Re: [Ql-Users] Windows, Linux and QPC
On Fri, 2008-01-04 at 13:10 +0100, Marcel Kilgus wrote: Since when is there a Linux version of QemuLator? There isn't: what I meant was it works with Wine, unlike QPC. On Fri, 2008-01-04 at 09:22 +0100, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I might give it a try, but as I say, I'd prefer QPC. Would there be a big difference? When I'm using QemuLator, it's like using a QL and I don't notice the emulator or Wine. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] Programming
On Mon, 2007-12-10 at 20:40 +, Dilwyn Jones wrote: The one thing he hasn't mastered yet is programming, though he's sitting up and taking note at how easy it is for me to write things in S*BASIC and he's wanting to get into writing games. Tell him to have a look at wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide I still use SuperBasic (endlessly putting off converting to FreeBasic) under QemuLator, but if I were starting again I'd definitely try Python. David ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [Ql-Users] mode 8
On Wed, 2007-08-29 at 19:40 +0100, Dilwyn Jones wrote: What seems to be happening is that on QemuLator at least PE seems to be misunderstanding what's happening and there's confusion as a mode 4 program tries to display in mode 8 and the mode 8 program just has a blank screen, then when I CTRL C around the running programs, eventually things get back to normal. Anybody got any idea what's going on? I'm using PE v2.01. I've just tried mixing displays in QemuLator: selecting MODE 8 in SuperBasic and then starting The Editor, which naturally runs in MODE 4. Everything worked OK. I'm using Minerva with WMAN 1.53 and PTR_GEN 1.71. I have tried later versions of the PE, but they were all disasters! David ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[Ql-Users] Optical drive needs new home
Having just given my PC a DVD-writer, I now have an optical drive for anyone who needs it: CD 52x32x read/write, DVD 16x read-only black fascia Ultima (OEM, as made for Artec) 3 years old, very light use £5 including postage and packing, UK only ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[ql-users] QL Today back issues
Would anyone like volumes 7-10 of QL Today? I think the postage and packing would be £10 or so. David ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [ql-users] Text87
Marcel Kilgus wrote: For high colour mode there is a patch available against a small fee (12 EUR from JMS). Tobias Fröschle wrote: tried it, doesn't work (recon, Text87's config, does work indeed in 512x256). Thanks for the tip, anyway. Which bit didn't work? If the problem was that recon would run in 512x265 but wouldn't configure the program, then you may have been trying to configure your working copy rather than the master copy, and I'm not sure whether you can do that. If the problem was that the patch didn't get Text87 to work in high-colour mode, than you may not have the very latest version of Text87, which is the only one that will patch. If that's the case, you can get an upgrade from QBranch. There may also be a question of order: configure first, then patch, may be correct. David ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [ql-users] Backing up..
On the question of backups, it's not just the media that pose the problem. I once got a QL floppy corrupted by accidentally leaving it under a sheet of paper and then running an electric cable over the top! I made the damaged sectors readable by overwriting each with 512 0s and so recovered the files. After I'd got the Text87 files off the disk, I stripped out the formatting, imported the text, and restored the missing sentences from memory. I've just created a M$ doc and looked at it: no readable text in sight! And an odt file from OpenOffice is a compressed archive: one crucial byte lost and it couldn't be opened. The moral would seem to be: keep more than one backup and restore them regularly. As for me, I'm still keeping copies of everything less than 1.4MB on floppies. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [ql-users] Wiki
On Wed, 2007-04-04 at 21:11 +0100, Dilwyn Jones wrote: There's scope here for someone to write a quick and simple guide to creating pages on this system. Does the QL Wiki use the same tools as Wikipedia? If so, that has some good pages on how to write for it, and the sandbox where you can practice. I think the QL Wiki looks very promising: it should grow into the best guide to all things QL/QDOS. The front page, with its list of actual articles, needs to be more of a contents list referring to submenus or general articles -- otherwise it's going to get out of hand as we all (hopefully) rush to contribute. e.g. something like History Hardware -- QL, Thor, QXL, Aurora, Q40, Q60 Firmware -- Operating systems, SuperBasic Software -- Games, Programming languages, Applications, Applets, Desktops ... Traders and Personalities ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [ql-users] QL, Spectrum, and PC
On Tue, 2007-04-03 at 18:44 +0100, Roy Wood wrote: In all fairness here this is not a M$ problem but sheer laziness on the part of the companies concerned. I know you're very keen on Windows, Roy, but you're missing the point ... and this a point which applied (to some extent) to SMSQ. An operating system is just there to run your applications and manage your files. It's the job of the creator of a new version to make sure that it can cope with existing applications and files. The problem with the broadband connections was not with the ISP software, but with the drivers for the modems. There aren't that many chipsets for these, and M$ could have tried them out. IE7 has also been available for a while and runs on XP so why not check on an older machine first to see if it causes problems. A reasonable question for home users, but large companies expect the OS and software compatabilities to be sorted out by the publishers: after all, they pay enough in licence and support fees. M$ have always been like this. I remember in the 80s when their own Pascal compiler failed the ISO test because of compatability problems with MSDOS! ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[ql-users] QL, Spectrum, and PC
