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This mainly for those who are used to take others responsible for their own thoughtless actions (drying their poodles in the microwave..., etc):

Despite M89 and T6 proved safe and reliable in the authors QDOS systems, they are in an experimental state, though, and might even lead to serious damages, thus NO WARRANTY AT ALL applies!

T6 and M89 related code and texts may be given away non-commercially, with the complete original archive(s´); modified versions may be supplied if this notice and the archives are preserved. Incorporating parts of T6 or M89 into other works inplies that those are free to at least the same extent as T6 and/or M89 are, regardless of what might be stated with those products.

- tar-bzip2 packed because of the bzip2 superior efficiency, i.e. up to 20% better than zip. -

archive "t6"	28K
	qhpt6.txt qhpt6ex.txt	deutschprachige beschreibungen
	e-qhpt6.txt e-qhpt6ex.txt	this page(s), english explanations
	t6m89-92	t6 for minerva 1.89
	t6m97-92	t6 for minerva 1.97
	testxtcc_asm	example to the extra job parameters
archive "M89"	60K
	m89m-12	m89, latest min.189 re-assembled code
	m89t-12-92	the UQLX system ROM of m89 with t6

T6 : T6M89 and T6M97

Toolkit derived from an old TK2-version, de-bugged, extended, for the UQLX with MINERVA 1.89 or 1.97, rsp, which will not be working with other QDOS versions. Might be functional with the standard QL hardware; was prepared for and tested with UQLX and Linux 2.2.xx/i586, only.

The maintainance - if there was any - and development of TK2, which reportedly always was far from bug-free, was given up by it's presumed author(s), long ago. Further legitimating this attempt, if necessary, would be the facts that the code bears no hint on authorship at all, so no one apparently claiming any rights and, that there is a TK2 version freely available in the internet, already. Finally, which hopefully will not become necessary, I could supply the T6 "modifications" by a patch file, against the freely available TK2 version, which would involve some more and otherwise useless work, but still work out to the desired results...

M89 : M89T M89M

M89M is a slightly modified version of the MINERVA 1.89 ROM, which is in the public domain - many thanks to the authors, which made the publication of this special version possible. I'd change not much, just fixed a bug to enable 16MB of RAM, and adjusted a few other things, mainly w.r.t. the UQLX running more efficiently and with an over-sized screen display.
M89 was (and will be) tested with the UQLX and Linux, only.
M89T is the bundled system ROM image of M89 with T6 for the UQLX.

T6M89 and T6M97 v94 (20. Sep. 1999)

The T6 toolkit was started by the need to having some sufficiently bug free equivalent to what is known as "toolkit 2" or, "TK2". It follows the implementation state of TK2 2.13 to extending the MINERVA 1.89 or 1.97 ROMs for the UQLX, re-done for best efficiency, false or useless stuff left off (re below), preserving the MINERVA functionality and supplying several additional features, (hopefully) more reliably as with TK2. Many extensions as known from (and superior to) SMSQ/E which can be used non-conflicting in the UQLX and are not supplied e.g. with IO2 comparably or more versatile, are included.

T6 cannot be run with other QDOS versions - where it is expected to immediately crash the systems!

The bundled T6M89 & M89 (or MINERVA 1.89) and T6M97 & MINERVA 1.97 implement the genuine functionality of the ROMs concerned, plus everything the TK2 additionally was supplying, with the exception of the ALTKEY procedure, which anyway gets overwritten by the HOTKEYs extension, and with no MDV nor QDOS NETwork related stuff - FSERVE etc. are supplied as dummy procedures just to prevent programs from useless error breaks.

The following is a list of just the modifications and extensions:

Version

• TK2_EXT [ #channel ] !
  Any call with at least one (empty) parameter will display the T6 date and version code.
  
• Date of assembly and version can be found within the first few bytes of the code.
• v92: some bug fixes, code tidied up, nothing new.

