Knoware.no

[pjw]

Nooo, please don't do it, your program are always a source of inspiration for me like a good painting. I appreciate all your program and I use them!
I know, a lot of new users are coming back that use bare BBQL for mainly retro-computing but some other 'QL Users" exists like me that believe QL (SMSQ/E) can be used as a modern system. Emulators are fast enough to perform any operations.

Please continue ....

Fabrizio

Hi Fabrizio,

Thanks for the vote of confidence! I too was/am? one of those optimists who
hung on as long as possible using my QL as my main machine. But once it became
clear that sending official letters printed in monospace courier was considered
"odd" (like some Unabomber hiding out in the hills somewhere - a potential
threat to national security!) I felt I had no choice but to succumb to brute PC.

Im glad there are people out there who havent given up, who still try to do
what they can. And who knows? Things may change. The Trump may impose embargos
on Intel etc chips to enemy entities like the EU. Thatll be our chance!

[pjw]

<>
It's a tough call but I support Fabrizio's sentiment to keep it going. I've been immersed in a bunch of project with an audience of a few but have had fun with it. Even if one person gets some join running my software (ZXSimulator on the QL and Battleship and Elite on the ZXSimulator or ZX81) then I've contributed. Of course if it costs money to host let me point you to some free hosting sites. I use infinityfree.net which lets you build your own HTML pages and have code and whatever else to accompany it. Only been using it for less than 6 months but so far have been satisfied. Plus, no ads or anything.

Thanks bwinkel67. I enjoyed following your project too! Thanks for the tip on
infinityfree.

[RalfR]

But once it becameclear that sending official letters printed in monospace courier was considered "odd" (like some Unabomber hiding out in the hills somewhere - a potential threat to national security!) I felt I had no choice but to succumb to brute PC.

Well, not really. Tony Tebby has written a program (when he has got his Epson LQ 2550 24pin printer) to lay out the monospaced letters (native from the printer) in a way to look proportional on the paper, simply done in SuperBASIC.

That program was formerly used (in its original form) to write with a daisywheel printer in the same manner. So, no excuse not to write godd shiny letters on a 128k QL .

The original printed manuals from QRAM and QPTR were printed with that. Far from the birth of text87.

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

I thought about what you have said, I agree i principle, but I want to use real QL hardware, not emulators.

My Core i7 Laptop ru s everything, but is an emulation system.

If the Q68 is too slow in High Colour/Resolution modds, what real hardwre do I use?

Looks like back to the Q60... still the best high colour system after 20 years...

[pjw]

But once it becameclear that sending official letters printed in monospace courier was considered "odd" (like some Unabomber hiding out in the hills somewhere - a potential threat to national security!) I felt I had no choice but to succumb to brute PC.

Well, not really. Tony Tebby has written a program (when he has got his Epson LQ 2550 24pin printer) to lay out the monospaced letters (native from the printer) in a way to look proportional on the paper, simply done in SuperBASIC.

That program was formerly used (in its original form) to write with a daisywheel printer in the same manner. So, no excuse not to write godd shiny letters on a 128k QL .

The original printed manuals from QRAM and QPTR were printed with that. Far from the birth of text87.

Youre right, Ralf. I guess it was just too much trouble. As for text87, for the sake of community harmony, I think I better not comment.

[pjw]

Hi,

I thought about what you have said, I agree i principle, but I want to use real QL hardware, not emulators.

Sure, me too, ideally.

My Core i7 Laptop ru s everything, but is an emulation system.

If the Q68 is too slow in High Colour/Resolution modds, what real hardwre do I use?

Looks like back to the Q60... still the best high colour system after 20 years...