What benefits does a QL have over a Spectrum? Great fun for people who enjoy programming. It's simple enough to understand (unlike the PC or Mac) but powerful enough to do something interesting (unlike the old home computers). I remember my triumph in producing a very small machine-code program to give a beep, high or low as appropriate, when the caps-lock key was pressed -- and I'm not really interested in programming. I wouldn't know where to start doing that for a PC. I had a book to explain the innards QDOS, but I'd have to read the source code to see how Linux works. First rule of computing ... never buy version 1.0 I've just had an email from Tiscali: The introduction of Windows Vista has caused some problems throughout the industry. These are due due to incompatibility issues with other software. If you are upgrading to Vista there are scenarios where you may experience problems, such as being unable to connect to the Internet. ... We expect to have a complete solution in the next few weeks. We suggest you wait until this is ready before purchasing Vista. I expect other ISPs will have sent similar messages. I've also seen a blog from a company who found that their security software wouldn't work with IE7 but IE6 wouldn't work with Vista. They contacted M$ and got the suggestion that they turn off the security until the problem was fixed! I hope the QL community are all to wise (old?) to have got caught. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[ql-users] Abandonware + Retro computing
Although English law does not recognise the concept of abandonware, it would not be a good move for software authors to sue someone for distributing software which has long since ceased to be sold. English copyright law only allows compensation to be paid on the basis of lost revenue: if the income from your product is zero, you don't have much of a claim! The best they could do is seek an injunction to stop you distributing, which would be a waste of time and money on their part. The other day I ran into http://www.machine-room.org This is a virtual museum of old computers. The webmaster has some interesting comments (see the FAQ page) on how much you can do with an old machine and the sense in sticking with a system that works. It seems that an Apple II and some BBC Bs are still doing their stuff for Edingburgh University! ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [ql-users] Hardware and software - new horizons
On Sat, 2007-02-17 at 15:24 +0100, Bob Spelten wrote: When I searched for the latest version of DBAS I got version 2.13 from the Quanta librarian (Dec 2002) who told me YOU were the one that last tinkered with it. Does this mean you lost your own commented source code? Not guilty! I never had the source-code and wouldn't be able to do much with it if I had. On Fri, 2007-02-16 at 17:47 +, Malcolm Cadman wrote: David, you should raise more issues about the Q60 on this list. No need to wait 2 years again ... :-(. I don't have any Q60 issues any more. When no one could tell me how to get Text87 to run, I got a PC and ran OpenOffice instead. This low-specification, home-built machine runs at 20 time the speed of the Q60, and, apart from a few QL legacy programs, linux gives me everything I want -- for free. As for the Q60, that lives in storage, since no one wanted to buy it. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [ql-users] Hardware and software - new horizons
On Thu, 2007-02-15 at 23:02 +0100, Peter Graf wrote: I don't think Richard gave up UQLX. Some other QL wheels also need to be turned, so there may be different priorities. Usually, if you email him, he sends you more recent code. Then why is the old, uncompilable version still on his website, a site which hasn't been updated since 2002? This ties in with the problem that other people raised last night about the availability of documentation. There is too much work which has been done but which is inaccessible for others to build on. One of the many reasons I have for preferring SuperBasic to XBasic is the availability of dbas. But this is another project which got abandoned. I may be out of date, but the last time I looked the version supplied with the commercial front end for it (can't remember the name) was older than the one I'm using (2.13). Quanta had a copy of the commented source code, not for inclusion in the library (why?), but they lost it ... I even bought a Q60 to stay in the QL world (a step further than most of those reading this rant!), but my experiences (recounted in QL Today) were hardly encouraging. Bad documentation and lack of help. For example, my query about how to run Text87 on it was circulated on the internet and in Quanta, yet it took two years to find the answer: by accident. By that time, I'd naturally switched to OpenOffice. I liked the QL and its operating system (rather Unix-like in a way), but I fear the QL community are their own worse enemies. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [ql-users] QL Emulator for Linux
On Thu, 2007-01-11 at 01:29 +, Rick Chagouri-Brindle wrote: I've tried googling but all the options seem woefully out of date, so I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of a QL emulator for Linux? If you can debug UQLX and get it to compile with modern versions of gcc, you'll be QL man of the year! I use QemuLator under Wine. I'm writing an article about it for Quanta, but basically it works quite well. The double emulation does lead to some problems, but nothing I can't live with. Try it: the demo version has enough features to give you the feel of it, or even to use if you don't need to much. Good luck, David ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [ql-users] Happy new year
On Tue, 2007-01-02 at 19:09 +, Dilwyn Jones wrote: There are all sorts of Welsh add-ons for Windows and its applications. Trouble is, they tend to be expensive as they are for a small market. Last year saw the launch of Agored, the Welsh language version of Open Office -- free, of course. If you want good language support, come over to Linux! ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [ql-users] Q60 and Text87