Modifications, Overview

• Useless stuff removed, several bugs fixed.
• Codespace extended to 32K, T6 (v87+) can reside at any memory address.
• ROM header corrected, and modified to self-initiating on startup.
• Corrupted names will not extend to beyond the S.Basic workspace memory.
• Preserving the system's ROM functionality.
• Error messages will be sent to the S.Basic-job's own channel #0 and, only if that failed to QDOS 000 (which is #0 of the first S.Basic interpreter).
• Error handling improved, and more elaborate.
• WHEN-functionality preserved, according to MINERVA.
• COPY, DIR and the like can be interrupted (globally) with the <ESC>ape key.
• WMON always returns error free.
• "SQ", additional rsp. extended SMSQ/E specific keywords, for portability reasons.

Extended, Modified, Bugs fixed, Removed

• ALARM (job "server")
  Caller becomes the job's owner.
• AJOB
  of an already active job is not an error, and will re-set it's priority to the new value.
• ALTKEY
  Removed: The implemented procedure is not adequately designed for a multitasking system - a more suitable one being prepared; until then: The "hotkey" code is freely available, which also defines an ALTKEY procedure...
• BGET
  SQ, can also receive strings of bytes into a string(-slice). -> Examples
• BPUT
  SQ, can also send strings of bytes.
• CALL
  Removed: MINERVA already implements the procedure properly.
• CLEAR
  executing the the MINERVA procedure after an internal call to CLCHP.
• CLOCK
  Caller becomes the job's owner.
• CLOSE
  • Removed: MINERVA already implements the extended features, properly.
  • QDOS-channel 000 protected in T6M97 and in the M89 system ROM.
  • S.Basic entry invalidated only if QDOS channel successfully closed.
  • Bugfix: CLOSE will not be terminated by single false parameters in a parameter list.
• CONTINUE
  Removed: MINERVA already implements the extended features, properly, and doesn't need the - buggy - TK2 style WHEN ERRor handling "correction".
• COPY, COPY_H, COPY_N
  • files appending mode added, when called with the "!" delimiter;
    the destination file wiil be created if not present.
  • date of source copied (instead of date of copying).
  • workspace can be extended - re SB_BUF - for much higher transfer speed.
  • an open destination channel, #channel, will remain open.
  • Bugfix: Empty files channels orderly closed,
  • Bugfix: channels orderly closed, also, after termination by <CTR/SPC>.
  • Bugfix: If passed by "#channel" any of the source or destination channels remain open.
• DATAD$ etc.
  Bugfix: Safely returning strings not longer than S.Basic workspace permits - which otherwise would (did!) badly corrupt the S.Basic system data.
• DEL_DEFB
  will not be locked by sv_mdrun accidentally(?) being non-zero.
• DELETE
  Removed: Left un-modified to prevent accidental loss of data, because the TK2 default device setting is simply not suited to a multi-tasking system, as the device name can be changed globally at any time, by any program, un-predeterminably. - WDEL mode of operation unchanged.
• DIR etc.
  Bugfix: Safely returning strings not longer than S.Basic workspace permits - which otherwise would (did!) badly corrupt the S.Basic system data.
• DO
  • Internal call to CLCHP removed to preserving allocated memory workspace.
  • S.Basic channel #0 =/= QDOS 000 will also remain open.
• ED
  • Does not (uselessly) attempt to clear the QDOS-channel 000 window.
  • Bugfix: Error texts will be sent to the concerned S.Basic's channel #0, thus enabling the EDitor for any S.Basic jobs, dispensing with the need of intermediately changing to job 0 at startup time or after each error, just to (re-)enable editting.
  • The parameterless call will resume editting at the line which was last editted (bv.edlin) or, at the line at bottom of the visible editting area (bv.lsbas).
• ERNUM
  Removed: M89 modified to full error code return values as with MI-1.97, instead.
• ERR_DF
  Removed: bugfix for MINERVA not required.
• EX
  • Caller will be owner of the new job.
  • If the source file's header does not show the job-type and if an XTcc field is present the XTcc data will substitute the dataspace value and the job-type flag.
  • As an attempt to supply some source for the ARGV(0) value of "C"-programs the jobfile header will be passed on stack, additionally and in a (hopefully!) compatible manner (at least, many tests did not reveal any problems). -> Details
  • EX of TK2-"special jobs"
    Removed: Nonsense, badly designed and just useless...
• EXTRAS
  can be terminated (globally) when pressing the <ESC>ape key.
• FDAT, FTYP
  modified to evaluate an XTcc field if the file type in the QDOS header was zero.
• FLEN
  Bugfix: Returning the valid file length, instead of out-dated header data.
• FOPEN FOP_DIR FOP_IN FOP_NEW FOP_OVER FTEST
  Bugfix: Always execute without termination, consistently, returning the error code.
