Knoware.no

Anything QL Software or Programming Related.
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dilwyn
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Re: Knoware.no

Post by dilwyn »

Tinyfpga wrote:
pjw posted:-
I miss those hefty, fat manuals of yore, yet I wouldn't have them back! They take up too much room, are hard to search, and, of course, can't easily be updated. No, the online solution is better for this kind of thing.
I agree, online stuff is easy to disseminate and maintain but If I find something I like, I download it and use it offline. I am unable to properly digest information on screen especially large quantities.
I tend to agree with you on this, which is why I tend to have my QL manuals and reference guides in three forms, paper for when I need to read to understand and digest information, PDFs on computer (for convenience, searchability and quick reference) and to a degree as eBooks on a little Kindle I have here. The Kindle is sluggish and clumsy and its memory only copes with a few large manuals offline, but at least it's portable and conveniently mobile, with a good battery life with the e-ink screen (albeit that's only black and white). Paper manuals tend to take up too much room as Per says, so for me the ideal answer is to have everything on computer for quick reference, but a paper manual for the items when like you I find I can't digest lots of information on the screen.

Each to his own, of course.


Derek_Stewart
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Re: Knoware.no

Post by Derek_Stewart »

Hi,

There is another option, using the QD Help system, I had success with DBAS, QMENU, EasyPTR making a Help file for each BASIC Keyword.

I was in the process of producing an Assembler Help System,, but that us work in progress.


Regards,

Derek
Tinyfpga
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Re: Knoware.no

Post by Tinyfpga »

The thing I like about assembly language is that it teaches you, in my case eventually, to think about the way you will write the code. You don't just dive in and start coding -- that way, dragons lie. And dragons are not a good thing to have around. (Guards! Guards! excepted. (Terry Pratchett))
I have never read a Terry Pratchett book but I have watched three very good TP films. "Going Postal", " The colour of Magic" and the "Hogfather". There were no dragons but death and his daughter featured in The hogfather. I am not sure what the dragons you refer to are but if you mean that they can destroy SMS then I am not worried about dragons.

One of the things I like about software writing on SMS is that you can destroy the system and it doesn't matter, as you can restart it in 2 seconds. (At least my system does).
I sincerely hope you are acquainted with this essential utility
I am acquainted but not familiar.
But honestly, you're best off to get the whole caboodle in one fell swoop on its own "win" disk rather than pussyfooting around it or you'll regret it later
I have taken a second step and done what you have suggested and it was good advice. My first step was to have Norm's book printed. My third step is to collate as much info on installing and using the MAC assembler as possible and then print it as a spiral bound manual.

Do any of the contributors to this thread mind if I include their wise thoughts in such a document?


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NormanDunbar
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Re: Knoware.no

Post by NormanDunbar »

Tinyfpga wrote:Do any of the contributors to this thread mind if I include their wise thoughts in such a document?
As always, my thoughts are free for use. They have an MIT licence on them! ;)

As for Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards! is a novel about dragons. SMSQ is safe from those. :D


Cheers,
Norm.


Why do they put lightning conductors on churches?
Author of Arduino Software Internals
Author of Arduino Interrupts

No longer on Twitter, find me on https://mastodon.scot/@NormanDunbar.
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pjw
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Re: Knoware.no

Post by pjw »

Tinyfpga wrote:<>Do any of the contributors to this thread mind if I include their wise thoughts in such a document?<>
Sure, but please only the "wise thoughts". Leave the rest out.

PS There is a manual for Qmac. Well worth having. Not to learn assembler, but a good reference. I think a PDF version is available from Dr. Dilwyn's


Per
dont be happy. worry
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Tinyfpga
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Re: Knoware.no

Post by Tinyfpga »

Norm's "Mere" woman post is enough to wake the woke in me and so I "asked" the internoodle if it had any "thoughts" on the matter. One of the things it claims to be true is that there are/were a lot of mere-women, so many infact that mere-women outnumber mere-men, so they are not really mere.

Wikipedia has an entry titled "Timeline of women in computing" but no "Timeline of men in computing". Is Wikipedia sexist or something!

It has an entry titled "Pioneers in computer science" where Linus Torvalds is listed but not Tony Tebby. No wonder he is cross, but in the interest of equality, Wikipedia wisely omitted to mention Jan Jones. (She is not listed in timeline either)

The following information might interest the assembler enthusiast:-
Kathleen Booth is credited with writing the first assembly language and with the design of the assembler and autocode for the first computer systems at Birkbeck College.(1947 to 1958): From Wikipedia.

The following are, in my view, controversial entries in the timeline
Sophie Wilson, nee Roger Wilson did not become a woman until 1994, well after her design of the ARM instruction set.
The last two, Safiya Noble and Joy Buolamwini are, fashionably, digital activists. More digital post-modern philosophers than anything else.

One of my favourite entries is Hedy Lamarr. How many actresses today co-invent something as complex as a radio guidance system using spread spectrum and frequency hopping.

And, finally, I can recommend listening to Rear Admiral Grace Hopper.
Last edited by Tinyfpga on Sun Oct 24, 2021 7:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.


Derek_Stewart
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Re: Knoware.no

Post by Derek_Stewart »

NormanDunbar wrote: Building a cathedral with gravel, yes, might be problematic, but not impossible. I suppose it depends on the size of the cathedral and the structural integrity of the concrete you make the gravel into I suppose. If Tony Tebby can write an OS in assembly, if Jan Jones, a "mere" woman, can write a SuperBASIC interpreter in assembly, then how hard can it be for mortal chaps like us to do something simpler? And don't get me started on Marcel or Wolfgang! ;)
This a very sextist comment, can you rephrase it please.


Regards,

Derek
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pjw
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Re: Knoware.no

Post by pjw »

Derek_Stewart wrote:
NormanDunbar wrote: Building a cathedral with gravel, yes, might be problematic, but not impossible. I suppose it depends on the size of the cathedral and the structural integrity of the concrete you make the gravel into I suppose. If Tony Tebby can write an OS in assembly, if Jan Jones, a "mere" woman, can write a SuperBASIC interpreter in assembly, then how hard can it be for mortal chaps like us to do something simpler? And don't get me started on Marcel or Wolfgang! ;)
This a very sextist comment, can you rephrase it please.
By all means rephrase it, but could this be done in the General Chat section? Knoware prefers to to maintain a stance of strategic agnosticism on all non-QL matters. Many thanks.


Per
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NormanDunbar
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Re: Knoware.no

Post by NormanDunbar »

pjw wrote:By all means rephrase it, but could this be done in the General Chat section?
Consider it explained at viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3953. It seems some people may not have read all the way through!

Cheers,
Norm.


Why do they put lightning conductors on churches?
Author of Arduino Software Internals
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pjw
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Re: Knoware.no

Post by pjw »

Thereve been some changes to Knoware.no since the last announced update.

I do react to feedback, although there isnt always a one-to-one
correspondence between comments and improvements. Thus FSEL,
StuffScrap, VALID%, etc, have had tweaks or makeovers.

Ive done some more playing with sprites and blobs and colours: Added
MkSpr and improved BlbCol.

For avid QD users: That old bete noire, PickQD, has been pardoned and
refurbished. Now more polite and well-behaved (in theory).

Some experimental ideas have been passed on (LSBYTES, LSBEXE). I
couldnt make use of them in the end. Perhaps someone else can?

Renewal time for Knoware is coming up soon. If it aint used by others
it is no more than a vanity project, in which case my money would
probably be better spent at the hairdressers..


Per
dont be happy. worry
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