sQLux

Progress Halted In real life I am too busy building bare metal clouds so don't expect to see any new features for a while. I am still happy to review PRs. Also if you want to take over that could be arranged! sQLux (or QL Sux according to DaveP) sQLux is a Sinclair QL emulator. It runs on Linux (including Rapsberry Pi), Mac and MS Windows. It is based on uQlx but with SDL2 used as its OS layer. sQLux adds several features over the uQlx base code. See the Documentation for more details. sQLux is in active development, with new functionality added regularly. However, the latest releases and packages are suitable for normal use. Releases Automatic builds are run and releases are available for the following architectures/O.S.: Linux Ubuntu 22.04 aarch64 arm v8 armv7 (armhf kernel) Linux Debian Debian 11 Bullseye armv7 (armhf kernel) Debian 10 Buster armv7 (armhf kernel) tested on RaspberryPI 400 MacOS Intel Windows (built w/ MSYS2) 64bit Releases are uploaded on Github automatically whenever a new tag, merge or pull request is pushed: tags on master branch: Stable releases The tag string is used as part of the releases description and artifacts names master branch: Development Releases Every commit or pull into master branch generates a pre-release artifact older Development Releases are overwritten each time a new non-tagged build is run Building Some Basic TL;DR instructions will follow for some architecture/O.S. For more build tips, see Github Actions commands in .github/workflows/*.yml definitions. Dependencies Debian/Ubuntu apt install build-essential cmake git libsdl2-dev Fedora dnf install cmake gcc gcc-c++ git SDL2-devel All Platforms sQLux uses git submodules, so either clone with the --recursive argument. git clone --recursive https://github.com/SinclairQL/sQLux/ or after cloning git submodule init git submodule update Building Linux sQLux has switched to using cmake as its build system Install dependencies as per above chapter Build and test sh make # then test the binary ./build/sqlux --help Building MacOS Install dependencies Dependencies are available with Homebrew ```sh brew install cmake sdl2 ``` Build and test ```sh make then test the binary ./build/sqlux --help ``` Building MinGW on Linux Instructions based on debian/ubuntu distro, for other distros you will have to modify as appropriate Download the SDL2 mingw SDK and adapt the following to your environment/version. The SDL2 development libraries can be found here: tar xvf SDL2-devel-2.0.18-mingw.tar.gz cd SDL2-2.0.18/ sed -i "s|/opt/local/|/usr/local/|" x86_64-w64-mingw32/lib/cmake/SDL2/sdl2-config.cmake sed -i "s|/opt/local/|/usr/local/|" i686-w64-mingw32/lib/cmake/SDL2/sdl2-config.cmake sudo mkdir /usr/local/i686-w64-mingw32 sudo mkdir /usr/local/x86_64-w64-mingw32 sudo make cross Now the mingw version of SDL2 is available and we can build sQLux for Win64 make mingw64 Building MinGW on Windows Install MSYS2 from here https://www.msys2.org/ Run the mingw64 environment Install the toolchain and SDL2 pacman -Sy mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain pacman -Sy mingw-w64-x86_64-cmake pacman -Sy mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2 Create the build directory and compile make # then test the binary ./build/sqlux --help This will generate sqlux.exe. Dependencies are statically linked, so sqlux.exe will run without the need for additional dlls. MinGW pthreads/win32 threads The 64bit build using mingw requires the winpthread library for the high definition timer support. The 32bit build can be built using win32 threads for XP compatibility and therefore does not include the high resolution timer support. uqlxrc The emulator currently reads an existing uqlxrc file, so it will re-use any uQlx setup already existing. NOTE: ROMIM has changed to now only accept 1 rom name NOTE: RAMTOP is where in memory the top of the ram is, not the amount of ram. As ram on QL starts at 128k in memory map then to created a 128k QL you need to set RAMTOP = 256 sQLux supports additional parameters over those used for uqlxrc. See the Documentation for more details. Shader support sQLux has support for GPU shaders, to emulate the effects seen when using a CRT display. See the Shader documentation for more details on how to build and run sQLux with GPU shaders. Developers notes Automatic build and upload to Github Releases