********************
QL
CLUB
INTERNATIONAL
********************
ISSUE 114/5
JULY/AUGUST 1998
MIKE KENNEALLY
E-MAIL MIKEKENNEALLY1@COMPUSERVE.COM
ANY AND ALL SOFTWARE SENT TO THE CLUB/NEWSLETTER WILL BE TREATED
AS PUBLIC DOMAIN UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED.
DEAR ALL,
FIRST OF ALL LET ME THANK GRAHAM LUTZ FOR ONCE AGAIN HAVING THE
PATIENCE OF A SAINT AND FOR HELPING ME AS MUCH AS HE HAS DONE,THANKS
GRAHAM.
WELL AFTER ALL THE PROBLEMS I HAVE HAD OVER THE LAST FEW WEEKS IT
APPEARS THAT I HAVE IT WORKING,TO A CERTAIN EXTENT.
INSTEAD OF BEING ABLE TO ACCESS THE QXL FROM WINDOZE,I HAVE TO
ACCESS IT FROM THE C PROMPT.I HAVE CHANGED THE BOOT FILE TO RECOGNISE
THE D DRIVE AS WIN2_ WHICH IT DOES,NOW ALL I HAVE TO DO IS CONFIGURE MY
FILES IN THE BUTTONS TO LOAD WHEN I HIT THEM!
I CAN LOAD MOST OF THE PROGS FROM THE FILES MENU AND EXECUTE THEM
AS PER THE OLD WAY OF DOING THINGS SO I SHALL HAVE TO PERSEVERE UNTIL I
KNOW HOW TO DO THE CONFIGURING AND HOW TO SET UP A SHORTCUT IN
WINDOZE,I ALREADY HAVE A SHORTCUT BUT IT APPEARS NOT TO LIKE IT VERY
MUCH.IF ANY OF YOU OUT THERE HAVE A QXL INSTALLED AND CAN HELP IT WOULD
BE VERY GRATEFULLY RECIEVED!
I JUST HOPE AFTER ALL THIS,THAT THE NEWSLETTER I AM DOING NOW I
CAN SAVE WITHOUT LOSING IT!
I THINK AFTER ALL THIS I AM SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING THE NEW QPC2
FROM JOCHEN,I HAVE EMAILED HIM FOR ANY AND ALL INFO HE CAN GIVE ME AND
I WAIT TO FIND OUT WHAT HE SAYS.
THE NEWSLETTER THIS MONTH CONTAINS A FAIR AMOUNT OF PROGRAMS FROM
BOTH DILWYN AND SPIKE(ANDREW HALLIWELL)SO I AM AVERSE TO SENDING IT BY
EMAIL AS I THINK IT IS GOING TO TAKE A WHILE TO LOAD IT UP AND FOR YOU
LOT TO DOWNLOAD IT,EVEN AS A ZIP FILE.SO ALL I CAN SUGGEST IS THIS,IF
YOU WANT THE PROGRAMS SENT IN,CAN YOU EMAIL ME BY RETURN AND I SHALL
SEND THEM TO YOU AS A SEPERATE FILE,THOSE OF YOU WHO USE DISC SHOULD
NOT HAVE A PROBLEM(IF THEY ALL FIT ON IT!).
I HAVE TRIED TO GET ALL THE PROGS ONTO A 1440 SECTOR DISC,NO CAN
DO!,AS SPIKES PROGS ARE ALREADY ZIPPED I SHALL SEND HIS OUT ON THE
DISCS,SORRY DILWYN,BUT UNTIL I CAN GET MY ZIPPER WORKING AGAIN(UNLIKE
BILL CLINTON!)I SHALL HAVE TO LEAVE YOURS TILL NEXT TIME.
COME ON YOU LOT WHO HAVE NEVER SENT US A LINE,LET US KNOW YOU ARE
OUT THERE,EVEN IF ITS JUST TO INTRODUCE YOURSELVES TO THE OTHERS,THAT
WAY WHEN I SAY I SEND IT OUT TO PEOPLE ON THE NET,NOBODY CAN SAY I'M
MAKING IT UP!
NOW ALL I HAVE TO DO IS FIND SPIKE'S DISC HE GAVE ME LAST MONTH!
FOUND IT!
MIKE.
Email : dilwyn.jones@bbc.co.uk
: dilwyn.jones@dj.softnet.co.uk
GEAR: JM/Minerva QL+Gold Card+ED drives; Aurora, Super Gold
Card v2.49, Qubide 1.37, 420MB Conner Hard disk, ED and DD drives,
HP Deskjet 320; Amstrad ALT286+QXL+Zoom modem+Canon BJ10sx; P90
Black PC and QPC;Toshiba T2100 486DX2/66 with QPC.
