Joystick/Sound in Supervisor mode?

[t0nyt]

Well I’ve had an initial read of Andrew Pennels book to wet my appetite for 68008 assembler and to get some idea of what I’m up against vs what I’ve done before on other processors

Am going to start the slow (and steep) path to writing a graphics game I have in mind

Currently my thoughts are to disable qdos (so I can make use of the 2nd screen area) as I can still access the keyboard

But am still unsure whether I’ll be able to access the joystick and generate sound in supervisor mode

Could any 68008 assembler experts advise whether this will be a problem please?

I’ll be concentrating on the graphics side of things to start with, but if joystick/sound will be a problem then I’ll need to take a different approach

Many thanks for any thoughts/advise please

[tofro]

This sort of depends. With standard QDOS ROMs (I tried JS and MG), keyboard and sound requests via MT.IPCOM tend to work for me in supervisor mode (don't inhibit interrupts, though). SMSQ/E also seems to be fine with them.

They don't work with Minerva (crashes), and there's possible work-arounds, but with Minerva you don't necessarily need supervisor mode to free the second screen, instead Minerva has an extended MT.DMODE call.

[t0nyt]

This sort of depends. With standard QDOS ROMs (I tried JS and MG), keyboard and sound requests via MT.IPCOM tend to work for me in supervisor mode. SMSQ/E also seems to be fine with them.

They don't work with Minerva (crashes), and there's possible work-arounds, but with Minerva you don't necessarily need supervisor mode to free the second screen.

Thanks Tofro

Will be developing it on JS, so will look into MT.IPCOM thanks

Though if I find I can get the effect I want without the 2nd screen I may go down that route for greater compatibility. Got a lot to learn

[janbredenbeek]

You need to disable interrupts anyway on standard QDOS when using the second screen. But MT.IPCOM keeps working as it communicates directly with the IPC, so keyboard input and sound output is still possible.

[t0nyt]

You need to disable interrupts anyway on standard QDOS when using the second screen. But MT.IPCOM keeps working as it communicates directly with the IPC, so keyboard input and sound output is still possible.

Many Thanks

[t0nyt]

I'm trying to decide which native software to use for Development and I've become a bit confused (no shock there)

I have a complete package of the Sinclair branded GST QL-Macro Assembler and also an original Metacomco Assembler MDV cart

But when I launch the editor BOTH packages launch the same Metacomco Editor (the other files are different though)

I assumed they'd be different please?

Many thanks

[tofro]

I'm trying to decide which native software to use for Development and I've become a bit confused (no shock there)

I have a complete package of the Sinclair branded GST QL-Macro Assembler and also an original Metacomco Assembler MDV cart

But when I launch the editor BOTH packages launch the same Metacomco Editor (the other files are different though)

I assumed they'd be different please?

Many thanks

Well, the packages are different (while functionally more or less equivalent), simply using the same Metacomco editor which was somehow the standard editor in the early QL days (But you can use everything else instead of it, I'd recommend QD if you run the PE or MasterSpy if not - or Jan's excellent editor). Feature-wise, the packages don't really differ much (they differ in the syntax for assembler directives and macros), but I'd say the GST one is somewhat more common and you'll find much more code examples for it in the wild (it was and still is the main development system for the QL, used by Tebby and many more for their software) . I would definitively recommend using GST - But make sure you use the Quanta-enhanced instead of the Sinclair-branded version, it adds some features like conditional assembly that you don't want to miss.

[t0nyt]

Many thanks Tofro

That explains the editor, just seemed a bit odd!

Will take a look at the Quanta version

Many thanks

[t0nyt]

Have settled on the Quanta version of GST but have replaced the QED_exe with Jans v2 QED

(BTW I couldn't find any version of QED that matched the downloadable, from Dilwyn's download pages, Quanta QED manual though, but my old physical manual seems to have the correct commands. e.g. the Quanta manual has most of the commands being linked to pressing F2 but that gives no option to enter a command)

Many thanks for the advise

[janbredenbeek]

Have settled on the Quanta version of GST but have replaced the QED_exe with Jans v2 QED

(BTW I couldn't find any version of QED that matched the downloadable, from Dilwyn's download pages, Quanta QED manual though, but my old physical manual seems to have the correct commands. e.g. the Quanta manual has most of the commands being linked to pressing F2 but that gives no option to enter a command)

The latest version is available at https://github.com/janbredenbeek/QED

(in fact, my QED is really a clone of the Metacomco editor but entirely rewritten in Assembler - back in 1988 speed was really relevant on a BBQL without Gold Card ).