But thats sort of my point: Why go backwards after 20 years? Dont get me wrong. I think the Q68 is great! Its compact, well- designed and built, and interfaces with modern components, which means it can actually be used occasionally. But there is so much talk of re-creating various forms of the old QL when to my mind, if effort is to be expended on a new device, why not try to make it significantly better? Id prefer something I could actually use! At present that means emulators. Everything else are just museum pieces to be dusted off every christmas when someone wants to play Snake, or whatever. <dons flame-retardent suit>

[pjw]

Ive now added QV/QuickView back to Knoware.no. Great(?) for viewing many
graphic file formats on SMSQ/E + GD2 capable systems. Preferably fast CPUs & large
screens, also ok for viewing typical QL -type and -sized graphics on Q68 (eg disp
mode 3) and better.
Note: This is not a finished product, neither design- nor implementation-wise!
Id like to hear back what you think: Ideas/good/bad/indifferent

[FrancoisLanciault]

Ive now added QV/QuickView back to Knoware.no. Great(?) for viewing many
graphic file formats on SMSQ/E + GD2 capable systems. Preferably fast CPUs & large
screens, also ok for viewing typical QL -type and -sized graphics on Q68 (eg disp
mode 3) and better.
Note: This is not a finished product, neither design- nor implementation-wise!
Id like to hear back what you think: Ideas/good/bad/indifferent

Thanks Per,

will try it tonight.

P.S.
I should not have downloaded your game Qombi. Now the release of Blackknight V2 will probably be postponed by a year or so.

Typical working session on Blackknight:

Change one line in the source code
Start C68 compiler
Pop-up a game of Qombi while the compiler does its job. "Just a quick game"
3 hours latter look at the compiler result -> Oh no, there was a syntax error
It's past midnight will try again tomorrow
REPEAT

[pjw]

<>
I should not have downloaded your game Qombi. Now the release of Blackknight V2 will probably be postponed by a year or so.
<>

Oh no! Please dont!
Still, Im glad you liked it
PS: At the risk of slowing down my own software production, where might I find Blackknight?

[dilwyn]

Ive now added QV/QuickView back to Knoware.no. Great(?) for viewing many
graphic file formats on SMSQ/E + GD2 capable systems. Preferably fast CPUs & large
screens, also ok for viewing typical QL -type and -sized graphics on Q68 (eg disp
mode 3) and better.
Note: This is not a finished product, neither design- nor implementation-wise!
Id like to hear back what you think: Ideas/good/bad/indifferent

Nice work Per. Handled all the files I threw at it just now. I take it the fact that both versions complain about the lack of Wolfgang's BMP extensions is that as hinted in the manual, it's a temporary measure until the final BMP routines are ready.

Will take me some time to get used to the 'alternative' (bottom right) resize. Although the crosshairs appear, resizing only seems to take place in the vertical plane? (Maybe I'm misunderstanding something here)

Would it be possible for the command line parser to assume "/F" if no command line switch is given? I have some programs which allow a viewer to be specified, but not a command line other than a simple filename.

Sizes of headerless screen files: the approach I took in some of my graphics offerings was to calculate the size for given 'standard' resolutions such as 512x256, 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 etc in the various modes and form a list of the resolutions corresponding to given file sizes in a lookup table. Far from infallible of course, and you can't tell the difference between a 512x256 16-bit colour and a 1024x256 8-bit colour, but works for most standard screen sizes used. Where GV can't deduce the screen sizes, a small popup could ask the user to enter width, height, mode, or goes to the current "can't work it out" popup and bows out gracefully. (Dilwyn goes and hides before Per sends a Norwegian whaling fleet hunting for him for causing unnecessary work... )

Table of file lengths for the most common resolutions in the various modes, also gives an idea of just how large mode 32 and 33 uncompressed graphics can be!

Code: Select all

RESOLUTION MODE  BYTES
512x256    0/8   32,768
512x384          49,152
640x480          76,800
800x600          120,000
1024x768         196,608

512x256    16    131,072
512x384          196,608
640x480          307,200
800x600          480,000
1024x768         786,432

512x256   32/33  262,144
512x384          393,216
640x480          614,400
800x600          960,000
1024x768         1,572,864

Finally, for those who haven't tried GV, here's what it looks like. I suggest XorA should not look at the picture - it's the train which broke down during his trip up mount Snowdon a couple of years ago...

qv1.jpg