Dear Mike,
I wrote in the last issue about the issue of copyright of the
QL roms. In a recent email to the QL Users Email Mailing List,
Tony Firshman included a quote from an email received from
Amstrad, where it seems that Amstrad are willing to allow the
distribution of QL ROM images as long as Amstrad's copyright is
acknowledged. Presumably, this only applies to countries where
Amstrad hold the rights to the QL ROMs.
The QL get-together at my place in the days before the
Byfleet Quanta Workshop (i.e. the days before 4th October) is
still very much on! Give me a ring if you plan to join us, or
happen to be in the area at the time.
I AM HOPING TO GET TO YOU FOR AT LEAST PART OF ONE DAY
DILWYN,POSSIBLY THE THURSDAY.
A couple of issues ago, I sent in my Graphics Viewer program.
Well, I've been working on it since then, and have now added
screen dump facilities, mostly using SDUMP, but enhanced to work
with HP Deskjet (not yet colour) and Canon Bubblejet printers.
Although I've included code for a colour Canon driver, it doesn't
yet work, as my manual doesn't fully explain the parameters for
the BJ mode colour switch command and I've been unable to get it
to work. I've tested it without colour switches, and it seems to
work fine with just black ink, so hopefully once someone (or
Canon) tells me how to use the ESC [ M n1 n2 m command. n1 and n2
refer to the colour numbers, I think, but I have no idea what the
final m parameter is for. I've tried experimenting with dummy
values, but any wrong parameter seems to prevent any further
output from the printer. HELP!
THOSE OF US WHO USE PC'S(PIECES OF CRAP)SHOULD NOT HAVE ANY
PROBLEMS AS THE DRIVERS TAKE OVER WHEN PRINTING.
Graphics Viewer v1.13 requires pointer environment and the
menu extension (menu_rext) to work. If you are using a QDOS or QXL
SMSQ system, LRUN FLP1_BOOT_QDOS (which loads ptr_gen, wman and
hot_rext) otherwise LRUN FLP1_BOOT_SMSQE on SMSQ/E systems, which
already includes the equivalent of the pointer environment files.
The instructions are in a Quill file called gv_doc. The program is
Freeware, so you can freely copy it for all QL users. Any
suggestions for improvements or bug reports welcome.
Back issues. I've included the latest list of available back
issues, updated to include extra material received from various
people (thanks especially to Frank Merrison and Martin Burke). The
complete set of DOC files is now available, but there are still
some gaps to fill in terms of the program files that went out with
those DOC files. Frank has sent me a lot of ancillary files, but
these need sorting and collating with the correct issues. One day
I'll get enough time and patience to go through all this!!! The
back issues list is called ISSUES_TXT on this disk. You can get
copies of back issues from me at the address above by sending me
disks with return postage, stating which files you want. I'll send
reasonable requests via email too. Since Club QL disks can be
freely copied, it'd be reasonable to place at least some of them
on BBS or Web sites too, I suppose.
Qascade manual: usually, I'm the one who falls over with
computer manuals but for once I got on with this one and managed
in the end to do what I needed to with it. Wonder how many people
like me called the Qascade menu START after a well known Windoze
button?
Err, Martin, what exploding microwave? I'd be lost without a
microwave - what am I letting myself in for inviting you lot to
this meeting here in October?
IF YOU GET FRANK THERE KEEP HIM AWAY FROM YOUR
OVEN,ESPECIALLY IF ITS GAS!
Bill wrote:
>Two young lads from Dilwyns part of the world were up in
>Berwick seems they know how to bring them up
>the correct way in Wales, Dilwyn.
Of course, although hearing some of our local kids, I have my
doubts sometimes... all good things come from Wales (apart from
QPC), Bill.
Interesting to note that a Frenchman had occupied the
southernmost island of the British isles in the channel islands
somewhere (think the island's called Les Minquiers) end of August
and claimed it in the name of a south American kingdom of
Patagonia, a south American territory claimed for 12 months in the
19th century by a Frenchman, who was expelled by Chilean troops in
the end.
In fact, modern day Patagonia exists, is in Argentina, and
has a Welsh historical connection - in the last century (I think,
or it may have been before that) a group of Welsh people met in a
chapel in Caernarfon and planned a trip to Patagonia to set up a
new Wales. There are still Welsh speaking descendants of those
colonists there in places with Welsh-sounding names like Trelew.
Although most of the descendants now speak Spanish, they have an
interest in their roots and every now and then some of them come
over to visit Wales and Welsh institutions like the Eisteddfod and
Welsh language broadcasting centres like the one where I work.
Very interesting indeed to hear Welsh spoken with Spanish accents!
In fact some of them don't speak English, so our non-Welsh
speaking staff are a bit stuffed when it comes to talking with
them. One Argentine station even broadcasts an hour of Welsh
weekly for those people. My work in broadcasting means I get to
learn of Welsh speakers all over the world when our programmes
call up ex-pats, to the extent that sometimes I think there are
more Welsh people outside of Wales than in Wales sometimes!
