Re: [Ql-Users] The Quill (Adventure Writer)

[Adrian Graham]

On 20/03/2017 10:21, "Rich Mellor"  wrote:

> Good morning all,
> 
> Does anyone have a copy of the Quill adventure writer by Gilsoft?
> 
> Tim Gilberts (who ran Gilsoft) has been looking into this and found a
> version A03 copy.  I myself only have version A00.
> 
> Tim asked if anyone has a later version than A03.

Evening all, or is it morning now.

Anyway, I have a working copy of Speccy Quill A06 and 1984 has just come
flooding back to me when I was writing bad adventures :)

Cheers,

-- 
Adrian/Witchy
Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator
Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?


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Re: [Ql-Users] toolkit-ii-the-sequel

[Jan Bredenbeek]

On 24 Mar 2017 00:28, "Marcel Kilgus"  wrote:


The problem is that QMAC cannot do conditional blocks for some dammed
reason outside of Macro calls, so it's difficult to conditionally
enably the ALTKEY keyword depening on which version was compiled. In
any case, ALTKEY should be dead really, HK II does it better (and
replaces ALTKEY with its own version).


QMAC can do conditional assembly outside macros using the GENIF and ENDGEN
keywords. Check the updates textfile for details.

Jan.
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Re: [Ql-Users] toolkit-ii-the-sequel

[Marcel Kilgus]

Jan Bredenbeek wrote:
> QMAC can do conditional assembly outside macros using the GENIF and ENDGEN
> keywords. Check the updates textfile for details.

Ah, I only checked the manual, how foolish of me ;-) Great, thanks, I
will check that out.

Marcel

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Re: [Ql-Users] toolkit-ii-the-sequel

[Marcel Kilgus]

Michael Bulford wrote:
> Thanks for fixing this, but the STAT bug remains.

Do you use QemuLator by any chance? It returns allocation size as "1
bytes" for attached directories, which the TK2 code can't handle
(never could). It expects multiples of 256 bytes. Other devices work
fine here.

> Also, ALTKEY doesn't work.  ALT ENTER does work.

The code was there, but forgot to uncomment the keyword. Updated
again.

Marcel

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Re: [Ql-Users] toolkit-ii-the-sequel

[Norman Dunbar]

Evening Michael,

The following is blatantly copied from Marcel's Web page, as linked below.

The ALTKEY code, too, is included in SMSQ/E without seeing any usage. I didn’t 
want to include it at first, because with the Hotkey System II it’s very much 
obsolete. But when tinkering with my QL system the HK2 is often not loaded yet 
and it drives me crazy when ALT+ENTER doesn’t work to recall the last line. So 
it went back in. Problem then was that the result was about 200 or 300 bytes 
too big, so I removed the ALTKEY code but left the ALT+ENTER code in.

HTH

Cheers,
Norm.

On 23 March 2017 21:59:06 GMT+00:00, Michael Bulford 
 wrote:
>On 2017-03-19 22:28, Marcel Kilgus wrote:
>
>> Why? Because I can.
>> 
>> Read the details here:
>> 
>> https://www.kilgus.net/2017/03/19/toolkit-ii-the-sequel/
>
>>>Michael Bulford wrote:
>>> I have installed the bin version on Q-emulator. My initial thoughts
>>> were that this is fantastic, since it noticeably improves the
>>> performance of my programs - they start up quicker!  
>>> However... when I enter WSTAT win5_, the output is garbled. STAT
>win5_ gives 0/0 sectors.
>
>>Ah yes, I fixed that bug in the ROM but forgot to update the _link for
>>the RESPR version. Please download again.
>
>>Marcel
>
>Thanks for fixing this, but the STAT bug remains.
>Also, ALTKEY doesn't work.  ALT ENTER does work.
>
>Michael
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-- 
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
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Re: [Ql-Users] toolkit-ii-the-sequel

[Michael Bulford]

On 2017-03-19 22:28, Marcel Kilgus wrote:

> Why? Because I can.
> 
> Read the details here:
> 
> https://www.kilgus.net/2017/03/19/toolkit-ii-the-sequel/

>>Michael Bulford wrote:
>> I have installed the bin version on Q-emulator. My initial thoughts
>> were that this is fantastic, since it noticeably improves the
>> performance of my programs - they start up quicker!  
>> However... when I enter WSTAT win5_, the output is garbled. STAT win5_ gives 
>> 0/0 sectors.

