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Last updated: 29.03.2007
Articles | Assembler | Aurora/QEPIII/QPlane/Qubide | CGA Monitors | Diren | Disk Interfaces | File Formats | Lang Digitiser | Miracle Systems | Monitors | Pointer Environment | Printers | QIMI | QL Manual | TF Services | Toolkit 2 | Toolkit Keywords
If you need a replacement manual or have bought second user hardware which came without a manual, these files may prove useful to you. There are also some useful files with programming information for the QL (and compatibles). They are mostly QL plain text files, with a few QL PIC file diagrams, or in some cases PDF files which may be read using the Adobe Acrobat reader supplied on many magazine cover CD-ROMs for example. Most are ZIPped to reduce download times, and have the approximate file length (in KiloBytes) in brackets after the links to give you some idea of how much will be downloaded! Some of the shorter files are uncompressed plain text or HTML files and may be viewed directly online. You will need a copy of UNZIP to decode the zipped files - click here to visit Jonathan Hudson's Web site to download the 'official' QL UNZIP and ZIP programs. The manuals for commercial QL hardware all remain copyright the respective manufacturers and are made available here mainly as replacement manuals for those who need them. I am very grateful for the permission to include these here.
The Introduction to the user guide, SuperBASIC
Programming section, Keyword and Concepts guides from the QL manual are
available for download here. Useful if you bought a second hand QL or have
lost your copy of the manual. See also under 'Articles' below for
introductions to the Pointer Environment. Click on the links to download
the files.
North American readers: Please note that you will need permission
from the joint rights holders Frank Davis and Paul Holmgren to download
and use these files!
Click
here to send an email to Frank.
Introduction to the QL manual (30K) (Plain text)
SuperBASIC programming section (114K) (Plain
text)
Keywords section (25K) (Plain text)
Concepts section (35K) (Plain text)
QL Manual as a zipped PDF file (2.4MB)
N.B. Note size of file prior to downloading!
QPC Keywords Guide (125K) Martin Head's
QL-manual style enhanced Keywords guide (Word DOC)
QPC Concepts Guide (86K) Martin Head's
QL-manual style enhanced Concepts guide (Word DOC)
servman.zip (222K) QL Service Manual, scanned by Andy Dansby, available here are plaintext and Quill DOC file, with PIC file diagrams.
The Pointer Environment gives the QL a pointer based (keyboard and mouse controlled) environment, where programs can be controlled by using an on-screen pointer (usually a little arrow), and an extended console driver which among other things saves and restores the contents of on-screen windows as you switch between programs on the QL and its compatibles. The Pointer Environment is usually bundled with the Hotkeys System, and hotkeys have been a source of difficulty for new users - these articles set out to provide an easy to follow introduction to Hotkeys and a limited introduction to writing Boot programs for use with pointer environment. Apart from the QPAC2 manual, there is very little by way of documentation for users new to the system, so I have added the following files to this page, with grateful thanks to the authors concerned, and to the publisher of QL Today magazine from whence the Hotkeys articles were reproduced. Some additional information on the EasyPtr and QMenu programming aids can be found in the Articles section below.
P.E.Idiot's Guide (86K) - Norman Dunbar's
excellent introduction to the Pointer Environment. Alternatively,
click here to read it online (thanks to Tim
Swenson for the online version).
Hotkeys Part 1 (7KB) - Part 1 of the QL Today
series about the Hotkey System
Hotkeys Part 2 (6KB) - Part 2 of the QL Today
series about the Hotkey System
Hotkeys Part 3 (6KB) - Part 3 of the QL Today
series about the Hotkey System
Hotkeys keywords (15KB) - Keyword guide for the
Hotkey system (3KB)
Abacus File Format notes (4K) -
Some notes on the Abacus spreadsheet format, from
Christopher Cave
Abacus and Quill Transfer Files (6K) - notes
from Psion regarding the format of Quill and Abacus Transfer files, the
format used to move files from these programs between the different
versions of these programs on different target machines without the loss
of data that might occur if export files were used, for example.
Discover Disk Format Reference (10K) - Dave
Walker's documentation on the disk formats supported by his Discover and
Multi Discover programs. Includes his notes on the QL disk format.
Easybase File Format (2K) - notes on the
database file format used by the EasyBase database software.
File Headers (2K) - Information on the 64-byte
file header used by QDOS files.
Filename Extensions (11K) - A QL Today article
listing filename extensions in common use, so that you can tell from the
_xyz filename suffix what type of file it is.
