Program to read QL floppies

[prime]

Hi all,

Does any software exist that can read QL floppies (or images of them) on a more modern OS such as Windows, Linux, MacOS ?

Something that would enable me to get a list of the files on the disk and manipulate them.

Failing that is there a decent description of how QL5A format is layed out ?

Cheers.

Phill.

[vanpeebles]

Qemulator can read and write QL floppies. The demo version is very good but it's well worth paying for the full one too.

[tofro]

QPC2 - which is now freely downloadable - can do the same. Both physical floppies and image files.
UQLX for Linux can read and write physical floppies - as Linux can mount an image instead of a device, you can also (indirectly) access images.
SMSQmulator can read floppy disk images as well (but not write)

A pretty good description of the format is here:
http://qdosmsq.dunbar-it.co.uk/doku.php ... sq:fs:dsdd

And there are unix C sources for reading/writing QL5A floppies from foreign OSs here (no idea about the status):
ftp://ftp.nvg.unit.no/pub/sinclair/ql/utils/ql_tools
(Interestingly, that link doesn't show the source, but this one does:)
http://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=& ... GE&cad=rja

Tobias

[dilwyn]

Hi all,
Does any software exist that can read QL floppies (or images of them) on a more modern OS such as Windows, Linux, MacOS ?
Something that would enable me to get a list of the files on the disk and manipulate them.
Failing that is there a decent description of how QL5A format is layed out ?
Cheers.
Phill.

Try Jonathan Hudson's wxqt2. It runs on Windows 7 and IIRC there's a Linux version too.

Download it from http://www.daria.co.uk/qdos/ - it needs the qxltool and qltools softwares from the same page, as it's essentially a graphical front end for those programs. It comes with sources etc so it can be hard to pick out what you need for a minimal installation, here's what I have on my setup:

qltools.exe, qxltool.exe, wx22_0.dll, wxqt2.exe, wxqt2.hhp

I run it OK on Windows 7 64 bit (it's a 32 bit program) but fails to pick up the help file wxqt2.hhp for reasons I haven't figured out yet, but despite that just click on the OK button when the error shows and it starts OK. I keep meaning to package up the minimal runtime for this to put on my website with links to the full version on Jonathan's site, but never seem to find time...

Speaking of QLTools, there's the QDC (Quintessential Disc Cloner) from Jonathan. From memory, I can't remember if it's a separate program or part of the QLtools package.

If you want to work with QL disk images, there are some Windows programs out there which will read QL disks:

Floppy Image 1.52 for 720K disks - http://ql.bytemaniacos.com/tiki-index.p ... dades%20PC
Floopy for 1.4MB disks - http://neofreeman.freepgs.com/maxpert/floopy.php
There's also RAWREAD and RAWRITE tools, haven't got the URL off hand, although a while back I did come across a RAWRITE for Windows (since the older DOS version doesn't always work on some versions of Windows).

Let us know how you get on, prime!

[prime]

Thanks all for the replies, I got a copy of qltools and compiled it for windows. I've also patched it slightly so that the input file can have a full path when writing to qdos disks.

Cheers.

Phill.

[Mr_Navigator]

I run it OK on Windows 7 64 bit (it's a 32 bit program) but fails to pick up the help file wxqt2.hhp for reasons I haven't figured out yet, but despite that just click on the OK button when the error shows and it starts OK. I keep meaning to package up the minimal runtime for this to put on my website with links to the full version on Jonathan's site, but never seem to find time.!

They changed the process for help under 64-bit version of Windows I believe and it no longer is supported, also the Windows Help program is not supported in Windows Server 2012 or later versions of Windows Server.

A help page for supposedly overcoming that issue to see the 'help files' is here:

It involves installing another program.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607

[dilwyn]

They changed the process for help under 64-bit version of Windows I believe and it no longer is supported, also the Windows Help program is not supported in Windows Server 2012 or later versions of Windows Server.
A help page for supposedly overcoming that issue to see the 'help files' is here:
It involves installing another program.[/color]
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607

I tried this and it didn't help in this case, but may be helpful for something else I was intending to try.
The problem is more to do with setting an environment variable to find the help files. The Wxqt2 manual is helpful on the Unix variety, but just says the usual anti-Windows things when it comes to Windows. Basically, it implies using SET WXQT2_HELP_DIR=path and mentions a registry edit, without really explaining anything, you can tell the author didn't really want to do a Windows version!

Anyway, I've got round to packaging up the WXQT2 binaries for Windows, it'll run despite not being able to find the help. Help is just a wxqt2.html file you can start in Windows anyway.

Source files are there too if anyone wants to have a look.

WXQT2 needs QXLtool and QLTools, both on the Files page on my website, along with a link to the original files on Jonathan's website.
http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/files/index.html

[dilwyn]

Forgot to mention, I also uploaded a copy of Frederic van der Plancke's QXLWIN Explorer software (a Windows program) to browse, view and copy files from a QXL.WIN to Windows. It can also transfer executable QL program files to QLAY and QemuLator formats - well, it says it can, I've never tried using it with QLay and QemuLator.

[Mr_Navigator]

Forgot to mention, I also uploaded a copy of Frederic van der Plancke's QXLWIN Explorer software (a Windows program) to browse, view and copy files from a QXL.WIN to Windows. It can also transfer executable QL program files to QLAY and QemuLator formats - well, it says it can, I've never tried using it with QLay and QemuLator.

Tried this program on Windows 8.1, it works well, transferred basic and executable files and ran TheEditor on Q-emulator no problems

[Ralf R.]

Is there a program, which turns a pre-formatted PC disk (DD+HD) into a native QL disk, e.g. writing a suitable empty map? As formatting is not possible with QPC2 I need one.

Cheers...Ralf