:43 AM, Malcolm Learmalc...@essex.ac.uk wrote: That would be great, Dave. I'll carry on going through the book concentrating on getting a full text version for you. It would make a good replacement to the 'Beginners Guide' in the original manual. I've seen Jan a couple of times in Newmarket and if I have the opportunity I'll ask her if she's OK with a reformat. That would be great. If you're just transcribing it, maybe I could help? I've OCR'ed the downloadable version. Some pages have parsed quite well, but others not! Malcolm Who owns the publishing rights currently? 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] USBWiz Driver Update
Dave, Bill of Materials: Yes Schematics: Yes Plan: This will depend upon the likely demand. My initial question was intended to gauge this ... because, honestly, I don't know how many QLs remain in circulation and, of them, how many owners would consider buying this kind of hardware. Maybe they would like to wait and see if a microdrive-emulating SD card slot comes along ... I know I would buy one of _them_ if they were available today! Anyway, if the demand is only there for a handful of units, I will likely build them myself on an as-needed basis and then, obviously, it won't be possible to pass on the advantage of bulk pricing for the components - the most expensive of which is the USBWiz module. It's worth remembering that the single most important component of this project is the driver. Until that is completed there is really nothing viable to market. Regarding the driver, several I/O traps are still not fully implemented and proper performance and resilience testing cannot begin until that is done, but I'm making good progress. Adrian -Original Message- From: ql-users-boun...@lists.q-v-d.com [mailto:ql-users-boun...@lists.q-v-d.com] On Behalf Of Plastic Sent: 07 February 2011 10:15 To: ql-us...@q-v-d.com Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] USBWiz Driver Update Do you have a BOM for the hardware? A schematic? Or is it only ready-made boards, and if so, what is the bulk cost? How do you plan to make this into a product? Is that your plan? Dave On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 2:33 AM, Lee Privett lee.priv...@gmail.com wrote: Well I am definately interested in purchasing such a device, have you considered putting this forward to the Quanta Commitee to get it off the ground commercially? Lee Privett - Sent from my Laptop running XP but emulating the QL using QPC2 - Original Message - From: Malcolm Cadman q...@mcad.demon.co.uk To: ql-us...@q-v-d.com Sent: Sunday, February 06, 2011 8:36 PM Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] USBWiz Driver Update In message 001c01cbc23b$b4caf510$1e60df30$@acanthis.co.uk, Adrian Ives adr...@acanthis.co.uk writes Hi Adrian, Yes, using the USBWiz is a good idea. A new hardware project always creates interest. PS - This list is getting very busy, too. Just catching up on over 100 emails ... :-) I have no idea if anyone is remotely interested in this project to attach USB devices to a QL using a small card called a USBWiz. This device presents a serial interface and accepts AT style commands to communicate with many classes of USB device. I started working on this last year, but was delayed by some family problems and a move to another part of the country. My prototype hardware is a little black block that connects via a serial lead to a QL or Hermes serial port. The box has an SD card slot and two USB ports. In the past two weeks I have turned my original prototype driver inside out (not a trivial task, no wonder I missed an errant me equ 0 statement). The first version suffered from problems encountered when trying to do serial I/O while in supervisor mode (in effect, a driver on top of a driver). Today I successfully completed a test which involved writing a text file to a native QDOS format SD card, then reading it back again. The new driver switches to user mode to do asynchronous I/O over the standard serial port driver through an I/O queue which is managed by a Queue Manager job. In this it is very different from other device drivers and so will need a lot more testing. Not the least of which under QDOS as the driver has been developed under SMSQ. The framework is also in place to support real time communication with the driver core through a pipe mechanism. This is intended to allow queries to be sent to the driver, as opposed to its devices; a variation on a paper that I read about the possibility of implementing meta devices on the QL. Some time in the future I envisage a USB thing to act as the interface to this feature. Anyway, that's where I am. The new device driver has the name USB; USB1 is the SD card slot, USB2 and USB3 are the ports which can mount standard external hard drives or memory sticks. It reads and writes, but the format routine still needs completing (formatting is currently done with a S*BASIC utility) As well as the native QL driver I also have a File Manager which needs no driver (only a free serial port) and can read and write FAT format SD cards and USB hard drives. This software also supports the automatic saving and retrieving of the QDOS 64 byte header. This program currently runs in menu-driven character mode, but it is my intention to migrate it to a GD2 compliant pointer app in the very near future. 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
Re: [Ql-Users] Approaches to parsing in SuperBASIC
