First Review

May not be big for some but this is the first review I have had on anything, a guy name Joe reviewed the book in iTunes, and quite complimentary. There is still parts of it that I am not happy with mainly formatting which seems to come out differently once published, looking in to this further.

More on the book

Uploaded a new version now, taken out some bells and whistles so that more devices can use it. It is in epub format and can be viewed on iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad.

It can be found in iTunes, search for 'Back 2 the QL'

Update to what I am doing

Well, I read with interest, bits of information trickling through on other sites, you know who you are. The forum has been incredibly quiet the last few months, I may go there and pose a few questions later, we will see.


Overall the QL scene has been quite quiet anyway (sign of the times, another lull) who knows. For me I am still struggling with recuperation, it is taking its time and toll on other projects I want to get moving on (more on than later), suffice to say they are both hardware projects that I hope will work reasonably well based around the BBQL. 


For me to get started proper however requires some impetus on my part that would be helped by better weather, I have not known a June/July like it as far as memory serves me, and when the sun is out it does get me off my backside. Roll on when we eventually do get some decent sunshine, I must becoming a SAD person, as it definitely feels like it.


The Olympics are coming, whoo too, not not really I have little interest in sporting events unless they are right in my face, then I may watch, but i do not go out of my way to do so. I did think however (oh bugger while I write this, the heavens have just opened again and it is another wet cold rainy day here in the South East of England) that there may be some simple programming exercises that could be achieved relatively simply in SuperBASIC. The theme is Ant-Olympics.


All based on simplicity, the ant on the QL screen is a mere single pixel.
Basic control keys are the Spacebar and cursor movement.


Below is a couple of sketches of the idea and I may get around to program a few routines, any volunteers are welcome.

As usual comments are always welcome

One last thing for those interested, the book mentioned in the last post was published in iTunes, however the format is far from what I have preferred, therefore I am currently updating the book slightly and it will be in a slightly better format for more devices to use (but with less bells and whistles), I will post here when it has been uploaded to iTunes and it may be available on other sites too.

I thankyou

iBook

In order to get younger people aware of the QL, we need to get to them, so I have come up with this

http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/back-2-the-ql/id535174158?ls=1

Seasoned veterans will not find anything new here but the hundreds of thousands of iPad users if they download it, just might and who knows, some may even join QUANTA because of it.

Pi Pi its the Raspberry Pi

Well it finally arrived, and there is already a flurry on the QL User List so expect some postings here there and everywhere now that it gets in the hand of people.


 Here is a video of me opening it and some pics.

Pie, 'the reunion'

Cant resist, we got a mention again at a recent Spectrum Anniversary by the RaspBerry Pi guru Eben, 32 minutes in to the video

see it here on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKt-3lFYzYg&feature=player_embedded 

or currently on their website here http://www.raspberrypi.org/ 

No blogs for awhile

Back to the QL will be back after a short stay in hospital recovering from an op.

Y VIVA ESPAÑA

There is a Spanish QL game which can be downloaded from:
http://programandala.net/es.programa.as ... castigo.ql it is in Spanish obviously and I thought I would try converting it without having any knowledge of the Spanish language and using the web to do the job for me. I tried a sample of the programme and run it through a variety of websites Babel Fish, Yahoo etc. before settling on Google translate, the result is shown below. Unfortunately some Spanish words are used as English words and won't convert and will need a search and replace method such as Narrate and Print. Some REM statements get reversed and some meanings get lost in translation, see below and you will understand. Other than that it looks a doable project, I may do this in time for the AGM.