Foxpro Database to QL DBAS (6K) - Information
on the file structures of Foxpro files plus a BASIC program to do the
conversion, from Francois van Emelem, first published in QL Today. QL DBS
files are database files for D. Howells's DBAS database utility, available
from Quanta library.
ld.zip (2K) - Line Design 2 page format
PIC Files - Some information about Area Save
files.
QL Graphics (6K) - File format information for
all sorts of QL graphics program files
QXL.WIN Files - Some information from the
Austrian QL group's website and Tony Tebby about QXL.WIN files
Textidy_Ref (19K) - a set of notes from Dave
Walker concerning the format of the files used by the Psion software.
Non-QL graphics file formats - included here for information for
those wishing to write QL applications to process graphics files for other
computing platforms. These are zipped plain text files.
bmp.zip (9K) - Windows .BMP (BitMaP) file formats
gif.zip (36K) - .GIF file formats (Graphics
Interchange Format GIF87a and GIF89a)
iff.zip (23K) - IFF file format
jpeg.zip (5K) - JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts
Group) file format
pcx.zip (12K) - PCX (Z-soft Paintbrush) files
png.zip (69K) - PNG (Portable Network Graphics)
files
stformts.zip (15K) - assorted Atari ST
graphics file formats
tiff.zip (71K) - TIFF (Tag Image File Format) 4, 5
and class F formats
Tony Tebby has authorised the distribution of the
user guide for Toolkit 2, a suite of QL extensions now built into many
hardware expansions and some QL emulators. This is a plain text file
version of the Toolkit 2 manual, which may come in useful if you have lost
your manual, or bought second user hardware with Toolkit 2 on board, which
came without a manual. Thanks to John Hitchcock for sending me the manual
on disk originally.
Toolkit 2 manual (40K)
Reconfigurable Toolkit 2 (2K)
Toolkit 2 Tutorial (15K) - A tutorial originally
published in QReview magazine
Replacement manuals for Miracle Systems products. Over the years, Miracle Systems produced many of the best known QL add-ons such as memory expansions, disk interffaces, printer interfaces and so on.
Miracle Systems Ltd manual for the Trump Card as a plain text file -
useful if you have bought a second hand Trump Card which came without a
manual, since the manuals are now out of print. You will also need the
Toolkit 2 manual above. Thanks again to John Hitchcock for this file.
Trumpcard manual (12K)
Miracle Systems Ltd Gold Card manual as a plain text file, scanned by
Dave Westbury.
Gold Card manual (8K)
Miracle Systems Ltd Super Gold Card manual supplement, scanned by Dave
Westbury.
Super Gold Card manual (7K)
Miracle Systems Ltd QXL manual supplement, scanned by Dave Westbury.
QXL manual (24K)
A replacement manual for the Miracle Hard Disk system.
Miracle Hard Disk manual (10K)
One of the most popular QL add-ons of all time. These were serial to
parallel centronics printer adaptor cables, allowing parallel printers to
be plugged into the QL serial ports.
Printer Interface manual (1K)
A small disk adaptor card was produced allowing 4 disk drives to be
plugged into interfaces such as Gold Card and Super Gold Card which
normally only allowed 2 drives to be used.
Disk Adaptor manual (2K)
The manual for the black Miracle Extra High Density (ED) disk drives
supplied for the QL. These disk drives allowed ED disks to be formatted to
a capacity of 3.2MB on QL systems, and were also capable of reading DD and
HD disks.
ED Disk Drives manual (2K)
A short article showing how to construct an adaptor lead from the
printer connector on a Super Gold Card to a standard Centronics-style
connector.
Printer Cable Adaptor article (1K)
A replacement manual for the Aurora QL compatible
motherboard. Useful if you have lost your manual or bought a second user
Aurora without getting a manual with it! Available here in these formats,
the Word DOC and PDF versions are too large to include here but available
on the QL Documentation CD.
As a QL plain text file (28KB)
As a Quill DOC file (37KB)
The Aurora technical details (registers, screens, detecting Aurora,
extended ROM details etc) from Aurora designer Zeljko Nastasic
Aurora Technical Guide (6K)
This is a Quill DOC file manual and a PIC file diagram of the QPlane
backplane from Qubbesoft P/D.
qplane.zip (6K)
Replacement manual for the QUBIDE QL IDE interface from Qubbesoft P/D,
along with various ROM version images and a few technical information
files. Includes copies of manuals for version 1 and 2 QUBIDEs in Quill DOC
and plain text file formats. Includes a file called CHANGES.TXT which
lists differences between the various ROM versions up to 2.02. Also
includes a few basic utility programs.
qubide.zip (155K)
With thanks to Roy Wood, here is a version of the Qubide manual and
version 2 upgrade sheet as a M$ Word file. This has been slightly updated
since the above version.
qubide_qbranch.zip (78K)
A replacement manual for the QEP III Eprom Programmer for the QL,
formerly sold by Care Electronics and latterly by QUBBESoft P/D. Available
in 3 formats:
qep3qdoc.zip Quill DOC file (9K)
qep3txt.zip Plain text file (7K)
qep3wdoc.zip M$ Word DOC file (13K)
Replacement manuals for some off the hardware add-ons from TF Services.