Dave, If you are looking for an WYSIWYG ePub editor then Sigil is an Open-Source multi-platform one. Some of the other major editors also have options to output in epub format. Dave Walker Tel: +44 (0)1707 652791 Mob: +44 (0)7999 218953 Web: http://www.itimpi.com Skype: itimpi -Original Message- From: ql-users-boun...@lists.q-v-d.com [mailto:ql-users- boun...@lists.q-v-d.com] On Behalf Of Plastic Sent: 07 February 2011 10:58 To: ql-us...@q-v-d.com Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] Approaches to parsing in SuperBASIC On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 4:34 AM, Dave Walker iti...@ntlworld.com wrote: Just a suggestion - if you are going to work on producing a better version of the manual then I would suggest that PDF is NOT the best format. It does not tend to display well on modern ereader type devices, and does not support features such as text-flow if font sizes are zoomed. I would suggest that a format such as epub is better, and failing that the standard fall back of word format. It is easy enough to create PDF files from these formats, but going the other way is much harder and sometimes impossible. If you had a book in epub format then a program such as Calibre can easily convert it into HTML suitable for use on a web site. I agree with you. I said PDF just because it's the most accessible format. I use Pages and LibreOffice (was OpenOffice) on the Mac. If there's a good ePub tool I can use I would happily use it. My primary focus for the manual is web format, so people can access it on their PCs, Macs, iPhones, iPads... EVERYWHERE! It'll allow people to overview commands, see their origin/version, have code snippets you can cut'n'paste, etc... 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] Approaches to parsing in SuperBASIC
On 07/02/2011 12:14, Lee Privett wrote: Hey Malcolm, if you want a little bit of help with conversion, two things of interest, firstly i know nothing of ePub formats etc. but if you have the text file in Microsoft Word, you can get the index created for you automatically (if you have a seperate word list) thats 66 pages you dont have to write. Secondly I consider myself a dab hand Photoshopping images, if you like I can redo the front cover to much better standard? Thanks Lee, A new version of the cover would be great. Any chance you could do it vector based (Illustrator ?). Cheers Malcolm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Approaches to parsing in SuperBASIC
Sure Lee Privett - Sent from my Laptop running XP but emulating the QL using QPC2 - Original Message - From: Malcolm Lear malc...@essex.ac.uk To: ql-us...@q-v-d.com Sent: Monday, February 07, 2011 12:41 PM Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] Approaches to parsing in SuperBASIC On 07/02/2011 12:14, Lee Privett wrote: Hey Malcolm, if you want a little bit of help with conversion, two things of interest, firstly i know nothing of ePub formats etc. but if you have the text file in Microsoft Word, you can get the index created for you automatically (if you have a seperate word list) thats 66 pages you dont have to write. Secondly I consider myself a dab hand Photoshopping images, if you like I can redo the front cover to much better standard? Thanks Lee, A new version of the cover would be great. Any chance you could do it vector based (Illustrator ?). Cheers Malcolm ___ 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] Approaches to parsing in SuperBASIC
SVG format by any chance? Scales beautifully at [almost] any resolution. Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] USBWiz Driver Update
Adrian Ives wrote: Maybe they would like to wait and see if a microdrive-emulating SD card slot comes along ... There will definitely be no microdrive-emulating SD card slot from me. What I had mentioned - as one of several ideas - was making an SD card harddisk which can be mechanically mounted at a microdrive slot. This would be just mechanical, no microdrive signals or drivers involved. All the best Peter ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] QL game release! - TRON legacy light cycles 2D
Rich Mellor wrote: a video with a download link on this QL game. URL is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_Q0sTLhqKw Play the game and enjoy the weekend! I am not quite sure I understand the background to this game Am I correct to understand that it was a public domain game written in 1986, but only just licensed for release? There's a readme_txt in the ZIP package which tells a few things on this game. Well, and... So where was the film taken, and what is Urs' link to it? The film - a coWo multimedia production - is one of more than 90 QL related videos available on QLvsJAGUAR. coWo is my label for all sorts of services. QLvsJAGUAR is my alias for both my QL and JAGUAR related web-site(s) and YouTube video channel. So that's my link to it. Advertisement: Follow links below to view the videos. ;-) The story behind the game re-release is: The game has always been around and was public domain from day one. Due to the fact that it was (only) published in a German high street magazine and in the PD library of the German QL user group may have lead to the point that it may not be well known in Britain and other countries if known at all. It was one of my favourite QL games at those days. At least for some days after getting it. Now to the video: Being a young teenager and geek in the 80's, it's about clear that I also liked (and still like) the original TRON movie. Sometime last year I've heard about the upcoming TRON sequel to be called TRON LEGACY. It reminded me the above mentioned early loves. I had the idea to make something around it with the QL, maybe a parody, a funny trailer, an animation, a (new) game or the like. Something funny, at least something which should make fun for me in the making. Finally I set a task