update CHANGELOG.md using Keep a Changelog best practices Use [Unreleased] during normal development phases - this will trigger a latest release build and upload When ready, modify the version to something meaninful. Any version different from [vx.x.x] or [vx.x.x-some-text] will result in: - possibly missing Release Body text - a latest release build and upload. commit sh $ git commit -m "Releasing v1.0.7-rc1" [dev-newci-4 51379d4] Releasing v1.0.7-rc1 2 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) create tag Optional. If no tag is pushed, the workflow will overwrite/create a latest release. sh $ git tag v1.0.7-rc1 push commits && tags at the same time sh $ git push origin dev-branch --tags Enumerating objects: 11, done. Counting objects: 100% (11/11), done. Delta compression using up to 8 threads Compressing objects: 100% (5/5), done. Writing objects: 100% (6/6), 657 bytes | 657.00 KiB/s, done. Total 6 (delta 3), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0 remote: Resolving deltas: 100% (3/3), completed with 3 local objects. To https://github.com/<repo> b66ef20..51379d4 dev-branch -> dev-branch * [new tag] v1.0.7-rc1 -> v1.0.7-rc1 ============================== OK everyone, this still needs some serious work but here we are: this is the first SDL Sinclair QL Emulator available on OS/2 since UQLx for X11 and SDL MAME. The Sinclair QL is/was a really promising machine which didn't have the success it deserved. There's no need to write here its history, you can safely check it up on the web. If you are into emulation, or you are a Sinclair computers enthusiast just like I am, you surely don't need any more details on this beast. Currently this version of the OS/2 port should have most if not all the features present in the other versions - albeit it's most probably a little slower due to the unaccelerated video drivers. There are still some things to be verified: * SER port support (up to 4 serial ports) - these are working on the original Unix / Linux version, I have to understand if they can work with the OS/2 serial port interface. * Shaders: I am pretty sure I compiled shaders but really not so sure our SDL2 implementation can use them safely. * Printing support: in the original version it's granted via lpr, so maybe we can use CUPS - have to test it. * Sound support: I have to test it with some actual QL software using sound. Have a look at the included documentation to better understand how to tweak the configuration file sqlux.ini and suit it for your needs. Should you feel happy about my work, please by all means give me some feedback. I'll gladly answer. Also, actually a little sponsoring would be wholeheartedly accepted to help me keep up with porting software or developing new software on OS/2. Happy retrocomputing! Mentore ============================== # Changelog All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file. The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/), and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html). ## [Unreleased] ## 1.1.0 - 2024-12-22 ### Added - Zip the complete source on release including submodules - Use kacl-cli to generate version if git doesnt work - Add install target to Makefile ### Fixed - Fix the build instructions in the doc ## 1.0.10 - 2024-12-21 ### Added - workflows now generate a PDF manual - workflows add an aarch64 macos build ## 1.0.9 - 2024-12-21 ### Changed - Rewrote CI (Github actions) See [README.md](README.md#releases-anchor) Creates automatically Github Releases for: - Linux (x86-64, armv7, aarch) on Ubuntu and Debian - MacOS (x86-64 Intel) - Windows (MSYS2 based on x86-64 and i686) - Removed `.vscode` ### Added - CHANGELOG.md - Renamed/added some `cmake` arch. specific `Toolchain*` definitions - .gitkeep to keep `build/` folder - QL SW content included in artifacts: - `mdv*` folders (moved to `examples/`) - New `examples/sqlux.ini` - New `examples/mdv3` : SQLMISE_TestChart2.zip from Dilwyn SW repo - Added `cmake` spec files `Toolchain-*.cmake` for `arm64` and `armhf` (used in CI scripts) ### Fixed - Build was failing on `arm` due to missing CC flag `-lm` on `SDL2` ## [1.0.6] - 2022-11-22 ## [1.0.5] - 2022-05-02 [Unreleased]: https://github.com/SinclairQL/sQLux/ [1.0.6]: https://github.com/SinclairQL/sQLux/compare/v1.0.5...v1.0.6 [1.0.5]: https://github.com/SinclairQL/sQLux/releases/tag/v1.0.5