A replacement manual for the superHermes LITE from TF Services.
superHermes LITE provides a replacement QL second processor (improved
Hermes) and an IBM AT keyboard interface for the QL. Useful if you have
lost your manual or bought a second user board without getting a manual
with it (although you will still need the Supplementary Filesdisk from TF
Services)! The manual is available in plain text or Quill DOC file
formats:
As a QL plain text file (8KB)
As a Quill DOC file (9KB)
Also available, courtesy of Phoebus Dokos, is the US
keyboard driver (38KB) for superHermes LITE
The SuperHermes manual in Adobe Acrobat PDF file format, in fact comes
in two formats, one a printable PDF file. Supplied by Tony Firshman of TF
Services.
SuperHermes PDF manuals (614KB)
Documentation for the add-on devices available from TF Services for the
Minerva Mkii's I2C (Inter-IC Communication) interface, supplied in Adobe
Acrobat PDF file format.
I2C products manual (308KB)
Replacement manual for the RomDisq flash memory device for the QL from
TF Services, supplied in Adobe Acrobat PDF file format.
Romdisq PDF manual (22KB)
Replacement manual in PDF file format for the MPlane low profile
backplane for QL and Aurora from Tony Firshman of TF Services.
MPlane PDF manual (8KB)
Replacement manual for the Hermes IPC replacement chip from TF Services.
DOC, TXT and RTF files.
Hermes manual(21K)
A replacement manual for the Di-Ren keyboard
interface. Consists of a plain text file and the 5 diagrams as 512x256
mode 4 screens. Also available for download is v1.02 of Diren's Keyboard
Translate Utility for remapping keys on the keyboard.
Diren Keyboard Interface manual (11K)
Download Keyboard Translate Utility (6K)
Some files to aid the QL 68000 assembler programmer.
There is some relevant stuff in the Super Gold Card manual too. In
addition to these files, Norman Dunbar maintains a web page devoted to
QDOS documentation and information, including many files to download .
Click here
to visit Norman Dunbar's site.
Level 1 Config information (4K) - for creating
Level 1 Config Blocks for use with Config
Level 2 Config information (19K) - for creating
Level 2 Config blocks for use with MenuConfig
BasConfig v1.13 - utility program by Oliver
Fink to help create Level 1 Config Blocks for use in QLiberator compiled
BASIC programs (34K)
Thing system information (15K) - rather old,
but may be useful
Thing Info program (24KB) Franz Hermann's Thing
Info program, v1.1
68000 information (33K) - instruction set notes,
etc.
QDOS Low Level information (20K) - System Trap
Calls etc documented.
Ptr_Keys.txt (3KB) - keys for pointer device,
from SMSQ/E sources
QDOS hints (3KB) - A selection of hints and
manual updates on a variety of subjects.
680x0 Programmers Reference Manual (1301K) -
Motorola M68000 family programmer's reference manual, incluing CPU32
instructions. Supplied as zipped Adobe PDF files
68040 User Manual (2012K) - A substantial
Motorola document describing how the 68040 works. This is NOT the
programmer's reference manual (see above). The files are in zipped Adobe
PDF format.
Some printer programming information - lists of
control codes etc.
PCL (17KB) Printer Command Language control code
listings for Hewlett-Packard PCL printers, covers most Deskjet printers
for example. The zip file includes the document in both plain text and
Quill DOC file versions.
I also have some extensive Epson ESC/P2 programming information, but
these files are far too large to place here (they total some 6.5 MB) so
the best way to supply these is probably on zip disk or CD-R. If you'd
like to get hold of these files, send me
an
email - if you have the QL Emulators CD they are already on that
CD-ROM! Condensed versions of these in downloadable file sizes as plain
text or Xchange/Quill (too large for standard QL Quill) are available
here:
Download Epson ESC P2 information as Xchange/DOC
file (36K)
Download Epson ESC P2 information in plain text
format (26K)
Ser8056 Printer manual - a replacement manual for the good old Ser8056
Compact Printer, a thermal printer common in the early days of the QL.