in my lengthy QL task list called TRON LEGACY QL game movie. As often (I'd better say always) time was running to fast and it was 2 days before the theatre premiere of TRON LEGACY (Dec 17th 2010) and still not much done about my task. Well I already had found the Floppy Disk with this game and some other TRON related games (another story), I had the German magazine 68000er to hand and also had the Wikipedia articles about TRON. I also had an inspiration for the plot. So I've spent almost the whole day (Dec 15th) to copy and paste pictures for the games splash screens (done on the PC with PAINT then converted for the QL using Dilwyn's bmp2scr2_bas), writing the loader (BOOT) programs for both FLP_ and N1_, edit and print the disc case label, setup and test two QL systems in my Retro Lab, link and test those two QLs by the QL NETwork and finally shoot the various video sequences based on the plot. The next days evening (1 day before the movie premiere) I've spent some hours for the cut of the video footage. Finally the afternoon before the premiere I used my movie maker application on the PC to edit and then finally publish the video on my YouTube channel. All this took much more time than expected and I had to catch up with both family and work issues before Christmas. So even the video was uploaded just in time (before the premiere) I did not had the time to announce it and spread the word. So there I had it, another Sinclair or ATARI alike launch disaster: Product (video and game) is available, even in good quality this time (at least in my opinion), but public is not aware of it and ignores it. Compared to the rush on TRON LEGACY in general (non QL related of course) my video got only 54 views on YouTube and 0 downloads for the QL game (in 6 weeks). Poor! So I gave the whole thing a limited re-launch last Saturday. My post in ql-users and Rich's echo in qlforum brought some 90 video views and 23 game downloads up to now. At least it's no more unseen. ;-) Lessons learned (my interpretations of what the QL community can take out of this story, related to the general FUTURE and QUANTA discussion on this list and based on my experiences since the communication I did for QL-IS-25). 1. The QL or open-minded-for-QL community is so small that without a good communication flow information will not reach the members at all. With selected communication (e.g. QL TRON Light Cycles, SANDY FUTURA prototype) you hardly reach more than 100 guys. Even with good and intense communication (e.g. QL-Mac-Show, QL anniversaries) you hardly reach more than several hundred people. 2. Even there are so many (good) software titles around most of them are unknown today (I'd better say forgotten). Take Dilwyn's CD-ROM collection as an example. On one of those CD's, the above mentioned game is in a deep sleep. 3. Even binaries of the programs are available (see 2), sources are in most cases not. This makes it very difficult to adapt titles for current QDOSMS platforms. I can tell you by experience how time consuming and work intense it is to find original authors and try to find source code. Think about how much easier it would be to write a (new) device driver if the sources of earlier work
Re: [Ql-Users] USBWiz Driver Update
Actually I think that's a shame, Peter. I know there are technical and performance issues with going the MDV emulation route, maybe even insurmountable ones, but it had that kind of Wow Factor about it. I imagined it as the microdrive version of the Hxc Floppy Drive Emulator. But, anyway, if there was already an expansion bus (or ROM port) connected SD card interface then I wouldn't be pursuing the Ser-USB project, which was really the point I was making about product demand. Adrian -Original Message- From: ql-users-boun...@lists.q-v-d.com [mailto:ql-users-boun...@lists.q-v-d.com] On Behalf Of Peter Sent: 07 February 2011 13:39 To: ql-us...@q-v-d.com Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] USBWiz Driver Update Adrian Ives wrote: Maybe they would like to wait and see if a microdrive-emulating SD card slot comes along ... There will definitely be no microdrive-emulating SD card slot from me. What I had mentioned - as one of several ideas - was making an SD card harddisk which can be mechanically mounted at a microdrive slot. This would be just mechanical, no microdrive signals or drivers involved. 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] USBWiz Driver Update
On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 8:24 AM, Adrian Ives adr...@acanthis.co.uk wrote: Actually I think that's a shame, Peter. I know there are technical and performance issues with going the MDV emulation route, maybe even insurmountable ones, but it had that kind of Wow Factor about it. I imagined it as the microdrive version of the Hxc Floppy Drive Emulator. But, anyway, if there was already an expansion bus (or ROM port) connected SD card interface then I wouldn't be pursuing the Ser-USB project, which was really the point I was making about product demand. It is trivial to design a SD card carrier that fits in the microdrive slots. The harder part is designing the interface, which is what I believe Peter has done. Peter has taken the capacity of SDHC cards and decided that them acting like HDs is better than them acting like microdrives, but this is separate from physically placing them in the microdrive slots - which is quite feasible as a simple adaption of what he has done. Peter, would you be interested in letting your interface use a SDHC carrier that fits in the MDV slot, if someone else designs/builds it? Dave ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] Wondering...
