PE v2.05

[dilwyn]

The latest versions of the Pointer Environment files ptr_gen, wman and hot_rext are now available from my website at http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/pe/index.html

ptr_gen v2.05
wman v2.07
hot_rext v2.31 (in French, German and English versions).

These may not work on pre-JS ROMs (i.e. version AH or JM). For those, stick to using the ptr_gen v2.01 set.

For anyone unfamiliar with pointer environment, there are several articles available on my website at http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/docs/ptr/index.html

[belg4rion67]

Hi Dilwyn, do you know what is changed in this version of Pe? is there in some place a changelog of various versions of PE?
Thanks in advance
Paolo

[tofro]

Paolo,
as the PE is more or less a by-product of SMSQ/E now, you should refer to the SMSQ/E change logs here: http://www.wlenerz.com/smsqe/versions.html

Other than that, I don't know of any PE-specific change logs.

Regards,
Tobias

[dilwyn]

Hi Dilwyn, do you know what is changed in this version of Pe? is there in some place a changelog of various versions of PE?
Thanks in advance
Paolo

None that I know of specific to these files. As Tobias says, you may be able to get some information in the SMSQ/E sources.

If Marcel or Wolfgang are reading this, a change file like Paolo requests might be useful.

[tcat]

Hi,

I wish to share my experince with PE v2.x as I am having some difficulty to run it on my JS ROM QL. The newest v2.05 will not even run on my system.

I agree, nowadays PTR & QPAC,are meant as part of SMSQ,
but I have QDOS v1.10 JS ROM.

QPAC 1-2 v1.46 also avavailable at Dilwyn's site do require PE 2.x.

Best results on my plain QL system I have is with any PE v1.x.
I have resorted to a German version of QPAC2 v1.39, that works with PE v1.x nicely.
I am now looking for QPAC1 applications that can go with it under PE v1.x.

I cannot see a revision history of QPAC1, so I cannot realy tell which version will go with PE 1.x?
Is there a way to rebuild older versions of QPAC1-2 from Marcel sources?
Where do I find the source?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Many, many thanks in advance.
Tom

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi Tom,

I think you will find that SMSQ/E has the Extended Environment (EE), which is the inclusion of:

PTR_GEN
WMAN
HOT_REXT

QPAC1, QPAC2 are additional programmes that can be added after the the installation of the above EE.

[tcat]

Hi All,

I see, QPAC1-2 is an addon to PE.
PE as of 2.x is maintained along with SMSQ.

I have QPAC2 v1.39 for PE 1.x, what version of QPAC1 is good for PE 1.x?

Looking individually at versions of QPAC1 as kindly provided by Marcel at Dilwyn's.
Alarm v1.05
Calculator v1.05
Calendar v1.06
Clock v2.03
Sysmon v2.09
Typer v1.03

They all require PE v2.x.

Many thanks in advance.
Tom

[dilwyn]

I see, QPAC1-2 is an addon to PE.
PE as of 2.x is maintained along with SMSQ.

I have QPAC2 v1.39 for PE 1.x, what version of QPAC1 is good for PE 1.x?

Looking individually at versions of QPAC1 as kindly provided by Marcel at Dilwyn's.
Alarm v1.05
Calculator v1.05
Calendar v1.06
Clock v2.03
Sysmon v2.09
Typer v1.03

They all require PE v2.x.

Many thanks in advance.
Tom

Certainly for version AH or JM ROM, the best version of PE to use is ptr_gen v2.01/wman v2.01 (plus any fairly recent hot_rext). This should be a fairly safe and stable combination if you are unsure about compatibility with later versions on your system. Version 2.00 and later should allow most programs written for Window Manager 2 to run in standard QL colours, while earlier versions 1.xx will effectively lock you out of using a lot of recent QL software written with Window Manager 2 in mind.

ptr_gen v2.02 seems to have all sorts of issues on some machines and in my opinion is best avoided.

From about v2.02 onward, PE seems to rely more an dmore on later ROM versions. Some would work on JS without things like background redrawing, some of the more recent ones seem to need Minerva, although without a list of changes it's hard to know.

v2.03 is best used with Minerva, although I think it might be able to work on JS or MG.

v2.04 - I don't even have a copy of this!

v2.05 - most recent, definitely does not work on version AH and JM, I don't know about JS/MG/JSU etc. Works on Minerva.