I've seen a few of these go very cheaply second hand at QL shows, usually
minus a manual, so I've scanned a manual and offer it here in both PDF and
Word DOC formats (there's a lot of diagrams, hence why I'm not offering it
as a QL text file as I can't embed the graphics into QL documents). Robert
Newson has kindly added a short section detailing the printer's low
density graphics facility.
Download Ser8056 Printer Manual As PDF File
(145K)
Download Ser8056 Printer Manual As Word DOC File
(92K)
Dave Westbury has kindly supplied a circuit diagram
of the QIMI mouse interface and some programming information about the
registers used, etc.
Click here to download a 512x256 QL _PIC file
circuit diagram. (6KB)
Click here for the register programming
information. (2KB)
Replacement manuals for older QL disk interfaces, further manuals can be found under Miracle Systems Manuals above.
CST Qdisc - replacement manuals for three versions of CST's
QDisc interface, one of the best known of the early QL disk interfaces.
This interface has no on-board RAM. If you are uncertain which version of
the interface you have (I have no information to assist with identifying
them), I suggest you download version 3. The diffference between the
manuals is just documentation of the extra commands contained in the ROM
on each version of the interface - the later interfaces had a greater
subset of the Toolkit 2 commands. The zipped files contain Quill DOC file
versions of the manual, further formats available on the QL Documentation
CD.
CST QDisc version 1 (12K)
CST QDisc version 2 (13K)
CST QDisc version 3 (23K)
Cumana QL disk interface. Replacement manual in a choice of
Word DOC or Adobe PDF formats (diagrams included)
Cumana disk system manual as Word DOC file
(73K)
Cumana disk system manual as PDF file (134K)
Falkenberg Hard Disk Interface. A replacement manual for Jürgen
Falkenberg's QL interface for MFM/RLL type hard disk systems.
Hard disk interface manual as Word DOC file
(58K)
Generic disk interface manual. A general purpose manual
suitable for most older disk interfaces which conform to the QJump FLP
type of interface. If you need a manual for one of the interfaces listed
here, download the specific one for that interface, it is best to use the
correct manual after all! If all else fails, download the Generic one
which should be enough to get you going!
Generic disk system manual as Word DOC file
(73K)
Sandy disk interfaces. A general manual for several of the
interfaces released by Sandy UK PCP, includes the SuperQBoard interface.
Quill DOC file.
Sandy disk interfaces manual (26K)
Technology Research Ltd Delta 128 disk interface with 128K
RAM. Quill DOC file, with 3 QL PIC file diagrams.
TRL128 interface manual (42K)
Useful articles about the QL, programming
information and so on. The P.E. Idiots Guide (reproduced with permission
of the author) and Hotkeys articles (reproduced with permission of the
author and the publisher of QL Today) together make an excellent
introduction to the Pointer Environment for those who'd like to learn a
bit about it.
Clocking In (22K) - Articles from QL Today
about the QL clock, time calculation, calendars etc - now updated to
include part 4 of the series.
DEV (5K) - using the DEV device
EasyPtr Tutorial (259K) - Norman Dunbar's guide
to using the Easyptr programming aid
Glossary (10K) - a glossary of terms, as
published in QL Today
Joysticks (1K) - how to use an Atari style
joystick with the QL.
Machine Type (8KB) - Article from QL Today Vol
6 Issue 5 about identifying machine/processor type from SBASIC
Printer.dat Information (4K) - Quill printer
driver file format explained
QMenu Guide (36K) - an introduction to using the
Menu Extension from BASIC
Ramdisks (3K) - what they are and how to use
them.
recursion.zip (40K) - article from QL Today
about Recursion ont he QL.
Sdump (4K) - screen dump software built into some
systems
Serial Ports (6KB) - Article from QL Today Vol
6 Issue 6 about serial port connections
SMSQ/E Modules (34K) - adding modules to
SMSQ/E. By Tony Tebby (from IQLR 1995/6)
Stack (10K) - article by Norman Dunbar in QReview
about use of the Maths Stack.
sysvars.zip (11K) - article about QL system
variables
Things article (10KB) by Jochen Merz, from QL
Today Volume 4. Consists of parts 1 to 3 as plain text files.
Alternatively, you can click here to download
them as DOC files for Quill. (13KB)
TRA (12K) Article by Simon Goodwin about the
largely undocumented TRA command in some versions of the QL ROM.Turbo
(14K) An article by David Denham from QL Today, an introduction to the
Turbo basic compiler, which is now freely downloadable from the
Scottish QL User Group website.