Hi all, I have a US (samsung?) QL with JSA ROMs. I have a replacement membrane coming in a week or so. 1. It has the standard 512x256 resolution, but the font type/size is different than EU QLs. I am looking for some JM or JS ROMs, but meanwhile, does anyone have an easy way for me to load the UK charset and scaling onto it? Or a dead QL with JM or JS ROMs they're willing to part with? 2. I'd like to plug it into a monitor. Being in the US, this is less simple. Any suggestions? I am considering the RGB-VGA converter board, which is ideal but pricey. 3. I have an assortment of expansions which I will photograph. I do not have manuals for any of this stuff, so when I post the photos, any info would be appreciated. Dave ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] USBWiz Driver Update
Yes, and I'm not arguing with his eminently sensible decision; simply voicing a whim and an opinion. It's self evident that an SD card interface plugged into the expansion slot or even the ROM port would be a faster and more flexible solution than attempting to emulate a microdrive, and several orders of magnitude faster than a serial USB interface! Thanks for reminding me that it's not just a matter of fitting the SD card carrier into the hole vacated by the microdrive. ;) Adrian -Original Message- From: ql-users-boun...@lists.q-v-d.com [mailto:ql-users-boun...@lists.q-v-d.com] On Behalf Of Plastic Sent: 07 February 2011 14:30 To: ql-us...@q-v-d.com Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] USBWiz Driver Update On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 8:24 AM, Adrian Ives adr...@acanthis.co.uk wrote: Actually I think that's a shame, Peter. I know there are technical and performance issues with going the MDV emulation route, maybe even insurmountable ones, but it had that kind of Wow Factor about it. I imagined it as the microdrive version of the Hxc Floppy Drive Emulator. But, anyway, if there was already an expansion bus (or ROM port) connected SD card interface then I wouldn't be pursuing the Ser-USB project, which was really the point I was making about product demand. It is trivial to design a SD card carrier that fits in the microdrive slots. The harder part is designing the interface, which is what I believe Peter has done. Peter has taken the capacity of SDHC cards and decided that them acting like HDs is better than them acting like microdrives, but this is separate from physically placing them in the microdrive slots - which is quite feasible as a simple adaption of what he has done. Peter, would you be interested in letting your interface use a SDHC carrier that fits in the MDV slot, if someone else designs/builds it? 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] Wondering...
Hi Dave, Are you sure it has a vertical resolution of 256? Maybe the video ULA has been replaced with a UK one. Malcolm On 07/02/2011 15:14, Plastic wrote: Hi all, I have a US (samsung?) QL with JSA ROMs. I have a replacement membrane coming in a week or so. 1. It has the standard 512x256 resolution, but the font type/size is different than EU QLs. I am looking for some JM or JS ROMs, but meanwhile, does anyone have an easy way for me to load the UK charset and scaling onto it? Or a dead QL with JM or JS ROMs they're willing to part with? 2. I'd like to plug it into a monitor. Being in the US, this is less simple. Any suggestions? I am considering the RGB-VGA converter board, which is ideal but pricey. 3. I have an assortment of expansions which I will photograph. I do not have manuals for any of this stuff, so when I post the photos, any info would be appreciated. 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] USBWiz Driver Update
Hehe. Sorry if it came across as pedantic. I just read the thread and saw that some people were seeing a conversation about formatting, and others were seeing a discussion about the esthetics of using the microdrive bays in the way they were intended. ;) Dave On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 9:42 AM, Adrian Ives adr...@acanthis.co.uk wrote: Yes, and I'm not arguing with his eminently sensible decision; simply voicing a whim and an opinion. It's self evident that an SD card interface plugged into the expansion slot or even the ROM port would be a faster and more flexible solution than attempting to emulate a microdrive, and several orders of magnitude faster than a serial USB interface! Thanks for reminding me that it's not just a matter of fitting the SD card carrier into the hole vacated by the microdrive. ;) Adrian -Original Message- From: ql-users-boun...@lists.q-v-d.com [mailto:ql-users-boun...@lists.q-v-d.com] On Behalf Of Plastic Sent: 07 February 2011 14:30 To: ql-us...@q-v-d.com Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] USBWiz Driver Update On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 8:24 AM, Adrian Ives adr...@acanthis.co.uk wrote: Actually I think that's a shame, Peter. I know there are technical and performance issues with going the MDV emulation route, maybe even insurmountable ones, but it had that kind of Wow Factor about it. I imagined it as the microdrive version of the Hxc Floppy Drive Emulator. But, anyway, if there was already an expansion bus (or ROM port) connected SD card interface then I wouldn't be pursuing the Ser-USB project, which was really the point I was making about product demand. It is trivial to design a SD card carrier that fits in the microdrive slots. The harder part is designing the interface, which is what I believe Peter has done. Peter has taken the capacity of SDHC cards and decided that them acting like HDs is better than them acting like microdrives, but this is separate from physically placing them in the microdrive slots - which is quite feasible as a simple adaption of what he has done. Peter, would you be interested in letting your interface use a SDHC carrier that fits in the MDV slot, if someone else designs/builds it? 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 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Wondering...
No, I'm not sure. I assumed. How can I tell, just looking at the ICs? Dave On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 9:51 AM, Malcolm Lear malc...@essex.ac.uk wrote: Hi Dave, Are you sure it has a vertical resolution of 256? Maybe the video ULA has been replaced with a UK one. Malcolm On 07/02/2011 15:14, Plastic wrote: Hi all, I have a US (samsung?) QL with JSA ROMs. I have a replacement membrane coming in a week or so. 1. It has the standard 512x256 resolution, but the font type/size is different than EU QLs. I am looking for some JM or JS ROMs, but meanwhile, does anyone have an easy way for me to load the UK charset and scaling onto it? Or a dead QL with JM or JS ROMs they're willing to part with? 2. I'd like to plug it into a monitor. Being in the US, this is less simple. Any suggestions? I am considering the RGB-VGA converter board, which is ideal but pricey. 3. I have an assortment of expansions which I will photograph. I do not have manuals for any of this stuff, so when I post the photos, any info would be appreciated. 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 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Wondering...