• FPOS
  read the current file pointer and, optionally, then set the position according to the second parameter - instead of returning that - already known - parameter's value.
• FSERVE
  Empty: (until now) no network fileserver for the UQLX exists. Returning error free without action, until the planned substitute for the UQLX gets ready.
• FTYP, FUPDT, FDAT, FXTRA, FNAME$
  the XTcc recognizing mode results to uncertain filepointer values after header access - which all the above functions do. This is not considered a newly introduced bug, because the standard ROMs reset it to zero, while MINERVA and SQ(?) don't. Thus the value could not reliably be used, anyway.
• date | ernum = FUPDT( kanal [ ,new-date ] )
  read and, optionally, then write a new file's update date.
• INSTR_CASE
  SQ, Empty: There are many tools providing functions for extended and flexible string comparison.
• JOBS
  Bugfix: a stack balance bug fixed.
• KBD_TABLE LANG_USE
  SQ, Empty: Avoiding the vast amount of data for several languages where any but one are of no use at all. There are many translation and keyboard tables supplied with the MINERVA distribution which can be linked in by standard procedures which are already provided.
• LANGUAGE LANGUAGE$
  SQ, Empty: Useless, and NOT supported (can easily be substituted by simple S.Basic functions).
• LRESPR
  accepting ROM-images, and can be called while transient programs (jobs) being active.
• MDV
  Removed: Useless in the UQLX, and MINERVA inplementing a much better state, anyway.
• MERGE
  within an active program executes MRUN.
• NET
  Removed: Useless in the UQLX - until some reliable substitute will be found.
• NEW
  • executing the the MINERVA procedure after an internal call to CLCHP.
  • Bugfix: TK2-ish WHEN handling removed, left to the MINERVA routines.
• NFS_USE
  returning error free without action, until the planned substitute for the UQLX gets ready.
• value$ = PARSTR$
  Bugfix: Can be concatenated error free with other variables, functions or literal values.
• PARTYP
  alternatively accept a "#"-preceded positional parameter, and does not terminate on ANY sort of errors.
• PARUSE
  alternatively accept a "#"-preceded positional parameter, and does not terminate on ANY sort of errors.
• REPORT ernum
  Removed: Implemented in the M89-ROM, to saving some T6-ROM space.
• RUN
  • executing the the MINERVA procedure after an internal call to CLCHP.
  • Bugfix: TK2-ish WHEN handling removed, left to the MINERVA routines.
• RJOB
  Bugfix: Removal of a job which doesn't exist is not an error.
• RETRY
  Bugfix, Removed: MINERVA already implements the extended features, properly, and doesn't need the - buggy - TK2 style WHEN ERRor handling "correction".
• SBYTES/.._O
  will safely be terminated with fs_flush.
• SEXEC/.._O
  appends an XTcc field and will safely be terminated with fs_flush.
• SPL
  • faster: workspace for copying extended to 2K+.
  • Caller becomes job's owner.
  • Bugfix: If passed as "#channel" open channels remain open.
• STOP
  Removed: MINERVA already implements the extended features, properly, and doesn't need the - buggy - TK2 style WHEN ERRor handling "correction".
• TK2_EXT
  included in the systems startup procedure, for re-initiating of redefined S.Basic names.
• VIEW
  faster for files with long lines of text, or codefiles
• WCOPY
  • preserving the source file(s)'s date(s).
  • workspace can be extended (re below, SB_BUF).
  • not overwriting the '.-UQLX-' and '.--LINUX--' files.
• WDEL
  '.-UQLX-' & '.--LINUX--' preserved when in the "A"ll mode, where the procedure will terminate with the "bad name" error if the keyboard request was confirmed by "A"..
• WDIR etc
  Bugfix: Character codes 160+ handling fixed (accented and non-standard characters).
• WDIR DIR WSTAT
  • displaying (Sub-)Directories appended by ' ->'.
  • Not locking the multitasking any more, nor interfering with other jobs:
    CON-output can job-specifically be continued after halt at full screen by pressing any key, and may be terminated with the <ESC>ape key.
  • additionally displaying different file types, selectively.
• WMON WTV
  • Initiating the "outline" of window #0 if the PIF (PE) is present.
  • Extended to suit over-sized screens:
    • with two or three integer parameters the last two of them will be taken as the top left job windows origin (as set with the "outline").
    • the windows position on screen will be preserved if only the MODE parameter, or none (then defaulting to MODE 4), was passed.
  • The windows position will also remain preserved in case of an "out of screen area" error (-4), the call always returning error free.
  • Always returning error free, useless (and silly) check for "legal" number of parameters removed, to enabling the new extended parameter list. Further modifications re above.

