The Sinclair QL Forum

Tinyfpga wrote:QPC runs so slowly (very, very slowly) in the panda, that it's unusable. I tried the program on my ancient laptop (Lenovo R60 with XP) and it runs perfectly well, so there is something about the panda (a faster machine) that is causing the problem.

Any ideas what could be wrong?

If I had to guess (and I have to guess), I would say graphics driver. Is it up to date? You could also try the old "DirectDraw" driver in QPC settings.

XorA wrote:It runs fine on this device which is a similar CPU as your latte panda. It has 4gb of ram and runs fine. But it is the z8750 variant.

Wow, that looks neat

mk79 guesses well.
I didn't take any notice of the driver or filter settings. The default settings that appear on my screen are DiectDraw and Anisotropic. I tried Direct3D and all is well now, thank you.

The effect is extraordinary. The files menu took nearly 4 seconds to draw with QPC set to DirectDraw and about 1/4 of a second with Direct 3D, ie. at least 16 times faster.

SMS-in-Panda is about the same speed as SMS-in-Pi, which is fine, but it is still much slower than running SMS on a Lenovo R60 (2006) or an even older XP machine (2004) with a display output resolution quite close to the Panda's HD display output.

I have to say that I think Windows 10 is awful. It does not even look nice and to add spice to the mix, the Panda has no cooling and thus runs so hot that the the Z8350 has to be throttled to 0.77 Ghz. See pic below:-
What I like about this state of affairs, as far as executing QPC is concerned, is that after 16 years of PC development, not only has Windows become impossibly complex, but we have computers that are significantly slower. (They are of course much smaller which is nice).

I have no idea where Windows is heading but for Personal Computing use it does not seem to be in a particularly attractive direction.
Even though the Panda is not connected to the internet, Windows 10 is still desperately trying to force me to switch it on. The PC is wanting to become a kind of "gigantic mainframe in the cloud terminal".

I think it was a great shame that the SMS2/Stella project failed because, had it succeeded, it might have given personal computing fans a plausible alternative.

Don't get me wrong. The work done by dedicated QL enthusiasts has kept a bit of this project alive, and for that, I am very grateful. Without this work I would not have my Q68, SMS-in-PC and SMS-in-Pi and all the very useful software that makes them a pleasure to use. The ability to use SMS applications in high resolutions is also of great importance.

I have to say that I think Windows 10 is awful. It does not even look nice and to add spice to the mix, the Panda has no cooling and thus runs so hot that the the Z8350 has to be throttled to 0.77 Ghz. See pic below:-

Cant really blame Win10 for bad hardware design Pi also suffers from this and most Pi users also buy the heatsink/fan cases to get around it.

I have no idea where Windows is heading but for Personal Computing use it does not seem to be in a particularly attractive direction.
Even though the Panda is not connected to the internet, Windows 10 is still desperately trying to force me to switch it on. The PC is wanting to become a kind of "gigantic mainframe in the cloud terminal".

Unfortunately when most of the population are idiots when it comes to tech and the number of bad actors is increasing this becomes necessary Its not just Win10 in this direction, Linux, IOS, MacOS etc are all the same. Modern security model needs constant connection with other entities!

Don't get me wrong. The work done by dedicated QL enthusiasts has kept a bit of this project alive, and for that, I am very grateful. Without this work I would not have my Q68, SMS-in-PC and SMS-in-Pi and all the very useful software that makes them a pleasure to use. The ability to use SMS applications in high resolutions is also of great importance.

Back on topic and Port SMSq/e to x86_64 and the number of bad actors rapidly approaches zero

I have experimented with various QPCs, including the latest, on various machines and have realised that some of what I reported is nonsense. Thus I am about to go and print, in spiral form, a copy of the QPC manual because I find reading on-screen a real pain.

The manual may contain some clues as to the odd results I am experiencing. Once I have read the manual and if there are no objections, I will have a few more questions I would like to pose.

I had a strong urge to reply to XorA's post in a lighthearted manor but as this is too difficult I thought the better of it.
There does not seem to be a "lighthearted, will probably be misunderstood, is not really very witty or clever, but one thinks it is" emoji.

Interesting installation experience on Linux under wine.

I double-clicked the installer and, as usual, it worked. However, I was only presented with the option to do a full, partial or custom install, and then on the next screen it simply installed. I had no choice of telling it where to go! As it turned out, it wen't into "c:\program files (x86)\QLC2...." which is where it would have been placed, with all my older versions.

I'm just wondering if Wine is playing silly beggars or if there should have been a "choose location" option? I'm not bothered, it's installed and running so no worries, but it just seemed weird.

Cheers,
Norm.

I use an installer framework and I install QPC myself very seldom, but I just tried it and apparently you get this when it detects an existing install. Some sort of update mode I guess.

Thanks Marcel. Mystery solved.

Cheers,
Norm.

Hi,

Is it possible to have a version of qpC2 that is zipped up and does not need installed?

Derek_Stewart wrote:Hi,

Is it possible to have a version of qpC2 that is zipped up and does not need installed?

Yes,would be nice to be able to create a portable installation on, say, a USB pen drive. Not got round yet to trying to copy out the files manually from an installation to see if this still works (assuming I can find the ini file, probably in the Users folders).