This page collects a small sampler of QDOS software for use on QLs and emulators.
.zip files
This is the most common format for distributing QL software.
Binary programs that are launched with the EXEC/EXEC_W command store special metadata outside the binary itself (executable flag and data space). Only the QDOS versions of the zip and unzip programs can write and read the QDOS metadata. Unzipping en executable with the Windows version of unzip would discard the metadata and the EXEC_W command would fail with error 'bad parameter'.
To run with Q-emuLator software distributed in .zip files you have two options:
Directly attach a microdrive slot to the .zip file and run from there. No need to unzip the file first because Q-emuLator can directly read from QDOS zip files.
Unzip the file to a Windows directory first, either by using the QDOS port of the Unzip program, or by copying the files from a microdrive slot attached to the .zip file to a microdrive slot attached to the Windows directory.
.qlpak files
This is a new format supported by Q-emuLator. A single .qlpak file contains all the QL files needed to run a QDOS program and optional Q-emuLator settings (for example a .qlpak may limit the amount of RAM to 128 KB if the software in it only works on unexpanded QLs).
You can run the software just by clicking on the web page .qlpak links (assuming Q-emuLator is installed on your machine). If you download a .qlpak, you can run it by double-clicking on it, or you can attach .qlpak files to microdrive slots.
Q-emuLator demos
Note: If the latest version of Q-emuLator for Windows is installed on your PC, you can directly execute .qlpak files from this web page by clicking on the link and choosing 'Open'.
Lynx is a text based web browser. This version was ported from Unix to QDOS (in 2000, by Jonathan Hudson, full package with sources available here) and uses the TCP_ device to connect to the web
After pressing F1 or F2, this demo automatically loads Lynx and directs it to www.google.com. Press the down arrow until the cursor moves to the search text field. Type what you'd like to search and press the Enter key twice to submit the form and load the page with the search results. Press the down arrow key until you arrive at one of the result links and press Enter to follow the link.
GNU General Public License.
Q-emuLator includes a few ROMs, and if you have a QL you can save the ROM to a floppy disk and install it in the emulator.
Sinclair ROMs are named after the version that you get with the command 'PRINT VER$'. In chronological order, the most common version are AH, JM, JS and MGx, where MGx are the localized ROMs (e.g. MGG for German and MGI for Italian).
Minerva is a QDOS-compatible operating system that also was distributed as 48KB QL ROMs. It is faster than the original QDOS, and includes a number of enhancements (for example a full-screen SuperBASIC editor and the possibility to use both of the QL video memory pages).
Some time ago Tony Firshman made all versions of Minerva up to 1.89 public domain, and more recently Laurence Reeves (the author of Minerva) made all versions public
and released the source code for the latest version under the GPL license.
Good ROMs to use in emulators are the Sinclair JS ROM and the Minerva 1.97 ROM.
Dilwyn Jones also has a QL ROM web page where you can find more ROMs, including some non-standard ROMs.
SMSQ/E
SMSQ/E is an operating system written by Tony Tebby, the author of the QL's operating system. SMSQ/E is for the most part compatible with QDOS, but greatly expands it. For example it contains the Toolkit II commands, it includes the pointer environment and window manager, adds support for directories in the file system and can use graphics displays with higher resolution and more colours than the QL.
SMSQ/E has been re-released in January 2013 with a free licence.
Q-emuLator can run the following two variants of SMSQ/E:
The recommended Q-emuLator version supports screen resolutions of up to 1024 x 768 with 16 bit colour. Make sure you enable Q60 display emulation in the configuration options. In the SuperBASIC interpreter type 'LRESPR win1_SMSQ_QEM' to start SMSQ/E, then ' 'DISP_COLOUR 3,1024,768' to enter the high resolution mode and 'DISP_COLOUR 0,512,256' to exit it.
The version for the Gold Card QL board and Aurora video card.