Quill from Gilsoft

[aalea]

Based on la version A07 I have create this:
https://github.com/alvaroalea/QL_TheQuill_Tools

It's not finish yet, but allow to convert to and from a text file to the database of the quill. (It's for PC/Linux and under QL you need a specific header, this is not solved yet)

It's use a format similar to other tools (ngpaws mainly, and the unquill from John Elliot) so it's posible to convert adventures of other system to QL (and there about like 800).

As the manual for QL is not available, I'm also documenting all the things that I found different to other systems, perhaps this can help to found the differences between A07 and others.

[Timbucus]

Based on la version A07 I have create this:
https://github.com/alvaroalea/QL_TheQuill_Tools
...
As the manual for QL is not available, I'm also documenting all the things that I found different to other systems, perhaps this can help to found the differences between A07 and others.

This is great work and thank you for the effort on keeping the system alive.

The manual is on the MDV and FLP image as it was supplied as a File?

Tim

[aalea]

As the manual for QL is not available....

The manual is on the MDV and FLP image as it was supplied as a File?

OMG! I was thinking that files were part of The Quill, they are simple .txt files, thank you so much for tell it me!.

[Andrew]

Not everybody might be aware that there already are some third-party QUILL tools:

- unPAWS - UnPAWS v2.1 takes snapshot files (.SNA, .SP, .Z80) of Spectrum games written with PAWS or Quill system (version A or C), and produces text listings of the game database. (DOS and Win95 program with PASCAL source - i think it can easily be recompiled for QL) This program was developed first by Jose Luis Cebrian, and then ported to pascal and improved by Carlos Sanchez. Releases starting from version 1.0 are maintained by Alexander Katz.
- QUILL_TO_BASIC - Converts QUILL adventures into SuperBASIC - Written by Alan Pemberton, 1989
- QUILL_CHEAT_BAS - Allows you to read the text contained in QUILL adventures. - Written by Alan Pemberton, 1989
- QUILL_NEW_CODE - This replaces the machine code used by all Quill adventures to ensure that the display is not corrupted on SMSQ/E systems when the text in the adventure reaches the bottom of the screen. - Written by Rich Mellor 1998 (v1.00)
- QUILL_WINDS_BAS - This is a short program which allows you to change the colours used by the bottom window of the adventure. - Written by Alan Pemberton, 1989
- UnQUILL - UnQuill takes snapshot files (.SNA) of Spectrum QUILL games and produces textual listings of the data tables which control them. From this it is possible to reconstruct it on another gamewriting system. (C source)
- FixTheQuill.ssd - i have no idea what this is or does and I had no time to dig into it. It looks like some executable of some sort, but I have no idea about the platform

I guess that the source code might be useful for those who want to better understand the Quill data structures.