Moved ZXSimulator page to better free hosting site

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bwinkel67
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Moved ZXSimulator page to better free hosting site

Post by bwinkel67 »

I moved my website for ZXSimulator to a new hosting service. InfinityFree.net was nice and all but had this policy of deleting web pages that had very little traffic on them for 30 days. You got a warning and then 3 days later it was wiped clean with no recovery. Their reasoning was to make room for others, which I can accept but it's not practical for the low traffic that these retro sites can get.

I found FreeWHA.com and I already can tell I like them from their interface (see pic below) as it seems to be volunteer based and active since 2005. Like InfinityFree.net, there is no front-end web-builder. You simply copy your HTML files and all support files and you have your webpage. So it's old school, which I really like as it gives you a lot of freedom and avoids the frustration of trying to use a managed environment that only fits a finite number of templates (I've used Wordpress, and though convenient, just very hard to do anything beyond what they give you).
freewha.png
So the new web address for ZXSimulator is:

http://ZXSimulator.orgfree.com

I know there may be some wondering whether spending money on a website is worth it if it has very little traffic so here you can just move it to a free site. If you have your own domain, you seem to be able to use that (haven't tried it), otherwise they have a choice of a handful .biz and .com. I don't think this would be a good landing space for the more involved ones (like Dilwyn's - grateful for his contribution to the QL in doing so) but smaller ones might fit in there nicely. I will update on how it goes after 6 months. I did know beforehand that InfinityFree.net may have issues but haven't heard anything negative so far from FreeWHA.com...


Derek_Stewart
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Re: Moved ZXSimulator page to better free hosting site

Post by Derek_Stewart »

Hi,

QPC1 can run in Dosbox can you produce a web page to show it running.

This might be more stakle than QLAY


Regards,

Derek
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mk79
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Re: Moved ZXSimulator page to better free hosting site

Post by mk79 »

Started this project a few months ago after this thread but eventually ran out of time. Main problem is that the QPC1 SMSQ/E is relatively old and most of the current software doesn't work with it anymore, so I had to downgrade quite a few tools for the demo disc: https://www.kilgus.net/qpc/live/


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bwinkel67
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Re: Moved ZXSimulator page to better free hosting site

Post by bwinkel67 »

mk79 wrote:Started this project a few months ago after this thread but eventually ran out of time. Main problem is that the QPC1 SMSQ/E is relatively old and most of the current software doesn't work with it anymore, so I had to downgrade quite a few tools for the demo disc: https://www.kilgus.net/qpc/live/
I got QPC1 to boot in DOSBox. A few questions, can it be set up to take the entire screen of DOSBox for 512x256 and can you get around the "press key" to continue? Presently I got QLAY to configure so that it autoboots in QDOS (no waiting at the prompt and I use JS ROM since I wanted the iconic QL boot screen to show -- so no Minerva). The reason I'd switch to something else like QPC1 and forgo the boot screen is if it did the graphics faster in DOSBox in full screen. I'm not sure if currently the slow graphics is a result of DOSBox, not QLAY, in full screen mode. I could get better performance but then QLAY would only take up about 75-80 percent of the screen which wouldn't look great for ZXSimultor to be a small screen inside a small screen. Other then that slow down, there are no issues with QLAY. I do like that I can just stuff all the files into a Windows directory in QLAY and zip up. I'm assuming something similar with QPC1?


Derek_Stewart
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Re: Moved ZXSimulator page to better free hosting site

Post by Derek_Stewart »

HI,

There is a manual for QPC:
QPCMAN_E.zip
QPC MANUAL
(6.35 KiB) Downloaded 207 times
The command line accepts a command line switch -R to auto run the emulation process.
QPCMAN_E wrote: QPC Command line

All options can also be set as command line parameters for QPC. Possible
parameters are (instead of the hyphen '-' a slash '/' can be used too):

-R(run) this parameter starts the emulation immediately without waiting for
a key press
-M:x set the memory size. X can be a value from 1 through 16
-V:x set the screen mode. X can be set to values 0 through 3:
0 is 512x256,
1 is 640x350
2 is 640x480
3 is 800x600
-F:x set the boot disk device.
0=None
1=FLP1
2=FLP2
-W:x set the hard disk boot device. X can be 1 through 8
-P:x set the printer port.
0=None
1=LPT1
-CX:y set the SER port x (range 1 to 4). Where y is 0 for None, 3 or 4 for the IRQ.
-CC:x set the default language. Possible values are the country codes

Example:
QPC -r -v:3 -m:4 -w:2

Start QPC without waiting for a key press, in 800x600 video mode, with 4MB RAM and
boot from WIN2.
Last edited by Derek_Stewart on Tue Mar 12, 2024 3:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.