(especially when Wales are playing rugby or soccer abroad, though
with our recent results, I think that's a subject I'd better
avoid). OK, south American history lesson over.
HE PROBABLY THOUGHT IT WAS SOUTH WALES DILWYN!
Where's Darren disappeared to lately... I miss his copious
Irish writings!
PROBABLY CONCENTRATING ON HIS Z88 MAGAZINE,MAYBE WHEN THINGS
SETTLE DOWN A BIT HE WILL START WRITING TO US AGAIN.
Now to see if I can get this to Mike in time for the
deadline...
WHAT DEADLINE?
Dilwyn.
FRANK MERRISON,
31-8-1998
GEAR includes 2 x JM QL's: Gold Card: DMP: Epson Stylus 800 printer:
2 x HD disc drives. 486 DX33 & Knee deep in paper & problems!
Mike....
Firstly; it looks as though I owe you an apology for complaining about
you sending ClubQL letters to Quanta. I am very sorry that I jumped to
the wrong conclusion but if I repeat the introduction that appeared in
Quanta you will (I am sure) see why I came to hold this belief.
Quote.......
"QPAC2
to be sorted out ?
Mike Kenneally, editor of ClubQL International, has invited Quanta to
join in an exercise proposed by Frank Merrison, one of its members.
Frank writes:"
...and here follows my letter to ClubQL.
........unquote
I guess that Colin was short of material and was grasping at straws.
It is not that I was annoyed or upset that my scribbles appeared in
Quanta it is that the correct procedure would be for the writer's
permission to be sought as there could be a situation where the lack of
this permission might lead to lots of unseen difficulties. In this case
such a problem did not arise and it is now plain, from what you say
Mike, that you were not responsible for it being printed.
Again... sorry if I got it wrong but you will see why now.
THE PROBLEM IS FRANK,LIKE QUANTA WE ARE PUBLIC DOMAIN AND THEREFORE
HAVE NO CONTROL OVER COPYRIGHT.ANYBODY CAN USE AND REPRODUCE ANY AND
ALL MATERIAL IN THE NEWSLETTER.AS COLIN SAID NO-ONE GETS PAID FOR THE
WORK THEY DO AND NO-ONE GETS PAID FOR THE PROGS THEY WRITE THEREFORE WE
CANNOT CLAIM COPYRIGHT.
The whole question of Qpac2 is again mentioned in Quanta along with the
suggestion that the previous articles that have been printed more than
answer any questions and problems that the beginner might come across.
Bill Waugh may be offering printouts of his original articles and with
all the other recent information, including Norman Dunbar's "Idiots
Guide" that Dilwyn sent in last month, just about covers most problems.
It will be interesting to see if any other developments come along in
the next few months.
3-9-1998.
Three days have passed since I began this letter and it is unfortunate
that I have not had time to complete it before now. I only hope that I
am not to late for the next issue. One of the things that has used up
my time is sorting out my "office" where the computers are installed.
One of the walls had become damaged and I had to repair it and give it
another coat of emulsion. While this, at least, looks tidy I have an
enormous pile of paperwork to sort out and get stored in some sort of
filing system. During the clean up I discovered notes on various issues
that I have printed up over years and had forgotten about. The choice
is either to throw much of it away on the grounds that - if I haven't
needed it for a long time I do not need it now - but I know that as
soon as I throw it away I WILL need it. Decisions - decisions!
DO WHAT I HAVE STARTED TO DO FRANK,BUY A CHEAP SCANNER,SCAN THE DOCS IN
AND SAVE THEM TO A DISC.EACH DISC HAS A SEPERATE LABEL,SO THEREFORE NO
PAPER ONLY DISCS!
Best wishes to all.... Frank Merrison
Mike Dodd
24th August 1998.
Gear Now Working;
QL + TRUMP 896K JS
In a Mini Tower
QL + Gold Card v2.49
Minerva 1.97
superHermes Lite 3.5
AT 101/2 style keyboard
SerMouse + TrackBall
Qubide 214 mB Hard Disc
flp1 & 2 = 3.5" HD Drives
flp3 = 5.25" DD Drive
Plus a Sinclair QL Printer.
Dear Mike & Members,
After many weeks of head scratching
and phone calls to Ron Dunnett, I have my main QL in a mini
Tower. This is now a much tidier and workable setup.
The way it was before involved having three power
supplies , with wires all over the place. Also when I needed
some programs or data from my 5.25" drive it meant
disconnecting the 3.5" ones.
After moving the QL into the Mini Tower, the Beeper was
very quiet, even when I placed another one in parallel it did
not help much.The speaker in the bottom of the case wouln't
work either. So I now have an amplifier connected to the
speaker. I simply removed a cassette amp from its tape deck
and powered it from the 5v, then connected it to the speaker
and for the input I connected the wires from the tape head to
where the Beeper is normally. Bingo I now have as much volume
as I need.