From memory (as both D-Day MKII and War in the East took account of the difference in these ROMs), the JSU still manages 512x256 pixels, but the graphics characters (founts) are smaller than on the European QL. It would take me quite some time to get the details again out of the two programs! Rich On 07/02/2011 15:51, Malcolm Lear wrote: Hi Dave, Are you sure it has a vertical resolution of 256? Maybe the video ULA has been replaced with a UK one. Malcolm On 07/02/2011 15:14, Plastic wrote: Hi all, I have a US (samsung?) QL with JSA ROMs. I have a replacement membrane coming in a week or so. 1. It has the standard 512x256 resolution, but the font type/size is different than EU QLs. I am looking for some JM or JS ROMs, but meanwhile, does anyone have an easy way for me to load the UK charset and scaling onto it? Or a dead QL with JM or JS ROMs they're willing to part with? 2. I'd like to plug it into a monitor. Being in the US, this is less simple. Any suggestions? I am considering the RGB-VGA converter board, which is ideal but pricey. 3. I have an assortment of expansions which I will photograph. I do not have manuals for any of this stuff, so when I post the photos, any info would be appreciated. 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 -- Rich Mellor RWAP Services http://www.rwapsoftware.co.uk http://www.rwapservices.co.uk -- Try out our new site: http://sellmyretro.com ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Wondering...
Luckily I have the JS+TK2 Q-Emulator 1.0 for Mac to test on - it behaves just like a real QL. All I need is a mdv_ to USB adaptor and I'm all set! Dave On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 9:57 AM, Rich Mellor r...@rwapservices.co.uk wrote: From memory (as both D-Day MKII and War in the East took account of the difference in these ROMs), the JSU still manages 512x256 pixels, but the graphics characters (founts) are smaller than on the European QL. It would take me quite some time to get the details again out of the two programs! Rich On 07/02/2011 15:51, Malcolm Lear wrote: Hi Dave, Are you sure it has a vertical resolution of 256? Maybe the video ULA has been replaced with a UK one. Malcolm On 07/02/2011 15:14, Plastic wrote: Hi all, I have a US (samsung?) QL with JSA ROMs. I have a replacement membrane coming in a week or so. 1. It has the standard 512x256 resolution, but the font type/size is different than EU QLs. I am looking for some JM or JS ROMs, but meanwhile, does anyone have an easy way for me to load the UK charset and scaling onto it? Or a dead QL with JM or JS ROMs they're willing to part with? 2. I'd like to plug it into a monitor. Being in the US, this is less simple. Any suggestions? I am considering the RGB-VGA converter board, which is ideal but pricey. 3. I have an assortment of expansions which I will photograph. I do not have manuals for any of this stuff, so when I post the photos, any info would be appreciated. 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 -- Rich Mellor RWAP Services http://www.rwapsoftware.co.uk http://www.rwapservices.co.uk -- Try out our new site: http://sellmyretro.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] USBWiz Driver Update
Adrian Ives wrote: Actually I think that's a shame, Peter. I know there are technical and performance issues with going the MDV emulation route, maybe even insurmountable ones, but it had that kind of Wow Factor about it. Most won't care whether the data runs through the microdrive cables/driver or not. In addition to the speed issue, internal microdrive cables are hard to plug in. From outside the case, the wow factor is the same ;-) But, anyway, if there was already an expansion bus (or ROM port) connected SD card interface then I wouldn't be pursuing the Ser-USB project, which was really the point I was making about product demand. Not sure mass storage has to be the primary focus for Ser-USB. There is also demand for HID and printer connectivity. Slow speed would be less of a problem there. Peter ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Reality Check
I have always wanted to take the existing QL mainboard schematic and do an updated version with improved power, and on-board IDE, floppy and mouse, and a 680X0 and faster memory. Something like Peter Graf's work, but all on one replacement PCB. I understand it's not the most viable project, financially, and it would best be a team effort, but I have a little 80s and 90s experience to bring to bear (nothing CLOSE to Peter Graf's skills) and could do a modest QL PCB redesign... Dave ___ In terms of the graphics I've now found a very nice chip from TI (TFP410) that when utilized along side a CPLD and SRAM/DRAM allows a fairly easy way to produce QL graphics mode output to DVI. Cheers Malcolm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] USBWiz Driver Update
On 07/02/2011 14:24, Adrian Ives wrote: Actually I think that's a shame, Peter. I know there are technical and performance issues with going the MDV emulation route, maybe even insurmountable ones, but it had that kind of Wow Factor about it. I imagined it as the microdrive version of the Hxc Floppy Drive Emulator. But, anyway, if there was already an expansion bus (or ROM port) connected SD card interface then I wouldn't be pursuing the Ser-USB project, which was really the point I was making about product demand. I have two card readers ( compact Flash IIRC ) that fit into a PC floppy drive bay and connect to a PC via a Floppy drive cable, I cannot remember any software being involved although it is a long time since I used them. They seemed to just read a C/F card as they would a 3.5 disc. Unfortunately my QL hardware is stored over three sheds and an attic so trying them out on a QL floppy drive is not possible without a well planned expedition to all corners of my domain. C/flash seems to be going out of fashion anyway I suppose although I prefer it for tactile reasons - and it can't be that easy can it All the best - Bill ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Wondering...
