Well, >However, it is not the fault of SMSQ/e that only commercial assemblers can >compile it. George Gwilt has done a sterling job with GWASS and >converting smsq/e sources (and the compiler in some aspects) to ensure it >can be compiled. However, this is limited to a 68020+ processor and there >is no other public domain assembler that handles macros (so far as I know). > >The only other way would be to find someone to volunteer to convert the >smsq/e sources (which were originally written using QMAC) so that they >could be compiled with another assembler. However, GWASL is the only >public domain assembler so this would require a lot of work and may be >pointless after all - the resultant file sizes may be of such a size that >it wouldn't be possible to compile it in the memory provided by a Gold >Card anyway !!
Well, what about porting it to the GNU assembler and writing a cross-assembling environment for Linux etc.? Surely the problem here is bootstrapping and it doesn't matter what system you use to bootstrap as long as it's easily available to practically everyone? I'm sure assembling SMSQ/e on a 2GHz Athlon 64 box would be a darn sight faster than any QL derivative. Once you have SMSQ/e compiled and onto a suitable bootable media you can then start copying all the other applications across on the target system, as it's now running the new OS. Steve -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nostalgia isn't as good as it used to be. _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