Was it last month or the one before that someone was
needing a replacement QL, well Ron Dunnett sells JM for `25
or JS for `30 p/p included.
His e-mail address can be found from Thierrys web site. See ClubQL main
page.
All the Best,
Mike D.
IT WAS ME MIKE,AND I SHALL GIVE HIM A RING,THANKS.
This is a copy of a letter from SJPD;
Dear QL User's,
Once again I must annonce the closure of my PD,
Shareware Library. As of the First of August 1998 I will no
longer be able to copy any QL software from the library.THIS
IS THE FINAL CLOSURE. I WILL NOT REOPEN. I am sorry for any
inconvenience caused.
May I thank all past customers for their support over
the past few years and may I wish them success in the QLing
future.(If there is a QL Future.)
I am open to serious offers for the library disks which
comprise of over 600 3.5" disks packed into 2 metal flight
boxes. Please contact me at the above number.
Yours Faithfully,
Steve Johnson.
THIS WAS SENT TO ME BY MIKE DODD WHO IS LOOKING FOR AN
ANSWER:One big problem I am having is how to use the
network.I wish to access some programs which are on
microdrive carts,but can only do this on my JS + trumpcard
QL,as this has no disc drives on,I have been trying to use
the network.
I can only send or recieve programs over the net if I
send them like this "SAVE NETO_1 OR NETI_2",and can only do
this if TK2 is NOT used.
Can anyone help?
Andrew Halliwell
E-mail: u5a77@teach.cs.keele.ac.uk
u5a77@potter.uga.keele.ac.uk
spike1@cyberspace.org
and clubql@geocities.com (not that I read that mailbox very often)
* I decided to stop listing u5a77@elec.keele.ac.uk from now because I'm
dropping electronics in favour of doing pure computer science next year and
I don't know how long that account will remain active.
Gear:- Supergold card QL with various pointer thingies, Qubide
1.55 ROM, TKII (of course), 40 Meg Hard Drive (Now a slave) and now...
a 250Meg quantum 3.5" harddrive as master, twin
floppies (One DD and one HD as FLP2_ and FLP3_) Minerva 1.97, 24 Pin Dot
Matrix Printer... And loads of little toys I download off the
internet... (Including Qascade, which is nice...)
Greetings all.
Well, it happened again last month. I posted my explaination of Qascade and
what a linked list was in a carefully formatted manner and all the
formatting was lost when Mike imported it into the main ClubQL doc. I know
now exactly what's happening.
I've already e-mailed Mike the hows and whys of it, but thought it might be
an idea to share it with all of you as well.
Basically, what's happening is this.
Mike is importing the e-mails into the ClubQL document using the "Import by
paragraph" option. This has the unfortunate side effect of cramming a lot
of lines into single paragraphs.
The correct way of doing it is to "import by line", as this maintains all
the line-feeds in the correct places.
As a result of the cocked up formatting last month, I've decided to repost
the bits where it mattered this month. (It's also on the CLubQL web page in
the correct format, because I manually repaired the damage before putting
it up on the page, so I'm sorry if you've seen this before...)
I'm not sure if Mike didn't understand what I said last month because I
wasn't being clear enough, or because the formatting was so screwed up it
was illegible, but I'll try to be a little clearer this time.
**************************************************************************
Anyway, last month, I said I'd do something on Qascade and Mtools. The
documentation for Mtools is good enough, so I'll just do a little on
Qascade (not saying that Qascade documentation is bad, but it'll probably see
more use....)...
Anyway, here is my QASCADE_RC file. (The file used to create the menu
structure)
