The Sinclair QL Forum

mk79 wrote:

Redirect CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+TAB and CTRL+ESC from Windows to the emulator.

Woooooot woooot, thanks

Thank you for the suggestion and code!

mk79 wrote:[

Compatible again with early versions of Windows 95.

Wow, you are hardcore. I'm not even sure whether I should continue to support XP...

Probably not many Win95 users around, but I know that there are a few running it on Win98.

Yes, I hope to only support Windows >= 7 one day, it would avoid having to compile two executables and keeping around a virtual machine with old compilers for the Win9x support.

RalfR wrote:Would be good to have QemuLator to test for 2 weeks with all its things, like other SW parties do it.

Hi Ralf,

if you want to try it with all features enabled, I can send you a temporary code.

Possibly a cheeky question - but is there any possibility to allow ROM scanning in the area from 0x010000/0x014000 and again at 0x01C000 - the 32K and 16K areas either side of hte QL I/O area

I see we can place ROMS at 0x00c000 and at 0x0C0000 (ROM SLOT and Expansion area) - but not these other 2 areas.

For which operating systems would you want this change?
And for which platforms? QL or (S)GC? Or other?

And why?

Minerva does scan these addresses, but without the possibility of offering up ROM's at these addesses - that functionality is not available

Thank you so much Daniele! With regard to my needs, QemuLator is the best

mk79 wrote: I'm not even sure whether I should continue to support XP...

Concerning retro computing, I think it is also important to support OSs capable of running on slow machines and handling old hardware. Modern PCs lack floppy drives, parallel / serial ports and so on.

Cristian wrote:

mk79 wrote: I'm not even sure whether I should continue to support XP...

Concerning retro computing, I think it is also important to support OSs capable of running on slow machines and handling old hardware. Modern PCs lack floppy drives, parallel / serial ports and so on.

That's easy for you to say but very difficult to actually do. The current QPC release is still based on DirectX3, which is an API from 1996. It's a testament to the compatibility of Windows that it still works as well as it does, but modern graphics drivers don't give a rat's ass about compatibility with APIs that old, so things are getting worse every year. And people on modern PCs will complain a lot more about broken software than the two people still running Windows 95. So the next QPC will be based on Direct3D 11. That is also already 11 years old, but still very well supported, so that should give me another 10 years or so (in this case I decided to keep the old driver, not because of Windows 95 but because of WINE).

Then there are the other problems Daniele alluded to. You can't even compile Windows 95 EXE files with modern compilers. Etc etc. It's a pain and doing this stuff for free doesn't help.

Marcel

Every time that forum topic comes up when I click New posts I first think "what, someone is still running Windows 3?"

mk79 wrote:That's easy for you to say but very difficult to actually do.

Well, it's not so easy to say actually. I'm (at least partially) aware of the very hard work needed, and I respect and admire whoever does it.
I was only meaning that the utility of supporting old OSs exists (even if it's not always possible).
Thank you for sharing your reasons