TurboPTR articles (22K) A set of 4 articles by
George Gwilt about his TurboPTR programming utility. The articles were
first published in QL Today magazine. Once you have downloaded the
artics.zip file, there's a short readme file in it which gives a short
list of the articles and subects covered.
What Hardware (3KB) - a package by J.D.Mitchell
to emulate machine type interrogation functions using standard SuperBASIC
or SBASIC, running on all platforms.
When Error (6K) - An article from QL Today about
the little documented WHEN ERROR and other error trapping structures
available to S*Basic programmers.
WHEN Variable (4K) - an article from QL Today
about the little used WHEN CONDITION structure implemented in some QL ROMs
Zip and Unzip (2K) - a short article from QL
Today Volume 4 Issue 1 about using the Zip and Unzip programs.
CSYNC Inverter (174K) - An
article by Marcel Flipse showing how to build a small circuit board to
invert QL CSYNC video signal, which will allow CGA monitors to be
connected directly to a QL. The zip file contains an Adobe Acrobat PDF
file, you will of course need the Acrobat Reader program to be able to
read this on PC or Mac for example.
IBM CGA Monitor for QL (3K) - article by Bob
Gilder on using an IBM CGA monitor with a QL
A scanned replacement manual for the original
black Sinclair Vision-QL RGB monitor. Includes a scanned circuit diagram.
Originally an A3 sized sheet, I have scanned it in 2 halves, as 2 A4 sized
sheets (left and right halves). The manual is available in three different
formats:
visionql.pdf (57K) - Adobe Acrobat PDF format
visionql.zip (31K) - Download as a zipped Word
DOC file
visionql.txt (10K) - Download as plain text -
simplified plain text file with ASCII diagrams
circuit1.gif (417K) - Left half of circuit
diagram
circuit2.gif (249K) - Right half of circuit
diagram
A scanned replacement manual for the original black Microvitec Cub QL
RGB monitor. The manual is available in three different formats:
mvcub.pdf (54K) - Adobe Acrobat PDF format
mvcub.zip (25K) - Download as a zipped Word DOC
file
mvcub.txt (8K) - Download as plain text -
simplified plain text file with ASCII diagrams
scart.zip (29K) - Article from QL Today about hooking up a QL to a SCART video connection (use a TV as a monitor).
A Quill DOC file replacement manual for the CL
Systems (Lang) QL video digitiser.
cl.zip (7K)
This is a replacement manual in plain text format for the Level 2
Upgrade ROM for Trump Card and SuperQBoard. The level 2 ROM itself is not
included, it is copyright Jochen Hassler. This provides level 2 filing
system (hard directories etc) and the ATR device for reading Atari and DOS
format disks. Note that this download does NOT include the ROM image, and
that the level 2 Trump Card versions supplied by Qubbesoft P/D do not
include the ATR device driver.
lev2man.zip (8K)
Following a suggestion on the ql-users mailing list, François Van Emelen has sent me a large list of QL toolkit keywords. This has been drawn up from a large number of toolkits and extensions sets for QL systems. Click here to download the list (22KB download). If you find an errors or would like to submit further information, please send the information direct to François via the email link above. The format is basically Archive export (two fields, quoted, with comma separator), the first field having the keyword name, the second having the source (which system the keyword came from). This list was last updated 28/10/06.
Alex Wells has kindly sent me an updated list of about 3100 keywords, the zip file contains various versions and formats of this list, which I'll just place here as I'm not sure if it is intended to supercede or complement François's list. Here's the text I received from Alex to go with the file:
The attachment contains EXTRA21.zip (version 2.1), zipped on a Q-40,
with a lot of keywords in a .dbs file (for DBAS) and also in 3 text files.
It replaces earlier versions from 1998 and Nov 2002. François van
Emelen is to be thanked (or blamed!) for sending me additional material. I
have formatted versions of the text files -
ask
me for Extra21f.zip - if you want to print them (2 plus 20 plus 24
sides on A4). The keywords come from toolkits 'LRESPR'ed usually on a
Minerva or QDos/TK2 QL and using 'EXTRAS'. Many keywords are repeated in
different sources. Additional words in each new toolkit which are already
present in the machine are not listed by 'EXTRAS' after their first
appearance (they are not extra!), and are therefore omitted from the Group
and individual lists. Enjoy! Alex.
Click here to download extra21.zip (53K)
Tim Swenson maintains a page called The PD Documentation Project with many files to download. Click here to visit his site. You can also get some operating system related documents from the sites of Marcel Kilgus and Wolfgang Lenerz.