# These entries are the main menu
# (almost) default colours
#COLS;gwrgyrwgwbbw
# Traditional QPAC2 colours
COLS;gbggwwbrbwgb
# These lines are used to define a preferred colour scheme. (The lines
# beginning with # are comments. (Rem statements)). The way the colour scheme
# is set up is detailed in the Qascade instructions, but basically sets up
# what paper, ink and border colours you want for various bits of the menu.
SEP;QPAC-Menus
# This produces a line in the menu with a title, like this...
# ------QPAC-Menus------
# It has no function within Qascade. It's just to make things look prettier
# and separate various different things.
TITLE;Thingies
TITLE;Files
TITLE;Configure
# And these are the actual titles for the menus. The actual menus are
# defined lower down.... What this means is, TITLE creates the title for a
# submenu, which is displayed in Qascade. Hitting this title will open up
# another window with another menu of items you can select from.
# There is no stopping you from using menus within menus within menus using
# this system.
SEP;Applications
# Again, this produces a line that separates one section of the menu from
# another. The first separator showed the items below to be for QPAC, this
# one shows the items below it to be applications.
TITLE;Emulators
TITLE;Editors
TITLE;Business
TITLE;Games
SEP;Utilities
# And items below this are utilities.
TITLE;Toolbox
TITLE;Compression
SEP;Minerva
# Finally, items below this can be BASIC programs run using the Minerva
# Multibasic feature.
# Minerva MultiBasic in a console window
MBAS;MultiBasic;,con
# At the moment, the only one I use is a clean, empty Multibasic.
MENU;Editors
EXEC;Emacs;WIN2_C_emacs_ptr
EXEC;Qed;WIN2_C_qed
EXEC;QD;WIN1_QDIX
# At the top of the file, you'll notice the TITLE statement. That defined
# what a sub menu was called. Above is the statement MENU. This defines a
# submenu based on the title defined earlier. Everything between MENU and
# MEND (Menu END) will appear in another window that opens when you select
# the menu item, in this case "Editors".
MENU;Emulators
TITLE;Spectrum
EXEC;Xtricator(zx81);win2_xtricator_XTricator_exe
MEND
# The above block shows that you can have menus within menus.
# TITLE;Spectrum defines yet another submenu title called "Spectrum".
# This will only show up in the submenu "Emulators", and accessing that
item
# will open up another window (a sub-submenu), with further options.
#This defines the Emulators menu, referenced above
MENU;Spectrum
EXEC;ZMht;win2_emul_ZMX_ZMhT_TASK
EXEC;ZM128;win2_emul_ZMX_ZM128_TASK
EXEC;ZeXcell;win2_emul_ZXL_ZeXcelU_obj
EXEC;Spectator;win2_Emul_spec_Spectator_exe
MEND
#This defines the Toolbox menu, referenced above
MENU;Toolbox
EXEC;*Alarm*;win1_alarm
EXEC;WinLink;win1_WinlinkALLext_V003_obj
EXEC;PIC View;slspv
EXEC;Character Select;win1_CharSel_obj
EXEC;Calculator;WIN1_calculator_obj
EXEC;System Monitor;WIN1_sysmon
MEND
#This defines the Thingies menu. See above.
MENU;Thingies
ETHG;Jobs;Jobs
ETHG;Channels;Channels
ETHG;Rjob;Rjob
ETHG;Hotkeys;Hotkeys
ETHG;Things;Things
ETHG;Sysdef;Sysdef
MEND
#This defines the Files Menu. Again, see above.
#You might realise here, that I have no FLP1_. This is due to my getting a
#new drive that had to be used on a different socket on the SuperGold Card,
#so I only have FLP2_ and FLP3_ now. No great disadvantage.
MENU;Files
ETHG;Files WIN1_;Files;\DWIN1_
ETHG;Files WIN2_;Files;\DWIN2_
ETHG;Files WIN3_;Files;\DWIN3_
ETHG;Files WIN4_;Files;\DWIN4_
ETHG;Files FLP2_;Files;\DFLP2_
ETHG;Files FLP3_;Files;\DFLP3_
ETHG;Files RAM1_;Files;\DRAM1_
MEND
#Ditto for the Configure menu...
MENU;Configure
EXEC;Level I;win1_Config
EXEC;Level II;win1_Menuconfig
EXEC;FileInfoII;WIN1_FI2config_obj
MEND
# Here we see a new item, the '?'. This means ask for additional parameters
# before running the program. (Not much point in running unzip without
command
# line options and a filename to unzip.
# What happens when the '?' symbol appears before the filename is, a window
# opens, allowing keyboard input. Thus allowing you to tell the program
what
# exactly it's supposed to do.
# For example, if I hit the Unzip menu item, a text box opens up.
# If I wanted to get a listing of all the files in a zip file called
# bibble_zip on win1_, I would type into the box '-l win1_bibble'
# This then duplicates (or should) the effect of the BASIC command
# EXEC win1_unzip;'-l win1_bibble'
MENU;Compression
EXEC;ACP;win1_ACP_ACP_obj
EXEC;Zip;?win1_zip
EXEC;Unzip;?win1_unzip
EXEC;Gzip;?win1_gzip
EXEC;Tar;?win2_C_tar
EXEC;Smash;?win1_smash
EXEC;Zoo;?win1_ACP_zoo
MEND
MENU;Business
EXEC;Perfection;win1_perfection
EXEC;Xchange;win2_Xchange_xchange
EXEC;Qspread;WIN1_qspread
MEND
# Again, below we see the '?' again. This is because the infocom program
'zip'
# requires a game file to load. Currently, the one I'm stuck on is Curses,
# so hitting the Infocom item would open a text box into which I would type
# 'win2_infocom_curses_dat'. This would then load the infozip interpretter,
# and the interpretter would in turn load the game file.
# Also here, we see the extended MBAS command allowing a program name to be
# passed to run.
MENU;Games
EXEC;Infocom;?WIN2_Infocom_zip
MBAS;West;WIN2_games_west1_boot,con
EXEC;Minefield;WIN1_MineField_exe
MEND
To put things simply then, there are several keywords in Qascade.