On 07/02/2011 15:57, Rich Mellor wrote: From memory (as both D-Day MKII and War in the East took account of the difference in these ROMs), the JSU still manages 512x256 pixels, but the graphics characters (founts) are smaller than on the European QL. Ah, that sounds about right. The sort of bodge that only Sinclair would do! I seem to remember they altered the ULA timing for the US 525 system which meant that only around 200 lines were visible, hence the vertically reduced characters. The proper solution would have required an interlaced scan, but that may not have fitted into the ULU space and taken up too much design time. Malcolm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Wondering...
It seems I will have to start saving for a UK spec QL, pronto. Having a real QL to work on is important to me. Dave On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 10:48 AM, Malcolm Lear malc...@essex.ac.uk wrote: On 07/02/2011 15:57, Rich Mellor wrote: From memory (as both D-Day MKII and War in the East took account of the difference in these ROMs), the JSU still manages 512x256 pixels, but the graphics characters (founts) are smaller than on the European QL. Ah, that sounds about right. The sort of bodge that only Sinclair would do! I seem to remember they altered the ULA timing for the US 525 system which meant that only around 200 lines were visible, hence the vertically reduced characters. The proper solution would have required an interlaced scan, but that may not have fitted into the ULU space and taken up too much design time. Malcolm ___ 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] Wondering...
Dave, On 07/02/11 16:56, Plastic wrote: It seems I will have to start saving for a UK spec QL, pronto. Having a real QL to work on is important to me. I might have a spare. No idea what it is like though - I might get a chance to test it tonight. It's been sitting around for a good few years now. I'm not sure if it has microdrives though - I tended to remove them for some unknown reason when I had my Gold card. Would you need the power supply as well? Of so, it will be a b*gg*r to post to wherever you are. Very heavy! I have a feeling the keyboard may be shot though - membrane most likely. However, I'll check and see what's what. Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Wondering...
-- From memory (as both D-Day MKII and War in the East took account of the -- difference in these ROMs), the JSU still manages 512x256 pixels, but the -- graphics characters (founts) are smaller than on the European QL. The QL Technical Manual says: This is different for countries where the television system is NTSC, which permits the use of fewer raster lines than PAL. In QLs for such countries, the following options are the defaults: For monitor operations, a 50Hz 624 non-interlaced system is used; this is the same system as is used on the English QL. The full 512x256 pixel display is available, and the default windows and character size are the same as for the monitor mode on an English QL. For TV operation, a 60Hz 524-line non-interlaced system is used in which the number of raster lines is limited to 192. In order to ease the task of software conversion, an alternate display font is provided which allows a 6x8 character square instead of the usual 6x10. This ensures approximately the same number of visible rows of text on both PAL and NTSC QLs, at the cost of true descenders and reduced vertical spacing. The default windows and graphics scaling for TV operation are different from those of the English QL. so it looks like only the TV modes would be different from European boxes. Cheers, Tobias ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Wondering...
Dave said - It seems I will have to start saving for a UK spec QL, pronto. Having a real QL to work on is important to me. Before Norman pulls muscle in his attic AND/OR goin' down the Post Office... what about a possible PSU 50/60Hz mains supply problem - especially if Dave is in The States? John in Wales ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Wondering...
On 07/02/2011 17:21, tobias.froesc...@t-online.de wrote: -- From memory (as both D-Day MKII and War in the East took account of the -- difference in these ROMs), the JSU still manages 512x256 pixels, but the -- graphics characters (founts) are smaller than on the European QL. The QL Technical Manual says: This is different for countries where the television system is NTSC, which permits the use of fewer raster lines than PAL. In QLs for such countries, the following options are the defaults: For monitor operations, a 50Hz 624 non-interlaced system is used; this is the same system as is used on the English QL. The full 512x256 pixel display is available, and the default windows and character size are the same as for the monitor mode on an English QL. For TV operation, a 60Hz 524-line non-interlaced system is used in which the number of raster lines is limited to 192. In order to ease the task of software conversion, an alternate display font is provided which allows a 6x8 character square instead of the usual 6x10. This ensures approximately the same number of visible rows of text on both PAL and NTSC QLs, at the cost of true descenders and reduced vertical spacing. The default windows and graphics scaling for TV operation are different from those of the English QL. so it looks like only the TV modes would be different from European boxes. Cheers, Tobias Yes, the Mess emulator suggests that this is the case. The vertical timing and font is dependent on the F1/2 selection on bootup. Once in 624 50Hz mode you should be OK both in mode 4 and 8. Cheers Malcolm ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Wondering...