On Wed, 2006-10-04 at 11:29 +0200, Marcel Kilgus wrote: David McCann wrote: It did *not* enable Text87 to run under SMSQ on my Q60, and I reported the fact in QUANTA. Ah, I was not aware that there is any problem with it. What are the symptoms? After all this time I can barely remember! I think when I started Text87 I got a quick flash of the black screen and then the program terminated itself. It was quite happy on the Q60 with QDOS and I know people run it with SMSQ on the Q40. Since I no longer have a copy of Text87, I can't say any more. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[ql-users] Q60 and Text87
When I bought a Q60 a couple of years ago, Text87 would not run under SMSQ. It worked under QDOS on the Q60 and under SMSQ on the Q40, but the combination Q60+SMSQ+Text87 was impossible. The question is, did anyone ever solve that problem, say with the newer versions of SMSQ? Someone offered to buy my Q60 the other day, but I warned him off when I discovered he needed Text87. Was I keeping him from making the same mistake I did, or missing a chance to get shot of the the most expensive door-stop I ever bought? ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[ql-users] QHelp
I've re-installed QHelp from the zip files. Everything is in exactly the same directories as before, yet now it works. Aren't computers wonderful? ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[ql-users] QHelp
Thanks Derek, for the menu_rext extensions. I've just installed them and I have progress: instead of the error DIR_SELECT$ bad name I now get DIR_SELECT$ bad parameter! Thanks Rich for your contribution. I have the help files and index in WIN1_basic_help_, because that's where I was told to put them by QHelp_doc! I shall experiment further. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[ql-users] QHelp
I've just checked the zip files on the QHelp master very carefully, and there is *no* menu_rext. More to the point, the boot supplied does not load it: just ptr_gen, wman, qlib_run, and hot_rext -- all of which I have! Is DIR_SELECT$ really part of menu_rext? So the problem remains: why does QHelp complain that DIR_SELECT$ is a bad name now under an emulator, when it ran perfectly well on a black box? When I got my QL in 198? I was impressed by how much easier to use it was than my PC at work. Nowadays I'm constantly noticing how much easier Linux is! For anyone who's wrestled with installing QL Lynx, compare the Linux installation: just type rpm -i Lynx. And then the QL version needs half a dozen environment variables set every time you run it. I've never needed to set an environment variable for a Linux program. It seems that as other computers have got simpler, the QL has got more confusing (and confused). ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
Re: [ql-users] QHelp and menu_rext
Obviously I must have failed to transfer menu_rext when moving from QL to PC but ... I've dug out the QHelp disk (I kept all my masters) and no menu_rext, only sigext30_res! If Rich says I had it, I must take his word for it, but it's all very strange. I've tried to have a look on the Q60 support disks, on the off-chance that I might find a copy there, but qltools won't read them! Can someone please tell me where to get menu_rext or email me a copy? I don't fancy having to exhume my mothballed Q60 to see it it's there! ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[ql-users] QHelp
I've recently tried to use QHelp (version 1.04) under QemuLator. It refused to run and I got a (QLiberator?) error screen with the message that DIR_SELECT$ was a bad name. This is not too surprising as I've never heard of DIR_SELECT$ and it's not listed in QHelp's index file. So why didn't I have this trouble on the black box? Where do I get DIR_SELECT$? ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[ql-users] Q-emuLator
I've finally completed my conversion from the black box to a PC. I'm using Q-emuLator, which I'd recommend, but there are a few bugs. Since I'm running it under Linux with the aid of Wine, I'd be interested to hear whether the bugs exists when it runs directly under Windows. Are there any users on this mailing list? 1. The Minerva compose sequence (ctrl-enter) is ignored. 2. When returning to QE from multitasking with a Linux application, it behaves as if ctrl were held down until that key is pressed. 3. With SuperBasic, entering edit xxx erases line xxx. 4. SB programs loaded from flp1 (but not flp2), including boot, often report a bad line error on line 0, although they respond to RUN. 5. The Editor sometimes refuses to load a file from the HD with a bad medium report, though the file can be loaded from RAM disk. David ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[ql-users] QStripper
Implementing T87 support would be a nightmare. QL2PC tries to convert T91 files to rtf, but the process is very uncertain. For fonts, T87 just puts a NUL wherever a font change occurs, and then lists the changes at the different offsets in the formatting information. Unfortunately, when you alter a file, stray NULs get left behind: T87 ignores them, but they confuse QL2PC terribly. When I converted my T91 files to OpenOffice, I had to take them over as plain text and reformat. And that's just fonts -- heaven knows what T87 does with its paragraph and page information. And don't bother to ask Fred! David ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[ql-users] UQLX
I tried Fabrizio Diversi's compiled version (thanks for making it available, Fabrizio) of UQLX, but still no luck. Attempting to run qm just gave the error message segmentation fault. It looks as if I shall have to get Wine and try QEmulator. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
[ql-users] UQLX
I've just tried to compile UQLX using gcc version 3.4.2 under Fedora 3. The only result was was a 90KB error log! I know there are people out there using UQLX, so what am I doing wrong? I tried to email the author, but the address on the web site no longer exists. ___ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
