Code size

While looking for a Perl file to modify for another project, I came across a script I wrote ten years ago to count the lines and comments in C/C++ projects and out of curiosity decided to use it on the current Q-emuLator codebase.

The result is that Q-emuLator today has 68000 lines of code (67995 lines in 235 files to be precise, after excluding lines that are entirely blank or comments)…

…mostly written during nights over the last 19 years .

The count includes some currently inactive code like the binary translator for the QemuFast project and it excludes the Unzip sources.

A few assembly and Perl files are also not counted.

There are then about 5000 lines of code between the M68000 debugger and a tool to generate tables for the disassembler and the timings for each CPU instruction.

Now if I add just a few lines I can get to 68008!

Q-emuLator 1.2 for OS X: Trial Mode

Q-emuLator 1.2 for Mac OS X has just been released, adding a special mode (similar to the one available for the Windows version) that allows users to try running QL software on it before purchasing a license.

The new “Try” button in the startup/registration window allows emulating a QL with 128 KB or RAM and speed similar to that of the 68008 CPU.

As always, registration unlocks fast CPU emulation and the full set of features:

Download this update from the Q-emuLator for OS X page!

Minerva and Games

The Minerva ROM brings a number of improvements to QDOS, but some QL games (especially early ones) don’t work correctly on it. What are the technical reasons for these problems?

For last year’s release of the “QL Games Collection” I worked on a special version of
Q-emuLator to use as the runtime for the games and I had the opportunity to investigate and answer this question for many games.

Here is what I found, the main differences between Minerva and Sinclair ROMs that can cause incompatibilities:

• Minerva expects programs to run in user mode. If a program changes the supervisor stack pointer even just for a short while, Minerva can crash, for example when the interrupt 2 service routine is called.
• Some games take complete control of the QL, typically to maximize speed and available memory, to use the second hardware display page or to strengthen the copy protection. However, virtually all of these programs still need to call QDOS to communicate with the IPC co-processor to play sounds and to read the keyboard.
  In Sinclair ROMs, the IPC functions are at a lower level than the rest of the OS, but on Minerva IPC access is more similar to any other QDOS calls and it accesses the system variables, which these games normally overwrite. This can cause crashes or funky behavior.
• The interrupt 2 handler, which some games use to get the correct timing or to run code periodically, accesses some system variables both on Sinclair and Minerva ROMs. However, the Sinclair handler can often continue to work when the variables are overwritten, while the Minerva one can not.
• Minerva treats unhandled exceptions very differently than the Sinclair ROM.
  It’s actually pretty common for QL software to contain bugs that cause unhandled exceptions as when running on Sinclair ROMs most of these exceptions where simply ignored by QDOS and many software authors didn’t even have a chance of noticing the problem.
  On Minerva, unhandled exceptions cause a call to the OS rather than just being ignored and this in turn can have unexpected side effects, or crash the system when combined with any of the previous issues (for example for games that take over the entire system).

In general, when running early QL games on an emulator, the safer choice is to use a Sinclair ROM and set the amount of RAM to 128 KB to avoid incompatibilities. A number of these games wouldn’t work if the QL had a RAM expansion as they expected everything to be at the same fixed memory addresses as on a 128 KB QL.

3.1.3 update for Windows

Version 3.1.3 for Windows is out with the following changes:

• Exit and re-enter full screen mode on Alt-Tab.
• Return cartridge name in "get medium info" trap for microdrive images (*.mdv).
• Fixed crash when QCF file was passed on the command line.

SMSQ/E gets a new BSD-style license

Last week the license for the SMSQ/E operating system was changed to a BSD-style free license.

SMSQ/E can be considered the evolution of QDOS and while it cannot run the older Sinclair QL games, it offers many additional features like file system support for sub-directories, high resolution graphics and improved windowing system.

Q-emuLator has been able to run the Gold Card version of SMSQ/E for about ten years, although typically only users that already had purchased that version of SMSQ/E took advantage of this feature.

In 2010 I did a small experiment, modifying SMSQ/E to allow a 1024 x 768 display resolution when running on Q-emuLator. It was not possible, however, to publish the results. The SMSQ/E license at the time allowed free access to the sources, but distribution of binaries was restricted.

The new license finally allows distribution of that modified version of SMSQ/E, although it should still be considered experimental. On the software page of the Q-emuLator web site you can now download:

• A demo QLPAK with a short SuperBASIC program that draws colored circles under SMSQ/E, using a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels and 16 bit color.
• A variant of SMSQ/E 3.13 modified to allow the 1024 x 768 resolution when running on Q-emuLator.
• The Gold Card version of SMSQ/E.

 

Screenshots from the circles demo QLPAK.