Don't mistake PE with QPAC1 and QPAC2. The term QPAC stands for QL Pointer Accessories, small programs (calculator, alarm, etc) and menus (to manage files, jobs, etc) which run under pointer environment. The fact that the QPAC1 and 2 came with ptr_gen, wman and hot_rext originally probably made some people think that the names Pointer Environment and QPAC1/QPAC2 are the same thing. Some people even thought QPAC2 was a later update version of QPAC1 - they are not, you can use both at the same time. What is true though is that you can't run the QPAC programs without having pointer environment installed.

SMSQ/E has pointer environment built in - you don't need ptr_gen, wman and hot_rext.

QDOS - you have to install ptr_gen wman and hot_rext to get pointer environment.

The version numbering of SMSQ/E and ptr_gen etc are not the same - SMSQ/E is currently v3.xx while pointer environment is v2.yy (xx and yy are numbers).

[tcat]

Hi Dilwyn,

Not being an SMSQ user, thank you for explaining the basics to me.
I can confirm PE 2.05 is not good for QL JS ROM either.

Following your suggestion, I tested on JS ROM, with these resutls please see also a picture later on.

PTR_GEN v2.01
WMAN v2.05
HOT_REXT v2.29

QPAC2 v1.46

QPAC1
Alarm v1.05
Calculator v1.05
Calendar v1.06
Clock v2.03
Sysmon v2.09
Typer v1.03

Please note the version can be verified by inspecting some first 64 bytes of each code, there is a version header.

E.g. QPAC1 Alarm v1.05

Code: Select all

$ hd alarm | head
00000000  60 00 02 ca 4e 71 4a fb  00 0b 41 6c 61 72 6d 20  |`...NqJ...Alarm |
00000010  43 6c 6f 63 6b 20 20 56  31 2e 30 35 20 0a 3c 3c  |Clock  V1.05 .<<|
00000020  51 43 46 58 3e 3e 30 31  00 05 41 6c 61 72 6d 00  |QCFX>>01..Alarm.|
00000030  00 04 31 2e 30 35 0a 57  01 da 00 00 00 00 00 36  |..1.05.W.......6|
00000040  00 5a 00 00 01 3e 00 00  00 00 00 54 00 6a 00 00  |.Z...>.....T.j..|
00000050  01 7e 00 00 00 00 00 62  00 74 00 00 01 52 00 00  |.~.....b.t...R..|
00000060  00 00 00 6c 00 be 00 00  01 88 00 00 00 00 00 b6  |...l............|
00000070  00 e0 ff ff 00 23 57 68  69 63 68 20 73 79 73 74  |.....#Which syst|
00000080  65 6d 20 70 61 6c 65 74  74 65 20 73 68 6f 75 6c  |em palette shoul|
00000090  64 20 62 65 20 75 73 65  64 00 00 00 00 03 00 16  |d be used.......|

QPAC under PE 2.01

As you can see windows are not properly updated, according to Marcel the memory may be corrupt by PE, and system is not stable and indeed crashes my QL time to time.

When I test any PE 1.xx along with QPAC2 v1.39 all works fine and is stable on my QL JS ROM.
But I miss QPAC1 apps to go with PE 1.xx
I can post screen captures to proof.

As I beleive there still might be a numerous group of AH-JM-JS QL users,
my idea was to preserve for them a working set of
(a) PE 1.xx incl. PE + QPAC1 + QPAC2 - here I miss working QPAC1
(b) PE 2.xx incl. PE + QPAC1 + QPAC2 - here I miss working PTR_GEN (possibly even WMAN)

Having read QPAC 1-2 and PE manuals kindly provided at Dilwyn's, there is a reference to
QPTR - working set of _bas _asm examples and programmes for PE
MEMUCONFIG - tool to customise QPAC widgets
MENU_REXT - menu extension

Not sure where these all could be got, if preserved at all.

I appreciate ALL your effort you ALL have put in and kept QL live and kicking over the years. I can volunteer to help as well, but I am afraid my skills and knowledge limits me to be a tester rather than a maintainer.

Many thanks in advance
Tom

[tcat]

Hi Dilwyn,

Version 2.00 and later should allow most programs written for Window Manager 2 to run in standard QL colours, while earlier versions 1.xx will effectively lock you out of using a lot of recent QL software written with Window Manager 2 in mind.

I am sorry, I have no experience with SMSQ, which possibly require some uprading to TRUMP/GOLD card. So far beyond my reach and possibility.

As for WMAN v2.xx, am I right to think that it enables new applications written under >> SMSQ - GD2 << to be backward compatible with plain AH-JM-JS ROM QL's, mapping GD2 colour pallettes to standard sets of QL 4/8 colours, correct?

Many thanks for your patience and bearing with me.
Tom