Today…

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QLvsJAGUAR
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Today…

Post by QLvsJAGUAR »

Today…
While Apple most probably will show new shiny products today (see http://www.apple.com/apple-events/september-2015/), it is exactly 6 years since I moved my Sinclair collection into the rooms which eventually became the Lake Valley Retro Labs (LVRL). In one of my first videos published one can see the QL and Mac united side-by-side and a good line-up of the Sinclair QL compatible machines. See https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... EC2F8E050A

I may also release something today…

QL forever!
Urs


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Re: Today…

Post by QLvsJAGUAR »

Two minutes before the Apple keynote starts, I'm releasing QL/E as a stand-alone edition. See the Sinclair QL net website (link in the message footer below).

QL forever!
Urs (off to watch the keynote)


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Re: Today…

Post by QLvsJAGUAR »

The current “completed download” count for the STANDALONE edition of QL/E since release day 2015-09-09 is 36! A slightly improved version (3.11) has been released this evening. Major changes are related to new versions SMSQmulator and SMSQ/E. Follow the link in the signature below. QL forever! Cheers, Urs


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vanpeebles
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Re: Today…

Post by vanpeebles »

What would be the best way of running the standalone QL/E on a raspberry pi2? :)


Derek_Stewart
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Re: Today…

Post by Derek_Stewart »

Hi,

If you edit the .uqlxrc file with the QXL.WIN file, something like:

DEVICE = WIN1,~/qm/QLE.WIN,qdos-fs

For more information try reading the UQLX documentation in the DOCS directory.


Regards,

Derek
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tofro
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Re: Today…

Post by tofro »

Peter, Derek,

for SMSQMulator, its most probably pretty straightforward.

For uqlx, it might be a bit more tricky, if not impossible.

uqlx doesn't support SMSQ/E, so you might (most probably: will) run into a lot of tiny incompatibilities between SMSQ/E SBASIC and Minerva SuperBASIC (you will need to use Minerva, as it is the only ROM that will allow you more than the standard 640k memory and higher resolutions that you are aiming for.)

Once you have sorted this, you will run into some bigger problem: while uqlx+Minerva allows you to use higher resolutions than the standard 512x256 in mode 4, there's no high color support. A lot of software on QL/E will not run properly in MODE 4 (There are MODE 4 versions of e.g. QPAC2 and some other PE programs, but i doubt that for example QDT will be running happily in mode 4.)

Note you will need to load the Extended Environment separately that comes with SMSQ/E, but not Minerva. Pick the Pointer Environment files from Dilwyn's site and pick some pretty recent ones that will support most of the GD2 commands (even if the color is not there...)

Some of the older stuff like Urs's own software will probably run unmodified, though.

But, just go ahead and try (Derek pointed you in the right direction), will probably be a challenging task. But even if you get only half of the programs in QL/E running, you will be rewarded with a huge amount of worthy software.

Tobias


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vanpeebles
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Re: Today…

Post by vanpeebles »

What would need to be on the pi first? Is there some kind of set up that would jump straight into the QL?


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QLvsJAGUAR
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Re: Today…

Post by QLvsJAGUAR »

Generally all what Tobias said is correct.

The BOOT program and default configuration of QL/E is fine-tuned for SMSQ/E with GD2 support in High Colour mode. 1st hand target systems are QPC2, SMSQmulator, Qx0 and QXL.

Today I gave the unmodified QL/E under SMSQmulator (Java 7) a go on my unmodified Raspberry Pi Model B. As expected it runs, but is sooo slowww. It is so slow that even some dependencies in the BOOT program (controlled by PAUSE) do not work out resulting in some programs being not that nicely positioned on screen.

For the current release of QL/E I’ve added some tests (IF clauses) to make it somehow compatible with QPC1 (DOS) and its related version of SMSQ/E (v2b93, non GD2). Like Tobias wrote QDT and other GD2 software will not work properly on non GD2 systems (such as QPC1 or systems with QDOS or Minerva). Hence one has to use the procedure QLE_CFG of the BOOT program first and disable QDT. Recent versions of QPAC2 will also fail. To be on the save side set the Desktops flags to 10000000 (QTop only).

Running QL/E under QDOS/Minerva should be possible if one disables certain features in the BOOT program (QLSSS, Photon, Photo QL, etc.) and load some system extensions such as the Extended Pointer Environment (PTR_gen, WMAN, HOT_rext). QL/E already comes with the needed files. No need to download from Dilwyn’s site. Just look into the folder WIN1_sys_lgc_ (lgc stands for legacy). In addition QL/E comes with a bunch of older versions of QPAC2 which could run on older systems. DIR win1_sys_QPAC2_ will show you the available versions.

Altogether it should be not a huge task to modify the BOOT program to support a system such as uQLx with QDOS (v1.10 and later) or Minerva. You could try and report here. Maybe I also take this on my task list for a future release.

QL forever!
Urs


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Re: Today…

Post by QLvsJAGUAR »

QLvsJAGUAR wrote:Altogether it should be not a huge task to modify the BOOT program to support a system such as uQLx with QDOS (v1.10 and later) or Minerva. You could try and report here. Maybe I also take this on my task list for a future release.
Urs
No one really took up the line, so I had to do it on my own.

QL/E v3.13 is out today. Major changes and enhancements are in the BOOT program. The start-up sequence has been reworked and enhanced to enable QL/E to also run on QPC1, uQLx (Raspberry PI), QL with QL-SD (should also run on the MIST) and Q-emuLator. As a goody QL/E now comes with Per Witte’s D-Miner game and an adapted version of Francois Lanciault’s 2048 game.

I’m not yet perfectly happy about how fast QL/E loads on original QLs and how stable it runs on such BBQLs. With 640KB or less QL/E is hardly usable. I recommend disabling all desktops but one (QTop is not that demanding). On QLs with Gold Card or Super Gold Card QL/E is quite usable. On QXL and all virtual QLs (emulators) QL/E rocks.

Download link see message footer below.

QL forever!

Cheers,
Urs


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Re: Today…

Post by QLvsJAGUAR »

QL/E v3.14, Codename "Fix-it", Edition 1607 is out now. Enjoy.


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