Regards,

Derek
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mk79
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Re: Moved ZXSimulator page to better free hosting site

Post by mk79 »

bwinkel67 wrote:I got QPC1 to boot in DOSBox. A few questions, can it be set up to take the entire screen of DOSBox for 512x256 and can you get around the "press key" to continue?
QPC1 does 512x256 in the nearest resolution, IIRC 512x384, so there is a black border below. "-r" command line argument.
I do like that I can just stuff all the files into a Windows directory in QLAY and zip up. I'm assuming something similar with QPC1?
No, native file support was first implemented in QPC2.


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bwinkel67
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Re: Moved ZXSimulator page to better free hosting site

Post by bwinkel67 »

So the free hosting site I use for ZXSimulator, FreeWHA.com, started to automatically add a watermark at the bottom of my page. It simply said "Powered by FreeWHA.com" and they used the <div style=...> tag to do that. Somehow, it would be automatically added to the cache of the HTML file (i.e. if you viewed page source you'd see it but it wouldn't actually change your file). A few videos out there show how to remove watermarks from free web hosting sites but none worked.

Then I realized if I added the following tag right before </body> (i.e. the close body tag) it would remove the watermark...and it did!

Code: Select all


<div style="display:none;">

</body> 
</html>
So when you look at the cached version it looks like this:

Code: Select all


<div style="display:none;">

<div style="text-align:right;position:fixed;bottom:3px;right:3px;width:100%;z-index:999999;cursor:pointer;line-height:0;display:block;"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.freewebhostingarea.com" title="Free Web Hosting with PHP5 or PHP7"><img alt="Free Web Hosting" src="https://www.freewebhostingarea.com/images/poweredby.png" style="border-width: 0px;width: 180px; height: 45px; float: right;"></a></div>
</body> 
</html>
I learned this from using Wordpress when hiding portions of a cyclic monthly calendar I was showing. Wordpress used the <div> tag and that is how you could hide an entire block when it wasn't relevant (i.e. without deleting it). Sort of a way to store HTML code for future use.


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NormanDunbar
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Re: Moved ZXSimulator page to better free hosting site

Post by NormanDunbar »

Annoying as it is, by removing the watermark, you are almost certainly in breach of the rules/regulations/contract between you and the provider. If people don't see their watermark, you they can/will lose business, and might have to stop the free stuff.

The Online Superbasic Manual "suffers" from one tiny advert in return for an excellent free service, or, we can pay for hosting. I went with the advert.

Put the watermark back on.

I say this as someone who never reads or watches adverts, I never buy from them either. I've hated advertising since I was a child, fascinated by magnets, when my mother explained that "Pledge doesn't turn your duster into a magnet" (Pledge is/was a furniture polish.)

Cheers,
Norm.


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bwinkel67
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Re: Moved ZXSimulator page to better free hosting site

Post by bwinkel67 »

Is the site you are talking about readthedocs.io? If so, where is the watermark...I didn't see it on the main page (there is a Hosted by Read the Docs link after you click a menu -- i.e. the link doesn't come up by default).

https://superbasic-manual.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

You do have a good point though. I don't like the lack of control of where they put the watermark but what I think I'll do is add my own of their's so that I can put it where it's less in the way (their's floats around and covers some screen real estate).


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Re: Moved ZXSimulator page to better free hosting site

Post by NormanDunbar »

On the left side, near the bottom, where there is a link to "v:latest". If you click that, it drops down to let you get at , "working", "download" etc. The ad is (usually) in the drop down area. As I said, it's inobtrusive.

Cheers,
Norm.


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