sample original


  490 rem --------------------------------------------
  500 rem Argumento
  510 rem Plot
  520 defproc plot
  530   rem Comprueba las condiciones de la trama.
  540   rem Check the plot conditions.
  550   if current_location=8 and location_exit(8,north)
  560     let location_exit(8,north)=false
  570     let saxons_follow=1
  580     narrate "Una partida sajona aparece por el este. Para cuando te vuelves al norte, ya no te queda ninguna duda: era una trampa."
  590     short_pause
  600     narrate "En el estrecho paso es posible resistir, aunque por desgracia sus efectivos son muy superiores a los tuyos."
  610     end_of_scene:clear_screen
  620     narrate "Tus oficiales te conminan a huir."
  630     speak "Capturando a un general britano, ganan doblemente."
  640     narrate "Sabes que es cierto, y te duele."
  650     ret
  660   endif
  670   if saxons_follow and current_location<12
  680     let saxons_follow=saxons_follow+1
  690     narrate "No sabes cu·nto tiempo te queda..."
  700     if saxons_follow>10 
  710       narrate "Los sajones te capturan. Su general, sonriendo ampliamente, dice:"
  720       speak "Bien, bien... Del gran Ulfius podremos sacar una buena ventaja."
  730       end_of_scene:clear_screen
  740       action_end
  750     endif
  760     if current_location<10 
  770       narrate "Tus hombres luchan con denuedo contra los sajones."
  780     endif
  790     ret
  800   endif


conversion


-------------------------------------------- 490 rem
   500 rem Argument
   Plot 510 rem
   520 defproc plot
   530 rem Check the condition of the weft.
   540 rem Check the plot conditions.
   550 if current_location = 8 and location_exit (8, north)
   Let location_exit 560 (8, north) = false
   570 saxons_follow let = 1
   580 narrate "A game Saxon appears in the east. By the time you turn north, you no longer can be no doubt: it was a trap."
   590 short_pause
   600 narrate "In the narrow passage is possible to resist, but unfortunately their numbers are much higher than yours."
   610 end_of_scene: clear_screen
   620 narrate "Your official enjoin you to flee."
   630 speak "Capturing a general Briton, winning twice."
   640 narrate "You know it's true, and it hurts."
   650 ret
   660 endif
   670 if saxons_follow and current_location <12
   Let saxons_follow 680 +1 = saxons_follow
   690 narrate "Do you know · cu much time you have left ..."
   If saxons_follow 700> 10
   710 narrate "The Saxons captured you. His general, smiling widely, said:"
   720 speak "Well, well ... From the great Ulfius we can get a good lead."
   730 end_of_scene: clear_screen
   740 action_end
   750 endif
   760 if current_location <10
   770 narrate "Your men fight bravely against the Saxons."
   780 endif
   790 ret
   800 endif

Facebook

QUANTA now has a Facebook page, you can view it here :-

http://www.facebook.com/pages/QUANTA/210849812344984#!/pages/QUANTA/210849812344984?sk=wall

Somethings are just meant to be

A possible glimpse into the future is this environmentally friendly black box (only because it doesn't need manufacturing again) but getting something a little more from it by extending it's life. The keyboard patched in is from Amazon £8, the blue LED is from Maplins £2.50 replacing the red one normally indicating access to the Microdrive, for one accessing data from an SD card. Under the hood is subject to conjecture but one possibility is the Raspberry Pi £25 (or thereabouts once it is available at the end of February we are now told) running Linux, running one of a small handful of QL emulators (you know the rest).

Once I can get my hands on all the bits to do it , I might just have a go at this. :)

 

 

Copy that

I see a new version of QemuLator is out for Windows with hopefully a similar update to the MAC following shortly behind.

There is also a blog now to follow (see to the right of the top of my screen) for QemuLator fans, hopefully more QL stuff to look at, read and digest for all us diehards.

Here's hoping to another year of QL stuff to enjoy

Update


Version for the MAC OS X (spelling error on the blog) is now available at 1.1, going to download this as soon as possible to see what gives :) or as Cartman says with lip hanging out one side of the mouth "smiley face"

-------- see my links to the side for Qemulator blog

There's a lot of it about

The forums are taking to task the possiblities of a SuperQL (like the name) using existing boards like the FPGA or Natami (nope havent a clue either) to stick a new QDOS on, sounds great but I suspect will take awhile to get there. In the meantime I thought, what a SuperQL would have as a set of specifications?


1600 x 1200 resolution screen
16M colours with transparency options


maybe more to follow after some thought?

It's been so long

Yep, been a bit busy, however if you looking for some smart new front covers for your e-book, if you have been following the DJ exploits on the subject, then feel free to grab these front covers from here-


http://www.theql.co.uk/Files




enjoy :)

Something Old, Something New III

Something Old, Something New II