NEW

• ASCII, ASCII$, VAL, VAL$
  reserved keywords.

• CHAR_DEF lo_fount_adr, hi_fount_adr
  CHAR_DEF #channel
  SQ, Setting the character founts system defaults to the supplied address(es), -1 leaves the item concerned unchanged, 0 restores it to the ROM's own address.
  Passing a channel number will store that channels founts addresses to the system defaults.

• date | ernum = FBKDT( channel [ ,new-date ] )
  Read and optionally adjust a file's backup date.
• ernum = FMAKE_DIR( filename )
  As MAKE_DIR, returning the error code instead of possible program termination.
• date | ernum = FUPDT( channel [ ,new-date] )
  Read current and optionally then adjust the update date of a file.
• version | ernum = FVERS( channel [ ,new-version ] )
  Read and (afterwards) optionally adjust the version number of a file.
• HGET channel,flen,ftyp,faccess,fdat,fextra
  SQ, fetch the channels fileheader data into the supplied variables, which are all optional.
• HPUT channel,flen,ftyp,faccess,fdat,fextra
  SQ, set the channel's fileheader data to those supplied by the variables of the parameterlist, which are all optional. Non-supplied parameters leave the corresponding items unchanged.
• HISTORY 1v27
  Command line history, by Boris Jakubith. - NOT the SMSQ-ish string stack!
• LGET, LPUT
  SQ, as BGET, BPUT, for 32bit (4 bytes) integer values.
  LGET with integer variable parameters ("name%") will discard the m.s. 16bit data word.
• MAKE_DIR name
  Procedure to initiating an empty directory with an until then non-existent name.
• MB
  Starts a MINERVA MultiBasic job, caller wil be it's owner. -> Details
• flag = PARHASH( parametername )
  Flag whether a parameter is preceded by a "#" number sign.
• number = PARSEPA( parametername )
  0:none, 1:comma, 2:semicolon, 3:backslash, 4:exclamation mark, 5:"TO"
• value = PARVAL ( name$ | #parameter-no. )
  reading a variable's value by it's name in a string or by index of a proc/fu parameter list.
• SB_BUF 32bit-number
  extending the calling S.Basic's workspace (for COPY, INPUT, etc). Should be executed with, at least, 2K before COPYing, etc, which then will run significantly faster, i.e. in the UQLX with up to 3M/s, sometimes even more, instead of less than 100K/s.
• TRACE w. SSTEP, TRON, TROFF
  S.Basic program tracing facility. -> Details
• WGET, WPUT
  as BGET, BPUT, for 16bit (2 bytes) integer values ( "name%" vari.).
• WHEN_OFF
  interactively or programmed terminates the (any) current WHEN ERRor handling.
• code = Y_N ( [ #chan ] [ , [ text$ ] ] )
  Displays a message <text$> and " Y/N/A/Q?" to <chan>, then waiting for a keystroke.
  Return code after "Y"/"J"/"Z": 1, "N": 0, "A": 2, "Q": -1
  <chan> defaults to #0, text$ to an empty string.

- .hpr'99 - t6m/m89 - eof -