I have a US QL, therefore I have a US QL PSU ;) Though I am capable of building a replacement PSU if needed, or converting a UK to US PSU. Also, US houses have 110v and 220v circuits, so 220v is available if I get really stuck (and don't mind QLing on the tumble dryer). The 50/60Hz issue is a non-issue. I would just replace the smoothing capacitor with a slightly larger one. As for the display modes...I would definitely prefer to use a UK/EU spec QL. I'm only aware of two US QL users and they're both ex-pats anyway, I think ;) Dave PS: and I am looking for the PSU, and not finding it. Fate, it mocks me. On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 12:00 PM, Malcolm Lear malc...@essex.ac.uk wrote: On 07/02/2011 17:21, tobias.froesc...@t-online.de wrote: -- From memory (as both D-Day MKII and War in the East took account of the -- difference in these ROMs), the JSU still manages 512x256 pixels, but the -- graphics characters (founts) are smaller than on the European QL. The QL Technical Manual says: This is different for countries where the television system is NTSC, which permits the use of fewer raster lines than PAL. In QLs for such countries, the following options are the defaults: For monitor operations, a 50Hz 624 non-interlaced system is used; this is the same system as is used on the English QL. The full 512x256 pixel display is available, and the default windows and character size are the same as for the monitor mode on an English QL. For TV operation, a 60Hz 524-line non-interlaced system is used in which the number of raster lines is limited to 192. In order to ease the task of software conversion, an alternate display font is provided which allows a 6x8 character square instead of the usual 6x10. This ensures approximately the same number of visible rows of text on both PAL and NTSC QLs, at the cost of true descenders and reduced vertical spacing. The default windows and graphics scaling for TV operation are different from those of the English QL. so it looks like only the TV modes would be different from European boxes. Cheers, Tobias Yes, the Mess emulator suggests that this is the case. The vertical timing and font is dependent on the F1/2 selection on bootup. Once in 624 50Hz mode you should be OK both in mode 4 and 8. Cheers Malcolm ___ 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] Wondering...
On 2/7/2011 10:08 AM, Plastic wrote: I'm only aware of two US QL users and they're both ex-pats anyway, I think Actually, most of the US QLer's that I knew (been out of contact with mostf them for a while) were native born. I'm sure there are a few of the old QL'ers still around (like Herb Schaaf, Bill Cable, Paul Holmgren, etc). As for the US/UK scale issue, test the JSU and JS roms on the emulator and see if there is a difference. If there is, you now have access to the two different systems and can code for both. Tim Swenson ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Wondering...
I know they redesigned the port area for the serial ports and joystick ports, but I wonder if this is a hardware difference, or a software difference, since the hardware can obviously handle both formats... I wonder if there are any other differences between the boards... I'll take this one out and post some high resolution pics of it so people can compare. Dave On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 12:17 PM, Timothy Swenson swenso...@sbcglobal.netwrote: On 2/7/2011 10:08 AM, Plastic wrote: I'm only aware of two US QL users and they're both ex-pats anyway, I think Actually, most of the US QLer's that I knew (been out of contact with mostf them for a while) were native born. I'm sure there are a few of the old QL'ers still around (like Herb Schaaf, Bill Cable, Paul Holmgren, etc). As for the US/UK scale issue, test the JSU and JS roms on the emulator and see if there is a difference. If there is, you now have access to the two different systems and can code for both. Tim Swenson ___ 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] Finally a reply
-- From: gdgqler gdgq...@gmail.com Sent: Monday, February 07, 2011 9:53 AM To: ql-us...@q-v-d.com Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] Finally a reply Perhaps the entire constitution of Quanta needs altering. Now where did I hear that recently ;-) I once was involved in rewriting an entire constitution. When Works Council Law was changed in the Netherlands all Works Councils had to rewrite their constitutions. We had a choice of either doing it ourselves or employing an outside consultant costing hundreds of pounds. As I was the only member of the council with the relevant skills and experience I was given the job, but at the same time the council appointed another member to be my mentor to check everything I did. In practice I found I could still keep much of the old constitution in the new one and I suspect that would be much the same in Quanta. There were model constitutions published and I also had to keep checking the new Works Council Law. In short in was a bit like pick 'n' mix. Basically Quanta would have to do is: 1: Look through the old constitution and get a rough idea of what you would like to leave in and what you would like to leave out. Then have an extensive consultation period to determine the main details. Do not rush this - it is better to take your time than do a quick botched job. (The lesson of the 2005 amendments.) 2: More than one person should be involved in the drafting. It is a bit like a superbasic program. Few of us could write a superbasic program that is totally bug free and that also applies to constitutions. Even better if the draft constitution is proofread by a person or persons not involved in the drafting. 3: Bear in mind that during the drafting matters could arise that need further consultation or decision by the committee or members. When writing the works council constitution I had to consult the council on whether we should have a personal or list voting system and had to prepare a paper on the merits and demerits of each. For example in Quanta to maintain continuity the officers currently have a three year period of office. You could have chosen instead for all committee members to serve 2 years with one half of the committee to face re-election in any one year. This is not a decision for the drafters, but the committee and/or members. 4: Publish the draft constitution well in advance to allow time for possible amendments, comments or objections. A very time consuming process, but Quanta may find it worthwhile, Best Wishes, Geoff ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Wondering...
