Some people want to go back Andrew. CRT monitors. 2 working microdrives. There's stuff on here that forum members do that I don't care for, but am not going to criticise what others do.
Last edited by Wicksy on Mon Nov 18, 2024 2:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Wicksy wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2024 7:50 pm
Some people want to go back Andrew. CRT monitors. 2 working microdrives. There's stuff on here that forum members do that I don't care for, but am not going to criticise what others do.
I'm not criticising, I was just trying to understand. I'm an analyst and for me every project starts with "what's the benefit of doing this?"
But i completely understad that, as Pr0f put it, some people like to climb mountains.
Wicksy wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2024 7:50 pm
This for me is a concept from 1984 that never came through. Yes we had 16k cartridges on the ROM port. But for a machine that had just 100k microdrives aimed for business use, and no floppy interface at the start, this would of been a nice addition to the stock software on offer. Instant loading via the expansion bus would of been a nice trade off for the failings a stock machine had until you had extra memory and then floppy drives. And a hard disk back then would of been very rare amongst your average QL owner.
For a machine aimed for business use I am pretty sure that, even in 1984, having Psion in ROM would have made no difference without a reliable media for saving your work: a floppy disk drive.
The Amstrad PCW was a much less capable computer, but a commercial succes because it had a decent keyboard and floppy drive(s)
Derek_Stewart wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2024 7:31 pmAs Andrew says, Xchange loads in 30 seconds on a Q68, QIMSI Trump card. So it is fast enough.
If Xchange is in ROM, what about the Help files, printer drivers, where do they go, in another ROM?
It seems to be interesting for a QL user whether this can be done at all.
BTW: Where are the printer drivers found on the OPD or Tonto?
That's an interesting question on the ICL OPD. The whole way the OS works is very different to QDOS - so even the screen resolution for applications is different, as a portion of the 512x256 screen is reserved by the OS to put system info in. The printer output is directed to the ZX8302 ULA - but uses only one way serial communication, so bytes are just sent to the printer. There are various 'filters' that link into the I/O routines - and I presume printer specific formatting is handled there. So in a sense the OS is looking after the printer driving. A more knowledgable person on the OPD can step in and answer this (please!) as I would like to know in more detail too!
Agreed not a full solution, but add instant loading of the main software, extra memory, at least one floppy, a monitor, all you need then is to send off for a centronics lead!
I wanted to bring the topic up and understand the concept from the forum.
And see if someone picks up the project and succeeds or fails. But not me, I've no talent for this.
Last edited by Wicksy on Thu Aug 22, 2024 6:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
How is the operating system going integrate 4 x 16Kb rom slots, when it wants scan all rom slots?
As long as 3 of those rom slots don't have the magic header everything is OK, the OS will ignore them, but they have a fixed address relative to the 1st rom slot so code can just jump into them. Its not like they are paged like on the speccy/beeb/amstrad.....
Wicksy wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2024 8:50 pm
Agreed not a full solution, but add instant loading of the main software, extra memory, at least one floppy, a monitor, all you need then is to send off for a centronics lead!
I wanted to bring the topic up and understand the concept from the forum.
And see if someone picks up the project and succeeds or fails. But not me, I've no talent for this.
Can you write a brief summary specification of what you want., there by we can understand what is possible under the design constraints of the Sincliar QL?
Xchange, what about Archive and Quill with QL Switch as rom images with the required boot header people have talked about - and try it on an emulator to prove it first.
Last edited by Wicksy on Sat Oct 26, 2024 5:21 am, edited 4 times in total.
If you mean the scroll bug, it's present in stand-alone Quill as well. If anything, even more prone to locking up during scrolling.
How much faster would loading Xchange from EPROM likely be than from a fairly fast medium like RomDisq or SD card (even assuming it was practical to fit it all in) ?
Prof, my understanding was me concentrating on the memory map in the QL Technical guide versus the map in the concept chapter in the user guide which differs. I now see your explanation in plain sight.
Last edited by Wicksy on Sat Oct 26, 2024 5:22 am, edited 2 times in total.
