To Minerva or not to Minerva...

[t0nyt]

Am considering installing Minerva in my main QL

Are there any particular issues/incompatibilities with it, that I should be aware of, versus JS ROM please?

(very recent history, earlier this week, tells me I'm likely to destroy my JS ROM board during removal so want to be sure Minerva is probably the way for me to go)

Many thanks

[t0nyt]

I decided to load up Minerva in Q-emuLator to test some of my software and hit an immediate problem in my menu program

I have a "RESET x" command in my own toolkit (the reset code actually comes from RES by Peter Beule)

It works fine from Minerva command line and also from a normal BASIC Program

But when run from a q-Liberated version of the program on Minerva it raises an exception, although pressing C to continue it resets and sets memory to X

Can probably find a workaround for my needs, but seems odd. I'm currently assuming the same thing will happen on real iron with Minerva

[Pr0f]

It's a while ago now, but I seem to remember there were some 'bodges' for various programs which I think included Qliberator, but the reset mechanism used by Minerva is slightly different, and you may need to account for that. There's some good documentation that comes with Minerva that should be able to help you out.

Manual from Dilwyn's site is here: https://dilwyn.qlforum.co.uk/docs/manua ... ual_11.pdf

[t0nyt]

Thanks Pr0f

The only thing I found in the manual relates to "integer tokenisation" but that doesn't fix it, and it's apparently fixed in later Q-liberator

I think I'll stick with JS ROM in my main QL for the time being and just use Minerva in Q-emuLator until I can find a workaround

EDIT: have just found the bit in the manual about machine code reset functions (I think this maybe what you were referring to?) so I'll try a modification to do it that way instead and see what happens

Many thanks

[t0nyt]

Well I modified my menu program to detect Minerva and use CALL 390,(128+x)*1024+4 (instead of my RESET x)

When it resets, the Minerva screen shows the selected amount of memory (e.g. 384KB)

However my boot program relies on checking the amount of free memory to determine whether to run a script or continue as normal

BUT if you use TK2 FREE_MEM or "INT( (PEEK_L(163856)-PEEK_L(163852)-1024)/1024)" the value returned is as if the QL was still 640KB (in q-emulator) rather than around the amount Minerva shows at start

I can't see any Minerva specific free memory function though

Any thoughts please?

Many thanks

[t0nyt]

Well I modified my menu program to detect Minerva and use CALL 390,(128+x)*1024+4 (instead of my RESET x)

When it resets, the Minerva screen shows the selected amount of memory (e.g. 384KB)

However my boot program relies on checking the amount of free memory to determine whether to run a script or continue as normal

BUT if you use TK2 FREE_MEM or "INT( (PEEK_L(163856)-PEEK_L(163852)-1024)/1024)" the value returned is as if the QL was still 640KB (in q-emulator) rather than around the amount Minerva shows at start

I can't see any Minerva specific free memory function though

Any thoughts please?

Many thanks

Mystery solved. Because I was pressing F1 it was resetting to 640K!

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

I see this as simple answer yes, to multi-tasking Basic, faster screen driver, corrected bugs on previous Qdos Roms, character translates, better system ram check on startup, Second Screen enable/disable, easy memory cut.

Okay, there maybe so e software that does not run, but this type of software isbadly written. Read page 11, of Minerva Manual.

[dex]

In my opinion, the only essential software, which does not run with Minerva, is the game Vroom.

[t0nyt]

Hi,

I see this as simple answer yes, to multi-tasking Basic, faster screen driver, corrected bugs on previous Qdos Roms, character translates, better system ram check on startup, Second Screen enable/disable, easy memory cut.

Okay, there maybe so e software that does not run, but this type of software isbadly written. Read page 11, of Minerva Manual.

Thanks. Am going to test all my existing software under Minerva in Q-emulator before making a final decision

[t0nyt]

In my opinion, the only essential software, which does not run with Minerva, is the game Vroom.

It seems to run under Minerva in q-emulator, but I’m not able to test on my QL until I make a final decision on whether to switch ROMs