Q-emulator + SuperForth from Digital Precision = error

[78squirel78]

This is the content of Superforth win directory, attached as flp1_

[RWAP]

You did not attach the contents listing - I would suggest another screenshot showing the results of DIR flp1_ - the reason I say this is that I have come across a couple of instances in q-emulator (running under Windows) where a file does not exist in the DIR flp1_ listing, but it is definitely within the folder!

However, the program normally still works.

You seem to be running q-emulator on a MAC (?) - just wondered if possibly the filename is causing issues on your system

[78squirel78]

Hi,

I added a picture.
dir flp1_ shows the content of mounted Superforth directory (level 1 of attachment).

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/he4o25k7n6gq ... FIaNa?dl=0

What puzzles me is that it is a ".job" file. I don't see an executable one. But this is perhaps normal.
I do not know the philosophy and principles of QL.
The only thing I know is that this version of Forth is awsome.
I made an excel datasheet with several 80's Forth version, entering all the
words of each version in a separate column, to have a real comparison, not only
about richness of vocabulary (in that case I take win32forth, wich is a crazy solution
with 5000 words), but also functionalitys in a max of 500 words.
QL and superforth are absolute winners !!!

[tofro]

Ah!

Now that's a simple one.

Apparently unpacking the zip converted "_" to "."

Change the BOOT program to "160 EXEC 'flp1_forth83.job '" (mind the inner quotes and . vs. _ !) , SAVE, and Bob is your uncle.

BTW: QDOS does not enforce any extension to any type of file, like DOS or Windows do. "_EXE" or "_OBJ" is just convention, not obligation for executable jobs.

Regards,
Tobias

[78squirel78]

Ok, I did like you expected with the quotes and "dot"


https://www.dropbox.com/sh/he4o25k7n6gq ... FIaNa?dl=0

[78squirel78]

As you can see it is Windows 8

[tofro]

Right. QDOS is a bit picky between what's a "name" and what's a "file name" (i.e., a "string").
EX can use both parameter types, but something containing a dot can't be a name according to QDOS rules.

Golden rule: If your filename contains anything else but plain characters, numbers and "_", it needs to go in quotes.

Code: Select all

160 EXEC 'flp1_forth83.job' 

should do the job (pun intended )

[tofro]

The interesting thing here is that apparently, some of the QDOS versions of zip and unzip seem to be converting back and forth between "." and "_" when it looks like a divider between extension and file name, some others don't.

Obviously, this conversion is nearly always not desirable (as in this case), so I wonder why it was implemented in the first place...

Tobias

[RWAP]

Ok, I did like you expected with the quotes and "dot"


https://www.dropbox.com/sh/he4o25k7n6gq ... FIaNa?dl=0

This shows the bad parameter error - bascially see above - you unzipped the fiel using Windows (which resulting in the file being called forth.job instead of forth_job (the .fth files, .doc file and .asm file are also incorrectly using the dot instead of underscore).

So, apart from the filenames, you now have the same problem that by unzipping the file using Windows, you have stipped the QL file header from the file (which is needed to identify it as an executable file, and also specify the amount of dataspace required).

As I said previously, you would have avoided all of these errors if you had attached the original zip file to flp2_ and you could then attach a blank directory to flp1_ and used WCOPY flp2_ TO flp1_ to copy the files over from the zip file to a Windows directory, whilst maintaining the filenames and the file headers...

[78squirel78]

Hi,

Thank you so much for your help.
Yes I mounted a Blank WIN directory and the ZIP on the two drives.
hOPEFULLY I have read somewhere , that flp's should not be mounted from
higher directory level than 2.
So they are now at level 1.

I have seen all the different messages coming up, and
will replicate installation on the Win 7 PC,
waiting for a nice QL on eBay. I saw one last week for 200€.
There are some but in spanish and they look so-so .....

Again thanks and best regards from Paris !

Guy