Q68 New users and general usage thread

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Dave
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Re: Q68 New users and general usage thread

Post by Dave »

pjw wrote:....Faffing around with qxltools and other palaeo-tools in the light of these better alternatives is pure masochism....
Step away from the QL, Sir. I said, STEP AWAY FROM THE QL!


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pjw
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Re: Q68 New users and general usage thread

Post by pjw »

Dave wrote:
pjw wrote:....Faffing around with qxltools and other palaeo-tools in the light of these better alternatives is pure masochism....
Step away from the QL, Sir. I said, STEP AWAY FROM THE QL!
qxltools was great back in the day (and we are suitably grateful for it) but, reading here, it seems to be becoming troublesome even in the otherworld it lives in.

Its written in C (not m68 assembler or S*BASIC) its got a GUI (not a green/black command line), it lives on Linux or Windows.. Why should you have a dog in the fight over this old program?

Install QPC2 - a very QL-kosher item, and you can type in the necessary curses in green on black, or find suitably gooey tools to do the job.

I understand masochists are suckers for pain, so maybe Im missing something here, in which case I am/am not (delete as appropriate) sorry you feel that way.


Per
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Dave
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Re: Q68 New users and general usage thread

Post by Dave »

I just found it incredibly amusingly ironic.

Saying "don't use palaeo-tools" on a forum for a 34 year old computer.

It made my day.

PS: You owe me a new keyboard. :D~


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Re: Q68 New users and general usage thread

Post by NormanDunbar »

Qltools, as opposed to Qxltools, is most useful because I'm on Linux and running QPC under Wine. Floppy images refuse to connect as a floppy "device" - Paleo or not, it works and works well for what little I have left of my floppy collection.

Speaking of Paleo, I read recently, or in the last year at least, there are still more COBOL tranactions every day than there are Google searches. Don't knock it just because it's old - I'm old too!


Cheers,
Paleo Norm! ;)


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Re: Q68 New users and general usage thread

Post by swensont »

For getting access of my floppies, I use dd to create a floppy image on the hard drive. SMSQmulator will mount this image like a QXL file and I have access to the data I need. I don't write to the floppies (as they are old enough to be in college). No need for any paleo tools.

Tim


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pjw
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Re: Q68 New users and general usage thread

Post by pjw »

Ok, I geddit. However, although the QL is ancient not
everything associated with it is. A lot has happened since
1985. SMSQ/E is not ancient. It started life, at least
AFAIA, in the nineties and is being developed to this very
day! At what point does one negate such developments and
poo-poo them as "modern", not worthy of a pelaeo-
enthusiast's attention? If all a poor troglodyte wants is as
much hassle-free up-time to whittle his favourite bone, why
shouldnt it be permitted to use a modern file, if one can be
had?

I just believe in using the best tools available to get the
job done. Often solutions offered here seem to skirt the
obvious. Im never sure whether this is deliberate, or
because people are not aware that there are alternatives out
there..

So here comes another brash opinion: I can think of no
reason why every QL owner who also has some kind of PC,
should not have either QPC2 or SMSQmulator too! To help out
in a fix; to support the continued development of this
unique system; to use as a test bed to try out things; and
for many other reasons.

Of course, sometimes it is the doing of the job that is the
whole point, and that may be sufficient justification for
using a flint stone rather than a file..


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Pr0f
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Re: Q68 New users and general usage thread

Post by Pr0f »

of course someone may have chosen a different emulator - such as Qemulator, which although it can read the qxl.win type files, is not able to create them. I happen to like this emulator, but sadly for this particular application of creating specific files on the SD card, it was not able to help.


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pjw
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Re: Q68 New users and general usage thread

Post by pjw »

Qemulator is the most versatile QL compatible emulator, in that it can run virtually any original QL ROM
you can throw at it (although it struggles a bit with the hicolor versions of SMSQ/E..) But it aint free
(something I dont hold against it - after all I bought a license). But the fastest, most advanced, versatile,
comfortable, evolved proponents of the QL as software are QPC2 and SMSQmulator - which also happen
to be free! Why settle for less? The various other flavours of emulator have their niche strengths (eg on
old, slow or non-PC platforms) and may be fun to explore and play with.

If for whatever unfathomable reason you prefer any of the other emulators, or you mainly use QL hardware,
you can still use QPC2/SMSQmulator as tools. eg for issues like the one that started this thread, or for
those situations when you need to communicate with the rest of the world, for heavy computational work,
or for running the latest software (although they will equally competently run most well-written old software
too).


Per
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Pr0f
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Re: Q68 New users and general usage thread

Post by Pr0f »

You gotta love someone who suggests you are somehow weird or off the mark for making a choice different to yours...


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Peter
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Re: Q68 New users and general usage thread

Post by Peter »

qxltools is an important cross-platform tool for QLWA images, its comprehensive commandline functionality is nowhere provided by QPC.

It deserves maintainance for 64 bit Linux and Windows, not bashing!

Why? Using the PC as a tool for QL development, especially for large projects, commandline automation is needed, e.g. copying files to or from a QLWA image using makefiles.

Especially C programming requires a PC based build process for optimal results, since QDOS-GCC is only available as a cross compiler. QPC is useless for QDOS-GCC builds. Also for C68, using a crosscompiler version has some advantages for large software projects. qxltools provides mechanisms to handle the executable dataspace issue in automated PC-side builds.

qxltools has not become less important these days, it has become more important! Because QL, GC, SGC, Q40, Q60 and Q68 now all support SDHC cards with QLWA images, no longer just floppy as removable media. qxlwinreader closed the gap for manual data exchange between PC and native hardware, but it is not a commandline tool.
Last edited by Peter on Wed May 16, 2018 11:13 am, edited 2 times in total.


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