The Sinclair QL Forum

I'm tinkering with the mentioned interfaces - for the first steps I just downloaded the QL/E packages from Urs' website (thanks!!!). What really surprised me was the fact that huge amounts of RAM are eaten after boot: from ~900 KB RAM only 220 KB (Tetraoid) to 280 KB (QL-SD) are left. That's more than a vanilla 128K QL, but nevertheless a lot of a little more modern software won't even start (i.e. Launchpad). Is this due to the QL/E specific configuration or is this something I have to live with?

Hi,

QL/E is great, but if you do not need QTop, Prowess, QDT, maybe only the Extended Environment (Qpac2) and Qascade is better.

Launchpad works perfectly assuming it is indtalled and configured correctly, it is probably a better solution for a QLSD based QL with 640K ram.

Derek_Stewart wrote: Thu Apr 27, 2023 4:11 pm Hi,

QL/E is great, but if you do not need QTop, Prowess, QDT, maybe only the Extended Environment (Qpac2) and Qascade is better.

Launchpad works perfectly assuming it is indtalled and configured correctly, it is probably a better solution for a QLSD based QL with 640K ram.

Ok, that sounds like a plan - I'll try to strip the booted components down and try to re-install Launchpad when more RAM is avaiable...

Note that there are two versions of Launchpad, with differing requirements:

1. Version 1 should run on just about anything with expanded memory and pointer environment. It is heavily graphical, so like a lot of PE programs it will consume a significant amount of memory. Will also work on SMSQ/E.

2. Version 2 is a bit more demanding. It will need a version of pointer environment offering Window Manager 2 features. On QDOS this means pointer environment later than v2.00 (suitable ptr_gen, wman and hot_rext available on my site if the version you download does not come with these files). Will also run on versions of SMSQ/E from version 3.0 or later (i.e. versions offering WMAN2).

cha05e90 wrote: Thu Apr 27, 2023 2:41 pm I'm tinkering with the mentioned interfaces - for the first steps I just downloaded the QL/E packages from Urs' website (thanks!!!). What really surprised me was the fact that huge amounts of RAM are eaten after boot: from ~900 KB RAM only 220 KB (Tetraoid) to 280 KB (QL-SD) are left. That's more than a vanilla 128K QL, but nevertheless a lot of a little more modern software won't even start (i.e. Launchpad). Is this due to the QL/E specific configuration or is this something I have to live with?

Thank you for the valued feedback! Feedback is a rare good. I think per 100 downloads I get approx. 1 feedback.

Your message was a trigger to remind me that the TDI edition of the latest QL/E v3.22 (RTM 30.12.2022) was still unreleased as was the TDI edition of v3.22 (RTM 31.12.2021). I spent quite some hours way back in April 2022 and January 2023 on those, even with valued support from Alain to find the best partition scheme to gain as much free memory as possible. QL/E v3.22 QU with TDI offers 319 KB free memory after booting, which is a 100 KB improvement from the last released v3.20.

Main reason why the TDI edition of the latest QL/E version was still unreleased, was the fact that on February 3rd I discovered a bug if the ConFiGurator program (WIN1_DO_CFG) of QL/E. But in February and March I had other mandatory priorities. Those following me on YouTube may know/guess what.

Thanks to your message, I used the time communting to and from the office today with the train to fix the above mentioned bug (tested using QPC2, fingers crossed that it also works on TDI) and finalised the TDI edition of QL/E v3.22. It's now available for download.

cha05e90 wrote: Fri Apr 28, 2023 9:32 am

Derek_Stewart wrote: Thu Apr 27, 2023 4:11 pm Hi,

QL/E is great, but if you do not need QTop, Prowess, QDT, maybe only the Extended Environment (Qpac2) and Qascade is better.

Launchpad works perfectly assuming it is indtalled and configured correctly, it is probably a better solution for a QLSD based QL with 640K ram.

Ok, that sounds like a plan - I'll try to strip the booted components down and try to re-install Launchpad when more RAM is avaiable...

Just a short note that QL/E v3.22 (RTM 30.12.2022) has Launchpad2 installed. And, use QL/E's ConFiGuration program CFG to fine-tune QL/E for your needs. This may offer even more FREE MEMORY.

Can you confirm any improvement in FREE_MEMORY and boot-up time with latest QL/E v3.22?

And, have you able to enable Launchpad in QL/E v3.22 using CFG.?