Search found 168 matches

by TMD2003
Sun Jan 15, 2023 11:45 pm
Forum: Software & Programming
Topic: What the QL has done for me...
Replies: 0
Views: 4973

What the QL has done for me...

Here's a screenshot I just made, on a computer that thinks it's a QL, but obviously isn't really. https://www.rickdangerous.co.uk/zx/misc/qltest.png Despite the odd text size, It's just a Spectrum screenshot, isn't it? Isn't it? Clearly that's just a load of PLOT and DRAW statements that's done that...
by TMD2003
Sat Apr 23, 2022 5:36 pm
Forum: The Off-Topic Section
Topic: Happy Birthday!
Replies: 426
Views: 211648

Re: Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, Spectrum, and cheers for being there for me even when I didn't realise I needed it. I would say "allow me to spin a yarn with only the mildest of apologies for those who have heard it all before, or who might read it on any other Sinclair-related forum"... but I re-read it ...
by TMD2003
Sat Apr 23, 2022 2:20 pm
Forum: Software & Programming
Topic: The Noob's Machine Code Thread
Replies: 24
Views: 4899

Re: The Noob's Machine Code Thread

The problem of porting BASIC programs gets worse, I have been porting some Spectrum programmes which apart from the Spectrum PRINT statement being different on the QL, that is no formatting statements allowed in the QL PRINT command. The main problem area is that Spectrum BASIC allows varaibles and...
by TMD2003
Thu Apr 21, 2022 8:54 pm
Forum: Software & Programming
Topic: The Noob's Machine Code Thread
Replies: 24
Views: 4899

Re: The Noob's Machine Code Thread

Good advice on the procedures, there! It seems I''ve done something I curse Spectrum programmers for when I'm using BASin to write with - it gets very angry if, say, the programmer has used any token names to define a variable - IN, OUT, IF and TO being the most obvious offenders. I wasn't thinking ...
by TMD2003
Wed Apr 20, 2022 7:50 pm
Forum: Software & Programming
Topic: The Noob's Machine Code Thread
Replies: 24
Views: 4899

Re: The Noob's Machine Code Thread

Looking through your guide, it did occur to me that I might have to do an "add 1"/"sub 1" instruction for INC and DEC. It's good to know about the DBRA ending at -1 as well - at least I'd know to decrease the count from Z80 code by 1. Provided I remember, that is... Anyway, this ...
by TMD2003
Mon Apr 18, 2022 6:15 pm
Forum: Software & Programming
Topic: The Noob's Machine Code Thread
Replies: 24
Views: 4899

Re: The Noob's Machine Code Thread

Congraturation, I sucsess! I now have 168 bytes of 68008 machine code that does what I want it to do. It's very crude, that's for certain - though less crude than the ZX81 original. All I have yet to work out is how to make loops, as I have yet to find if there's an equivalent of INC, DEC and DJNZ (...
by TMD2003
Mon Apr 18, 2022 3:43 pm
Forum: Software & Programming
Topic: The Noob's Machine Code Thread
Replies: 24
Views: 4899

Re: The Noob's Machine Code Thread

Right, now I'm getting somewhere. I found DC.B and BSR within about five minutes of the last post. Thinking that I might only have RTS to deal with, my original Z80 code had RET C to return early from the subroutine - I've changed it to JR C,{labelled_RETline} to jump to the final RET, it adds one b...
by TMD2003
Mon Apr 18, 2022 2:21 pm
Forum: Software & Programming
Topic: The Noob's Machine Code Thread
Replies: 24
Views: 4899

Re: The Noob's Machine Code Thread

I would advise starting with the eBook version of the long running series in QL Today . That's available to download from https://github.com/NormanDunbar/QLAssemblyLanguageBook/releases/latest. I'm looking at it now. Before the weekend I compiled a list of Z80 instruction groups that I'd need to be...
by TMD2003
Fri Apr 15, 2022 2:10 pm
Forum: Software & Programming
Topic: The Noob's Machine Code Thread
Replies: 24
Views: 4899

Re: The Noob's Machine Code Thread

The "correct" way is to create a new SuperBasic keyword that takes 4 parameters and returns the result as a string, no PEEKing and POKEing. What you're planning is a botch, but should work in principle. Well... that's what I've already done, seeing as that's what two years of fiddling aro...
by TMD2003
Thu Apr 14, 2022 11:15 pm
Forum: Software & Programming
Topic: The Noob's Machine Code Thread
Replies: 24
Views: 4899

The Noob's Machine Code Thread

I may have been away a while, but I am not dead. And over the last three days, I've been hammering away on a QL again. (Well, QemuLator, but you get the idea). And I have written a fine SuperBASIC program - which works exactly the way I want it to, except for a few sound effects that I haven't exper...