EXEC: execute a program.
TITLE: Create a title for a menu to be defined later with MENU.
MENU: Start a menu definition.
MEND: End a menu definition.
ETHG: Execute a 'thing' such as the QPAC Files or Rjob things.
MBAS: Start a multibasic job. This can have added parameters passed to it
so
that it'll run SuperBasic programs at the hit of a menu item.
SBAS: Basically the same as MBAS, but for SBASIC in SMSQ/E.
Overall, I prefer this scheme to the QPAC buttons. It looks a lot neater
just having one button, and everything neatly categorised into menus.
My only problem was, getting a few screen shots of the menus in action
proved impossible because QASCADE wouldn't allow grabit (or hotkeys) to
work
while it was in menu mode. C caused the menu to vanish until it
was C'd back.
(What I originally intended to do was grab a few screens showing what the
actual QASCADE program looked like in action. Unfortunately, Qascade
doesn't
allow hotkeys to work when a menu is on screen.)
Another problem I had was with unzip. For some reason, the parameter
passing
screwed up with this, and characters were lost. Something I'll probably
report.
And now onto the questions....
Colin Baskett asked last month....
"I wonder if Dilwyn, or someone, could give a concrete example
of something a program can do through the 'thing' system. And
explain why a "Linked" List ???"
Right.... Well, I'm not too familiar with the THING system myself, but a
linked list is simply a list of items, each linked to the next....
A bit like this....
-----------------
|List Data| | |
-----------------
| |
------------------------------ ------------
| |
---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
|Item a| +--->|Item b| +--->|Item c| +---->|Item d|*|
---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
Oldest item ------------------------------> Newest item
The List Data structure holds the addresses of the head and tail of the
list. (Neccesary for adding and removing items). You add to the tail, and
remove from the head.
It's a very usefull datastructure. There are several variations. The one
above is called a single linked list, because it is a list of
datastructures, each connected to the next by a single pointer.
In order to navigate to the item you want, you simply take the address of
the first item (which is known), and read the address of the next one in
the
list (which is part of Item a). This points to the address of Item b, and
so
on, until there are no more items. At this point, a NUL pointer is reached,
represented by the '*' above, telling the program there are no more items
in the list.
A double linked list looks similar, but has pointers in both directions.
A binary tree is a specialised form of list to increase search speeds. In
this one, each item has two pointers, like this....
--------------
|Item 1| | |
--------------
/ \
/ \
-------------- --------------
|Item 2| | | |Item 3| | |
-------------- --------------
/ \ / \
etc.....
The reason linked lists are used it that they can grow and shrink
dynamically. With an Array, the array size must be set at startup, but with
a linked list, all you need is one occurance of the structure to start
with,
and this can then be used to build a large list, adding and removing items
at will. (Well, almost. With a double linked list, you can remove or add an
item from anywhere within the list, but with the single linked list, that's
not really feasable. You have to remove from the end, and add at the
beginning.
Now remember Mike. Use import by line, or reposting this stuff will have
been pointless.
Now on with the news.
GoldFire.
It seems that the reason the GoldFire card is so late in its arrival is due
to problems getting the correct chips, and then problems getting the
correct hardware to program the chips, and THEN problems getting the
correct
software to run the hardware to program the chips properly. In other words,
it's balls up time, courtesy of the chip manufacturers.
This is a total pain, because I've been saving the money for one now for
wall over 4 months, and still am. I WANT ONE! .
Off topic now, Mike responded to my Comments about Star Trek Voyager...
About the length of time it'll take them to get home.....
"Actually, if you watch sky, (or the videos) it's more like 4 years now.
(And 50 more to go unless they find a large short-cut)
I AM AFRAID IT IS 71 YEARS TO GO AS THEY WERE 75 YEARS FROM
HOME AT THE BEGINNING."
Nope. During their little trip, they've managed to snip a few years off the
journey here and there, and in one of the later episodes (The one where Kes
leaves the ship, and just after Seven of Nine joins the crew), they make a
leap of several thousand light years, knocking about 20 years off their
jouney time...And about replicator rations.
"(Also makes playing poker more interesting, because they can use their
replicator rations as a form of currency on board ship. [Not something
people on starships normally worry about, as there isn't any currency...]
THE REPLICATORS ARE ONLY USED FOR BASIC ITEMS THEY CANNOT GET
ANYWHERE ELSE,THEY HAVE BEEN ON REPLICATOR RATIONS SINCE LOSING
SOME OF THEIR POWER,THEREBY CONSERVING POWER BY NOT OVERUSING THE
REPLICATORS."
