The Sinclair QL Forum

look at his You Tube channel for a history of Gilsoft:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POqaQLs ... dvaw6gffmJ

Derek_Stewart wrote: Sun Jun 16, 2024 3:38 pm look at his You Tube channel for a history of Gilsoft:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POqaQLs ... dvaw6gffmJ

Thank you for sharing this material

This article mentions the author of the QL version. He may still have a copy of the A08 version? Long shot, but you never know.
http://8-bit.info/2017/01/22/the-gilsoft-legacy/

Seems like he has a github page (Linux filesystem stuff). Assuming it's the same person.
https://github.com/huwpowell?tab=repositories

Sparrowhawk wrote: Mon Jun 17, 2024 9:42 am This article mentions the author of the QL version. He may still have a copy of the A08 version? Long shot, but you never know.
http://8-bit.info/2017/01/22/the-gilsoft-legacy/

Seems like he has a github page (Linux filesystem stuff). Assuming it's the same person.
https://github.com/huwpowell?tab=repositories

Already (weeks ago) was asked by Phoebus, and he has not.
The last update was what was told here few post ago, somebody who contacted him with a version of Quill (not the last but pretty mature).
Or ... any of us that could have it in a forgotten MDV.

But all together not only we get more chances to get it, but also enjoy knowing about that matter and little jewels of QL Scene (for me at least)
Thanks

Thanks all for the effort you are putting into searching for this - I did try to find a later version than A03 some years back (wow was it 2017!!!) - as I have a floppy version of that:

viewtopic.php?p=35964&hilit=gilsoft+quill#p35964

But, things got in the way and nothing ever turned up. The copy on e-bay re-invigorated the effort but, got too high for my liking and there was no guarantee it worked or what version it was.

I am currently investigating the A07 version that Rich kindly sent over to see if it cures all the known bugs and what if any remain. So we may finally have a version that is worth using... and therefore releasing.

Hi,

I was going tk bid on the Quill on Ebay, but the same, too high.

Which is a pity, I would of looked into disassembling or decompiling the binary file to maybe get an idea on how to update it.

The Youtube video of the history of Gillsoft gives no indication of the language they used to produce Quill.

But looks a dead horse, so I will use DPs ACT which does the same thing.

Derek,

I have the A03 source code (written in 68K ASM I think with the Metacomco assembler but, my memory may have failed me on that) which I have since recovered from anther floppy so no real need to disassemble that version of the Quill.

I have had no luck getting the A07 version that Richard sent me running on my uQLx - the A03 image I recovered above still works fine so I don;t think it is the emulator. I did I think correctly use the unzip inside the emulator to extract the files to a virtual mdv but, it just hangs after the title screen on the EXEC_W of the binary.

My plan was to disassemble the A07 and compare the source changes to recover the A07 source.

So if anyone has another image of A07 or later it would be appreciated.

Tim

The A07 locks at this screen which in the boot loader is at line 290 and does EXEC_W mdv1_quillA07
As there are no pics of it running here is the A03 screen that should come up after the loading screen:
and then the two menu screens

Timbucus wrote: Tue Jun 18, 2024 10:07 pm The A07 locks at this screen which in the boot loader is at line 290 and does EXEC_W mdv1_quillA07

Have you tested it in QEmulator, with the program in the DOS directory? It might be because of the header .
My version of Quill vA07 works in QEmulator, but I had no time to test it on a real QL yet.

Hi Andrew,
I will test your version tomorrow in a break in a real QL.
Well... not from my MDVs that doesn't work but from MDPs that I have working fine and do the job same than MDVs.


About source code, ASM is not my best shoot, but... if there is a chance to get the source code in C or another/similar language, it would be nice to look into it.