Wish list for Q-emuLator 3.x

Discussion and advice about emulating the QL on other machines.
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programandala.net
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Wish list for Q-emuLator 3.x

Post by programandala.net »

Here you are my wish list for a future version of Q-emuLator:

Compressed disk images

Disk images can be compressed a lot. It would be nice if the emulator could
manage them compressed with either zip or gzip:

disk1.img.zip
disk2.img.gzip

The actual zip and gzip command line executables could be configured by the
user, with their paths.

SIMCoupe, the SAM Coupé emulator, have this feature, and it's very useful. It
saves a lot of space. The Fuse ZX Spectrum emulator can manage compressed
virtual tape files, but not compressed disk images yet. I think it's becoming a more
common feature in emulators.

Global shortcut key

I'm a fan of the keyboard. In my Debian environment I almost don't use the
mouse pointer; if I ever need it, I use a program (keynav) that emulates it with the
keyboard. Typing a key is faster and more comfortable than searching
for the mouse, pointing and clicking. That's why I miss a global shortkey to
access the emulator drives and menu. Example:

The menus would be accessible with the global shortcut and their current menu shortcut:

F11,F = menu "File"
F11,Q = menu "QL"
F11,M = menu "Memory"
F11,S = menu "Speed"
F11,L = menu "Q-emuLator"
F11,V = menu "View"
F11,H = menu "Help"

And the drive menus with their number:

F11,1 = menu of drive 1
...
F11,8 = menu of drive 8

It's easier "F11,key" (that's press "F11", release it and then press "key") than "F11+key".

(I know F11 is used for the debugger; maybe Ctrl+F11 could be used for it,
because the debbuger is a less needed option).

Media menu

A "Media" menu, with submenus 1 to 8 (maybe showing the current medium label),
would make a bit easier to use the program without the mouse. Then it would be
possible to turn off the drive icons zone.

Drive icons zone on and off

I suggest an option in the View menu, to turn the drive icons zone on and off.
The icons are helpful to see what media are mounted, but sometimes it's nice
to have a bigger screen in windowing mode (when the full screen mode does not
work --on Linux with Wine--, or with small screens, or just to be able to use
the emulator menu, what is not possible in full screen mode).

Resizeable drive icons

In order to use Q-emuLator in small screen sizes (under 800x600), it would be
helpful if the drive icons would change their size and gaps depending of the
screen size, to make them visible on one row if needed, even if the medium
label has to be truncated.

MDV images

Certainly not very useful, but I guess it's easy to implement, creating a
blank MDV image. It can be useful to port files to older emulators.

I already sent the suggestions to the author.


Marcos Cruz (programandala.net)
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Dave
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Re: Wish list for Q-emuLator 3.x

Post by Dave »

I would very much like a blank mdv image!


RWAP
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Re: Wish list for Q-emuLator 3.x

Post by RWAP »

Dave wrote:I would very much like a blank mdv image!
Now why would you like a blank mdv image - from memory the mdv image is read only !


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