Sorry Mike, but the crew DO get replicator rations, and they even had one
episode where one of the crew ran a gambling den, with replicator rations
as the "prize". Of course, you had to pay replicator rations into the pot
to
get into the game.
OK SO, I'm a trekkie....
Anyway, I don't think there's anything else really to reply to this month
so, this is Sig Halliwell signing off.....
#!
Colin Baskett
30 August 1998
EQUIPMENT: QL FITTED WITH SUPERGOLD CARD; MkI MINERVA - version
1.82;
SUPERHERMES; 170 MB HARD DISK; SINGLE 3.5" HD DISC DRIVE; ED
DRIVES; PHILIPS COLOUR MONITOR; SERIAL MOUSE; PRINTER BJ10sx; XCHANGE
3.90L, etc..
Dear Mike,
I am afraid I have been almost submerged in the holiday season and
consequently have little to report.
I have learnt one thing about screen dumps, however, which I pass on.
Reproducing a set of screen dumps for Quanta I noticed first that some
graphs oddly had broken diagonal lines in them, near the bottom of the
screen. After fiddling and puzzling for a while the reason became
apparent. Immediately, I loaded a screen it was perfect. Almost
instantaneously, as the cursor appeared the bottom shifted up one line
at the channel 0 boundary. Some of the screen was lost and breaks
appeared in diagonal lines.
My way of avoiding this problem was to type something like
LBYTES flp1_screen, 131072: SDUMP: PAUSE 50 ENTER
I did not investgate whether the PAUSE was needed; probably not.
Now the mystery is this. I have a set of perfect screen dumps printed
out when I first received the disc with no missing line. I am quite
sure that I did not use the dodge I worked out subsequently. How did I
do it? I must have used a hot-key. Can anyone explain.
Finally, humble apologies to Frank Merrison. I shpuld have checked with
him as well as with Mike before reproducing his initial item about
QPAC2 in Quanta. It seemed such a good idea I got carried away. Sorry
to Frank and to Mike.
Best wishes
Colin B
#!
P. McPHERSON,
21st AUGUST 1998.
Fraternal Greetings Everybody,
Current equipment: One BORROWED AH QL complete with Gold Card,
Cumana disk drives, Amstrad DMP3160 printer and a TV.
Sorry I have not been in touch recently, but I have had major
problems with my QLs (hence the "borrowed" one) having "blown" two of
them in double quick time when trying out a colour monitor and they are
still out of action. Quite strangely, my insurance company will not pay
out on claims for "electrical faults" om computers which I find a but
wierd since that is the most likely thing to go wrong with them (maybe
thats exactly why they don't accept such claims!). Interstingly enough,
they told me that it is company policy not to pay out in cash, but
replace ALL U/S computers with an entry level multi media Pentium PC -
so now you know exactly what to do with all those squidgy keyed 48K
Spectrums!
Anyway I have found I just can't live without my QL so I am
seriously considering swapping my Sanyo 8mm camcorder, lens, batteries,
chargers tapes and slide copier (value circa `1000 when new) for a
decent QL rig, so if anybody is interested, just let me know before I
stick a "for sale" ad in my local papers at the end of next month
(September).
The last issue of QLCI that I received was #111 but, try as I may, I
simply could not get it to load, so Mike, can I be a nuisance and ask
you to rattle me off copies of issue 111 and all the others since then
to bring me back up to date with what is happening in the world of the
QL. I have, of course, included a fistful of discs - THANKS!
I have just been given an Amstrad DMP4000 printer by my brother in
law who has emigrated to Spain, taking the instruction book with him and
his PC laptop. Does anybody out there know what printer driver and DIP
switch positions should be used to get it up and running with a QL?
Bob has been anxiously awaiting the outcome of his interim "A" level
exams like a cat on a hot tin roof and got the result yesterday. He
passed his Computer Studies with flying colours but failed Maths and
Physics (by 1 mark) and is therefore understandably disheartened and
miserable at the moment and having to consider his options for the next
academic year. On the plus side, he had added a few bits and pieces to
his self built PC and is now on line, his address is:
macattack ent@ hotmail.com
and he will take any messages destined for me at that address too.
BEST WISHES
PAUL & BOB
Terry Williams 26/08/98
QL114
Hi! Mike and Friends
QPAC2: Further to my comments last month I have persevered using
QPAC2 without a mouse and find it much easier than I first thought!
I find that to reset the mouse defaults, instead of playing Russian
Rollette with the cursor keys, to get on the button required, it is
better to press < ALT . > which shows the buttons with the arrow
on PICK,
then if < ENTER > is pressed again the PICK LIST is shown
complete with HOT KEYS .
If < 2 >< ENTER > is pressed then it shows the EXEC menu .
IF < S > is pressed, for Sysdef, it then it shows the default
screen.
