Hi,
just for the record, I ran BCPL purely out of the zip provided in this thread on Q-emulator, and no sign of dependency on a dongle.
However, in order to make it run I used the BASIC program provided in this post to restore the headers:
https://dilwyn2.wordpress.com/2017/02/2 ... nt-page-1/
To test it I compiled and ran Example 3, showing a clock, from the manual also provided in this thread.
I am a newcomer to the QL, but I have tried the modern Richards BCPL distribution on Linux. His dual Cintsys/Cintpos system mirrors the original BCPL/Tripos combination of language and operating system, as outlined here:
https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mr10/bcplman.pdf
The fun thing with the MetaComCo version is that BCPL/QDOS mirrors the same setup, including the multitasking, as illustrated by the example with the clock.
There are nice vintage distributions of BCPL for 6502 and Z80 around (BBC Micro and Amstrad), but to me the QL one looks distinctly closer to the original vision due to the underlying operating system. Also it neatly fills the 16-bit gap between the 8-bit and 32-bit versions.
Thanks to the people in this thread for bringing this material to light!
Best regards,
Finn (Norway)