Search found 2682 matches

by tofro
Wed Feb 28, 2024 11:03 am
Forum: The Off-Topic Section
Topic: Wordpress.com - warning if you use this site
Replies: 4
Views: 158

Re: Wordpress.com - warning if you use this site

I know some of us have a blog on Wordpress.com, so this might be of interest. Also, if you have a Tumblr account too. https://www.404media.co/tumblr-and-wordpress-to-sell-users-data-to-train-ai-tools/ It appears that these two sites will be selling your data, images, documents and such like to trai...
by tofro
Wed Feb 28, 2024 10:53 am
Forum: General QL Chat
Topic: SMSQ/E Executables
Replies: 17
Views: 601

Re: SMSQ/E Executables

Or is the dataspace strictly required before loading? Of course it is. The first thing EX does is allocate memory in one piece for the program plus the data space (done by MT.CREAT, which wants both the program size and the needed data space). Then load the binary into the beginning of the allocate...
by tofro
Wed Feb 28, 2024 9:38 am
Forum: General QL Chat
Topic: SMSQ/E Executables
Replies: 17
Views: 601

Re: SMSQ/E Executables

SMSQ/E has a way to encode data space size of executables (and nothing else) into the file name. Terrible. I don't have the slightest idea why SMSQ/E doesn't support the XTcc trailer instead. That's likely a performance thing. Parsing a file name (which you have anyways) for a digit and multiply by...
by tofro
Wed Feb 28, 2024 8:38 am
Forum: General QL Chat
Topic: SMSQ/E Executables
Replies: 17
Views: 601

Re: SMSQ/E Executables

Hi, I asked advice from Wolfgang Lenerz. Who had a quick look at the code, that seems to be true (the file is given the extension"EX"), but he did not didn't really investigate any further (file dv3_msd_drset_asm). The file date is in 1998.... So it would seem, that an executable file cou...
by tofro
Tue Feb 27, 2024 4:00 pm
Forum: General QL Chat
Topic: SMSQ/E Executables
Replies: 17
Views: 601

Re: SMSQ/E Executables

I think it was in the context of QL core for the Spectrum Next Can you say more, for those of us not on Facebook? - In another thread if it's likely to spawn a discussion and hijack this one? (it will, I will pester you for more info :D) I know there was one as a work in progress by Victor Trucco, ...
by tofro
Tue Feb 27, 2024 1:44 pm
Forum: Software & Programming
Topic: Drawing Speed of Sprite/Tile in Assembler
Replies: 17
Views: 702

Re: Drawing Speed of Sprite/Tile in Assembler

Thanks both, great info for me to mull over thanks It does mean, as far as I can get my head around currently, that I'll have to sacrifice "black" so I can use 0 for transparency, but given the speed savings of pre-expanding my sprites I think that's fine Many thanks You can, of course, s...
by tofro
Tue Feb 27, 2024 1:15 pm
Forum: General QL Chat
Topic: SMSQ/E Executables
Replies: 17
Views: 601

Re: SMSQ/E Executables

Hi, I thought the emulator programme: QPC2 v5, SMSQmulator, SQLux, Q-Emulator added QDOS header or trailer to store the executable information. The emulator programme then removed this header/trailer when moved to a QDOS environment. What is being implied on the QL Facebook Group, is that SMSQ/E ha...
by tofro
Tue Feb 27, 2024 12:15 pm
Forum: Software & Programming
Topic: Drawing Speed of Sprite/Tile in Assembler
Replies: 17
Views: 702

Re: Drawing Speed of Sprite/Tile in Assembler

On the QL, whatever your sprite format is, convert it to "screen-compatible format" not in the drawing loop, but rather outside if you want to be fast. On the QL it makes a lot of sense to pre-process the sprite data upfront (either by doing it in an initialisation routine or even outside ...
by tofro
Mon Feb 26, 2024 6:53 pm
Forum: Hardware
Topic: Hooking up modem that draws power from serial port
Replies: 4
Views: 254

Re: Hooking up modem that draws power from serial port

Such modems typically draw power from the DTR line.

On the QL, it's even simpler: Both pinouts of the serial versions have a +12V pin.
by tofro
Mon Feb 26, 2024 11:24 am
Forum: Hardware
Topic: SMSQ/E on Atari
Replies: 11
Views: 527

Re: SMSQ/E on Atari

I re-partitioned my SD card to use some smaller "GEM" partitions with 16MB and that now seems to work, even on an external ACSI harddisk 16 MB was a lot back in those days ;) Sorry, but I know my Atari and SMSQ partitions were larger than 16Mb. Back in the day SMSQ/E supported at least GE...