a problem getting an emulator to run a gui

[ed77]

hi,

im having a problem getting an emulator to run a gui. i got hold of q-emulator demo version but it doesn't run when i try to run the qlpui program on it. i can list the files on the disk but cannot run them. i just get a bad media error. any advice on the simplest way to run any gui? i have a copy of qlay too, but this doesnt accept qlpak files.

[RWAP]

I remember some talk about QLPUI some time ago - where did you download it from?

Did you unzip it from within the QL, or on the PC?

[tofro]

I am pretty sure the Q-EMulator demo version will not emulate the Q60 video mode, which would be required if you downloaded the binary from Daniele's page.

Tobias

[ed77]

I am pretty sure the Q-EMulator demo version will not emulate the Q60 video mode, which would be required if you downloaded the binary from Daniele's page.

Tobias

ok, but im also having problems running the demoscene demo thing

[ed77]

I remember some talk about QLPUI some time ago - where did you download it from?

Did you unzip it from within the QL, or on the PC?

here. http://terdina.net/ql/software.html

just ran it straight off the back of the emulator

[ed77]

I am pretty sure the Q-EMulator demo version will not emulate the Q60 video mode, which would be required if you downloaded the binary from Daniele's page.

Tobias

ok, but any gui will do like mice or ice?

[RWAP]

I am pretty sure the Q-EMulator demo version will not emulate the Q60 video mode, which would be required if you downloaded the binary from Daniele's page.

Tobias

Ah right - QLPUI appears at: http://terdina.net/ql/software.html (Dilwyn this needs adding to the QL Homepage - Front Ends)

I have just tried it here with an unregistered version of q-emulator.

If you start q-emulator in the demo mode, you do indeed get bad or changed medium when you try to read the qlpak file. This is because the demo mode has all of the features of q-emulator but is limited to working with a supplied disk image - it blocks you from accessing any other drives (or qlpak etc).

If you start q-emulator in the original QL (limited features) mode, and extend the memory to 384K, QLPUI will load and start but as Tobias says, this version of q-emulator does not support the Q60 display mode required by the software, so you just end up with a black screen.....

Sorry, but this demo will only work on the registered version of q-emulator. You could copy the files in enhanced mode to the desktop and load them in QPC2 (but not sure it will work in QPC2 as that does not support the Q60 display mode either).

You also have the problem that the main file (flp1_qlpui) is an executable program (the boot file starts it with EW mdv1_qlpui), which causes another issue (common to transferring programs between emulators and QL versions) - if you use COPY flp1_qlpui TO flp2_qlpui on q-emulator, q-emulator adds a small header to the start of the program which stores the QL header. When QPC2 tries to read this, it will simply read it as a bigger file (as QPC2 does not understand this header, nor provide any ability to read the QL header of executable programs stored on a DOS drive).

The main way of getting around this is to zip up QL programs from within the emulators (or a real QL) and then unzip them within another emulator (or real QL). Another option is to save them to a floppy disk or microdrive image. Unfortunately, the unregistered version of q-emulator cannot write to a disk image, and the file is too big to fit in a microdrive image....

So how do you get aroung this?

In q-emulator, point flp1_ to the QLPAK package, and flp2_ to a DOS directory you will access from QPC2:

Code: Select all

WSTAT flp1_

This gives you:
boot (38 bytes)
font_pcx (16046 bytes)
qlpui (119328 bytes)

(not quite laid out like that - but you will see what I mean)

You can then do:

Code: Select all

LOAD flp1_boot

Change the references to mdv1_ to win1_QLPUI_ (as QPC2 does not understand mdv1_ as a device - it does not have microdrives)

Code: Select all

SAVE flp2_boot
COPY flp1_font_pcx TO flp2_font_pcx
PRINT FDAT(\flp1_qlpui)
a=RESPR(119328): LBYTES flp1_qlpui,a:SBYTES flp2_qlpui,a,119328

Make a note of the number returned by PRINT FDAT(\flp1_qlpui) - this is the dataspace allocated for the exutable program (here it is only 100 bytes)

Now in QPC2, point DOS2_ to the DOS directory where you saved the files in q-emulator - and WIN1_ to your normal qxl.win file (or somewhere else)

Code: Select all

MAKE_DIR win1_QLPUI
COPY DOS2_boot,win1_QLPUI_boot
COPY DOS2_font_pcx,win1_font_pcx
a=RESPR(119328): LBYTES dos2_qlpui,a:SEXEC win1_QLPUI_QLPUI,a,119328,100

LRUN win1_QLPUI_boot

Alas it starts up here and says 'running on Q40/Q60' but that is all it does - I guess because the QPC2 high colour mode (mode 32) is not the same as the Q40/Q60 high colour mode (mode 33)....

At least the above might be useful to show how to get files between the two emulators.

Any more ideas? Where is the QL source for QLPUI I wonder - maybe we need to add QPC2 high colour mode to it...

[RWAP]

I am pretty sure the Q-EMulator demo version will not emulate the Q60 video mode, which would be required if you downloaded the binary from Daniele's page.

Tobias

ok, but any gui will do like mice or ice?

ICE will work in q-emulator (but alas the copyright holders have not given permission for it to be made available as freeware). There are several other front ends on DIlwyn's site - http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/frontend/index.html

You will however, need to unzip them from within the q-emulator - see http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/gen/pcqlxfer/index.html for some guidance on getting zip onto the emulator in the first place!

[Ralf R.]

ICE will work in q-emulator (but alas the copyright holders have not given permission for it to be made available as freeware).

After all those years? Is this something, I have to understand? Probably not.

[tofro]

Alas it starts up here and says 'running on Q40/Q60' but that is all it does - I guess because the QPC2 high colour mode (mode 32) is not the same as the Q40/Q60 high colour mode (mode 33)....

Rich,

QPC and Q60 video modes are close enought that you'd normally see at least something on the screen (in garbled colours, as the RGB order is reversed between the two systems). You probably don't see anything at all because video memory location is in different places between QPC and Q60. And, depending on configured memory sizes, you might also simply experience a crash.

Tobias