QPC2: Mouse move as cursor emulation

Discussion and advice about emulating the QL on other machines.
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Ralf R.

QPC2: Mouse move as cursor emulation

Post by Ralf R. »

As far as I know, the QPC2 mouse is realized like a QIMI connected mouse. What would be nice is, if it can be switched to a cursor emulation (similar to Albin Hessler's SERmouse), so it can be used in Editors, in (older) graphic programms and so on. Even Professional Publisher would be mor usable.

I know, that holding down the left button while moving the mouse does emulate the cursor but I find this a bit circumstancially and not really usable.

Has anybody thought about that?


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dilwyn
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Re: QPC2: Mouse move as cursor emulation

Post by dilwyn »

Ralf R. wrote:As far as I know, the QPC2 mouse is realized like a QIMI connected mouse. What would be nice is, if it can be switched to a cursor emulation (similar to Albin Hessler's SERmouse), so it can be used in Editors, in (older) graphic programms and so on. Even Professional Publisher would be mor usable.
I know, that holding down the left button while moving the mouse does emulate the cursor but I find this a bit circumstancially and not really usable.
Has anybody thought about that?
While this does not directly answer your question, Simon Goodwin created a nice piece of code in his DIY Toolkit Volume I (letter i, not number one!) which handles serial mice and transmits their signals to the QL as cursor key presses. There may be relevant code in there you could look at to try to implement what you want in QPC2 perhaps. Volume i includes assembler source as well as some examples in BASIC. DIY Toolkit page can be downloaded from http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/tk/index.html or http://simon.mooli.org.uk/QL/DIY_Toolkit.html


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tofro
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Re: QPC2: Mouse move as cursor emulation

Post by tofro »

Hmmm.

My QPC2 does have cursor emulation?

It just uses the mouse wheel for that which I find ideal. I personally find this way less confusing than a mouse that does sometimes move the pointer and sometimes the cursor.......

Tobias


ʎɐqǝ ɯoɹɟ ǝq oʇ ƃuᴉoƃ ʇou sᴉ pɹɐoqʎǝʞ ʇxǝu ʎɯ 'ɹɐǝp ɥO
Ralf R.

Re: QPC2: Mouse move as cursor emulation

Post by Ralf R. »

tofro wrote:Hmmm.

My QPC2 does have cursor emulation?

It just uses the mouse wheel for that which I find ideal. I personally find this way less confusing than a mouse that does sometimes move the pointer and sometimes the cursor.......

Tobias
Yes, but just the wheel, not the moving of the mouse. What I want is to use the mouse as a cursor.


Ralf R.

Re: QPC2: Mouse move as cursor emulation

Post by Ralf R. »

I asked Marcel, he seems not to be interested. I would appreciate any idea.


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tofro
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Re: QPC2: Mouse move as cursor emulation

Post by tofro »

Ralf,

why don't you write it yourself?

You need:
- EasyPtr
- Turbo
- Turbo Toolkit

Write a small program that does a RDPT in a tight loop (on #0, for example, with a termination vector of 8 for "Mouse moved"). In that loop, check whether the mouse moved left more than a certain threshold, if yes, do a TYPE_IN of the cursor left character. Do the same for the other 3 directions.
Build in some sort of hot key that allows you to switch this feature on and off. Otherwise you will be ending up with a non-working mouse. You need to run the program with very low priority and might have to put a pause in the loop in order not to use up too much CPU

Compile, run, done. ;)

(Has some small limitations, if the mouse hits the screen edge, your cursor will stop - If your program detects this, it should position the mouse in the centre of the screen (and ignore that specific move)).
If you like, give the system cursor a transparent shape once your feature is on (so you don't have a stray mouse cursor moving around the place)

Just checked this with QD and interpreted BASIC, seems to work.....

Tobias


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RWAP
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Re: QPC2: Mouse move as cursor emulation

Post by RWAP »

Now, from memory, there is actually something built into the QIMI interface already....

Is it hold down a mouse key whilst the QL boots - unfortunately, I don't think this can work in QPC2...


Ralf R.

Re: QPC2: Mouse move as cursor emulation

Post by Ralf R. »

Perhaps you're confusing this with holding down the left mouse button, then move the mouse, this moves the Cursor.

But this is not very practical.
RWAP wrote:Now, from memory, there is actually something built into the QIMI interface already....

Is it hold down a mouse key whilst the QL boots - unfortunately, I don't think this can work in QPC2...


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