Dave Walker Freeware/Shareware
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Over the years I have developed a number of pieces of software (in addition to the
C68 system and related software) that have been made
available to the QDOS (and compatibles) community. Some of these were sold on a
commercial basis, and some on a freeware and/or shareware basis. All version sof
the software are now available on a freeware basis since the
commercial channels have been discontinued.
The items available are:
The DiscOVER software is effectively an Alien File copier.
It allows QL (and compatible) systems to copy files to and
from QL format media and floppy disks that are in formats that
are not normally compatible with QL systems.
It is designed for use by those who want to be able to exchange
files between a QL compatible system and some other computer.
A new feature available from the 4.11 release onwards is specific
support for the QUBIDE disk interface. If you have a QUBIDE
disk interface with a removable drive (such as the SyQuest), then the
DiscOVER software can now read and write IBM format cartridges as well
as QL format ones. IBM format hard disks attached to QUBIDE would also
work although you are probably less likely to have these.
The DiscOVER software is provided in two levels of capability:
- DiscOVER which can handle MSDOS formats and the
various variants of this such as Atari ST formats.
- Multi-DiscOVER which also can handle CPM, BBC DFS,
BBC ADFS, Unix CPIO and Spectrum/Sam Coupe formats.
The software is provided free, but you have to apply for a registration key
Unregistered versions of the software are fully
functional except for the fact that you cannot transfer files
larger than 2Kb in size.
The DiscOVER software is now provided as a single
binary program provided supports all modes of working -
which level of facility you get depends on the level of
registration key you obtain. To obtain a registration key please
email me
and you will receive your registration key in a day or so. Make it
clear whether you want just the standard DiscOVER
version or the Multi-DiscOVER version , and also please state the
name you wish the software to be registered under.
For those who do not already have the capability to read/write IBM format
floppy disks on their QL system, the following download allows a QDOS format
floppy disk containing the DiscOVER software to be created on a PC.
Unzip the download into a folder on your PC and then follow the
instructions given in the README.TXT file in that folder.:
DiscOVER as HD floppy image (125Kb)
For those who do not want to download the full release
(probably because they already have DiscOVER and only want changes),
then the following partial downloads are available:
In addition for those with a QUBIDE disk interface with a CDROM drive connected to it,
then the following is a beta of
a new version of DiscOVER that can also read CDROM disks.
I have only been able to test this on a QuBide simulator as I do not have a real
Qubide interface of my own. Please let me know both about any problems you notice
(so that I can get them fixed) and also if it works fine for you (which means I have
got everything right!).
TexTIDY
Version 2.12 (80Kb)
The TexTIDY software is intended to provide file conversion capability
between a number of specified formats. It is particularly targetted
at allowing users who have Quill format files on a QL to convert the files
to a format that will be useful on some other machine. The TexTIDY
software is often used in conjunction with the DiscOVER software where
TexTIDY is first used to convert a file to a format that will be useful
on a target machine, and then DiscOVER is used to copy it onto a disk
that can be ready by the target machine. For more details on the
conversions supported see the User manual
For those who do not want to download the full release (using the link
above), then
the following partial downloads are available:
The software is provided free, but you have to apply for a registration key
Unregistered versions of the software are fully
functional except for the fact that you cannot transfer files with more than
about 1Kb of text in them.
The To obtain a registration key please email
me
and you will receive your registration key in a day or so. Make it clear
which program you wish the registration key to apply, and also please also state the
name you wish the software to be registered under.
QXLFormat
Version 1.5 (14Kb)
the QXLFORMAT software is effectively a "Quick Format" program. It
takes a disk that has been previously formatted, and re-writes the
directory and control areas so that appears to be a freshly formatted
QL disk. It does not care whether the previous format was a QL one
or not, and can automatically detect the difference between DD (720K)
and HD (1.44Mb) disks.
The program was originally developed when the QXL was in its early days
and did not have a FORMAT command so that a PC format disk could be
converted into a QL format one. It is not, however, limited to
running on QXL systems and will in fact run on any QL compatible system that
has floppy disks attached.
FLPClone
Version 1.9 (34Kb)
The FLPCLONE software is designed to allow floppy disks to be
copied at the physical level on QL (and compatible) systems.
It is typically considerably faster than copying such disks
at the file level. It can also copy disks that are in alien
formats (e.g. IBM MSDOS formats) as it does the copying at the
physical level rather than the logical level.
For those who do not want to download the full release, then
the following partial downloads are available:
This software is designed to allow a QL to interchange microdrive
cartridges between a QL and the OPD/Tonto machines.
The OPD and Tonto were not a commercial success and are no longer
available. They were machines that tried to take QL computing
technology and merge it in with phone technology. They sold around
100,000 machines, and there still quite a few of them in existence and
users tend to be quite fanatical about them.
They used microdrives that were
physically compatible with those on the QL, but used a different
recording format so cartridges were not interchangeable with between
the QL and an OPD/Tonto machine. The OPD/Tonto also had a version
of the Xchange suite (Quill, Archive, Abacus, Easel) which while on
the surface the same as the QL versions had slight differences in
the underlying file formats.
The facilities offered by the OPD/QL Interchange software can be
summarised as:
- A new low level driver that allowed a QL to read/write OPD/Tonto
format cartridges.
- A copy program (OPDCOPY) that helped with copying files between the
two environments. It would also transparently convert the Xchange
suite files between the QL and OPD/Tonto formats when copying such
files between QL format media and OPD/Tonto cartridges.
- A guide on the differences on the differences between the variants
of BASIC on the two environments for those wanting to convert programs.
The following downloads are available to help you decide
if you might be interested in the this software:
- User manual (Quill format) (13Kb)
- Basic Conversion Guidelines (Quill format) (13Kb)
- Binaries (50kb)
These files are set up to be used from a device named MDV
and can be copied direct to a QL format MDV.
- Source (170kb)
This is a direct dump of my source floppy from my archives.
I cannot remember which assembler was used, but I think it was Computer-One,
so it anyone trying to rebuild from source might need to do a little
work to convert the embedded directives to another assembler.
I have not looked at these files for nearly 20 years, but if you have
any questions feel free to come back to me and I will see if I can drag
up an answer from what I can remember.
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