Then it is only necessary to press < A >< 0 > & < ENTER > and the
the ARROW moves at a reasonable speed! The other defaults can also
be altered similarly.
I now do not miss the mouse!!
Needless to say, the reason I did this changeover of gear, seems
to have more or less disappeared! the fault has only occurred about
twice in the last 6 weeks!!!.
TTFN Terry
*!
Martin Wheatley
martinw@ndirect.co.uk
QL, SuperQboard, Twin Disc Drives, Green Screen Monitor
Mersey Mouse, PC running Xchange
Hi everyone,
Not a very long newsletter last month. In fact if Dilwyn and I
hadn't written long letters it would be very short indeed.
If you want ClubQL to continue everyone has to contribute
occasionally. Despite some evidence to the contrary I do
prefer a conversation to the sound of my own voice! Without
other peoples letters there is nothing to reply to
******************************
I WOULD ALSO LIKE MORE PEOPLE TO WRITE TO US MARTIN,BUT AS IN PAST
YEARS JUNE,JULY AND AUGUST ARE USUALLY OUR QUIET MONTHS.NOW THE LONG
NIGHTS ARE HERE WE SHALL HOPEFULLY GET MORE LETTERS ARRIVING,MAYHAP A
FEW OF OUR NEWER FRIENDS WOULD LIKE TO CONTRIBUTE?
Mike wrote
I HAVE FOUND OUT WHAT THE PROBLEM IS WITH MY PC THOUGH,IT
DOESN'T LIKE THE QXL CARD,WHEN IT IS ON AND SITTING IN THE
BACKGROUND THE PC THROWS A WOBBLER,IT HAS TO BE SWITCHED OFF
COMPLETELY.
******************************
Since it is the function of an emulator to co-exist with the
host machine perhaps you should rephrase that as 'I have found
out what the problem is with my QXL, it doesn't like the PC'
If the QXL won't run without causing a problem with the PC that's
a QXL problem not a PC one!
Since the QXL is no longer supported (I hear that although Stuart
is still working on QL things Miracle is no longer active) perhaps
this is the time to try an alternative emulator
If you want something simple that doesn't involve running the more
advanced things like SMSQ try Q-Emulator otherwise QPC is the
obvious answer. I hear Marcus is currently working on a Windows95
version
I HAVE EMAILED JOCHEN FOR MORE INFO ON HIS AND MARCUS'S NEW QPC2
WHICH I THINK IS ABOUT TIME TO SWITCH TO.
************************
Dilwyn writes
QL ROM images. I think you can get these from a Web site
somewhere. Was it the QLay Web site, or were there pointers there
as to where to get them? It's also the sort of information you'd
get from QL Web sites like those of Thierry Godefroy or Jonathan
Hudson.
***********************
They have been available from a Web site. However since Rich
Mellor
has a letter in the current Quanta complaining about this because
it is a breach of Amstrads copyright I don't know how long for.
Of course if you have a working QL you can make your own but no
doubt that's illegal too! We are kind of caught between strict
legalities and common sense here
At the last London Quanta group meeting we had a demonstration of
TF Services Romdisq given by Malcolm Cadman
To those who don't know this is a piece of hardware that plugs
into the QL which gives a permanent storage area
It's like a small hard disc. It has a driver which you load when
you start the QL and you can set it up to boot all your favourite
programs and you can read and write to it like a floppy or hard
disc
The conclusion I came to was that whether it is of use to you
is going to depend very much on your present set up
For someone who does not have a Qubide or a Syquest it could be
invaluable since it will give them quick access to programs
which now they have to load from floppy. It's also very useful
to the dealers since they they can transfer their software setup
without having to carry everything about with them.
If you do have a hard disc then the gains aren't obvious - there
is
a marginal gain in speed but then a hard disc is much bigger so
that's not surprising. If you have a Syquest removable hard disc
attached to your QL then I so no point in getting a Romdisq. The
Syquest has much more capacity and is much cheaper per megabyte
(as would a Zip drive be when someone writes a driver)
I've seen suggestions that the Romdisq can be used as backup to
a hard disc but this brings up another problem. How reliable is
it.
Well since it is new we are using guesswork to some extent since
noone yet has enough experience. However there do seem to be ways to
corrupt the data on it which loses all the data so maybe it should a
case of backing up the data from the Romdisq not the other way round!
Obviously you can lose data from any storage medium but from what
Malcolm was saying it seems to me to be somewhere between a floppy
and a hard disc (removable or otherwise) in terms of data security
but not the equal of a hard disc
Others who actually have one may like to write about this
Also a bit of DIY could be called for since it comes unboxed
with a light you have to be able to see
Martin Wheatley
(
geocities.com/siliconvalley/vista/4807) (
geocities.com/siliconvalley/vista) (
geocities.com/siliconvalley)