>Ah yes, I fixed that bug in the ROM but forgot to update the _link for
>the RESPR version. Please download again.

>Marcel

Thanks for fixing this, but the STAT bug remains.
Also, ALTKEY doesn't work.  ALT ENTER does work.

Michael
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Re: [Ql-Users] Stella

[John Alexander]

How can we have a conversation about efficency etc etce then in the next email 
have it all put in an FPGA?



  From: Tony Tebby 
 To: ql-us...@q-v-d.com 
 Sent: Tuesday, 21 March 2017, 10:40
 Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] Stella
   
Dave Park thinks that

"So, fair to assume it's a dead project that will never see the light of 
day."

That seems quite reasonable!

The problem can be viewed in two ways

Negatively

1) You need a system development environment that
    a) will support different processors - ruling out assembler
    b) does not impose UNIX type structures - ruling out C, C++, etc

2) You need to develop interface modules (drivers?) for a wide range of 
"peripheral" devices - the device manufacturers will not develop them 
for you.

3) You need to develop an applications base for a new market

4) You need to develop entirely different hardware architectures - this 
century, architectures have become ever more tightly dedicated to UNIX 
(Linux, Windows NT, ...)

Therefore you need $.

Positively

1) A first version of the Stella core was coded in MC68000 assembler and 
benchmarked against Solaris 2 (UNIX SVR4) showing orders of magnitude 
(under unrealistic, best case, benchmark conditions) lower system 
overheads. Sun Microsystems rejected the idea of developing the system 
saying that it would not work on either SPARC systems or symmetric 
multiprocessor systems (false) and that benchmarks were not reliable 
indicators (true). Instead they bought Chorus, a UNIX variant, which 
disappeared without trace. Not everybody will always be so stupid

2) There are signs that the "you can always use a more powerful 
computer" is becoming less acceptable as an excuse for chronically 
inefficient software.

3) There is still no end in sight to the discovery of new "exploits" in 
all sorts of Unix based devices. Unix is fundamentally unsound as well 
as chronically inefficient.

4) Unix type systems will inevitably be wiped out by other systems. We 
could hope that, unlike Unix, these will be theoretically sound and fit 
for purpose. This may not happen in our lifetime.

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.

Tony






On 18/03/2017 12:49, Ralf Reköndt wrote:
> I think, TT reads here, so he makes his own thougths about people, who 
> still remember his projects and are still interested in these.
>
> - Original Message - From: "Dave Park"
>
>> So, fair to assume it's a dead project that will never see the light 
>> of day.
>>
>> Thanks all!
>>
>> Dave
>>
>> On Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 4:10 PM, Norman Dunbar
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Sorry Dave,  I seem to have an inability to use a tablet! The url was
>>> supposed to be:
>>>
>>> https://web.archive.org/web/20050914114333/http://thgodef.
>>> nerim.net/qdos/stella/intro.html
>>>
>>> but I suspect it's Arnauld's page on Thierry's site which you 
>>> mentioned.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Norm.
>>> -- 
>>> Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity. 
>
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>
>

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Re: [Ql-Users] Subject: Re: New TK II version 2.30

[Marcel Kilgus]

Michael Bulford wrote:
> I have installed the bin version on Q-emulator. My initial thoughts
> were that this is fantastic, since it noticeably improves the
> performance of my programs - they start up quicker!  
> However... when I enter WSTAT win5_, the output is garbled. STAT win5_ gives 
> 0/0 sectors.

Ah yes, I fixed that bug in the ROM but forgot to update the _link for
the RESPR version. Please download again.

Marcel

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[Ql-Users] Subject: Re: New TK II version 2.30

[Michael Bulford]

On 2017-03-19 22:28, Marcel Kilgus wrote:

> Why? Because I can.
> 
> Read the details here:
> 
> https://www.kilgus.net/2017/03/19/toolkit-ii-the-sequel/

I have installed the bin version on Q-emulator. My initial thoughts were that 
this is fantastic, since it noticeably improves the performance of my programs 
- they start up quicker!  
However... when I enter WSTAT win5_, the output is garbled. STAT win5_ gives 
0/0 sectors.

Michael
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Re: [Ql-Users] Stella

[Arnould]

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) 
>  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
> >
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> >
> 
> -- 
> Dave Park
> Sandy Labs
> d...@sinclairql.com
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