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Software by Pal Monstad
Posted: Sat May 14, 2016 10:17 am
by RWAP
I have now contacted Pal Monstad - he has confirmed that Disk Mate 5 was made freeware some years ago (I think there is only a demo version on Dilwyn's site). Does anyone have a copy of this and the manual which was uploaded onto Pal's site (no longer available).
There are also some other titles he released which are missing in action unfortunately (including a QL game based on the TV show Jeopardy which he wrote for use in school):
You are right, I’m responsible for Disk Mate 5 software. I put the software public domain back in 2005. I used Google to try to recapture the discussion back then, and this is what I found:
https://www.mail-archive.com/search?l=q ... newest&f=1
I even remember there were made a patch to get the software work on high resolution monitors. Unlucky I have lost the source code and all my QL stuff during several moving into new houses/places during the years. I was about 16-20 years old when I programmed QL software around 1990.
I did some other programs as well, most known is probably the backup software Norback which Arvid Børretzen wrote and I transferred into The Pointer Environment. NorBack was freeware as far as I remember.
My small «company» even sold some other software developed be some mates; Index Optimum (disk indexing software) and Dicey Business (Football manager). I don’t think those titles were much known to others than me and my mates, even thought they were quite advanced at the time.
I do searching the web from time to time to get a little update about the QL community. It’s remarkable there are a (small) community left after all these years.
I’m not much into programming any more. I moved over to Atari computers and Linux. Now days my computer envolvement include Open Source projects like limesurvey.org and fogproject.org. I even run a small business developing software for schools and organizations. I have a lot of ideas but not the time to do the programming, which is done by freelancers around the world.
My main job activity is Department Manager at an adult school in the town of Haugesund (
https://www.google.no/search?q=haugesun ... 15&bih=937)
Unfortunately, he no longer has the disks with the source code.
Re: Software by Pal Monstad
Posted: Sat May 14, 2016 12:28 pm
by RWAP
Actually DiskMate 5 is already on Dilwyn's site
Maybe we need a note against the demo version on
http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/demos/ to where the full version can be found -
http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/files/
There are in fact, 2 versions of the program on that page - the original and one which was altered by Marcel Kilgus to use GD2 colours
Re: Software by Pal Monstad
Posted: Sat May 14, 2016 12:44 pm
by vanpeebles
Dicey Manager sounds interesting!
Re: Software by Pal Monstad
Posted: Mon May 16, 2016 10:56 am
by BSJR
RWAP wrote:Actually DiskMate 5 is already on Dilwyn's site
Maybe we need a note against the demo version on
http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/demos/ to where the full version can be found -
http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/files/
There are in fact, 2 versions of the program on that page - the original and one which was altered by Marcel Kilgus to use GD2 colours
My original copy of DiskMate v5.00 was bought at an Eindhoven meeting in '95 from Pal himself, updated later to v5.07. The current GD2 version is v5.10.
The problem with DM5 is that it uses the FEX keyword from FI2. FI2 suggests to use the alternative FI2_CALL in programs, to avoid the SMSQ/E keyword conflict but that doesn't help older programs that already use these commands.
To solve this I patched my own copies of FI2 and DM5 and renamed FEX to FFX so both work without conflicts. I am not aware of any others on my system that use FI2's FEX.
Bob
Re: Software by Pal Monstad
Posted: Sat May 21, 2016 6:57 pm
by RWAP
Just a quick note on Dicey Business - reading through some old issues of International QL Review (I now have 5 folders full to wade through), I see that Pal had offered a copy of "Football Manager / Director" for review in that magazine, saying that it would be offered as a commercial program, with a special price for IQLR readers of $25
I wonder if a copy was sent over to the states?
Re: Software by Pal Monstad
Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2017 1:00 pm
by Derek_Stewart
Hi,
I have been looking at the problem with Disk Mate 5 on QPC2 & SMSQmulator and every time I load Disk Mate 5 I am prompted for the current date. Since the Year is only 2 digits this is causing a problem, since we are now in 2017. I think the programme must be thinking the date is 1917 rather than 2017.
I reset my PC clock to 1999 and Disk Mate 5 started up correctly.
Resetting the PC clock back to 2017 causes a problem with the date,
I tried to email PM_DATA, but the email address in the DM5 Manual is unreachable.
I did try to contact PM-DATA, to see if the DM5 source code can be released, to correct the problem, but in a link in a message in this thread to QL-Users Mailing list Archive, Pal says he does not have the source code.
Otherwise like most Year 2000 incompatible software, it is consigned to the bin, or maybe DM5 could be re-written from the screen functions???
Re: Software by Pal Monstad
Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2017 4:11 pm
by Ralf R.
Here is a fix from Wolfgang L.:
100 DEFine PROCedure p
110 ERT HOT_KEY('g',CHR$(27))
120 EX RAM1_Dm5_Obj
130 WAIT 20
140 HOT_DO('g')
150 WAIT 20
160 HOT_DO('g')
170 WAIT 20
180 HOT_DO('g')
190 ERT HOT_REMV('g')
200 END DEFine p
Adjust the key, timings and drive to suit your system.
At least you won't have to type in the date anymore.
Re: Software by Pal Monstad
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2017 7:26 am
by Derek_Stewart
Hi Ralf,
I saw the response to my question in the QL-USERS mailing list.
I suppose that is one way to get around the problem.
My supplementary question was is it worth writting this type of problem from the DM5 usage. Since all the development software is now free. Maybe worth an look and get more experience of Easypointer 4
Re: Software by Pal Monstad
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2017 6:14 pm
by Ralf R.
I just posted this for summary. Dilwyn has used
a code from me to make a real job suspend, here elsewhere and on his homepage. In case you are looking for a WAIT.
Anyway, I always kept my sources, even the first versions. A pity, that PM hasn't done the same.
Re: Software by Pal Monstad
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2017 7:25 pm
by dilwyn
Ralf R. wrote:I just posted this for summary. Dilwyn has used
a code from me to make a real job suspend, here elsewhere and on his homepage. In case you are looking for a WAIT.
Anyway, I always kept my sources, even the first versions. A pity, that PM hasn't done the same.
The extension Ralf referred to is called SUSPEND and is available on Toolkits page on my site:
http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/tk/suspend.zip