Evening Dave, I've dug out a QL for you, with no microdrives, but it has a network lead, a TV lead and three original feet. You can have it free. If it's ok with you, I'd rather not send the power supply. :-( I've plugged it in to a LCD TV and it works fine, the picture is a bit out of focus (to my eye) and adjusting the fine tuning around channel 36 makes no difference. I suspect the UHF modulator needs a bit of time to warm up perhaps. Drop me a private email to let me know where you want it sending please: Norman (at) dunbar (hyphen) it (dot) co (dot) uk. I've got two more, one with a really bad picture and one that appears to be dead. :-( I'll worry about them some other time. Just discovered, two microdrives are present after all! Thought it was heavier than the others! I have tested all the keys on the keyboard - thay all work fine with and without shift, ctrl and alt. Looks like it's a runner. However, I have to say that it's s-l-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-w! Cheers, Norman. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: Thorpe House 61 Richardshaw Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7EL Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Approaches to parsing in SuperBASIC
Norman Dunbar wrote, on 7/Feb/11 10:49 | Feb7: So, my advice to anyone considering writing documents is simple, do it in Docbook. Do it once and create many different formats. Unfortunately the learning curve is not shallow, but it's not steep either! Well http://sourceforge.net/projects/docbook/ doesn't give the lightest clue as to what platform, and neither does the View all files link. Not a good start. Tony -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:257/67) +44(0)1442-828255 t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] USBWiz Driver Update
Adrian Ives wrote, on 7/Feb/11 12:05 | Feb7: Dave, Bill of Materials: Yes Schematics: Yes Plan: This will depend upon the likely demand. My initial question was intended to gauge this ... because, honestly, I don't know how many QLs remain in circulation and, of them, how many owners would consider buying this kind of hardware. Maybe they would like to wait and see if a microdrive-emulating SD card slot comes along ... I know I would buy one of _them_ if they were available today! Anyway, if the demand is only there for a handful of units, I will likely build them myself on an as-needed basis and then, obviously, it won't be possible to pass on the advantage of bulk pricing for the components - the most expensive of which is the USBWiz module. It's worth remembering that the single most important component of this project is the driver. Until that is completed there is really nothing viable to market. Regarding the driver, several I/O traps are still not fully implemented and proper performance and resilience testing cannot begin until that is done, but I'm making good progress. Yes indeed you are - it looks good. I have two USBWIZ modules and I saw another two at the Vienna QL show. so there is probably a market for firmware/drivers only. Tony -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:257/67) +44(0)1442-828255 t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] USBWiz Driver Update
Peter wrote, on 7/Feb/11 16:13 | Feb7: Adrian Ives wrote: Actually I think that's a shame, Peter. I know there are technical and performance issues with going the MDV emulation route, maybe even insurmountable ones, but it had that kind of Wow Factor about it. Most won't care whether the data runs through the microdrive cables/driver or not. In addition to the speed issue, internal microdrive cables are hard to plug in. ... not if you solder a SIL turned pin strip (cut from a DIL socket) into the mdv tails. That was a trick I used from my early QL repairs in the 80s. I really don't know why Thorn-EMI did not do that. Tony -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:257/67) +44(0)1442-828255 t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] Explosions here
Good God - it is hard to keep up here now. What a great trigger for postings was Geoff's dramatic email. Things were plodding along, but since then there has been unbelievable activity. Well done Geoff. Tony -- QBBS (QL fido BBS 2:257/67) +44(0)1442-828255 t...@firshman.co.uk http://firshman.co.uk Voice: +44(0)1442-828254 Fax: +44(0)1442-828255 Skype: tonyfirshman TF Services, 29 Longfield Road, TRING, Herts, HP23 4DG ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Approaches to parsing in SuperBASIC
Evening Tony, Well http://sourceforge.net/projects/docbook/ doesn't give the lightest clue as to what platform, and neither does the View all files link. Not a good start. It's ALL platforms. They are all the same. Welcome to my nightmare! That's how I got stuck even before I started. What you get from there is the XSL that validates your XML as being DocBook and allows you, with the suitable use of an XSLT processor, to convert your XML source into PDF/HTML/Whatever. I'll see if I can find some tutorials etc, but the Docbook book from O'Reilly is available on line. http://www.docbook.org/tdg/en/html/docbook.html There is also an online version of the Docbook XSL at the same location. That explains how to modify the Docbook XSl to make it do stuff how you want it to. Might help. Look also for the XML Mind Editor (XME) which comes in two flavours Personal and paid for. Look also the the XSL-FO utility which takes your XML source, an XSL stylesheet and produces whatever you want as output. XME = http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/ with the download at http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/download.shtml XSLFO = http://www.xmlmind.com/foconverter/ with the personal download at http://www.xmlmind.com/foconverter/downloadperso.shtml Both are WIndows or Linux etc. HTH - and happy to answer questions. 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
