THINGS programming under QDOS

[tcat]

Hi all,

After having read an introduction on the THINGS by Joechem Merz, I wish to explore further.
I know THINGS are built into SMS system.

But how about programming under normal QDOS (not SMS)? I believe it possible, as QPAC2 is programmed as a set of different things, so the THING system must be defined within it, correct?

A couple of questions now arising...
- what is the binary I need to tie my calls to?
- THING calls are documented in SMS reference manual, can these be used?
- what other programmer's documentation best to use?
- are there any source code examples available in Assembly, Super BASIC, etc?

Many thanks
Tom

[NormanDunbar]

I've been attempting to understand Thing programming for years, and to find some examples etc that were documented, but with no luck.

Good luck in your quest!


Cheers,
Norm.

[tofro]

Tom,
you need to be loading Hotkey System II in order to have Things on QDOS.

The SMS manual is alright for using as introductory documentation. SMSQ/E and QDOS Things are not like in SMS2 accessed through a trap, but through a vector instead.

There is actually only very few code examples floating around - The best were probably in a number of QL Todays written by Jochen himself and George Gwilt. I do remember one article from Jochen that was pretty much covering it all, but can't remember where it was. Maybe you have the DVD, that would help.
Another article is here: http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/docs/ptr/thingdoc.zip

To my knowledge, there is Thing bindings for (obviously) assembler and C68.

Regards,
Tobias