Recent Freeware (Oct 1997)
By Timothy Swenson
As a big fan of Freeware, I keep an eye on what Freeware comes
out for the QL. I use the Internet to keep current with the
European sources. A number of QL authors or QL BBS's have web
pages in the Internet. Below is a list of some of the more
recent stuff that I have come across over the last few months.
Most descriptions are taken from the web sites and I really have
not tested each program.
EDI182 - A very efficient and versatile editor for plain text.
Includes line numbering and deleting line numbers inclusively.
Suitable for any QDOS style system. (24K)
C1M - The (no longer supported) Computer One Monitor modified to
suit any QL (QDOS or SMSQ) system from JM on. Sucessfully tested
on QL with (Super)Gold Card and QXL. Extended to tolerate the
Pointer Environment. (15K)
AREF2 - A Cross Reference generator for "DISA"-style GST
assembler text soures. Executable compiled job as an example for
the IO2 toolkit. Do not use with pre-8/96 versions of IO2 or
with already active PEX versions prior to PEX 2.0. (85K)
QSEND - A group of functions and procedures to facilitate some
inter-job communcation, by transfering text and other data via
PIPEs to and from I/O CON channels, or other PIPEs. (28K)
RecoverQ - Can be used to recover damaged files from HD/DD/ED
floppies, backing up disks, copying foreign media as DOS, Atari,
or QL with "bad" structures, surface testing, fast-formatting, or
formatting to user defined specifications. (164K)
UHR - A job with a simple analogue display clock of variable size
(by string paramaters) from 12x16 pixels up to the full screen.
It should arrange itself in a button frame, if present, and will
aways remain visible. (11K)
MEMV - A visual memory monitor job, taken from "memdisp",
corrected to some extent, and modified to suit the requirements
of the different QDOS/SMSQ operating systems and screen sizes.
May not work with the AURORAs high resolution screen. (5K)
CDISK - A SuperBasic extension for backing up single files,
directories, groups of directories, an entire disk, and deleting
directories. CBACK is an example program, supplied with the
SuperBasic source and as an executable job, that can further be
used as a background job for backing up at regular intervals.
(28K)
QL Profiler - This is used with C programs to determine how they
operate internally, looking for areas where the program can be
optimized. Helps C programmers figure out where the program is
spending the most time. (60K)
QLynx - The Unix text-only Web browser has been ported to the QL
by Jonathan Hudson. Two different versions are available, one
for (Super)Gold Card and one for standard QL's. Will only browse
local files as networking software has not been written for the
QL.
QVFS - QDOS Virtual File System (alpha version) is an Internet
style file system for the QL. Lets you access QL files similar
to Unix file system. Unix like file system is translated to
"real" QDOS file system. An example of transations is below:
/net1/floppy1 - n1_flp1_
/printer - ser1ht
/w2/ - win2_
.. - upper directory
You define how you want the Unix file system to translate to the
QDOS file system. This system would allow for faster porting of
Unix applications because no changes would be made to the source
code about the filing system.
Qascade - A PE menu-based way of executing programs. You
define the structure of the menu and the commands that it
executes. Very similar to the "Start" button in Windows95.
Exorcist v. 1.12 - A front-end for Ghostscript, the postscript
viewer.
Winlink - A PE utility that allows you to link and unlink Qbuide
partitions.
ZipBack - A backup utility.
TGBack v. 1.07 - The latest version of the hard drive backup
program.
All of the above programs are available from:
QHJ Freeware
c/o Timothy Swenson
38725 Lexington St. #230
Fremont, CA 94536
Just send enough disks for all of the programs you want and
return postage for the disks. If there is any freeware that you
are looking for, let me know. If I don't have it, I can usually
get it fairly quickly.