From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
Newsgroups: comp.os.misc
Subject: QL serial lines (was Re: Microdrive problems...)
Keywords: QL QDos
Date: 9 Apr 92 13:23:04 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

In article <4750@krafla.rhi.hi.is> adamd@rhi.hi.is (Adam David) writes:
>quote Linus Torvalds:
>>The QL serial lines have serious problems: I never got them to work ok
>>even at 2400bps, and it probably gets worse at the higher speeds.  The
>>problem seems to be hardware-related:
 [ deleted ]
>I don't think the 8049 firmware was ever changed, but some of the TTL glue
>logic was put on a PAL and a few discrete components changed. The only serious
>failing in the standard QL serial port is that it cannot receive at 19200 baud
>at all, and is only fast enough to receive 9600 baud with 2 stop bits. Maybe
>you had a faulty machine or the hardware handshaking was somehow incorrect (?).

Well, it might have been only my machine, although I had some contact
with other QL users, some of which confirmed my problems.  I'm not
saying the QL isn't a nice machine: the 68000 beats the 80x86 (x < 3)
family outright, and QDOS is a much better system than DOS ever will be.
There were a couple of problems:

- it's not supported very well outside of England: in Finland it was
definitely hard to get things for it (had to use mailorder to England
etc).  I never got any real software except the original GST Assembler,
and that one didn't have very many features (no macros, no linker - I
corrected the first one by writing my own, but I never got a linker for
the QL). 

- a bitmapped screen as big as the one the QL has definitely needs more
processing power than a 8MHz 68008 can handle.  I had to rewrite the
character-output routines in assembly in order to get a nice editor that
didn't fall behind every time I scrolled heavily, and I had problems
keeping up with text at 2400 bps.

- the hardware was pretty flaky - it overheated easily, and running
assembly programs from basic ram was definitely slower than running them
from EPROM (I had my own assembler/editor-system on eprom - only way to
live as I didn't have a disk-drive originally - and it gave me that
extra 50kB of ram)

>Linus mentioned giving up the QL for a PC, and then giving up DOS altogether.
>(The second was undoubtably a wise move :)

I have to say I like the first move too - without DOS a 386-machine is
so much faster and easier to use then the QL ever was (I can feel the
flames coming...).  There was no unix available for the QL when I last
looked, and although QDOS does multitask, unix is still nicer.  (and no,
I didn't feel like writing my own unix for the QL - it was hard enough
for a 386, which supports it better :^)

>			If it had been made in the first place with a better
>keyboard and disks as standard instead of microdrives, it would have given the
>competition a far better run for its money. The machine concept and operating
>system were at least 5 years ahead and QDOS is still a viable OS.

Agreed. Whatever you say about Sir Clive, he certainly put out
interesting machines - even if they had their quirks. I still have my
QL, although I haven't taken it out for a long time.

		Linus